Random internet truth

“Saying you believe in science rather than religion is like saying you believe in screwdrivers rather than democracy. Science is a tool and nothing else, it's literally just recorded information. It isn't a belief system that contradicts religions. You can be a completely rational minded and logical person and still hold religious views. They don't conflict, in times they can even complement each other.”

I didn’t bother to look up who or what he was responding to, but this comment was at Agnus Dei performance on YouTube performed by the Choir of New College of Oxford, conducted by Edward HIGGINBOTTOM. VOL. I, recorded in New College Chapel-Oxford-England, January/April 1996.  So those beautiful boy sopranos would now be 22 years older, in their 30s or early 40s, scattered in various careers, or countries. And the music (this one played over 9 million times since uploaded in 2012) plays on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwhkBAeheM

“The Choir of New College Oxford is one of the most celebrated and acclaimed choral groups of the UK. When William of Wykeham founded his ‘New’ College in 1379, a choral foundation was at its heart, and daily chapel services have been a central part of college life ever since. The choir comprises sixteen boy choristers and fourteen adult clerks; the latter a mixture of professional singers and undergraduate members of the college.”

“New College Choir was the first in Oxford to launch regular webcasts of choral services – to offer choral services to all who are unable to be in chapel.   One service is selected for webcasting each week, and listeners will find choral evensongs as well as major festivals and the annual carol services. The webcast services are recorded live, with minimal post-production editing; so listeners will be participating in a ‘live’ experience, as if they were sitting in New College Chapel.   

The music is offered not as a concert, but as part of the chapel’s tradition of Christian worship. “ http://www.newcollegechoir.com/page/?title=Webcasts&pid=10

How to lose your audience

What if each time you tuned into watch Downton Abbey you got a blow by blow detailed history of how the English Reformation under King Henry VIII destroyed the Roman Catholic monasteries and nunneries and turned them over to private owners who were the King’s buddies? With all the death and cruelty involved and the poor who were devastated by the loss of support from the church?  Or what if when looking for appropriate comments to use at a musical ecumenical memorial for the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation all you could find is a blow by blow account of the brutal Peasants’ War in which 100,000 German peasants who thought Luther would support them instead met a bloody end?   Whose mind would be changed? Would you want the Catholic, Lutheran or Marxist view with your music?

Trapped. That’s how I felt when I attended what would be a wonderful  program of choral music, and instead got lectures (called “reflections”) so inappropriate for a lovely summer Sunday evening I thought I’d walked into a micro-aggression workshop for hate whitey or black lives matter rally. Most people love the black gospel and spiritual contributions to the American religious and choral tradition, and yes, they do know the history of the pain and suffering from which they came, but please don’t use them to club us into staying away from the concerts. I'm not sure how, but even "I'll fly away" by Alfred Brumley, a white Oklahoma sharecropper, seemed to have been roped into this meme of slavery. Perhaps I misunderstood, or dozed off.

We are living in an era of unprecedented human slavery. There is more slavery today than during the 18th century Atlantic slave trade. Children are used as soldiers, women and girls are taken as sex slaves, men are forced to work in mines.  In some countries like Haiti and the Philippines household slavery is just part of the culture and many don’t even recognize it.  Most of this happens in Africa, with heavy Muslim involvement, but what church program today would discuss that hot topic?  Very little of it, unlike Boko Haram stealing Church of the Brethren school girls for sex slaves from a school in Nigeria, makes it into the evening news. 

To compulsively return to a period of history when Europeans bought slaves from African Muslims and tribal chiefs and sold them to the colonies which later became the United States which  fought an ugly war to end it, is just not good commentary for a program of music celebrating freedom in Christ.

Down the rabbit hole with musician Eric Wyse

The other day I purchased at Marc's for $1.50 a Christmas CD, "Log Cabin Christmas; 20 songs of the season performed in simple folk styles."  It's really lovely, and quite relaxing.

So in deciding to mention it on my blog, I needed to do a little research.  I chose the name of one of the producers, Eric Wyse, because the rest of the production, musicians, and location stuff didn't look too promising-- Barbour publishing, licensed from Classic Fox Records, made in the USA (in Uhrichsville, Ohio).

What a find.  Wyse is a song writer and pianist, and I'm not sure about how much production he does on the side, but I've enjoyed listening to his Christian music.  These are called "rabbit holes" when you get an idea and it takes you to places you didn't know you needed to go.

http://www.ericwyse.com/ericwyse/Home.html  From his home page:

An accomplished keyboardist, songwriter, church musician, and record and video producer, Eric Wyse will complete 19 years of service as Organist/Choirmaster (1994-2001) and Director of Music/Organist (2001-2013) at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tennessee June 2013. In September,  he will begin a new position as Director of Music/Organist at St. Michael’s Church in Charleston, SC.

As a pianist, Eric has recorded the best-selling  "Reflections" series of solo piano music with sales in excess of 200,000 units. His organ work was featured on the worship project "City on a Hill - Sing Alleluia".

