"You, My People, Shall Be Holy"

Hymn written by Rev. Steven Starke in honor of Rev. Dr. John W. Kleinig

Tune, BAROSSA, composed by Phillip Magness

Premiered at the Festschrift Service hosted by Doxology for Rev. Kleinig at the Chiara Center in Springfield, Illinois, October 4, 2013

Stanza one was sung by Rev. Paul Becker.

That is your humble blogger helping lead the ladies on stanza six. (Sigh--I briefly stumbled over the words. What can I blame? Nerves? Aging? Emotion? Needing a new pair of glasses? All of the above?)

What a privilege and honor it was to simply be there, not to mention helping out musically with the first congregational singing of this beautiful hymn. If you are interested, the text and music are available via download from Liturgy Solutions.

Psalm 29

Last Sunday our adult choir at church sang this through-composed choral setting of Psalm 29, entitled "The Voice of the Lord," by contemporary composer Jonathan Kohrs. The piece was published by Liturgy Solutions and is available here. It has quickly become a favorite of our choir and congregation. The text of Psalm 29 is powerfully painted by the choir part and the piano accompaniment (featuring yours truly). The piece itself is not as hard as it sounds--it is challenging primarily in the rhythmic demands it makes due to changes in meter and shifts between a duple and triple feeling in the choir part. And it is long, but the minimalist/repetitive nature of the piece means there is not nearly as much music to learn as it might seem.

Our choir has sung this piece several times and I think this year we nailed it! I hope you will listen and be edified by "The Voice of the Lord."

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Our 11:15 service today featured the musical talents of DavidSong, our high school liturgical ensemble. This is a flexible group whose membership varies according to the availability of those who participate. The young people in the videos below, however, seem to always be there. I think it is significant that three of the members of this group also sing on a weekly basis with the adult choir.

You will see from the videos that this group does not come to perform but to serve the proclamation of the Word. The music is determined by the message, not by the musicians' preference. This group serves the liturgy just like every other musical group at our parish.

Here they are leading the congregation in responsively chanting the Psalm of the Day (Psalm 142). The antiphon was composed by Phillip Magness and is available at Liturgy Solutions.

Psalm 142 from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Here are the same singers highlighting the second stanza of the entrance hymn, "Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness." This video was made during rehearsal:

Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness from Cheryl on Vimeo.

The hymn stanza is also available at Liturgy Solutions.

Finally, here is DavidSong singing during the voluntary. The piece is an arrangement by the Cantor that combines contemporary composer Paul Baluche's "Open the Eyes of My Heart" with the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy." Today's Gospel reading, John 9:1-41, tells of Jesus' healing of the man born blind. The theme of spiritual blindness as the result of sin is reflected in the words of the song, and those words are expanded upon in the hymn: "Holy, holy, holy, Though the darkness hide Thee, Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see, Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, Perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity."

This piece is an excellent example of how electric bass, guitar, and keyboard can find a home in authentic Lutheran worship.

Open the Eyes of My Heart/Holy, Holy, Holy from Cheryl on Vimeo.

For more information on each piece, follow the Vimeo link.

Reformation Day 2010

Gradual

Psalm 48:1, 12-13 from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Hymn of the Day

"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Communion Hymn

"Salvation Unto Us Has Come" - Stanzas 2 & 3 from Cheryl on Vimeo.

"Salvation Unto Us Has Come" - Stanza 6 (Setting by J. S. Bach) from Cheryl on Vimeo.

*For complete information about the musical settings used in these videos, go to the Vimeo link for each video.

Liturgy Solutions is Back!

After facing several daunting technical setbacks this year, Liturgy Solutions is up and running again! The site is a cooperative effort by some of today's most talented Lutheran composers to provide new liturgical music that is also inexpensive and accessible to choirs/parishes of all different sizes. When you purchase from Liturgy Solutions you are able to immediately download your music and are granted permission to make as many photocopies as you want for your use in your parish.

Liturgy Solutions is co-owned by Stephen Johnson and Phillip Magness and features compositions by the likes of Jeffrey Blersch and Kevin Hildebrand. In coming months, you will be able to purchase a new setting of the liturgy by Phillip Magness as well as brand new hymns by Pastor Stephen Starke (with tunes by Stephen Johnson).

If you have never investigated Liturgy Solutions before, or if it has been a while since you did, please take a few moments to drop by. The site is better than ever and improving every day, so don't be a stranger. And please pray that our Lord might continue to bless this labor of love as we look forward to seeing what the future brings!

Institute Photo Diary

As probably most of my readers know, our family recently attended the third triennial LCMS Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music. As a workshop presenter, plenary speaker, conference musician and vendor, my husband wore multiple hats, but the rest of the family contributed as well, from singing in a choir (my two oldest children) to playing piano for worship (myself) to serving as a model for a workshop (my youngest). Below are a few of the photos I managed to take during the conference that were decent enough to post; it seems more of my pics than usual were blurred (and several of the ones seen below are slightly so). Hmmm, guess I need to cut down on the coffee drinking.

