TCATS #459 - Shalom

Since there is absolutely no news or out-of-the-ordinary happenings to report on this week, I'll focus on one of the songs we sang called "Light Dawns on a Weary World". This is a song that Mack Wilberg wrote, with lyrics by Mary Lousie Bringle. While this song is not really one of my favorite that we sing, the lyrics do have a good message: hope for a better world. I found it a little odd, though, that one of the lines exclaimed "As all the world in wonder echoes Shalom". 

The reason I found this odd is that while there is a part of the world where people use that greeting ("Shalom"), it is not universal by any means. In fact there are probably more people in the world who don't use that greeting, than do. That said, the word does have a really cool meaning. Some have whittled it down to meaning "peace". And while peace is awesome and a great thing to say to people, the word actually means completeness, wholeness, and tranquility. What more could you want for anyone than that?! 

As an aside, my son has been having a fun time using the ChatGPT app--an AI program that can not only explain things to you--about any subject--but can write stories and essays and whatever you want ask it. I thought I'd hop on the ChatGPT bandwagon and ask it to do the following:

-->Compose 100 word essay about how awesome it would be if everyone greeted each other with the word "shalom". 

Here's what the results were:

"If everyone greeted each other with the word "shalom," the world would be a more peaceful and harmonious place. "Shalom" is a Hebrew word that means "peace," and using it as a greeting would symbolize a desire for peace and goodwill towards others. It would transcend language and cultural barriers and bring people together in a shared desire for harmony. "Shalom" could serve as a reminder to all of us that we are all human beings, with a shared need for peace and understanding. If we greeted each other with "shalom," we could create a more compassionate and inclusive world, one greeting at a time."

Pretty impressive. 

Gosh, maybe I should just turn this blog over to ChatGPT...

At any rate, I think we should start a revolution and have everyone greet everyone else with the word "shalom". Anyone with me?

Until next time, God be with you. (And shalom)

TCATS #458 - ELIJAH

Every year when mid-October comes around, the Tabernacle Choir starts working on Christmas music for the annual Christmas Concert. We have many extra rehearsals which lead up to "Christmas Concert Week"--the week that we spend all of our nights at the Conference Center putting everything together, and then actually performing the concert. It's always considered the most exhausting time of the year for us. 

Well, I can say without hesitation that Christmas Concert Week was nothing compared to the week we just had. A week I'll simply label as "Elijah Week"! 

On Tuesday night (and after extra rehearsals starting clear back in November!), the Choir and the Utah Symphony and the four soloists met at the Tabernacle to go through the 1st half of the Elijah Oratorio. We took notes from the director, Thierry Fischer, regarding entrances, the need to enunciate more clearly (diction, diction, diction!), tempo, and several other things that came up. We then repeated that process on Wednesday night, this time going through the 2nd half. On Thursday we went through the entire oratorio from beginning to end, (including a 20 min intermission), and felt pretty confident that we were ready for the performances on Fri and Sat. 

You've got to understand though, that singing this music is emotionally and physically draining. I don't recall ANYTHING exacting this much from me. So many of the songs are extremely intense and trying to ensure adequate diction just makes it all the more difficult. To add to that, while Thierry is an exceptionally gifted director, his expertise does not lie in choral directing per se. As a choir, we were largely responsible for entrances and exits on our own--which necessitated continual and precise counting. Our brains just had so much to do! It's hard to describe how focused we had to be. Needless to say, we went home each night ready to fall into our beds. 

That all said, the performances themselves went very well. Both Mack Wilberg and Ryan Murphy, along with several others in the choir leadership, expressed compliment after compliment and informed us of all the accolades they had received from those in attendance. It felt good to know that all of the hard work had paid off and we had held our own on a world stage.

Personally, while I can appreciate this opportunity we had (and realize that doing hard things helps us grow and hone our skills), I'm glad it's over. With everything going on in my life personally right now, it was all just too much. I'm not sure my mental health would have lasted another day. 

