Decatur All-City

I'm doing the Decatur All-City Music Festival tomorrow, Thursday, March 31. I'm happy to be able to work with choirs from Decatur High School and Austin High School. Carl and I have known each other for nearly 20 years; we attended Ole Miss together and I even accompanied some of his voice lessons.

Carl is the director at Decatur High School and you can see the website for his Decatur choirs here: www.decaturchorus.com

Music to be rehearsed and performed:

Island Songs (Stephen Leek): about stephen leek,
More about stephen Leek;
Quote about Island Songs: I have on occasions though, tried to find ways of bringing peoples together in music, and this can be most effectively seen in Island Songs which are based on popular songs from northern Australia. Direct link to recording.
Can be heard on www.DecaturChorus.com


Children of the Heavenly Father
words by Carolina Snadell Berg (history, another translation,

I'm Gonna Sing 'til the Spirit Moves (Moses Hogan)

----------------------------------

Full Text of the Hymn Children of the Heavenly Father:
Children of the heav’nly Father
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in heaven
Such a refuge ne’er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish;
In His holy courts they flourish;
From all evil things He spares them;
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever;
Unto them His grace He showeth,
And their sorrows all He knoweth.

Though He giveth or He taketh,
God His children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

Lo, their very hairs He numbers,
And no daily care encumbers
Them that share His ev’ry blessing
And His help in woes distressing.

Praise the LORD in joyful numbers:
Your Protector never slumbers.
Rest secure in your Defender
At His will all foes surrender.

Proud father shares easter pics

Aren't they beautiful?

Not Yet v. 2

Leigh and I learned something Saturday:

It's not time to take the triplets to a restaurant yet. At least not without another pair of hands.

It was easy enough in our minds--
1. Go to J. Alexander's early, before the lunch crowd.
2. Order Hamburger and drink.
3. Enjoy a wonderful moment with the family, laughing, a little playing.
4. Feed girls and Self
5. Leave fulfilled and happy.



Instead it happened this way:
1. Go to J. Alexander's early, before the lunch crowd.
2. Order Hamburger.
3. Chase girls under table.
4. Chase girls over the table.
5. Leave.
6. Get food to go.
7. Hurry home.
8. Resolve not to try that again for another year.

God sure gets blamed

Some of you may find this interesting: a music instructor's struggles with people of faith at a Christian school somewhere in America:

Jesus loves me, so I shouldn't have self-doubt.

What's up with THAT? God sure gets blamed for a lot of decisions that humans make. My conservative Christian students seem to think that if they experience any human-like emotions (fear, doubt, envy, or sadness), then they are somehow ignoring God's Will For Their Lives. Yet even Christ went through periods of grief and agony. Why should we mere humans expect to somehow be better than Christ? Fear and doubt are stepping stones to answers in life. Somehow my students believe that Good Christians Are Never Unhappy. But I don't remember God promising us unending happiness in this life. The Psalms, with a full spectrum of human emotions, seem a fitting guide for life. Somehow my students have confused the 'Christian Life' with the Land of Oz."

Not Yet

Leigh and I learned something Saturday:

It's not time to take the girls to a restaurant yet. At least not without another pair of hands. It was easy enough in our minds--
1. Go to J. Alexander's early, before the lunch crowd.
2. Order Hamburger and drink.
3. Enjoy a wonderful moment with the family, laughing, a little playing.
4. Feed girls and Self
5. Leave fulfilled and happy.



Instead it happened this way:
1. Go to J. Alexander's early, before the lunch crowd.
2. Order Hamburger.
3. Chase girls under table.
4. Chase girls over the table.
5. Leave.
6. Get food to go.
7. Hurry home.
8. Resolve not to try that again for another year.

Oh My: Pet Pillows

How to honor your pet when they are gone:

A Pet Pillow! I found it here.

Who says you have to wait until they pass on?

Choir was fabulous today, by the way.

der tanz and radiosfer text now available

They're here!

Der Tanz with space MP3 (thanks to Dr. Mathes)

Radiosfer MP3 (without space) (thanks to Genevieve Blaudeau) UPDATED. thanks to Sarah for the name spelling correction

Volume enhanced version:
Der Tanz with space MP3
Radiosfer MP3

Top Techs I Want to Explore

Tablet PC

I was surprised to find out that Sarah and Erin had not heard of the Tablet PC. I've been exploring them lately in the hopes of winning a grant to purchase one. I didn't get the grant, but I'm still following them pretty closely. If I were a student, I'd purchase one in a heartbeat. Check this site out for more information, ye students of mine: Student Tablet PC

By the way, the other thing that I wish that I had had when I was a student was MindManager. It is an incredible tool. Freeware version of mindmapping software can be found here.


Podcasting

I doubt I'll get into actually doing a podcast, but I'm interested enough in exploring what they are like. It does sound interesting and could be an educational venture for the choral director. We'll see.

Creating a Wiki

I see a real need for these in choral music. Especially a choral literature wiki.

del.icio.us

Looks interesting but I haven't figured it out yet. It looks like a place to store categories of links to places on the web.

