Bell Choir

I did something new this year -- I joined a bell choir! My Aunt Heather got me involved, and I'm so glad she did.  It was really fun to try something different this year, and handbells make for lovely arrangements of Christmas carols. We performed in church, and at the Palo Alto Creche Festival.

"For Such a Time as This"

I know it probably has a lot to do with being sick, but I've had some feelings lately that I can't really put a label on. My heart has just felt heavy, my spirit overwhelmed. I've been keeping a journal of thoughts, and I've been praying and reading a lot of scripture, looking for peace. Today, as I was looking for a blank CD, I stumbled upon a long lost concert choir CD from 2004 -- 8 years ago! Can it be that long? It wasn't our professional one, just an archival CD with several low-quality recordings of live performances. I was honestly curious to see what was on it; I didn't recognize many of the titles listed on the CD skin.

What a wonderful trip down a very forgotten memory lane! I loved listening to each track, gasping as I found myself remembering intricate melodies and words that haven't so much as tickled a neuron in almost a decade. But as I listened to the following song "For Such a Time As This", my feelings changed from nostalgia to reassurance. They are such beautiful, enheartening words, set so naturally to a pensive melody. It fed my soul. The artwork is Brian Kershisnik, and the subject matter was equally as meaningful to me. Do you know what it is?

For such a time as this,

For times of drought and shallowness,

Of wild and dusty wilderness,

Plant us deep in wonder, God,

Humble in thy holy word.

In wonder planted deep,

In marvel at Creation's play,

At starlit night and sunlit day,

Root us well in gratitude,

Awestruck by beatitude.

By thankful wonder fed,

Like oak trees reaching high and broad,

And rooted fast in Thee, oh God,

Grow us in compassion full,

Christ the firstfruit of us all.

Compassion green and bless

Our lives to rampant fruitfulness,

For crying out at wickedness,

May we fruits of justice bear,

Harvest of Thy love and care.

May all our lives bear fruit,

Not from our will but to us due,

But all our fruitfulness from You,

Hearts of justice, hearts of peace,

Just for such a time as this.

~Wayne Watson

Stabat Mater

Another month, another concert! I was asked to sing the soprano solo in a presentation of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. We performed in St. Leo the Great, a parish church in San Jose.

I was unfamiliar with the piece before this concert, and had hardly heard of the composer, Pergolesi. He died when he was 26 (my current age), and wrote the piece only a few months before he succumbed to TB.

Pergolesi

The piece is about the suffering of Mary as she watched her son being crucified. The structure of the piece is just genius, and it makes me sad to think of what other glorious works Pergolesi would have produced had his life not been cut short by disease. There are 12 songs altogether, and 7 marks a change in the piece's focus. While songs 1 through 6 focus on Christ's suffering, songs 7 through 12 exhibit a commitment on the part of the viewer to share that suffering. Because of the natural break, the father at St. Leo's took the opportunity to give a brief sermon on the subject before we finished the last half. The whole effect was wonderful, and as I've mentioned before, gave me a much-needed moment to focus on the true meaning of Christ's final week.

Below are a few of the excerpts various viewers (including my wonderful husband) were kind enough to capture for me. Sorry it's so dark, but hopefully the sound is okay.

Cujus animam gementem, contristatam et dolentem pertransivit gladius.

"Whose soul moaning, sorrowing and pained, was pierced by a sword."

More to come...

Concert!

Another successful choir concert! This most recent concert was meaningful for many reasons. First, the location was not our usual one. Instead we were in the First Methodist Church in Palo Alto. Take a look at this awesome architecture:

A far cry from deseret brick, no?

Second, the music was glorious. It was all new to me. Well, I was certainly familiar with Frostiana, but I had never performed it in its entirety. The text comes from various Robert Frost poetry, and it is just superb.

Robert Frost

Such a lovely, singable suite.

My favorite of the suite (and one of my favorite Robert Frost poems ever) is "The Pasture".

"The Pasture"

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;

I'll only stop to rake the leaves away

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf

That's standing by the mother. It's so young,

It totters when she licks it with her tongue.

I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

The Frostiana suite is just so melodic and natural, it was a wonderful, generous way to open the concert.

Next came the "Five Mystical Songs" by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. If you are unfamiliar with these song, as I was before this concert, just know that they are completely glorious. The choir has a minor part in the piece, as most of the text is sung by a baritone soloist. We had been rehearsing only our small part, and the baritone only joined us for the dress rehearsal and performance, so I hadn't really looked at large portions of the text. When I finally heard Song #3: "Love Bade Me Welcome" for the first time, it was all I could do not to weep!

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back.


Guilty of dust and sin.


