one of THOSE days...

well. from the title of this post.
you can tell where i'm about to go with this.
but.
i just hit backspace on everything i had originally said.
so.
i'm not going to complain.
but, i will say,
I'm having one of THOSE days on the piano bench.
*those* meaning: very hard. struggling. frustrated. etc. you get the idea.

i really hate THOSE days.

=D

Alleluia - Thompson

I discovered this one all on my own. and i cried.
it's gorgeous.

This peice was written soon after the Nazi occupation of France when the future of the free world was in doubt. Thompson was moved so by these events that when he was commissioned by Koussevitzky to write a festival fanfare peice for voices for the new Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood he instead wrote this sad, plaintive prayer saying that a fanfare was not appropriate for the times.





Hope you enjoy it because I definently did!

Why did God create music to have such a powerful sway?

So, I've been having a lot of arguements and/or debates with my friends about our musical tastes. People keep telling me that we just have different preferences and to leave it at that and not to argue over which is better. Man...I don't know if it's just me, but, it really gives me shivers when I hear the music that is being played today among people my age. People have told me that I'm weird, and even shunned me, because I hate that music, but, too bad. I LOVE IT and I LIVE FOR IT!

My teacher loaned me this book called the Music of Jesus: From Composistion to Koinonia by Mark Hijleh (his composition professor at Houghton College). I read chapter one last night. And, just chapter one has already dealt with most of this issue. Here are some quotes that I wrote down in my journal. I just couldn't reword this in my own words, it's so good. Remeber, this is just from chapter one!

"God wants music to be used as a tool to reflect the power of His nature."

"Nothing seems to speak to the power and majesty, the tenderness and sorrow, and the creative aspects of God as directly as musical sound does."

"Music better conveys the concepts which are outside the realm of linguistic meaning than words do."

"Music is here to remind us of and to reflect the eternal things of God that words cannot convey."

and my favorite:

"Music has the ability to corrupt as well as to edify."

Wow. I hope my good friends are reading this. I've been looking through some of the music I have and noticing that I even have some trash, that I probably should be getting rid of. Music was created by God....and as Christians we should be taking care of His creation (GENESIS!!).... by, trying our best to excell in our musical abilities, and to listen to the music that displays God's character! crazy.

I'll be sharing more on this topic, so, I'll keep you posted!

=D