There are a few others to mention but I've run out of time. Perhaps another entry later.

How to Preach a Lousy Sermon and Lead a Lousy Service

I found this page today when I came home from church.

How to Preach a Lousy Sermon

My first google search was "preachers that preach too long." That didn't pull up anything interesting, but a google on "sermon too long" pulled up this beauty.

The final point in this essay is particularly strong:

I’m not going to tell you how long a sermon should be in minutes. Some sermons are too long before they even start. Others are so engrossing and so inspired, you regret when they end. Sometimes a sermon has to be short, because the service that day is long and involved. You don’t need to put your watch on the pulpit to see if your sermon is too long—just watch the congregation. How many people are looking at their watches? How many are staring out the window? How many are passing notes? How many are fidgeting and restless? If you’ve lost your audience, you might as well cut your losses, close up shop, and try again next week. You won’t recover by talking more.

I searched a little more on the website and found this:

How to Lead a Lousy Service

And again, the best point is in the final section:

You can really make worship lousy by cramming too many things into it. For example, in a single service, you could receive new members, recognize the Sunday School leaders, christen or baptize new babies, consecrate new lay leaders, acknowledge your scout troops, and—huff, puff—have a lengthy report from a group that just returned from a project. If you also include an elaborate Eucharist and move directly into a congregational meeting afterwards, you can make everyone feel trapped!

It’s wonderful that your church is so vibrant, but no one is impressed by anything that happens while they are in bladder distress. So if you don’t want a lousy worship service, spread the special events out and keep worship a reasonable length.

Savoring Victory and Enjoying Defeat

UAB played the spoiler again in the world of basketball by defeating LSU 82-68 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. I really enjoy college basketball this time of the year and I'm glad to see UAB doing well again. Success in one area of our university's life benefits us all.


I didn't see the game, I was on a plane to Orlando (where I sit now in 56 degree weather). I was impressed to see that "UAB's lead swelled in the second half to as many as 26." Pretty impressive to dominate the SEC West co-champion LSU with a performance like that!

What made it even better was to see the much-heralded UAT go down in flames to #12 seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Maybe I'm being petty.

Part of my possible pettiness comes from an accumulation of negative comments directed towards UAB from the Paul Finebaum Show, a sports program I listen to while driving home each day. I like listening to Paul, even though he isn't a UAB fan (or even much of a basketball fan for that matter).

You (I) get tired of listening to all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding UAT and wonder when the former glories of the past will finally turn into muted acceptance of the continual frustration of the present.

OK, enough pettiness.

More choir talk later. This adventure into college sports is now over.

Well, almost over: I'm pulling for all the underdogs at the NCAA tournament.

As of this writing, Louisiana-Lafayett is behind Rick Pitinio's Louisville team 55-56 with 3 minutes left. And #13 seed Vermont just took #4 Syracuse into overtime.

UDATE UPSET: Vermont defeats Syracuse, 60-57. Awesome.

And no choir sang to change the world

Perhaps it was the coffee,
Perhaps it was the chocolate fudge covered donut . . .

But one choir sang a phrase from Joseph Martin's "The Awakening" and it really grabbed me. Up until then, my primary critique of the choir was that they sang with no energy, no facial expression, no joy, no passion, and no message.

So, when they voiced the profound “And no choir sang to change the world” it really spoke to me, because they were singing about themselves.

There they were, dressed in their performance best and singing great music with good technique and I was utterly unmoved.

One can learn much from watching others.

Today, for the benefit of my UAB choir, I learned (again) how important the visual aspect of performing is for musicians.

Expressive choir faces are the exception, not the norm. Excitement is sorely lacking in our art form and it grieves me.

The UAB choir must not be, in the words of my teacher John Dickson, “another boring choir.” We can be a choir that changes the world with our song, one person at a time.

Messiah 2005

Choir,

I'm excited to announce that we will be joining the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Concert Chorale in presenting Handel's Messiah next December.

Calendar details:

Monday, Dec. 12 Combined piano rehearsal w/William Fred Scott
Briarwood Pres. Choir Room
Tuesday, Dec. 13 Rehearsal w/ASO - Jemison Concert Hall
Thursday, Dec. 15 Rehearsal w/ASO - Jemison Concert Hall
Friday, Dec. 16 Performance: 8:00 Jemison Concert Hall

Don't say I didn't tell you early enough.

Note: UAB Final exams end on Wednesday, December 14. Our last rehearsal and performance are obviously after final exams but before grades are available on ACCESS, according to the calendar. So, make your December 2005 plans accordingly!

For SHPC gang, I'll aim to have our big Christmas event on Sunday, December 18 and then release you.

Academic Definition of BLOG

Uses of Blogs | Snurblog: "Defined as the reverse-chronological posting of individually authored entries, that include the capacity to reproduce hypertext links, and that often allow comment-based responses from readers, blogs have evolved from personally maintained “what’s new?” sections of 20th century web sites. The word 'blog' is an abbreviation of 'weblog' and came from a 1999 essay, ‘The Anatomy of a Weblog’, by Cameron Barrett, maintainer of the site, Camworld.

