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February 25, 2012 Dear Choir, I know this is late - here is a link to a (bad) recording of the special benediction response for Carlos for TOMORROW: Please try to listen to it so that we don't have to sing it in the morning when Carlos is around - we want it to be a surprise! Mark
February 14, 2012 Dear Choir, A thank you note, a week late, to say how much I appreciated your hard, hard work to sing my anthem "I Will Sing to the Lord" so well for the 175th Anniversary Celebration Sunday!! Hugs all around. (The weakest parts of the anthem that morning were my organ introduction and interludes, and I ended up re-recording those the day after so that I could have a good recording of the piece!) This past Sunday, though, I have to admit, was a shock with only about 14 in the choir total - such number differences! Even so, I heard a number of compliments on how meaningful the very simple "God is So Good" was to those who spoke to me. Even our simplest offerings help people worship, which is WHY WE EXIST here at South Church. Concord has such a "performance" culture - though we strive to do our very best by the music, ultimately, when we connect with our spirits, our inner selves, and the still small voice of God within our hearts - that is when we have done our job as a church choir. Let us strive first and foremost to set a worshipful atmosphere in the space we call the South Church Building! You will hear more about this thought in upcoming choir letters . . . This coming Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday. Though I pulled out "Christ Upon the Mountain Peak" again last week, I would like us to focus on "Christ of the Upward Way" along with the Knut Nystedt "This is my beloved Son" for this week. The Memorial Bells will also be playing Cynthia Dobrinski's mix of two well-known pieces, "Blessed Assurance/Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring". See you Thursday! Piece, (get it . . .) Mark
February 1, 2012 Dear Choir, A reminder that we will be starting rehearsal at 7:00 tomorrow, Feb. 2, instead of the usual 7:30. Please come as soon as you are able if the early start time is an inconvenience. We will be working almost entirely on Sunday's material, my "I Will Sing to the Lord" and Paul Knudson's "Seven-fold Amen". Park outside the parking lot ONLY if you are able, (though do so if you can!). Please leave the three parking spaces closest to Pleasant St. open for the Cold Weather Shelter personnel. If you need to be in the lot, and there is no space, please call me directly on my cell phone (910).257.6436 from the parking lot, and I will try to help! Tracks for Sunday's Anthem can still be found here: SOPRANO track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem ALTO track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem TENOR track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem BASS track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem If you are using Internet Explorer as your computer browser, you should be able to click directly on this link and have it play. If you are using either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, you may need to right-click on the link and save it to a place on your computer where you can find it. If you are using an Apple computer and are using Safari as your browser, I believe you should be able to just click on the link and hear it. It is also possible to click on these links from smartphone browsers. See you soon! Mark
Jan. 23, 2012 Dear Choir, Thank you for your good work this morning! I haven’t yet had a chance to hear the recording I made, but it felt good to me in the context of the morning. I hope it felt that way to you as well. Thursday night, Becky and Lois will be running an Alto and Soprano sectional, so we will have a chance to work hard on individual parts this week. I am trying hard to get the computerized version up and running for you this week. It definitely takes longer than it seems it should. Please check back soon. This coming Sunday, we shall sing "Evening and Morning" by Robert Farrell. As such, we will practice this anthem first on Thursday, but we will still spend the greatest part of rehearsal on the music for Feb. 5. Please make every effort to be present! Mark SOPRANO track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem ALTO track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem TENOR track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem BASS track for "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love" 175th Anniversary Anthem If you are using Internet Explorer as your computer browser, you should be able to click directly on this link and have it play. If you are using either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, you may need to right-click on the link and save it to a place on your computer where you can find it. If you are using an Apple computer and are using Safari as your browser, I believe you should be able to just click on the link and hear it. It is also possible to click on these links from smartphone browsers.
