The Psalms

A clergy person once told me (actually several have) that they never plan their homilies around the Lectionary prescribed Psalm.  One even stated to me that the Psalms were irrelevant. The Psalms were the songs of David, Jesus prayed the psalms, they are the prayerbook of the bible and can be a great source of inspiration, healing, care and calm.  They also help us to understand our biblical roots, history, culture, poetry, stories, prayers, concerns and ultimately, ourselves.  The psalms offer opportunities for adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication.  They cover a wide range of human desire and emotion while they are also a treasure of philosophy, spirituality and life lessons.

For anyone who doesn't know how to pray, can't find the time to pray, meditate or contemplate, the Psalms are a great tool for you.  You don't have to study the whole Psalm but only use a portion of it.  For example, take a single line which you can use as a mantra and repeat to yourself several times during the day.  Pick one, any one.  Here are a few examples how you can pray with the psalms. 

Let's say you are 18 years old and are leaving home to go off to college.  This is the first time you are going to be on your own or away from home and you are nervous about this new adventure.  You can turn to Psalm 27, for instance, and repeat the phrase; "The Lord is my Light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid."

Maybe you have to go to the hospital for a test or a procedure in the morning.  When you wake up, you can repeat this line from Psalm 63; "As morning breaks, I look to You, I look to You Lord to be my strength this day."

What if you are a walker and are enjoying a long stroll on a beach, you might repeat a phrase from Psalm 69, "Let the heavens and the earth praise God's name, the sea and all it's living creatures."

For the person who is struggling with addiction, guilt, hate, anger or wants to change something in their life, maybe repeating Psalm 51 can help them get through their challenge, "Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me."

I know of a congregation who lost their church building to a fire and a Psalm which offered some of them great comfort in the rebuilding process was Psalm 42:  "Why should I mourn and toil within when it is mine to hope in God."

If a friend is struggling with a difficult decision, you can quote them a line from Psalm 34, "Call upon the Lord, you'll want for nothing if you ask."

Try it.  Physicist Erwin Schroedinger once said "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."  You don't need any special books or instructions to do it.  Just open to the book of Psalms and start reading until you find a sentence which resonates with you.  Write it down on a piece of paper or text it to yourself and refer to it several times during the day.  I guarantee after a few weeks of doing this, one of these mantras or incantations will come back to you in a time when you need it and it will be good. 

When I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God. -Psalm 73.

How To Warm Up A Choir

I am not a fan of "warm ups."  Any athlete or pianist will tell you that isolating a single part of the body to "warm it up" is not effective.  The whole body must be warmed.  A pianist who plays in a warm room will play much better than one who attempts to "warm up" his hands by blowing on them in a cold room or playing an hour of scales.  Warming up is a whole body experience.

Vocal exercises are excellent tools if used for educational or instructional purposes but "warming up" comes from a different place.  A choir director who runs meaningless scales is just wasting everyone's time, especially if there is no educational purpose behind them.

Warming up the voice and the vocal apparatus is much the same as warming up the whole body but with a few additional parameters.  First, many choir rehearsals are held in the evening and the singers have already been walking, talking, breathing, eating and drinking during day.  Most likely, their voice is ready to sing.  However, there are usually a few components missing.

Imagine that a child is about to run out into the street and a car is racing toward him.   In an effort to save his life you would yell "STOP!" or "NOOOO!" or "Billy!"  Did you need to warm up to do that?  The force, confidence and conviction for that vocalization came from your brain because you knew little Billy was about to get smooshed.  It also came from your heart (the emotional one) because you knew little Billy was about to get smooshed.  Your diaphragm naturally rose to the occasion and your soft palate also raised in sympathetic response to the brain and heart in order to convey the message as fully, open and forcibly as possible.

What if your dog were to pee on your new $1,000 carpet?  If you are an owner who believes in negative reinforcement, you might yell "NO!" or "BAD DOG."  Did you need to warm up first?  No, because it came from your brain that the dog was about to soil your new carpet, it came from your angry heart because your dog was about to soil your new carpet and as a result, your diaphragm and soft palate unequivocally made your angry intention known to your pooch. 

A friend has a new born baby and it is sleeping in her arms.  With your best stage whisper you comment on how it is the most beautiful baby you've every seen and you ask to hold him.  You can whisper loudly because your brain knows the baby is sleeping and your heart doesn't want to wake him so your diaphragm and soft palate do what it takes to convey your message with delicacy in hushed, dulcet tones.

You go to a birthday party and everyone sings "Happy Birthday." The whole gathering of well wishers erupt into a rousing and full throated rendition - including two or three part harmony.  Did anyone need to warm up first?  No, because the brain and heart automatically engaged the diaphragm and soft palate with earthy bon ami.

Whether you cough intentionally to get someone's attention, sigh on "arrrgh," in frustration, groan at a bad joke, say "awww" at a cute kitten, jump out at someone and yell "BOO," "Ho-ho-ho" like Santa, or bark like a dog; your diaphragm and soft palate will naturally and fully engaged without warm up because the vocalization comes first from the brain and emotional heart.

