A two-part post

Pat (an Arkansas stamper) usually ends her posts with the sentence, “Tomorrow is also a day.”

Pat is so right. In fact, every day is a day somewhere. Remember, you read it here first.

On April 19th, the day before Easter, my sister-in-law Linda H. who lives in Plano, Texas, e-mailed me a question: “What were you doing 54 years ago today?” I had to think for a moment. Since it’s all about me, me, me, my first thought was that Linda had made a little mistake and was off by a month, because our 51st wedding anniversary -- Mrs. RWP’s and mine, I mean, not mine and Linda H.’s -- will occur on May 19th. I was about to dash off a “Thanks for remembering our anniversary, but you’re wrong” reply when I thought maybe a little research into the deep, dark recesses of our Family Tree files might be in order. Lo (and behold) , I found that April 19th, 1960, was the day Linda H. and my stepbrother, who is also named Bob, were married. They had asked me to provide piano music that day. So my reply went something like this instead: “Where was I? Why, I was at Field City Baptist Church in Farmers Branch helping you two get hitched!”

Lesson learned. It isn’t always about me, me, me. Sometimes it’s about somebody else.

In her email, Linda had included a youtube clip that is about me, me, me and you, you, you, but mostly about Him, Him, Him, the one whose death and resurrection much of the world just observed this past Sunday.

The rest of this post is about that video clip. In October 2011, I wrote about it in a post called “An overtly (or not so much) Christian post.”

I love good a cappella singing. For those of you who are neither musical nor Italian, a cappella is an Italian phrase meaning “in the manner of the chapel.” And if you are not aware of how music was performed in Italian chapels, what a cappella means to the modern musician is “unaccompanied.”

No organ. No piano. No violins. No trumpets. No flutes. No saxophones. No big brass band. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Unaccompanied.

Also, for the younger generation, absolutely no guitars. No drums. No electronic keyboards. No, not one.

What is left?

Human voices. What a concept.

Snowbrush is now saying, “just like in the Church of Christ back in Mississippi, which I left for a great many reasons, none of which had anything to do with a cappella singing.”

The thing about a cappella singing is that, like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead, when it is good it is very, very good and when it is bad it is horrid.

This a cappella music, a Mennonite choir called Altar of Praise Chorale singing in 2010 the song “Who Am I?” written in 1965 by Rusty Goodman (3:43) , in my humble opinion, is very, very good.

They may not have super-professional, highly-trained voices (in the operatic sense) , but they know how to do a capella. They blend. Their consonants are impeccable. They stay on pitch. The lyrics are thought-provoking. Give it a listen. If you find that you don’t like the music or the lyrics, just enjoy the scenery.

Monday after Easter is also a day.

An overtly (or not so much) Christian post

I love good a cappella singing. For those of you who are neither musical nor Italian, a cappella is an Italian phrase meaning “in the manner of the chapel.” And if you are not aware of how music was performed in Italian chapels, what a cappella means to the modern musician is “unaccompanied.”

No organ. No piano. No violins. No trumpets. No flutes. No saxophones. No big brass band. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Unaccompanied.

Also, for the younger generation, absolutely no guitars. No drums. No electronic keyboards. No, not one.

What is left?

Human voices. What a concept.

Snowbrush is now saying, “just like in the Church of Christ back in Mississippi, which I left for a great many reasons, none of which have to do with a cappella singing.”

The thing about a cappella singing is that when it’s good it is really good, and when it’s bad it is really bad.

I found some that, in my humble opinion, is really good.

Here is a Mennonite choir called Altar of Praise Chorale singing in 2010 a song called “Who Am I?” that was written back in 1965 by a man named Rusty Goodman (3:43).

They may not have super-professional, highly-trained voices (in the operatic sense), but they know how to do a cappella. They blend. Their consonants are impeccable. They stay on pitch. Regardless of what you think of the lyrics, give it a listen.

If you find that you like neither the words nor the music, just enjoy the scenery.