January 16, 2012 Dear Choir, This week I will be focusing on preparing tracks for you to use to assist in learning the special music for February 5th. Please, please do take at least some time to make use of these tracks when once they are posted. It will go a long way in helping us all to feel good about our final result! Parable of the week: There once were two scientists who were working on perfecting tele-transportation. Both had wonderful ideas, and both were enthusiastic. One, though, often managed to make some simple things far more complicated than were actually needed. Though the other was working on a complex manner of sending physical material wirelessly like the transporters in "Star Trek", the other was working on a simpler model which would use physical wires as the means of transport. One day, he realized that he had mastered the art and science of wired tele-transportation, and prepared to present his amazing findings to the Science Academy. The big day of the presentation arrived, and he set up his demonstration to send a pencil from one end of the hall to the other via his wired system. With the pencil loaded, and in front of all of his students and colleagues, he pressed the button. Electrical computerized sounds could be heard, and then, "Poof!" at the other end of the room, a stick appeared. It was the pencil, but it wasn't complete - it was missing its writing end. With all his effort, he had not completely succeeded, for, you see, he wasn't able to get "the point" across . . . Some days I feel like the scientist, and some days I feel like the pencil . . . We'll see you all on Thursday! Mark
January 14, 2012 Dear Choir, Ah, the weather . . . Nothing like Mother Nature to remind us that all of our running around like headless fowl all the time is not necessarily what God would like us to do. This Sunday we will sing "Wade in the Water", and each verse will be divided amongst small groups and solos. v.1. - tenors, then basses v.2. - Altos, then sopranos v. 3. - Alan, then Helen v. 4. - men, then women I will have some tracks posted this week to assist in learning the special music for the 175th Celebration on Feb. 5. Peace, Mark
December 23, 2011 Dear Choir, Here is a link to a pdf of Bill Fletcher's piece "A Christmas Prayer". Let's all go over our parts so that we can make a recording of this wonderful piece when we return on January 5! Merry Christmas! Remember, there will be no rehearsal on December 29 since I am out of town that week. We will be back to rehearsal on Jan. 5. Mark
December 19, 2011 Dear All, Thank you for yesterday - the morning had a really special feeling and spirit, and for that, I am so greatlful! Yes, there were some moments - evidently, The Snow Lay on my windshield in addition to the ground and I "drove the organ" accordingly for a few measures, and Bill Fletcher inspired a number of us to try our hand at "instant composition, but I was so taken by the wonderful flow of the service. I believe we touched some lives with God's love yesterday! We have one more offering for 2011, and we will rehearse the "Day of Announcement" and the other Christmas Eve music on Thursday. "Glory to God on High and jolly mirth twixt man and man, and peace on Earth!". Many blessing to you all this week! Mark
December 7, 2011 Dear Choir, Here are the anthems which will be used now between now and the end of the year: Sunday Dec. 11 INTERGENERATIONAL SERVICE (Family Choir sings "Every Valley") WE SING "Prepare the Way, O Zion" Sunday Dec. 18 FESTIVAL MUSIC SUNDAY
Saturday, Dec. 24 CHRISTMAS EVE
We will start at 7:15 the next couple of weeks and run till 9:15. Peace, Mark
November 28, 2011 Dear Choir, I am posting this note and sending it by email to make sure everyone receives it in a timely manner. Wellcome to Advent, and soon, December! You all did a nice job with "Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending" yesterday. Now to turn our full attention to December, the rest of Advent, and Christmas! We do have easy anthems for the next couple of weeks, and then we do our music service on Dec. 18. As such, I would like to start rehearsing with whomever can meet at 7:15, and continue rehearsal to 9:15 for the next three weeks, which is all we get as far as rehearsals this month. Bill Fletcher has written a piece for us which, if not used on Dec, 18th, will be used at some point this season! We will be focusing primarily on our special music for the next three weeks. If anyone would like me to include a recording file online to assist in learning notes, please do let me know. I will be happy to do so. Some events coming up for which you might be interested:
