So Many Notes

Here is a clip from my all time favorite movie, Amadeus:

A year ago I received a new calling in my church congregation–ward choir director.

It is commonplace in our church, with its lay ministry, that we are called to various responsibilities for which we may not feel we have the talent, expertise, or experience.  But we do the best we can, and invariably learn and grow from the experience.  Such was the case with me, as I had never directed a choir, hardly ever led music.  Granted, I have sung in many choirs through the years, and have had numerous excellent role models as choir directors (including the current one for the Portland Choir and Orchestra).  It was made even more intimidating since I was replacing an excellent director with charisma, talent, and experience.

We have rehearsals each Sunday, and sing for the congregation once per month.  Then sing several numbers as part of the Christmas service.  I have had my ups and downs as far as directing the choir, and it is always a challenge to recruit choir members who will practice regularly.  But I have to say I have loved the music part of the calling.  And the performances have all been very good, even the times when I was quite worried we weren’t prepared well enough.

The clip above reminds me of my experience selecting the music for our Christmas program.  Our stake center has three very full filing cabinets full of sheet music for wards to check out, and I spent part of an afternoon there going through the Christmas section.  While I’m not that good at hearing the music and all the parts from reading the sheet music, it was a marvelous experience contemplating all the great music, and trying to limit my selection to four numbers.  Perhaps in a subsequent post I’ll review my selections–all wonderful arrangements of glorious Christmas music.