I look forward to sharing the new, rabble-rousing John Weaver psalm and our shimmering, reverent Pilgrim's Hymn in worship on Sunday. We will meet at 9:35 in the choir room. We have a challenge of communicating scripture text with a relatively bombastic organ part on Psalm 46. How can we be heard over the majestic Lied Organ:
1. Emphasize beginning, ending, and middle consonants-- keep them in the front of your month, and share them graciously and generously. Do not swallow them. Project them forward with intentionality and intensity.
2. Leave a space and clearing before any word that begins with a vowel: The LorD' /oV' Hosts /iz' /ooith /ahs This helps the consonants pop, it helps energy emerge from within the text, and it allows the room to sing.
3. Be intentional about rhythm. Stay rhythmically engaged throughout the piece-- in both the uptempo and in the soft reflective sections. Whether we are fast in 7/8 or slow in 3/4 or 4/4 or any combination, we must always be keeping track of linear eighth notes rather than just singing at rhythms and thinking we know how it goes. A half note is not just a half note, it is alive for 4 eighth notes, 8 sixteenths. Always be aware of the rhythm inside of everything you sing, even if it seems easy. Intentionality makes a huge difference rather than just educated guessing or motor memory.
Then, in the Paulus, we have the challenge of singing quiet, prayerful a cappella music. How can we manage without the majestic Lied Organ:
1. Improve the pitch as we sing repeated notes-- don't see a line of several F sharps, and sing the first one well and then turn off your brain until the note changes. Continually spin the breath and find the shape of each and every line, phrase and syllable.
2. Sing from inside the vowels-- never pushing, even in the forte passages. Be the vowel. Spin the breath, stir the sound. Do not push the breath or force the sound. Never aggressive, always gracious.
3. Take every opportunity to be intimate with the text. How? Find all the humming consonants, and treasure their beauty. Find the shape of every word- if it has more than one syllable, which deserves the most stress?, which is the lightest? Then, find the shape of the larger line-- which syllable is the wave of text moving towards, and from which word is the text receding. Does the word start with a vowel-- if so, how will I hear the beginning of that word, as a separate pearl on the strand with the previous word?-- elegant, holy space for the spirit.
Do not take for granted the responsibility, challenge, and opportunity we have this week to share scripture about Almighty God's power to move mountains, then to pray to O Almighty God of unceasing love, O unceasing love and endless grace, O endless grace. May we use everything we have experienced before to enable us to offer our best this week...and the week after that...and the week after that...unceasing...endless...
Grace and peace,
TT
