Today is "Choose a Cantata" Day!

So.... I know that in the scope of world-wide news... in view of all the strife and famine and wars and rumors of wars... keeping in proper perspective the importance of our upcoming election with which we are pummeled by mail, by television and our obscure and innocent cell phones...  these events and calamities are all so very pertinent and are top priorities but....

                                 Today is 'Choose a Cantata' Day

        and this day leaps to the top of my days of all days for the year!

16!

I have listened to 16 cantatas over the course of the last 7 days; more than the usual number I listen to each year in this process.  I finished up my listening in the wee hours last night and as usual lost a night's sleep over it all. You would, too if you had that many hours of "Joy, Joy Joy!!!!" and "Glo...riiiii....aaaaaas" and "Way down yonders" whirling in your head.

After evaluating each of the 16 cantatas on its worthiness, I then made spreadsheets for the top three.  Those '5' ratings are top, the '1' is so poor I could barely write the number...  I thought this charting of evaluations would help the process but actually confused me even more...  

Here are my perimeters for choosing a Christmas cantata:

The cantata should:

1. be traditional but too traditional... let's face it, if the music is too normal it gets boring...

2. be contemporary but not too contemporary... too much driving rock beat and repetition also gets boring... 

3.  be easy but not too easy... The choir should not be able to sight read the music the first time; what would we work on for 8 weeks???

4.  be difficult but not too difficult... get real!!!  The choir does not have that much time during their 8 weeks to study the music on their own...

5.  have speaking parts but not too many speaking parts... let's face it; the fun part is singing!  Uninspired speaking parts throw a wet rag on fabulous singing...

6.  have an interesting accompaniment... Jan and Bruce Randall on piano and bass, along with Bill Wilson on drums and Brad Etter on trumpet are so skilled they can whip out anything, and I mean anything... it's a shame to put dull stuff in front of them... their eyes glaze over...

7.  have an interesting part for the men in the choir!  Oh my!!!   This year, I have more male singers than you can shake a stick at!!!  And they can sing!  It would be such a shame not to feature them,  So many cantatas tiptoe around the problem of too few men and write easy, not-too-smart parts for bewildered basses and loner tenors...

8.  have an interesting part for the ladies...  the ladies in this choir are not too slouchy either!!!!  They love to sing!

9.  not be too long.... it's Christmas, for heaven's sake!!!!

10.  most of all, present Baby Jesus in a fresh and personal manner.... He is the entire reason we spend 8 weeks getting this up and rolling!  If there is no 'a-ha' moment, there is no need to put 50ish people through 20ish grueling hours of my wild arm flailing and resulting bursitis.... rehearsing and re-rehearsing tiny minutiae... filling each page with detailed symbols of "get loud" and "get louder!!!"

I mean, there is no reason to stink up all those freshly dry-cleaned robes (at 10 bucks a pop)...     if Jesus is not made much of!

                    

                               So....  you see...  This is a big day in the life of a choir director.  

The good news is I found one!  Yes, it's true!  I found a challenging cantata that meets my criteria perfectly... well...   almost...  It will be one of the best ones of the best ones.  I can't wait to reveal it to the choir so they can revel in it with me!!!

                                                                 And you all can come:

              Sunday, Dec. 16, 10:30 at First United Methodist at 202 W. Main, Marshalltown, Iowa.

                                                                      Be there... Aloha....

It's a Vine and Branch thing...

So.... In our yard right by the porch is the most amazing vine growing on a tree.  I wish I could take credit for it but I can't.  It's beautiful all on its own.  It grows because it wants to and at this point, I doubt if I could kill it.  The roots must go under the house and to the neighbors and on to downtown... or to China, perhaps.

The fragrance is beautiful.  It's light, fresh, appealing, without being cloying or overly anything.  This vine is a pleasure to be around.  Not all of our flowering trees and plants are this accomodating.  We have a couple of trees that smell like dirty socks right about graduation party time... One whiff and the wincing begins... if you know what I mean.  But this lovely vine has a lovely fragrance that attracts humans and bumblebees.

Each little branch has a mission to bear as many flowers as possible.  Each flower is small and not overly spectacular by itself but the effect of all the flowers together is magnificent!

This vine has another mission:  it spreads.  Each of those tiny, seemingly ineffective flowers must send out about a bigillion seeds because I have tiny vines started everywhere...  I do mean everywhere...

While enjoying all of this magnificence, I am reminded of what Jesus said, "I am the Vine, you are the branches."  If He was visibly standing beside this amazing vine in my yard, he would say, "Yup, that is what I mean.  Please learn from it...."

Each little branch grows from one single vine and receives strength and character from the vine...

Each little branch makes blooms...

Each little branch sends out seeds....

That's what we believers in the church as supposed to do!

I am to take on the strength and character of Jesus being rooted and grounded in my faith.

I am to bear the fruit of the Spirit:  love, peace, joy, kindness, patience, gentleness.

I am to share my faith to plant seeds and encourage seeds of faith in others.

And most of all, all of us believers together should be attractive... We are supposed to smell fresh and appealing.  A church of believers is supposed to be beautiful and love to grow and grow and grow...

Frankly, watching this vine and branch thing teaches me one more thing...  All the branch has to do is stay connected to the vine.  Obviously, if a branch gets separated from the vine it will die...  The vine does all the work!  The branch cannot do anything by itself without being connected.

Could it be?  All I have to do is stay connected to Christ?  And He will do all the work???

John 15:5.  "I am the Vine, you are the branches.  If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing."

Ta-Da! A New Website!

So.... if you are at www.harpandsoulministries.com, you may have noticed that my website looks different.   (At least, I HOPE you can see that it looks different!)  Today is a TA-DA moment for me!

                                         This is a new website!

This has been no small project...  I have enlisted many people to help me limp through this process:            unsuspecting neighbors, a computer wiz that's related to me and my son-in-law who is now much closer to sainthood... and I have a stack of those "Dummy" books... and I've googled most every jot and tiddle along the way.

The former website was created by my sister-in-law who is very clever at learning anything new.  That website was designed to sell my newly recorded harp CD entitled "My Prayer for You."  That website was very successful and many CDs were purchased, as well as harp music.  But alas, I didn't know how to update it and had to bother her to change anything....

                                         Hence the new website!

You can still purchase harp music and CDs from this website, but the main event will be blogging...

and a list of stuff I'm playing harp for...

and information about 100 Women Who Care - Marshalltown, Iowa...

And the good news is I can change it and add to it and do most anything to it!  If you have ideas on how to improve it, shoot them my way and I'll google it!!!

So... thanks for reading this and thanks for your support!  Enjoy!