All these body parts and mechanisms are already in place and will work on command if we beleive what we are doing, singing or saying.  The first job of any choir director is not to engage the choir in meaningless warmups but to give our text meaning and purpose which should be the primary task of any director. 

I'm not saying that our church choirs don't beleive but, if they need to warm up, something else is missing.  Why can't we automatically sing songs of adoration to God the way we would vocalize the first time we see a loved one who we haven't seen in ten years as they get off an airplane?  Why can't we sing in contrition they way we would if we broke our mother's prized antique vase and bellowed "I'm am SO sorry.  I WILL replace it."  Why can't we sing songs of thanksgiving to God the way we would profusely thank someone who just returned our lost wallet with all the  attendant money intact?  Why can't we sing songs of supplication to God they way someone would beg for a significant other not to leave them?  If the answer is that we need to warm up first, something else is missing. 

Why do so many choir directors have to trick their choirs into engaging their soft palates and diaphragms through the use of warm ups?  The answers can be many and varied.  Maybe we don't beleive in God.  Maybe we don't know how to beleive in God.  Maybe we are afraid to express our belief in public.  Maybe we don't have the conviction to beleive in God.  Maybe we have directors who don't beleive in God.  Maybe we have directors who beleive in music.  Maybe we have directors who are only regurgitating what they've been taught.  Maybe we have directors who just haven't figured it out yet.  Maybe we have directors more concerned with the notes rather than the words.  Maybe we don't know or believe that our music has purpose, meaning and power.  Comprehension does not imply belief and without belief we can't fully activate our bodies.

The solution then, isn't to do warm ups.  It is to network our emotions with our bodies and that takes effort not related to music but - is wholly related to music.  At a job interview once, a member of the search committee, who made sure I knew she was a Juilliard graduate and a soloist in the church, asked me if I did warmups and I spouted to her an abbreviated version of this blog and then I told her that I do lead sung prayer before every rehearsal and she asked, "What does any of this have to do with directing a choir?"  My reply was more advanced than a mere Juilliard grad could understand; I'm not a choir director.  I am a pastoral musician who trains the choir to be music ministers and, that music should not be their ministry but a vehicle to ministry.  Directing a choir has a great deal to do with reversing foreground and background.

First and foremost though is to support what the text and music itself is saying, not to necessarily inflict our own views and emotions on it.  The last thing we need to do is sing and play as if our feelings were being injected into the music.  That happens a lot in church choirs.

Ultimately, the universe has given us everything we need to vocally do what we need to do.  The only thing that stands in our way is ourselves.  I know many music directors will disagree with me and that is okay.  Just remember that no agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.  If you disagree that fervently, chalk it up to differences of opinion. 

If you'll excuse me, I need to go warm up gravity because I am going jogging and I want to make sure every time I take a step, my foot will return to the ground.

The Dix Range

This autumnal grand-daddy of all hikes led us to the serene and beckoning  summits of Macomb, South Dix, East Dix, back to South Dix, then to Hough and Pough, over the Beckhorn, to Dix, back to the Beckhorn, then straight down the SW ridge of Dix and Beckhorn.  We camped at Slide Brook then ascended via the land slide of Macomb Mountain with its beautiful view of Elk Lake.  Each mountain has its own beckoning gleam of silver track slides.  Bear Grylls would be proud.

Some Pictures from A Recent Hike

I recently went camping up in the Adirondacks and encountered two friendly women with more tatoos than Justin Bieber.  They were going to attempt almost the same hike I had done a few days earlier and were of very muscular estate. Here are some of the pics.

 Autumn Gold

 Jim at the Beckhorn

 East Dix from Hough

 Elk Lake From the Macomb Slide

 Gothics from East Dix

 Heart Lake

 Our Lean-to

 Macomb Slide

 Macomb Slide

 Me and Jim on an Eratic

Me shirtless taking a sponge bath in Slide Brook

To watch the video of my hike, check out this link:

The Dix Range
http://youtu.be/RusfvOQuGec

Nye and Street
http://youtu.be/VrQhv56lRME

Buxtehude's Daughter

Should anyone be in the Albany, NY area this Sunday, I am playing an irreverent cantata called "Buxtehude's Daughter."  Here is a sample of our first rehearsal:

http://youtu.be/rGlUKxUhPIM

Byron Nilsson and Amy Prothro bring their cabaret show, “Song to Amuse,” to the very brink of the classical-music world with a special concert at 2 PM Sunday, October 5, at the First Unitarian Universalist Society, 405 Washington Ave, Albany.

 

They’re performing an irreverent cantata Byron wrote (with music by Tom Savoy) titled “Buxtehude’s Daughter,” that gives a fanciful and funny version of what might have taken place when the young J.S. Bach traveled to Lübeck to interview for an organist’s job, succeeding the great Dietrich Buxtehude. The kicker: he would have had to marry Buxtehude’s daughter to get the gig, and she didn’t appeal to him. Not a word of the piece is true. It’s doubtful the daughter sang a blues number. The spirit of it turned out to be more P.D.Q. Bach than J.S.

