Time To Break Out The Christmas Music...

 It's time...

Time to sing the songs of the season.

It's so easy to love Christmas music. Just the memories those chords and notes conjure make it easy, memories of childhood dreams, of snow falling and fires warming the room. I speak for myself, of course. Looking back, I had wonderful Christmases, though others may not have. I know I experienced tough times growing up...everyone does, and everyone should. It's the way life was intended. We should never life a life without pain...it makes it impossible to experience joy.

Joy to the World

For years, heck, for decades I belonged to a congregation that took their annual ward musical Christmas program to heights seldom seen (or heard...). We had world-class (and I mean, world-class...) musicians participate. We began practicing the music months in advance. We had piano, organ, strings, bells, even harp--multiple harp--accompaniment. We had solos, duets, small quartets. They were an event, something people penciled in like many do when attending a Hallelujah Sing-In.

Handel's Hallelujah

We would practice the songs week after week. We'd gather in homes and at church...even having an incredible breakfast at the church the Saturday before the Christmas service. Those programs--like the Christmases of my youth--are now only memories, ghosts of the past, sounds lost to time. Now, part of my church calling is to help organize the upcoming Christmas program in our ward. It won't be as grand, nor will it include talent found in our previous neighborhood. But, does that matter? Do we need the same preparation, the same degree of difficulty to find success? The answer is, no. No we do not. Because it's not those things that make the program special. It's a group of imperfect people gathering together and sharing their talents to make the holiday special for themselves and others.

Angles We Have Heard on High

When the last chord rings through the space and the prayer ends, we all go home. We hopefully join loved ones on a day of rest, a day set apart to reflect, to consider, to dwell on higher causes. And when the evening comes, those who participated and those who experienced the program will look back on their day with relief and satisfaction in the hopes that they did some good in the world.

Silent Night

We've got ten weeks until Christmas Eve. Time to break out the music.

Give Thanks...For Music

 I don't know why, but I was nervous this past week. I really shouldn't have been, but, well...there it is. New challenges, new opportunities.

New experiences.

 A few weeks ago I was asked to be the choir director in our local church congregation. I've been singing in choirs off and on, large and small since the early 1980s. That's a lot of following a baton. I've sung in ward choirs and symphony choirs and even in St. Peter's Basilica. 

Now, I'm on the other side of the music stand.

Today, our little choir, probably fifteen voices, sang in our worship service. It's a good song my predecessor picked out. We even had violin accompaniment...it sounded great. It was my first time.

It's interesting to be on the other side, hearing the sounds how they blend, seeing the expressions of many faces instead of just the one. I have a long way to go before I believe I'll feel comfortable or proficient, but it was fun. It was fun standing there, waving the baton, bringing in sections (I do need to work on that...), cutting them off, letting the music dictate the action.

I'm grateful for music, for the chance to experience something new. It was a good day.

A New Calling...I'm A Little Nervous

It's strange, in a way, that for the first time in my life I'm going to be responsible for how a group of singers sounds. Yes, the owl bag full of musical folders means I'm a newly called LDS ward choir director...

And I'm a little nervous.

The strange part is I've been involved in choirs for more than four decades. I started singing in high school, just one year, but I had a blast. After my LDS mission, I joined a couple of choirs, first the Mormon Youth Symphony Chorus and the University of Utah A'cappella Choir.

Those were amazing choirs...the latter better than the former, but both were wonderful.

After graduating, I sang a couple of years in the Utah Symphony Choir...kind of amazing backing up the Utah Symphony. Then, in my home ward, we were blessed with an abundance of musical talent. Not to brag (too much...), but our Christmas programs were legendary. 

Now, it's my turn.

I've never led a choir, or at least, never led one more than once. Will I be able to hear the issues? Will I be able to help the choir members adjust and hit the right notes, use the correct intonation, start and stop correctly?

Only time will tell.