The Ascending Voice - #2

Mrs. Mathewes-Green was truly a phenomenal speaker. So how do you follow her speech on the agenda without having a let down? Oh, I don't know, maybe schedule a singing session with Alice Parker. Yes, THE Alice Parker.

If you're not familiar with Alice Parker, she is probably the premiere choral music arranger in the United States. I've sung and directed her music in high school, college, and in churches. Dixie and I even used her arrangement of "Wondrous Love", performed by Robert Shaw's Choral Series, in our wedding. She has contributed to American choral music like no other person over the last 50 years.

So here we sat, a hundred or so vocal musicians, ready and eager to sing under Mrs. Parker's direction. She had passed out a few melodies on paper for us to go over, so we began with those. Because we were a collection of people familiar with vocal music, even sight reading a new melody sounded pretty good, but after an initial run through of a tune, we would stop and listen. Mrs. Parker would say a few colorful words to describe how we ought to sing the tune. We'd sing through it again, and her words would make an unbelievable difference. Her comments would transform a pretty song into a moving and worshipful piece of music. She is amazing!

I walked away from that session with several fun memories. The strongest memory I took away from that session was when she was trying to emphasize that notes on a page are just really a suggestion for the way the music ought to sound. Our notation system never can quite capture perfectly the intended sound of a certain piece. She said music on a page never sounds good. She held a piece of sheet music up to her ear and said, "I don't hear anything." But when we sing together with deep emotion, the music comes to life and God is praised.

Next on the agenda was a Russian quartet led by Konstantin Zhigulin. His music can be purchased from the Paperless Hymnal website.

The quartet sang mostly Psalms set to original music composed by Zhigulin. All the songs were beautiful. The soprano had an amazingly crystal clear, easy voice with quite a range! Listening to this group was a real treat.

After this performance we headed back out to walk over to the cafeteria. Here's where I had to eat my thoughts/words from earlier in the day. Driving to Malibu I had thought "this place is ok, but it's not as beautiful as I expected." But walking over to dinner, the sun had conquered the clouds and turned the ocean to from a dirty gray to a deep cobalt. The air had warmed to about 68 degrees and the ocean breeze was steadily blowing in my face. I decided dinner could wait a bit and strolled around the campus to see some of the views.

From the lower area of dorms:


Looking back south a bit:


Deer roaming the hillside just outside of the dorm where I stayed:


The beauty of God's handiwork was everywhere. In the ocean, the sun, the breeze, the trees, the landscape, the deer, and in the beautiful music. It was overwhelming!

After dinner we heard a performance by the talented group, The Concord Ensemble. Their sound, filled out with a countertenor and male alto, is impressive. Their sound and repertoire reminded me very much of Chanticleer, whom I have enjoyed for some 15 years now. Chanticleer is composed of 12 male singers so their sound is even a bit richer and fuller than Concord's since their number of singers allows for some more intricacies in the voicings. Still, The Concord Ensemble sang a wonderfully polished concert which included a couple of more modern pieces of sacred music that I enjoyed very much. If you enjoy a cappella music, you won't be disappointed in any of Concord's CDs.


Finally the evening concluded with a Vespers service in Stauffer Chapel. The service was fashioned in the Orthodox traditions and the Boston Byzantine Choir offered their voices for the music of the service. It was not only beautiful, (click here to hear a sample) but the simplistic a cappella chants accompanied by the lower pitched drones seem to propel us into God's presence in a way I had never experienced. The following day, Charles Marge, the director of the choir would say how Orthodox chants seem to inexplicably draw us into God's presence. Had I not experienced the previous night, I would have dismissed his comment as a "worship style preference" comment. There was truth in his statement. I don't know why or how. Maybe just the knowledge that 50 generations of Christians before us have used these chants to open up a channel with the Almighty. All I know is that when I walked out of the chapel that evening, I could no longer hold in the emotion. I walked back to my room with tears in my eyes and a heaviness in my chest, more aware of God's love, more aware of the breadth of God's Kingdom, more aware of the variety in Christ's body, and more aware that when we limit the ways in which we worship God, we miss out on whole avenues of approaching Him. I was moved.

The words of "O Gladsome Light" sung in Tone 2:
O gladsome light of the Holy glory of the immortal, heavenly, holy, and blessed Father: O Jesus Christ; Lo now that we have come to the setting of the sun, as we behold the evening light, we hymn Thee Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God. Meet it is for Thee at all times to be magnified with joyous voices, O Son of God and Giver of Life; wherefore the whole world doth glorify Thee.

With these hymns we closed the day.