November 14, 2011 Dear Choir, Nice work with "Rejoice in the Lord" yesterday! I actually finally got an audio and a video recording of the anthem, so we will attempt to view or at least listen to our work this coming Thursday evening. Next week, the children join us for "Song of Creation" (Let the Earth Glorify the Lord) and no, we won't jump up and down as we sing it . . . The bells play this coming Sunday as well - "Litany of Joy". We will also discuss our special Christmas Music in more detail this week as well. Have a wonderful week! Mark Nov. 7, 2011 Dear Choir, A great Sunday, yesterday! Thank you for an inspired "Wachet Auf" and a spritely "Pleading Savior"! This note is a bit "stream-of-consciousness", so bear with me. (!) In general church related details, the Mission One initiative is still accepting canned goods through this week. This Thursday, Nov. 10 we "get down" and party! I promise to end rehearsal a little early so that we can partake of the festivities as guilt-free as possible . . . Next Sunday, we will sing "Rejoice in the Lord" by Augustino Stefano. We were beginning to feel its essence quite nicely last week, so I am really looking forward to singing it again this Thursday! In two weeks, "Kitchen Aid" is the big fundraiser for the Friendly Kitchen, and I will be participating by playing George Ackerly's "A Suite For Mother Goose" with Shira Nafshi doing the narration. Hope to see you all there! As news comes in to share with you, I will post as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, have a great rest of your week! Peace, Mark
Addendum Nov. 2, 2011 Remember that Tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 3, we will take a group picture in the Sanctuary for the new website. We will provide everyone with Votive candles. See you soon! November 1, 2011 All Saints Day! This note is the first one I have written on the new Music Office Computer - ironically, we were having to deal with its installation the same week we were getting "Pipescreams! Spooktacular!" put together. It is now mostly up and runnning, and hopefully will ultimately be much easier and more streamlined to use. Nice job this past Sunday, even if we were a bit sparse initially because of the unbelievable snow! The choir actually sounds a bit bigger when up in the balcony, so what we may have been missing in numbers was made up for in reflective sound. The overall effect was quite moving, especially on the last verse of "For All the Saints", even if we fudged some of the notes! :-) This coming Sunday, Gail Murphy will be preaching. We shall sing "Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns die Stimme" (In our book, Keep Awake, Be Always Ready). We shall sing this anthem a capella. And finally, thanks to those who helped out this past Friday evening for "Pipescreams!" - Becky Field has provided some wonderful pictures which can be seen on the "Theatrical Ministry" page of this website. Peace, Mark
October 19, 2011 Hi All, Myrna just wrote to tell me that she wasn't sure how to access this website now that the main church website is down. Of course, it is a bit foolish for me to write on this site how to access this site :-) but just as a reminder: is actually its own, separate site. Beginning with the new full church website, however, Jed would like all areas pages to have a similar look and feel, and so a great deal of this site will be transferred over. I am planning on keeping this site open though as my "blog" and for more personal bits of information, but I'll let everyone know how that will work at the point when our new site is finally ready. (There is still the possibility that it may take a while . . .) This coming Sunday, be prepared for a chaotic feel at 9:00! The children will be joining us for the first time this year, and the JoySpring Jazz ensemble will be setting up as well. We are singing "Make Some Sort of Joyful Noise", and we will ALL be moving forward to stand just behind the railing and pulpit. The accompaniment will be fairly loud - we went over it with the Jazz group this past Monday evening. The kids will be standing in front of the communion table this time. Here is an example of what they will look like. Click on this picture to make it full size:
I will most likely be on the floor to assist the kids, so I am counting on you all to know your music and function as best you can looking down on the floor! (Hence, the reason to come up to the railing when we sing.) It should be great fun, however! Peace, Mark