My friend Wes asked me on Friday night what my favorite song was from ELIJAH. I almost laughed thinking "You make a big assumption thinking I have any favorites at all!" But I do have to admit that amidst all of the triggering songs, there are a select few that brought me some peace. And I finally concluded that my favorite was one called "Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord". It comes at a place in the story where the priest of Baal have tried, in vain, to have their God send down fire. And it's now Elijah's turn. The words to the song are the following:

Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and He shall sustain thee.
He will never suffer the righteous to fall,
for He is at thy right hand.
Thy mercy, Lord, is great, and far above the heavens.
No man who hopes in Thee
shall e'er be put to shame!

This short song was very comforting to me and I was grateful for its message. Particularly helping me believe that God will be there when we fall--He won't leave us alone. 

This helped to offset songs that had lyrics such as

"God is angry with the wicked every day, and if the wicked turn not, the Lord will whet His sword..."
"Wo unto them who forsake Him! Destruction shall fall upon them..."
"Take all the prophets of Baal...seize them and slay them!"
"Go forth; seize him! He shall die!"
"Yet doth the Lord see it not. He mocketh at us; His curse hath fallen down upon us; His wrath will pursue us, 'til He destroy us!"
"Blessed are all they that fear Him."

At any rate, you get the point.

All in all, I'm grateful for all of the people who sustained me during this experience. Their support and encouragement and optimism and sensitivity were much appreciated. And while I might have been one of the few who didn't love this opportunity, the feeling of doing something hard and receiving such positive feedback on the results, was gratifying. 

ELIJAH....RIP.

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #457 - Wearing a Suit Less Than Twenty Years Old

History was made last week when we sang seven songs on one broadcast--and it looks like history was made again this week. Anyone who's watched the Tabernacle Choir perform knows that when it comes to the suits the men wear, they all look the same. The only one that stands out amongst the four we rotate through is the blazer and grey slacks combo. All the others just look "dark". It's true we used to have a white jacket we wore (and if you want to go back even farther, we used to wear a maroon colored suit, too). Thankfully they retired both the maroon and the white some time ago.

I don't know how old our suits are, but they've got to be at least 20 years and counting. Many are showing their age. They are worn, they don't fit well, and despite being dry cleaned from time to time (which actually isn't that often), they have this slight emanating aroma. To say I feel like the suits match the special and important mission we're tasked with would be a serious stretch. 

Yes, it's true that getting four new suits for everyone would cost a lot of money. But could the Church handle that cost? Most certainly. No problem. 

At any rate, we were fitted for a new suit/tax back in the Fall of 2019. Most of the brethren were excited to have a new suit, tailored to them, that had a more modern cut, and was clean and fresh. Once we actually got the suits though, we couldn't wear them because we weren't even singing together for those two years of the pandemic. At long last though, today was the day! I'm not exactly sure why they chose today, but I guess that doesn't matter too much. The fact is we got to wear them, we thought they looked good, and it felt really nice to wear a suit that was made in this decade. :) 

Below are some pics. You can watch the broadcast HERE. 

A special shout out to our wardrobe committee members who honestly do the very best they can taking care of what we have. It's certainly not their fault we have old, worn suits. Hopefully the new gray suit will pave the way for other new ones.

TCATS #456 - Seven Songs!

Whenever history has been made with the Tabernacle Choir, I want to make sure I document it. So that's what I'm doing today.

This was one of those history making experiences that no one really even talked about. Certainly the audience didn't know. It wasn't announced or pointed out. Nothing was written about it. But today on Music & the Spoken Word, we sang not our typical five songs. Nor did we sing six. We sang seven! And the producers even managed to fit in this medium-length organ solo that was nothing short of impressive.

Out of those seven songs, there weren't too many I was thrilled about singing. In fact my favorite of the bunch was a long-time classic of the Choir--Climb Every Mountain, from The Sound of Music. Sometimes it's the lyrics of this song that stand out to me. Sometimes it's the melody and harmonies of the song itself (and how it's arranged). But today it was the fact that the song brought me back to a time long ago. A time when things were simpler. Life was easier. And responsibilities were very few. I still remember the first time I watched Sound of Music. It was Thanksgiving Day and the big meal of the day was finished. It was nearing 7pm, everyone was getting a second or third helping of pie, and all of my family and extended family were excited to sit down in front of the TV and watch this wonderful musical that they had been talking about for days. I sat down with them, being maybe 11 or 12 at the time, and ended up enjoying every minute of it. Who knew, at the time, that I'd land a part in my high school's performance of it five years later. And who knew I'd be singing songs from it with the Tabernacle Choir 30 years later.

