The Spirit of Christmas--Awe and Wonder

Post Concert Reflections

To My Family,

The planning and execution of this concert was a meaningful journey for me.  I think there was a master plan, and as time went on I worked on it piece by peace, not really knowing how it would all fit together.

Here's a link to the video of the show

 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7Wx8bsqNvuqc053U2xBbDd3ZEE/edit

Here are the highlights of my experience--the tender mercies I feel happened.

 Last year after the Christmas concert, I wanted to think about this year while it was still the Christmas season and I could be in the mood for those thoughts.  I came up with the idea of viewing Christmas through different perspectives--ie the shepherds, Wisemen, Mary, Joseph, children, soldiers, parents, etc.  I asked a few friends to help me be on the look out for songs, and we created a google doc that we could all contribute to.  Most of my summer I focused on hiring a new associate choir director and working on a new choir curriculum, which included adding 2 new choirs, making theory books, advertizing and recruiting.  In mid August I began in earnest selecting music for the December concert, as well as a performance in October.  I used my spreadsheet of song ideas, found other pieces and mapped out a program for 6 choirs with 2 songs each plus and opener and closer for all the choirs, and a kids choir number.  I didn't know how it would all work, but I liked the songs, and so I hit the complete order button and moved forward with a sense of relief that we'd have music to work on when rehearsals began the 2nd week of September.

I spoke with our graphic designer in August too, and told her I wanted to call the concert, "The Spirit of Christmas--Awe and Wonder".  I was thinking Wisemen, the color blue, and star light.  That is what she thought of when she heard awe and wonder too, and we worked together through several drafts till she came up with this poster.

As an aside, we also started the Little Mermaid auditions and rehearsals in September, and I directed the music for that.  I had rehearsals for choirs Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and Jr. musical rehearsals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.  Needless to say, I was pretty booked up. 

Little Mermaid

I started chipping away on the concert by figuring out the staging--how over 100 people would move on and off the stage smoothly, where they would stand and all the logistics. As I did this I became uncomfortable with my original idea of standing the "people with perspectives" in a solo floodlight, in costume, describing their point of view.  It seemed hokey and contrived.  I don't remember how I came up with the idea, likely it was in the wee hours of the morning, but I decided silhouettes behind a screen would give the visual image and narrators could do the talking.  Then things really began to flow.  I prayed for guidance, and sat at my computer and typed.  I researched songs on the internet, studied scriptures and the puzzle pieces began to fit together. 

I realized that one of the songs I chose, a medley would be a great opener, and each choir could join the others on stage for each successive song.  Then they could all sing together.  I always like the choirs to watch each other, so I don't like to store people back stage.  This time I wanted to put the adult choir in the audience so many could watch their kids perform.  It just happened to work out that the last song in the medley "Feliz Navid" would be easy to move people out into the audience. 

I had the Chorale walk down the 2 side aisles and when they were done, they sat in the end seats in 12 rows.  Some people went back stage too.  I thought it was an exciting way to open the concert, and I had no idea when I ordered the music that it would work that way.

As I chose the music and looked at the big table I made of songs, I realized that I had selected several songs with string accompaniments.  Since we have a strings program, I know of 2 high school students who have been helping the teacher, and I figured they could play probably.  I didn't have a cello or a viola though, but I thought I'll find someone, and ordered the music.  This is kind of unusual, because for the past 3 or 4 years, I've used brass and wind players, and I have a collection of really talent people for that--but this time no brass.  So October rolled around, and I'm thought I really should find a cello player.  I opened my email, and there was a note addressed to "webmaster" forwarded from our VPA website saying something like, "hello my name is Amy M., I'm a music teacher in another county, but I live in Sherwood.  I play the cello, and would like to volunteer.  How can I get involved?"  I about cried!  I met Amy a week before our concert, and she played exquisitely.  What a blessing.  Also, a foreign exchange student came to live with a family in our ward.  He plays the violin well.  He wanted opportunities to perform.  A Chorale member with special special software, scanned the viola parts from the songs and transposed them for violin.  He also helped with other song arranging needs I had, and saved me hours and hours of time.  I could go on about that blessing, but I'll spare you!