October 10, 2011 Dear "Cast of Dogg's Hamlet": Okay, you may think that I am writing to the wrong group here. Tom Stoppard wrote a play entitled "Dogg's Hamlet" in which many common words were replaced by other common words which, to the uninitiated, rendered the meaning of that which was conveyed meaningless. To those who understood the replaced meanings, it all made sense. You all survived the rewriting of the bulletin script! In a bulletin where "responsive hymn" meant "offertory", and "Response after the Offertory" meant a verse of a hymn, and "anthem" meant "Psalm Response", and "Hymn meant 'Anthem" . . . You all would have made Tom Stoppard proud yesterday! Thanks for your incredible flexibility. And your concerns are more than noted, by the way! Next week should be a slam dunk by comparison with "Psalm 96" by Heinrich Schuetz as our one anthem. If requested to add anything, I will ask that it be done before Thursday's rehearsal, and then left alone! Peace, Mark
ADDED Thurs. OCT 6, 2011: Choir, note that Sunday's First Anthem, "Bring Us Together, Lord", is now the first hymn. I will explain how we will offer it by using my reharmonization for verses 1, 4, and 5, but use the anthem version for verses 2 and 3. "Together in Unity", the psalm, will be in the regular anthem slot. October 3, 2011 Choir, A unique and special morning this past Sunday. Thank you for helping to convey the variety of God's people everywhere on earth through different versions of our Lord's Prayer - the one with which he taught us the essentials of prayer. Congrats to Judy Signor who did such a nice job with the Malotte version, and great job Warren, as Lay Liturgist. How many churches can say that their Lay Liturgist is an Otolaryngoligist? :-) We were low in numbers, and I implore those of you who have been away to return! You are all irreplaceable as individual members of our choir and group! Next Sunday, We will be singing the two pieces we have been working on that have congregational parts. We have a bit of coordination to establish, so I look forward to your presence on Thursday of this week. God's Blessings, Mark
September 26, 2011 Dear Choir, Thank you for a wonderful morning yesterday! Yes, we had an odd entrance on the second anthem - I realize that I had never played the written introduction for you before! Oops... Good save on your part! As I told some in the soprano section after church, it merely sounded "ethereal" - as if the voices were coming in from the distance on the "train" Jed mentioned in his sermon! Next Sunday, we'll be singing multiple versions of the Lord's Prayer, the Vater Unser, the Pater Noster - you get the idea! Later this week I will post a mockup of the bulletin for those of you who would like to see how we will be using 5 different versions of the Lord's Prayer in one worship service. Peace, Mark
Sept. 21, 2011 Dear All, We need to determine exactly who is able to sing this coming Saturday for the Rye Congregational Church Celebration. I know that our individual schedules every fall make an extra event tricky to put together, so please let me know directly if you can or cannot participate. We will make a final decision this coming Thursday evening, Sept. 22. Nice work last week - the service was unusual, and I wasn't planning on our second Anthem becoming a postlude! "At the Name of Jesus" and "Immortal Love, Forever Full" for this coming Sunday. Peace, Mark
Dear Choir, This year’s beginning of the year letter is coming to you a little later because I have been away during the month of August! We are just about to begin a new season, but this year’s opening will be VERY different. This year is the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and the very first Sunday we sing is September 11, 2011. Our community is holding a special service on the State House lawn at 12:30 following our own service, and a community choir is being put together by Shira Nafshi of Temple Beth-Jacob. Our first rehearsal is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011 which is the same evening as the community rehearsal for the State House service. As such, I am going to ask everyone to put the community first this year and attend the rehearsal at St. Paul’s church which actually begins with a pizza dinner at 6:00 pm. If pizza is not your "thing", the actual singing rehearsal begins right at 6:30 pm. This rehearsal will go till 8:00 pm, at which point I would like to ask you to come back to South Church for a very short rehearsal to go over "How Firm a Foundation" which we shall use for our own 10:00 am service on September 11. On that Sunday morning, our morning will begin with a convening prayer with Jed and Carlos as we prepare not only for the unusual events of the day, but as a preparation for the whole year. This year’s church theme is "Radical Hope, Extravagant Love", and I invite us all to jump in with both feet, both arms, torso, head - our entire selves! Our first full rehearsal will then be Thursday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 prompt. I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday! Sincerely, Mark |