 

This will be performed in collaboration with members of the Musicians of Ma’alwyck, giving the cantata far more legitimacy than it deserves, but Byron and Amy also will sing some of their favorite cabaret-show selections, including songs by Bernstein, Sondheim, Gershwin, Flanders & Swann, and even Roger Miller, all with Malcolm Kogut at the piano

 

And there will be a post-performance champagne dessert buffet to help erase the memory of what you’ll have just endured. It’s an afternoon not to be missed and a great way to support Musicians of Ma'alwyck. Tickets are $35 per person and available at 518/377-3623 or www.musiciansofmaalwyck.org (under Songs to Amuse).

--
–Malcolm.

Buxtehude's Daughter, a Cantata

Buxtehude's Daughter is a spoof cantata written by Tom Savoy and Byron Nilsson about the true story of Buxtehude, his daughter and Bach.   In October of 1705, Bach, at the age of 20, secured a one month leave to go hear a musician of considerable reputation.  Bach proceeded to walk over 250 miles from Arnstadt to Lubeck to hear the famed Buxtehude perform one of his weekly recitals and, was so impressed that he forgot to go home and he stayed for four more months, greatly offending his superiors at his home church. 

The aging Buxtehude was retiring and seeking someone to take over his directing position at the Marienkirche.  The catch was that Buxtehude would only offer the job to the applicant who would marry his daughter.  She was not young (over the hill at 30), not pretty, and perhaps did not posses much of a personality. At any rate, her father was having difficulty marrying her off.  Other famed applicants for the position included Handel and Mattheson but the thought of marrying the daughter was too high a price to pay. Apparently, when sacrificing for your art, there are certain sacrifices that are too costly.  The practice of offering a daughter as part of the "benefits package" was not uncommon in those days as Buxtehude himself married the daughter of Franz Tunder, his predecessor.

When Bach eventually returned to his home church in Arnstadt, fireworks ensued.  The "minutes" of a meeting to which Bach was called to explain himself still exist today.  Bach was accused of "making music" with a "stranger lady" and he was even accused of inviting her up into the choir loft.  This was a time when women weren't allowed to sing in the choir and it was a serious breech of etiquette to make music with one.  What would the congregation think?  Not that church people are ever prone to gossip.

Buxtehude did eventually find a successor and son in law; Johann Christian Schieferdecker won the position.  He was a little-known composer who was an accompanist and composer at the Hamburg opera.  Schieferdecker also served as Buxtehude’s assistant shortly before the master died.

The Musicians of Ma'alwyck;
Join us for a wonderful afternoon of delightful, funny songs with Byron Nilsson, Amy Prothro and Malcolm Kogut, paired with the spoof cantata Buxtehude's Daughter and then enjoy a delicious champagne dessert buffet generously prepared and donated by Randy Rosette. Songs of Flanders & Swann, Stephen Sondheim, Noel Coward and others followed by Tom Savoy's and Nilsson's hysterical take on the surprise requirement attached to accepting the position as Buxtehude's successor.  Musicians of Ma'alwyck and Byron Nilsson and friends join together to present Songs to Amuse, Sunday, October 5th at 2pm.  First Unitarian Universalist Society in Albany hosts us in this special fundraiser.  An afternoon not to be missed and a great way to support Musicians of Ma'alwyck. Tickets are $35 per person and available at rwww.musiciansofmaalwyck.org

Simple Improvisational Device for Organists

Here is a short lesson I created for church organists who on occasion may be desirous to employ a simple re-harmonization device without getting too carried away.  I apologize for the little rant in the beginning of the video about organists getting in the way of the congregation.  I too am a frequent offender of this practice.  It is part of the organist ego.  The devil makes us do it.  Bach's congregation had the same plaint.

This device is simple.  Whenever the melody is on the third tone of a chord, or you change the chord to make that note the third, leave the melody where it is but raise the chord up half a step to it's minor equivalent, then drop it down to its dominant seventh.  Keep the voicing open as that will leave a lot of room for inner linear movement and a lot of room other chordal substitutions and leading.  If you don't know what that means, that is okay, listen to your ear. It knows.

I often throw something like this in toward the the end of a verse to signal to the congregation that I am about to do something such as a key change or interlude.  I usually only throw in interludes when the liturgical movement calls for it because the people on the dais need more time to get where they're going or to do what they're doing.  If a choir is processing and they just hit the stairs to the balcony, I may do the same thing. 

Personally, if I am pew-side of a church, I like to sing the harmony to the hymns and when the organist doesn't play what's on the page it renders me mute.  Organists need to be cognizant of the text, too.  I remember being at a music convention for Pastoral Musicians and on the fifth verse of a hymn, the text stated something about not toiling or mourning for, the gentle presence of God will carry you through the tough times.  I thought it ironic that the organist was re-harmonizing, ratcheting up the crescendo pedal and tossing out trite-trumpet-triplets all as we were singing words such as "quiet" and "gentle."

Read your texts, love your people, help them to sing, hold their hand if necessary.  Think of the church in the theater model; the congregants are the actors, God is the audience and you are the prompter.  Prompt, don't hijack.