 I wrote half the script, and penciled in some things for the second half, the sacred half.  I was yearning for a song that matched the title I had come up with in August--Awe and Wonder.  Funny, I didn't choose "We Three Kings", or any particular song to base that title on--I just went with the urge.  Well, I began to feel dumb, because there wasn't a song that connected the poster, and title to the concert.  I looked everywhere online and through my large collection of music for a solo for our usual MC.  Fast Sunday came in October, and I was praying for inspiration on what to do.  That morning, Quin left for bishopric meeting at 6:15.  He kissed me goodbye, and I laid in bed thinking.  Words began to flow into my mind of a song  expressing my thoughts about awe and wonder.  I pushed them away saying, "NOOOOOO, I don't have time to write a song!  The words pushed harder, and I quickly grabbed a pen and paper before the words might flee away.  I laid in bed and wrote 3 verses and a chorus, and went to sleep.  I woke up and wrote the last verse.  Then I thought, wo, how am I going to fit this in to my schedule too?  By the end of the day, I had penciled out a melody and a chord progression.  On my birthday, 2 days later I finished composing.  I spent every spare minute until the next Sunday refining, inputting in my computer program, and recording it.  What did I get for my 50th birthday?  A song! 

A few days later, the MC called and said he had a paying gig, and sorry he couldn't do the show.  I thought, too bad I wrote a song for you--but I didn't say it because I thought maybe this is all part of the plan.  It was.  I changed the solo to a quartet, and ALL the narrators sang it.  Two of the narrators are LDS, so I knew they would feel the song and relate to the words.  The young woman is not religious, she sort of considers herself an atheist.  The song is my testimony of Christ, so when I heard that,  I wondered how she would feel about singing it.  I did feel it was right to have the narrators all sing it, and that she was the right person to be a narrator.  Later she told Anna, "I've sung a lot of religious music, but I never really feel anything.  I feel something when I sing that song."  That made it worth it right there.


I was trying to figure out how to get the Chorale back onto the stage for the second half of the show.  I thought they should sit in the audience again and watch the beginning of Act 2.  Then I realized that one of our pieces was A Capella, and that it would be super cool to have the people start singing from the audience and then come on stage--because the song was called "Rise Up".  'Rise up shepherd and follow'--was a perfect phrase to move to the stage on.  By the end of the first verse they could easily be on stage.  Then I wondered how they could get their pitch, spread out like that.  Well, that was taken care of too.  The song I wrote I started in Bb, then modulated to the key of C.  The last 2 measures of the song has the piano floating up to end on the note "E" which happened to be the first note the men start on for "Rise Up".  They had a full verse to get the tonality of the key of C in there minds, and singing the next song wasn't hard.  It was a cool effect, and I believe part of the master design.

So, I had everyone standing on the lip of the stage singing the A Capella song.  The instrumentalists for the next song, slipped on stage unnoticed as the choir sang.  Then I had the choir turn and walk back to the risers, and the instrumentalists were able to play the intro, with no need for a break in the flow. Again, that was a cool realization for me.

The song I thought would be the finale, turned out not to be a finale.  I got everyone back on stage, all the instrumentalists were playing--it was big and cool, but I needed to fit the boys choir song in.  It's called Joseph made a Treasure box--it makes sense that it would FOLLOW a song about the Wisemen which was the planned finale.  It's slow and tender and not a concert ender.  What to do?  Well, I decided it would be effective to have the audience join in singing a carol, maybe it would help them really capture the "Spirit of Christmas".  The only song I could think of that really summed up the feeling of the concert was "Joy to the World".  I had already programmed it with the children's choir, but somehow that seemed okay to repeat. I don't know why, but I just felt it was the thing to do.  I thought about it a lot, and I could hear a robust accompaniment in my head with all the instruments I had available--including a trumpet played by the man I asked to lead the instrumentalist prep rehearsals, and who was planning to play for the Hallelujah chorus.  By the way, the harpist just got back from a mission to Poland about 2 weeks before the concert.  I never had time to write all this accompaniment down, and I felt like I was plagiarizing or something because it all sounded so familiar.  I think the violin was inspired by Lex de Azevedo's arrangement--but I haven't heard it for years.  Nov 12 rolled around.  I was in Utah loving my new grandbaby, and feeling the urge to get that accompaniment down, so we'd have a robust finale for the concert.   I held that sweet baby in one arm, and input notes on my computer with my other hand.   It was totally awesome, and sweet as I drank in the sweet baby moments, and felt the music just flowing out too.  What a precious memory for me!  I spent a few sessions, on it including while everyone was gone on the "Cold Turkey Run" in Provo, and wrote parts for 3 violins, cello, harp, flute, clarinet, timpani, trumpet and voice/piano. Sadly in the concert you can't hear the strings very well, but they are there in my mind being beautiful!