Here's the totally awesome Kantor Jan Muth of Memorial Lutheran (Houston) preparing her young models for a workshop on teaching music to children. The little king in the middle is mine--in his hand is a baton, um, I mean scepter. You can see how much he is enjoying the role--believe me, getting that crown off his head wasn't easy.


Here's the real deal, with workshop attendees watching. Yay--another chance to wear that crown!

Phil practicing organ in the balcony of St. John's-Seward. I think this was at about 10:00 at night. We also had one 7:00 a.m. rehearsal. Ouch! It was tricky getting all those musicians adequate rehearsal time.

Some very cute members of the Select Children's Choir in the Concordia bookstore (I'm particularly fond of the young lady in the middle):

Composer Phil Magness and Deaconess Pam Nielsen giving one of two presentations on the Sing the Faith catechism songs:



The Sing the Faith songbook itself on sale at the CPH booth!


Evan (the regal one) manning the table for Liturgy Solutions and Brothers of John the Steadfast:

And finally . . . Loopers! From left to right are Cheryl, Evan, Bethany L., Andrea W., Felice, and Holly G. (I also got to see Charity, but neglected to get a photo.) By the way, can you tell that Bethany and Holly are sisters?

What a wonderful week it was. There are so many stories I could share, and in time I hope to post a few of them, but for now I hope you have enjoyed this pictorial retrospective on a week I will long remember!

Reintroducing Liturgy Solutions

Several years ago a couple of like-minded Lutheran cantors asked the question, "Is there a market for an online sacred music company that publishes downloadable and reproducible liturgical music?"

They decided to find out, and the result was Liturgy Solutions, Inc. Three years later, they have an answer to their question: "Yes!" Liturgy Solutions is still around, and while their customer base is still small, it is growing, as is their inventory and the range of services which they offer. This week Liturgy Solutions is thrilled to announce its newly redesigned website. If you ever visited the old site, I think you'll be impressed by the changes. Content is daily being added and minor changes being made, so be patient as things continue to get tweaked. But do pay them a visit: a little poking around will be rewarded by the discovery of a brand new blog, Fine Tuning, which will serve as a forum for discussing all things musical and liturgical. And if you do drop by the blog, consider leaving Stephen and Phil a note of encouragement. And be sure to check back all this week as the LCMS Institute on Preaching and the Liturgy gets underway. It should be quite a ride!

Triduum Tableaux

Triduum - The "great three days" of Jesus' Passion, death, and resurrection, beginning the evening of Maundy Thursday and continuing through the celebration of Easter Sunday.

Tableau - a vivid image, scene or picture.

As I reflect on the Triduum weekend, here are a few of the tableaux that come to mind:

The bittersweet lump in my throat while watching the stripping of the altar at the conclusion of the Maundy Thursday service as cantors and congregation responsively sang Psalm 136: "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His mercy endures forever."

Trying to warm up with the adult choir on Good Friday amidst a virtual forest of Easter lilies in my church's "Multi-Purpose Room" . . . it was like singing in a flower shop (not great for the more allergic among us)! It's not supposed to smell like Easter on Good Friday, but the lilies had arrived and needed a place to be. Multi-Purpose Room indeed! (It also serves as a meeting place and Sunday School classroom as well as the day school lunchroom.)

Accompanying my husband on piano while he sang "Why Do the Nations So Furiously Rage Together?" (Psalm 2) from Handel's Messiah and wondering how anyone's fingers could possibly play all those notes at such a raging and furious tempo (I will admit that thanks to some carefully planned edits, these fingers didn't).

The Litany (prayers) sung in a darkened sanctuary at the conclusion of the Good Friday Tenebrae, followed by the congregation's whispered Lord's Prayer, the final crying out of Jesus ("Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?") and taking away of the Christ candle, the drum roll and strepitus signifying the closing of Jesus' tomb (as I tried to reassure my nervous 4-year-old), and the return of the Christ candle (signifying Jesus' impending resurrection) while the sweet voice of a child (in this case, my own little girl) sang a cappella the words of Paul Gerhardt: "O wondrous Love, what have You done! The Father offers up His Son, Desiring our salvation. O Love, how strong You are to save! You lay the One into the grave Who built the earth's foundation."

Rejoicing in the adult baptism that took place at our Easter Vigil service, and then hearing the amazing news that Pope Benedict baptized a Muslim man at the Easter Vigil in Rome. Read more about it here.

Waking up at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday morning and not minding one bit because it's Easter and Christ is risen! . . . then hurrying to put on the crock pot and fill the Easter basket before leaving for sunrise service.

Driving to church with my children at 5:45 a.m. and noting with wonder the full moon that due to atmospheric conditions (or something else?) was exhibiting a most unusual glow this day, resulting in vertical and horizontal beams of light emanating from it so as to create a cross shape in the sky . . . the vertical beam was highly pronounced, the horizontal beam less so, but nevertheless, the cross was there, shining in the darkness and leaving me speechless. I stopped at an intersection and tried to take a photo, but time was short and conditions didn't cooperate, so this picture in words will have to suffice. Wow.