Well, there you have it! Blog defined.

beautiful choir on foreign soil story

Music that could thaw the iciness of nations | csmonitor.com: "When the concert ended, the audience lingered in the hard wooden pews, reluctant to return to the real world. We, too, hesitated, no longer thinking of a caffe latte, no longer aware of the damp air in the marble church.

To my surprise, I felt a transfixing sense of patriotism. For the first time in many years, I was proud to be an American, proud to have come from the same country as these angels of peace, who had done more to remove the iciness between nations than any politician could hope to do."

Myers Briggs Mania--Opera Concludes Triumphantly

We have two new editions:

Katie Fussell, formerly known as "Fussell" is INTJ. The NT makes her strong.
And Holly: ISFJ. My opposite. Maybe that's why I have so much respect for Holly and why I think she is so responsible!

And the opera: great job everyone. Thanks for my wonderful gift. Quite a classy gift; I will always treasure it. I will also highly value the wonderful notes I got from some of you. Very special and I appreciate it all very much.

Note to Chris: don't miss important things because of church meetings. In my experience, most church meetings are a complete waste of time.

Katie joins the elite, Clay is almost perfect

ENTP - "Inventor". Enthusiastic interest in everything and always sensitive to possibilities. Non-conformist and innovative. 3.2% of the total population.

Free Jung Word Test (similar to Myers-Briggs)
personality tests by similarminds.com

Saw Katie's Myers-Briggs, decided to take mine again. Still ENTP, have been for years. I think I am close to INTP but the E is still there for now. Clay, nearly elite, is an ENFP. I recommend massage therapy for you, Clay. For Katie, Advertising.

Jen, nearly the anti-personality of Katie and me (INFJ), who knows? Playwright?

This was my breakdown in the word test:

Extroverted (E) 53.85% Introverted (I) 46.15%
Intuitive (N) 57.58% Sensing (S) 42.42%
Thinking (T) 67.65% Feeling (F) 32.35%
Perceiving (P) 61.76% Judging (J) 38.24%

Opera was fantastic. Congrats to all who worked so hard. I'm honored to be a part of it.

ACDA Southern Division: Charleston 2006

ACDA Southern Division: Charleston 2006: "Feb. 22-25, 2006 in Charleston, West Virginia"

It's a goal of mine to sing at the ACDA Southern Division in 2006. I've had it on my long-term set of goals for quite a while and our chance will arrive soon. To get there, we have to submit a recording by April 20, 2005. I'll submit recordings from the past three years, including one from this year's choir. (A conductor is required to be at a place for three years before applying)

The only problem is, we haven't recorded anything that I'd want to submit just yet.

Put it on your list of things that we will do in the coming weeks: a recording session or two (or three). It is also a great way of "practicing like we perform" so that we can "perform the way we practice."

Opera tonight!

Light Posting--opera production week

Blogging slow down this week--I'm conducting the UAB Opera's production of Mozart's Marraige of Figaro and it occupies most thoughts and time slots.

Blessings to all. And thanks to Mozart.

Opera Week and Tech follow up

For the benefit of all, I'll answer Sarah's questions in the blog:

Question 1: so is any of this cool stuff free? All of it. Except for what I said cost money.

Question 2: oh, and are we having choir this week? Every day.

Blogging Tools I Use

For Sarah and a couple of other recent questions:

I use several common tools to monitor my site.

One is sitemeter. It tells me things like this: who visited my blog, how long they stayed, how many pages they viewed. You can view it yourself by clicking here.

Many blogs use this free service, you just have to post a little code in your blog template.

I just tried out another one: mybloglog. It tells me what link people clicked on as they left my blog. It is a 14-day trial. Interesting, but not earth-shattering. I don’t think I’ll subscribe to it.

Another common resource that I use is “Bloglines.” It is an RSS reader—a tool that lets me monitor the blogs that I am interested in. It checks them on a routine basis and lets me know if a blog has been updated (or not, as is the case with most of the choir blogs lately). That’s how I read the choir blogs so fast . . . I just pay attention to the ones that are updated—not because I check them hourly!

Bloglines is great. I use their service to "clip" interesting things I find on the web, usually blogs, that I want to remember for later. Although they have a "clipping" service, I haven't figured it out yet, so I started a "clip blog" . . . mostly for myself. You can see it here, but I don't use it to "address my public." There isn't much on it, but I think I will use it more in the future. I found a "bloglines toolkit" for Firefox (the browser i use) that helps me add content to that blog easily.

(i just realized that many of you may not know about firefox and you are still struggling with internet explorer. once you've found tabbed browsing, you won't go back . . . )

One great RSS reader that you have to purchase is FEEDDEMON.

I really like it but I haven’t paid money for it. Probably won’t but I enjoyed the free trial period. (Am I cheap?)

Screenshots are here.

That's it! Blogging lesson over for today.

Coming up: Incredible blog i found today. So many great ideas and thoughts!