Words

Player

Tempo: 112

1. O Savior, thou who wearest

A crown of piercing thorn,

The pain thou meekly bearest,

Weigh’d down by grief and scorn.

The soldiers mock and flail thee;

For drink they give thee gall;

Upon the cross they nail thee

To die, O King of all. 

2. No creature is so lowly,

No sinner so depraved,

But feels thy presence holy

And thru thy love is saved.

Tho craven friends betray thee,

They feel thy love’s embrace;

The very foes who slay thee

Have access to thy grace.

3. Thy sacrifice transcended

The mortal law’s demand;

Thy mercy is extended

To ev’ry time and land.

No more can Satan harm us,

Tho long the fight may be,

Nor fear of death alarm us;

We live, O Lord, thru thee.

4. What praises can we offer

To thank thee, Lord most high?

In our place thou didst suffer;

In our place thou didst die,

By heaven’s plan appointed,

To ransom us, our King.

O Jesus, the anointed,

To thee our love we bring!

Holy Ecstasy

The hasidic Jews talk about dancing in holy ecstasy. I felt like I had that opportunity yesterday, and I hope you did too!

Break forth into singing, O mountains

The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. 

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And [Jesus] answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19: 37-40)

Vision

Maybe my best choir experience was in Primary as a child. I cried as we sang “Did Jesus really live again? Yes! And so will I!” I liked the jazzy rhythm of “I love you, and you love me”. It didn’t matter whether we ever performed the pieces for anyone: the purifying power of the music was that I was finding my testimony. I suppose that I memorized the words because I couldn’t be trusted to be able to read them under pressure, but the result was that I could go home and sing them by myself. Primary music (and other music since) has became a strong spiritual reserve for me.

I want our choir to be similar in many ways. I would like it to happen predictably: every Sunday, if at all possible, so people can plan on it and schedule it in, no matter what else is happening. I would like it to be more of a worship service and less of a rehearsal (i.e. little to no focus on performance), less technical (I want people to focus on the spiritual impressions they received while singing rather than “Dang! I missed that note/entrance!”) and more open to anyone and everyone in the ward. I want this to be a family activity, a continuation of singing time for those graduated from Primary, and a strengthening experience for converts who never had the chance to participate in Primary. I will be looking for ways to improve participation from everyone because I want more people to have the soul-enlarging experience of singing their testimonies. I will also be looking for creative ways (more like Primary) to teach the music.

Today's rehearsal

I think somewhere between this being Daylight Savings day and not having it announced via email, and not being in the bulletin until this afternoon, only a determined few attended today: a choir of 6.

We sang almost until we passed out. It was fabulous to feel the spirit of the music.

The homework assignment for the week is to memorize the verses of "Press Forward Saints", which we will be singing in church next week (Mar. 15th).

If you haven't taken the chance yet, get acquainted with the church interactive player. Follow the link above. Select the parts you want played (check boxes) or adjust the volume on the parts so that your part is loud and the other parts are soft. Adjust the tempo by typing a speed: 160 is my target tempo, then click play. There is a glitch, so after it starts you have to click the up arrow before the new tempo takes effect.

Some memorization cues for the verses linclude:

Verse 1: Faith, Hope, Love

Verse 2: feasting on the word of Christ: His name: Come unto God.

Verse 3: Enduring ways, love proclaim, thus saith

Alleluia mp3

Here is an mp3 of the BYU Men's Chorus singing Alleluia (Ralph Manuel) in 1999.