Warming up with the adult choir once again on Sunday morning in the Multi-Purpose Room, this time while shivering with cold because the outside door had been left open to help dissipate the haze of smoke wafting in from whatever had burned next door in the kitchen as the youth prepared Easter breakfast.

Enjoying that mouth-watering Easter breakfast (eggs, pancakes, Canadian bacon, pastries, coffee and orange juice) served restaurant, not buffet style, in peace with my husband and two older children while the youngest slumbered at home with Grandma (I picked them both up for a later service).

Thinking to myself during communion that one of the reasons I prefer male lay ministers (aside from its being Biblical) is that there is nothing so touching as seeing those big, strong, tall men humbly serving their brothers and sisters in Christ as, with the utmost care, they carry the very blood of the Saviour and carefully bend down to lift that life-giving chalice to waiting lips while gently gazing into the communicant's face and pronouncing the gift of Christ's blood, "shed for you."

Preparing to accompany the youth choir on organ while my husband (the cantor) and friend (assistant cantor) nervously double-checked stops and pedals for me . . . . I say this not with resentment but with appreciation for their care . . . I am not an organist and need all the help I can get on the rare occasions I lower myself on that bench!

Playing percussion on the Tanzanian hymn "Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia!" (LSB 466) with my two older children as well as the same friend mentioned in the previous line while my husband played piano . . . it was joyful, and all we needed to complete the picture was some of these.

Playing the piano while my daughter's choir sang the Gerhardt hymn "Awake My Heart with Gladness" (full text here) to music by an especially gifted contemporary composer (see more of his stuff here and here).

Listening to my husband play and sing his way through eight liturgies in four days and realizing that having never had another cantor during my 20-plus years in the LCMS I am one blessed Lutheran indeed.

Helping my 4-year-old look for his "Ow-We-Woo-Ya" (Alleluia) butterfly (photo below).




Noting with satisfaction the "Closed" status of many of the retail businesses in our neighborhood as we drove home after services . . . though not as many were closed as on Christmas Day.

Coming home to a waiting crock pot full of this lady's ham and potato casserole (thanks for the recipe, Glenda!)

Returning from taking my mother home Easter evening to discover my four-year-old bleeding from the forehead . . . . a closer look revealed a deep cut in need of more than a bandage. . . . so off to the ER we went. Five stitches and a couple of days later he is doing just fine, but we still can't figure out exactly how one gets a cut on the forehead from running into the refrigerator (no one saw it happen, so we have to rely on his version of events, and all we know is that he was chasing the dog, or vice versa, and somehow the refrigerator attacked him!)

Irony

My husband is going to school this summer. He's taking a class called "Composing for the Liturgy" at Concordia University-Chicago (formerly known as Concordia University-River Forest).

The irony is that he has been a parish musician for close to 20 years now and has been composing for the liturgy for almost as long. He has several compositions, including a hymn and two canticles, in the Lutheran Service Book, the new hymnal of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (my Lutheran friends can find them on pages 261, 486 & 929). And he is co-owner of an online music publishing company called Liturgy Solutions (see link at right), a company that includes in its bevy of composers one of the instructors of the very class my husband is now taking!

So what is he doing taking this class? Although he is an experienced parish musician (his official position is cantor), he was not trained in a synodical institution. He did not go to music school with the goal of becoming a church musician but imagined that with a master's degree in piano performance he would make his living through a combination of performing and teaching. But as I wrote in a previous post, God had other plans. Church music found him, and here he is 20 years later with a degree in church music from the School of Hard Knocks and On-the-Job Training.

But our society likes credentials and pieces of paper. So when my husband accepted his current position he agreed that he would also pursue a colloquy, which is kind of like a synodical certification or stamp of approval. That process was put on hold for a few years because until recently our church body did not offer a colloquy program for parish musicians and my husband would have instead had to pursue a teacher colloquy, not the best use of his time considering his job description. But the synod has now created an official, rostered position called Director of Parish Music, which means there is also a colloquy program for it.

I think if you were to ask most of the powers that be at our church they would say that no, Phil doesn't need a colloquy to be a better cantor. But the pastors have their collar, and the day school teachers have their synodical certification, and there are those who would think it unfair to excuse the cantor from a similar requirement. So off to school he goes. For us there is a benefit in that once he gets 10 additional hours of continuing education, there will be a bit of a salary bump. And I don't mean to suggest there will be no academic benefit. Certainly there are things he can still learn, and he will enjoy the exchange of ideas that comes from being in a college class. I'm also sure his presence there will benefit others. But in the meantime we have to pay half the cost of his tuition and all the cost of his gas as he travels to CUC three times a week for the next month. And he has to spend a lot of time meeting the requirements of the course when he could be planning worship services for next year, cleaning out his office, or hey, maybe even spending time with his family.

I must admit it was fun to send him off to his first day of class in "Composing for the Liturgy" wearing his official "Liturgy Solutions" polo shirt! I also enjoyed hearing about how one of the student handouts that day was a "Liturgy Solutions" copyrighted piece!