Switching topics, Thierry Fischer came to the Tabernacle today to rehearse with us the ELIJAH oratorio following the broadcast. He currently is the director for the Utah Symphony and will be the one directing us as we perform ELIJAH in a couple of weeks. While I still don't love this musical work, it was a nice experience to be directed by Thierry (pronounced "Terry"). I think the Choir really put on their "A" game for him and as we went through the first half of the piece (which took an hour), I finally had the feeling that I'd be able to get through this OK. Along with that feeling, I have to give credit to my friend Wes who has been singing right next to me for the past five weeks. He knows I've had a hard time with it and has lent support and encouragement that has been very much appreciated. And speaking of people to thank, I also thank my wife for her encouragement and prayers as well. Who would have thought this would have been such a struggle? I hope that when it's all said and done, I can look back and pick out a few good things about the experience. But to be honest, people helping me get through it has already been a positive. And being conducted by Thierry and him sharing his passion about the piece was a positive as well. 

The obvious "life take-away" I suppose is to let people help you get through things. Let them serve you. Also, as you're going through hard things, maybe there's something that's good. Even if it's small and almost unnoticeable. 

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #455 - Tour, Easter, Elijah, & Collin

I wanted to take a few minutes and update y'all on a few things.

TOUR

First, the roster for who's been selected to participate in the Mexico City, Mexico tour in June, was posted on Friday. I was rather surprised to see that almost everyone who signed up to go, is going! About 315 of us. And the standby list is only 14 people long. So why is this so surprising you may ask? Well, for tours in the past, the number of choir members going has been quite a bit less. I've been told one of the reasons for this is because there's often a logistical problem of trying to fit so many people onto a typical stage (at a typical performance venue). Also, for tours in the past, the standby list has been pages long. I'm thinking that maybe more people have wanted to come on this tour because it's shorter and overall more do-able for many who don't want to use a lot of their vacation time. Perhaps another reason more are being allowed to go is because now that they aren't taking any spouses--which has caused the overall number they're taking to actually be LESS than what it was before. Roommate selections, itineraries, getting passport info and physician sign-off info finalized, etc. will all be a part of the next month or two.

EASTER CONCERT

We found out on Thursday that the Easter Concert for this year has been canceled. I'm personally glad they did that because it was just going to be too much. We've had all of these extra rehearsals to learn ELIJAH and after performing ELIJAH we'd launch right into all of the Easter Concert extra rehearsals, intermingled with General Conference rehearsals. Anyway, the Easter Concert is being replaced by what they're calling "Music & the Spoken Word PLUS". As for what the "plus" means, we haven't been told. But if I had to guess, it would either include some unique music elements or it would just be an extended performance (maybe 45-60 min, rather than the traditional 30). Or maybe both!

ELIJAH

I've mentioned this several times before, but rehearsing ELIJAH has been so difficult for me. My wife helped me realize that maybe all of these lyrics that talk of a very vengeful and wrathful God who loves to punish and destroy are triggering me into confronting into some of the ways I used to view God in my own life. Ways that included Him punishing me for who I am, being disappointed in me for not measuring up, and not caring to compassionately intervene when I feel like I needed Him the most.. On top of that, I just struggle when God is portrayed in those ways. Such a god cannot be the God I worship. At any rate, I almost broke out in tears during rehearsal as it was just too much to handle. Not sure how I'm going to get through the next few weeks.

COLLIN

Today we gave a standing ovation to Collin Jefferies who has served on the stage crew for many, many years and is finally ending his service. What makes Collin so special in my mind is that he falls into a select category of people who, despite their limitations or disabilities, goes forth in faith and serves and makes a difference. Collin can't use too much of his right hand, AND YET he's just as valuable as the rest of the crew that does all of the various manual labor tasks (setting up chairs, tables, stands, microphones, etc. etc). It's been a weekly inspiration to watch him and he will be missed. 

Make it a good week everyone!

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #454 - Pressing On & Moments of Grace

Last week I was attending a mission farewell meeting for my sweet nephew Jack--and therefore didn't attend Choir. I was glad to be back this week though and the line-up for Music & the Spoken Word today was quite a good one. 