He is best known, perhaps, as the co-writer of the modern hymn, "Wonderful, Merciful Savior," written in 1989 with his wife, Dawn Rodgers. Recorded by numerous Christian artists including Selah, Phillips Craig & Dean, Kari Jobe, Anthony Evans, Kathy Troccoli, Travis Cottrell, and Clay Cross, the song received a 2002 Gospel Music Association Dove Award nomination for “Inspirational Song of the Year”. It appears in many new hymnals, including Rejoice Hymns (Majesty Music, 2011), Songs for Worship and Praise (2010, Taylor Publications), The Baptist Hymnal (2008, LifeWay Worship), Hymns for a Pilgrim People (GIA/NAACC, 2007), and The Christian Life Hymnal (Hendrickson, 2006). Other songs written by Eric include "Lamb of God (Angus Dei)" recorded by BeBo Norman and Mark Hall & Megan Garrett (Casting Crowns) and his setting of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father in Heaven", which is gaining acceptance in churches across the country.

An award-winning producer and consultant in recording and video production, Eric has worked with a variety of artists, including Keith & Kristyn Getty, Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, CeCe Winans, Amy Grant, Donnie McClurkin, and Hee Haw’s LuLu Roman. In 2007, he produced a critically acclaimed full-length London recording of Handel's Messiah with British conductor John Rutter, featuring The Cambridge Singers & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

 And even after researching it, I still have no idea who the musicians are for this CD.  I do think that is an oversight. They are good. So, after wandering around that rabbit hole, I decided to look at Uhrichsville, Ohio, a town I'd never heard of.  What I found was a wonderful Christian publishing company, named Barbour.

Faithfulness to the Bible and Jesus Christ are the bedrock values behind every book Barbour's staff produces from its 115,000-square foot facilities in Uhrichsville, Ohio. When the company's unit sales reached fourteen million in a fiscal year, Martins commented, "I'm really excited about that figure. That's fourteen million Christian books - not fourteen million hamburgers, or fourteen million cars, or fourteen million computers. It's fourteen million books sharing the message of Christ!"

What a fun search. And all for $1.50 from a remaindered supply at Marc's.

This morning's workout music

On YouTube: an anthology of famous Sacred Masterpieces performed by the Choir of New College of Oxford. It's a little slow and relaxed, but fine for my speed. Beautiful slides.

Choir

Sung at the funeral of a friend on Saturday

Jerusalem, by the Hoppers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hy5VxG6q98

Restoring Love

We have several friends from the Columbus area that are heading to Dallas for Glenn Beck's Restoring Love. God speed, dear friends. You are all an inspiration to us.

Last night we listened to Kalai sing Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" on Glenn Beck's 5 p.m. program. Beautiful, but not like you've ever heard it. Our God is marching on . . . Restoring Love. Glennbeck.com/music.

According to another blog, Revolutionary Artists: "Kalai was born “Kaniela Ka Lei Ali’i ‘O’ Kalani Kala’i” in December, 1979, in Kailua, Hawaii and raised in Alaska. Kalai, despite a permanent injury in his left hand, at the age of 16 learned guitar by watching his father, Danson, a Hawaiian music icon who has performed with Eric Clapton and Van Morrison."

Conestoga Christmas program

Last night our Conestoga group (Friends of the Ohio Historical Society) met at Saint Joseph Cathedral, 212 East Broad St., Columbus, for a wonderful dinner, tour of the building and an organ concert. I couldn't begin to describe the beauty of the organ, which took two years to build, and the fabulous concert performed by Cathedral Director of Music, Paul Thornock. There is a series called "Cathedral Concerts," and the next one will be Sunday, December 11, at 3:00 p.m., for Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas.

African American Voices at Ohio State University

This sounds like a wonderful program, but I am wondering if Choirs of Scandinavian Heritage or Hungarian Lutherans would be allowed to perform their Christian songs while excluding black and brown ethnicities.

"Ohio State Gospel and Spiritual Choir will feature traditional Sunday Morning gospel songs typical of the worship service experience and music style of the traditional black church. The African American Voices student choir will also be featured on Thursday (11/10) at 8 p.m. in Weigel Hall Auditorium."

The only website I could find for "African American Voices" at OSU, was dead, so I can't tell if it is an OSU group or a visiting group. The Spiritual Choir seems to have a variety of faces since "gospel choir" isn't limited to ethnicity or style.

Photo from Lantern, 2007, 16th anniversary performance

Born in the USA lyrics read by Glenn Beck

Now that's a sobering experience. Heard Glenn in the car this morning; he was reading Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" aloud. You've got to love how celebrities get rich off of kids by denigrating the country that's made them wealthy and famous. Politicians too. Particularly the ones in power right now. I don't know whose story about Viet Nam Springsteen's telling in the song, but it wasn't his--he got classified 4F by acting crazy for his physical, according to Wikipedia, which of course, is not a real source, but I'm not interested enough to look further. [Disclaimer: the post time has been adjusted so the TT stays on top.]

Adam McInnis, Christian Singer

Clicking through the Facebook “friends” list (does anyone really have 5,000 friends?) of Noel McInnis (we played trombone together in high school), I noticed Adam McInnis, so I clicked to his bio to see if they were related. They aren’t (unless there’s a whole other part of Noel I didn’t know), but I was really blown away by some of Adam's delightful, passionate music. Enjoy!

Adam McInnis "Since I Spoke Your Name" from Adam McInnis on Vimeo.