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Music
Archived Posts from this Category
March 25, 2009
We just wrapped up “The Sound of Music” with the high school where I work with the chorus students. Whew! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, but absolutely worth the effort. The kids did a great job – playing in the orchestra, performing on the stage, working backstage, and running some of the technical equipment.
I could say many things about the process and the performances, but one of the best things about doing something like this is seeing the kids make new friends. Students who did not previously sit together in class are now good friends. Common interests and shared experiences work to create a bond that they won’t forget.
March 11, 2009
I love Jennifer Knapp’s voice, and this is a beautiful arrangement of the Model Prayer found in Matthew 6. Enjoy.
February 12, 2009
Former AI contestant and Belmont University graduate Melinda Doolittle has finally released her first CD titled “Coming Back to You.” I haven’t had a lot of time to really listen to the entire CD, but let me just tell you – I already know that I love it! I think that everyone needs to buy a copy, and it makes a great Valentine’s Day gift for that special someone!
February 10, 2009
The high school choir that I accompany is learning Z. Randall Stroope’s choral piece “Inscription of Hope” for a Holocaust Remembrance service in March. Mr. Stroope was inspired by an inscription found on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany. We don’t know who wrote these words, but we can imagine the horrific circumstances under which he or she must have been living.
We performed this work last year, but I am always moved by the beauty of the music and the sentiment of the lyrics.
I found a video to share with you of a community college performing this piece. You can find the lyrics under the video.
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining,
And I believe in love even when there’s no one there.
And I believe in God even when He is silent,
I believe through any trial there is always a way.
But sometimes in this suff’ring and hopeless despair,
My heart cries for shelter, to know someone’s there.
But a voice rises within me saying hold on my child,
I’ll give you strength, I’ll give you hope,
Just stay a little while.
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining,
And I believe in love even when there’s no one there.
But I believe in God even when He is silent,
I believe through any trial there is always a way.
May there someday be sunshine,
May there someday be happiness,
May there someday be love,
May there someday be peace.
January 14, 2009
Go on … hunger and thirst no more.
November 21, 2008
Here’s a little Christmas music from Selah, just in case you’re having trouble getting in the spirit of the season…
November 17, 2008
Today, I decided to dig out all of our Christmas CDs, which is no small undertaking. Collectively, we have between 40 and 50 CDs of nothing but Christmas music. Did I tell you that I love Christmas music?
I do have some favorites that will get more “air play” than others. For instance, 
First Call’s “An Evening in December” is always a favorite.
When it comes to newer Christmas music, I absolutely love Carolyn Arends’ album “An Irrational Season.”
In the section of what some might call “classics,” nothing beats hearing Anne Murray sing “O Holy Night” or Karen Carpenter sing “Silent Night.” Can I get a shout out from all of the altos in the audience?
Here are some of the other CDs I’ll be listening to for the next six weeks:
- Kim Hill’s Real Christmas
- Travis Cottrell’s Ring the Bells
- Harry Connick, Jr.’s When My Heart Finds Christmas
- Selah’s Rose of Bethlehem
- City on a Hill’s It’s Christmas Time
- Brad Paisley’s Christmas
- Your King Has Come (featuring various artists, including this friend from my Belmont days singing “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”)
…and many others. So, what will be on your iPod this Christmas season? Anybody heard any new Christmas music that I should buy?
November 13, 2008
This week, we were able to see one of my favorite bands, Indelible Grace, perform live at a local church. If you’re not familiar with Indelible Grace, you should be! They take really old hymn lyrics and set the words to very modern music so that the Truth expressed by these hymn writers can be passed along to current and future generations.
One of my favorite songs that they perform is “Arise, My Soul, Arise,” written by Charles Wesley. I just love the phrase in the first verse, “Before the throne my Surety stands.” Webster’s defines surety as such things as certainty, assurance, and guarantee, but the final definition is the best: one who has become legally liable for the debt, default, or failure in duty of another. Isn’t that a beautiful picture and a wonderful word to describe what Christ has done for all who believe in Him?
You can watch and listen to the song here.
Arise my soul arise, shake off your guilty fears
The bleeding sacrifice, in my behalf appears
Before the throne my Surety stands
Before the throne my Surety stands.
My name is written on His hands.
Arise (arise), Arise (arise), Arise,
Arise my soul, arise.
Arise (arise), Arise (arise), Arise,
Arise my soul, arise.
He ever lives above, for me to intercede
His all-redeeming love, His precious blood to plead
His blood atoned for every race
His blood atoned for every race
And sprinkles now the throne of grace
(Chorus)
My God is reconciled, His pard’ning voice I hear
He owns me for His child, I can no longer fear
With confidence I now draw nigh
With confidence I now draw nigh
And Father, Abba, Father cry!
(Chorus)