Speaking of my grandbaby in Utah, makes me remember that since I extended my stay and missed an extra rehearsal, I was blessed with the ability to utilize technology.  Cara helped me figure out some choreography for a song, we filmed it on my camera, upload it to "dropbox" emailed the lyrics and written choreography and a link to my substitute.  That was Monday night about 9 PM. She and her daughter learned it, and taught it the next day, Tuesday and showed the video to the girls.  When I came back we had 2 rehearsals to refine it, and that rehearsal while I was gone was pretty important!

 

I forgot to mention the beginning of the second half was a song which I thought would make a great transition from the secular to the sacred half of the concert.  It's a women's song, called "I Need a Silent Night" and I have to admit the women weren't that excited about it at first, because it's kind of simple.  Well, I decided to make 2 solos, and stage it so there would be a dancer behind the screen previously used for still silhouettes.  I was worried that the dancing might be contrived looking, but I just went forward with it, knowing other people could dance MUCH better than I!  I asked a woman to do it, but she was going to be out of  town, so she suggested Anna.  She offered to help her choreograph it, so I thought ya, Anna really could do it, and I set my nepotisim worries aside.  The song exceeded my expectations, and was a highlight for most people who watched the concert.  I can't believe how many comments I got about how powerful the number was.  Interestingly, the song following is Silent Night, it's the all kids choir song, and it was an easy way to start everyone on stage, and then take the choirs off one by one for the succeeding songs.  The lighting, the cello, everything just fell into place beautifully--again I think this was divinely orchestrated.

Another side tender mercy for me was the blouse. While we were walking around the mall trying to get Marissa to go into labor on Nov. 10, Rochelle and I found a beautiful blue (to match my concert blue) blouse.  It was EXACTLY what I had envisioned that I wanted--from the style to the type of fabric.  They didn't have my size.  When I got home I looked it up online, had it sent to the Woodburn Dressbarn, picked it up, and guess what?  It fit perfectly, I mean PERFECTLY!

Concert production week met with many challenges logistically, but I felt calm.  I felt peace.  I was healthy (YAE), and I didn't mind spending every waking moment working on the show.  Many people helped, supported and encouraged me. It was wonderful.  Before the first show I felt impressed to share my story of writing the song, and also of my inspiration and testimony for the script in our pre-show greenroom.  I felt emotion and the spirit punctuate my words very strongly.  I knew that what I was saying was significant and meaningful not only to me, but to the choir members. I don't know if I will ever know exactly the profound effect that it had on the choirs, but I know that what I said was endorsed by the spirit, and that the spirit was palpable in the room.  That spirit carried us through the two shows.

I don't know if the video will really capture for you the feelings we felt that night.  There was something in the air.  I hope that you will watch it with a little more interest because of this preface.  I hope that you will feel the Spirit of Christmas that I feel now, and then. I hope you will know that I love the Savior, and truly stand in awe for the love he has for me, and you.  His atonement, and his life mean everything to me.  I love sharing my faith in this way, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I have had to use my artistic abilities to share something with my community that I believe so strongly in.  I'm so humbled to be the instrument of creativity and artistry used to bring this whole production together.  I can hardly believe all those ideas actually became reality.  People gave their time, and worked really hard, and something beautiful came of it.  Wow.  It's a wonder to me.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you might be able to watch the video.

Footnotes, Anna is 2nd from left

Merry Christmas and much love to you from me,
MOM/Cindy