If you're a fairly avid fan of the Choir, you have heard by now Rick Elliott's arrangement of "Let Us All Press On". (HERE) It's by far the best arrangement of this hymn that I've ever heard and pushes all the right buttons. And it was a song I just needed to be able to sing today. Things have been hard lately, personally, and sometimes I feel like my spiritual "well" needs a good filling up! The lyric that spoke to me today from that song was "In the days of trial His Saints He will cheer". I've been learning lately that even though each of us might be in the thick of hard things, there are always good/positive moments to hold onto and that bring what might equate to "cheer". It's like God is saying, "I want to cheer you up as you're going through these hard things, so here's a good moment to hold onto, even if that moment is brief. It's a testament that I love you." As I thought about all of that, I couldn't quite hold back the tears during the rehearsal and the performance.

I asked Wes, who was singing next to me, what his favorite lyric from that song is, and he said "An unseen power will aid me and you." I think that fits in nicely with mine. We can't see God or Christ or the Holy Ghost. But they are there. And are often aiding us by giving us these small moments of grace to cheer us up.  

I hope that as you go through your week this week, you'll be able to spot those moments of grace that are designed to keep you feeling God's love as you work through the hard.

In other news, the various section leaders got released this past week and new ones put in their place. What does a section leader do, you ask? Well, they make sure attendance is reported properly and are go-to people for questions/concerns/problems that the members of their section might have and need to share. Anyway, the Bass 2 sections leaders are now my good friends Ben and Siope. And with Siope now having a new calling, I'll need to offer some suggestions to the librarians as to who they can call to help me now in the library. Watch out basses......you might be tagged! 

I think that's about it. Other quick tidbits: rehearsals for ELIJAH continue, though I can't say I'm any more excited to perform it than I was just a week ago. Several choir members feel the same way though there are those who really love it. On the Mexico tour front, we were told in Friday's newsletter that the choir leaders hope to have a final list of those who will be invited to participate, by end of month. 

And that, is a wrap.

Until next time, God be with you. 

TCATS #453 - A Look Back, A Look Forward

Hello, hello my friends! And welcome to 2023. Members of the Tabernacle Choir had a nice long two-week break but met again for the first time this past Thursday for the first rehearsal of the year. Some of us actually met on Tuesday as that was the first day of Choir School for all of the individuals who just barely (and successfully) went through the audition process. Those joining them were the new folks from 2022. (As mentioned before, if you make it into the Choir, you not only have Chorale rehearsal for your first year, but you have it for the year after, too.) So it's been a busy start to the year for the "second-years" in particular.

Before jumping into how things have gone for 2023 thus far, I did want to include in this post the famous year-end pictogram. Each year, Choir member and friend Siope Kinikini puts together a very cool pictogram that includes all of the highlights of the year. So without anymore introduction, here it is! (zoom in by clicking on it)

As for 2023, there's not too much to report, yet. Rehearsal on Thursday went just fine and it was great to see the new people wandering the halls looking all excited to be there. I wasn't a big fan of hearing the infamous "You'll be disappointed if..." speech (refer HERE for more details) as I don't understand why we need to hear it every year. Plus, there were some quotes added to the speech that I wasn't a fan of, either. But aside from that, the rehearsal was good and the first broadcast of the year today went well too. My favorite song from today was the Alleluia piece. Every time I sing that one, I feel like a warm, majestic blanket of peace has wrapped around me. 

As for the months ahead, what do you have to look forward to? 

February: ELIJAH Concert w/ the Utah Symphony
March: Easter Concert
April: General Conference
April: Retirements
June: Mexico City tour (for any of you who will be in Mexico)
July: Summer Concert
October: General Conference
December: Christmas Concert

Additionally, sometime during 1Q, Music & the Spoken Word will begin to be available in Spanish, with a Portuguese version to follow.

I think my personal goal this year is to extend more grace to the Choir leadership. Like other individuals in  leadership positions within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they are prone to make mistakes and, at times, be less sensitive and inclusive as I feel like they should be. But no one is perfect and I'd like to think they do the best they can. So I need to keep that all in mind as things come up and I'm prone to shake my head and wonder why.

Thanks for your continued support of this blog and for your interest and support of the Tabernacle Choir. I'm looking forward to more blog entries as I journey behind the notes.

Until next time, God be with you.