But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack


From my first entrance in,


Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning


If I lacked anything.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:


Love said, You shall be he.


I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,


I cannot look on thee.


Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,


Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame


Go where it doth deserve.


And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?


My dear, then I will serve.


You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:


So I did sit and eat.

The experience was nothing less than spiritual, and we were lucky to have a phenomenal soloist on the part.

I had a large solo with Vaughan Williams' "Dona Nobis Pacem". I was reeeeeeeally nervous about it, which is actually not like me. All week, I could not figure out why I had such bad stage fright about it. I think it's because it was the biggest, most technically difficult solo I've ever sung -- and VERY exposed! But it went very well, and afterward, I got a bouquet of flowers from the Symphony, and from my Aunt Heather.

Oh yes, and this is the gown I bought the week before:

I am very happy about this concert, and got to sing some amazing music. I'm very blessed to be a part of the group I joined. And thank you to the [many] friends and family who came to support me! It helped my nerves to have you in the audience!

SSVC Christmas Concert

As I mentioned earlier this season, I have joined a choir. While there has been unavoidable choir drama, on the whole it has been a fun, positive experience. Last night was our Christmas concert, and I feel like it went very well. Even the pieces we have been struggling with came together almost flawlessly for the performance, which left me both happy and relieved.

My supportive mom got a plane ticket up to San Jose for the occasion. She ended up being here just over twelve hours before heading back home. If that doesn't tell you what a wonderful mother she is, I don't know what will. It was so fun and meaningful to have her there in the audience.

I auditioned (and was eventually chosen) for a solo on a fairly large piece, and I felt like that went well, too. My conductor was concerned my voice wasn't large enough to fill the hall, so I practiced amplifying my voice over the weeks leading up to the concert. My aunt (who was forced to sit in the last row of the balcony for the first half of the concert) said she could hear every note, so I think I did my job!
Reed has really been "the founder of the feast" so to speak. He has encouraged me all the way, and hasn't blinked at any of the expenses that are part of being in the choir. I'm truly blessed to be married to a man who gives me wings to fly.

Here is a photo of all my Linebarger women: my grandmother, my mom, and my Aunt Heather, three of the most supportive people in my life.
Two things I learned from this concert: 1. Choir drama is a fact of choral life, and 2. my family is beyond amazing. I'm quite a lucky person to have so many loving people in my life.

You Choose the Ending

I sit next to someone in choir who is constantly making disparaging, personal and audible remarks about the other singers. Our seats are assigned, so I can't switch.

What should I do?

A. Send her an email (seems a bit passive aggressive)

B. Respond to the next crazy comment she makes (I don't want to seem like the crazy person!)

C. Talk to the conductor about switching seats (Seems overly-dramatic)

D. Put super glue on her chair

You choose the ending!

Something for Me

Inspired by several friends and relatives, I decided to take a chance a few weeks ago and audition for a local symphonic choir. I was really nervous about the audition: it has been a long time since I've performed any of my art songs--I had to flip through my music books, looking for pencil markings, in order to remember which songs I even knew! I found one I use to be pretty comfortable with, polished it up, and auditioned. Even with the nervousness, it felt so wonderful to be engaging in something that I used to love: performing music.

The director offered me a position in the choir right there at the end of my audition, and I took it. You're looking at (or I guess, reading the words of) the newest soprano of the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale! Check out the website here: http://www.symphonysiliconvalley.org/SSVchorale.php

It's the perfect outlet for me: practices are once a week on Tuesday night, and we have about one performance per month. That is a schedule I can readily commit to. Also, we perform with Symphony Silicon Valley in the historic California Theatre, which adds a little coolness factor to the whole thing.

Anyway, I'm excited about this new project. It feels like one more way to keep my stay-at-home mind fresh, challenged and happy.

What Stood Shall Stand

I LOVE this arrangement. The song is about the hope of a resurrection, and I cry every time I hear it.

What Stood Will Stand
PAUL HALLEY (b.1952)

What stood will stand, though all be fallen,
The good return that time has stolen.
Though creatures groan in misery,
Their flesh prefigures liberty
To end travail and bring to birth
Their new perfection in new earth.
At word of that enlivening
Let the trees of the wood all sing
And every field rejoice. Let praise
Rise up out of the ground like grass.
Alleluiah! Alleluiah!

What stood, whole, in ev’ry piecemeal
Thing that stood, will stand though all fall.
Field and woods and all in them
Rejoin the primal Sabbath’s hymn. – Wendell Berry, from “Sabbaths”

Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum.
(And I look for the resurrection of the dead)
Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen. Alleluia.
(And the life of the world to come. Amen. Alleluia.) – Nicene Creed