Yesterday was a very good day. It was Fast and Testimony meeting, which is always pretty fantastic in the Branch. A lot of people spoke about the power of prayer and the ways in which they've seen the Lord answer their prayers. In Sunday school, we watched a fabulous video about the temple that included various religious scholars of other faiths talking about the significance of temples throughout the ages.
But the third hour was the best--for the first time in years, we got to have the lesson outside! I can't remember the last time I've gotten to do this. (I'd like to think we were paying a little homage to the early days of the Church when the Saints used to meet outside for Sunday meetings.) The weather was perfect for it; warm, sunny with some haze, so the sun wasn't very direct and we all sat on blankets underneath a tree to hear Ferskner's lesson on finding joy in our daily lives.
Everyone had to make a list at one point of ten things that bring us immediate joy and it was kind of funny to hear most of us share the deep things we picked (family, friends, etc.) while Ferskner was like "Um, I was thinking more along the lines of 'pointy-toed shoes' and 'stacking books."
Since I'm a dork and threw my list out, I'm going to redo it here and focus more on those little things that bring me an instant burst of happiness.
Ten Things that Bring Me Joy
1. Summer fruit (Especially fresh blueberries)
2. Hugs
3. Good conversation
4. Flowers that smell nice
5. Jellybeans
6. Going barefoot
7. Reading
8. Movies
9. Baking for people
10. Clear nights
Yay for Sunday!
Showing posts with label The LDS Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The LDS Church. Show all posts
Monday, June 8, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
In which I envy the music of other religions
In church yesterday we watched one of those videos from the '80's that, while having some great and worthwhile messages, hasn't aged particularly well. Sure, the hairstyles and clothes are kind of embarrassing now, but what really got to me was the music. It was, to use my voice teacher's term, "Je-zak" (Jesus + Muzak), the pop-ified style of music I've heard in countless Church videos and special musical numbers during meetings. It's usually accompanied by piano and sung with as much breathiness or pressed phonation as possible. While I certainly don't fault the folks who sing it, seeing as how most of them have no vocal training, sometimes I really envy the other religious denominations with their long-standing musical traditions and trained singers.
I actually wrote a paper this semester about music education in the LDS Church and was able to briefly mention the amount of singing that accompanies our worship (group singing in almost every type of meeting, both formal and informal) and the huge amount of discretion allowed to local leadership to determine how strictly to interpret the directions from Church headquarters on proper music in worship. Because of this discretion, in a given geographical cluster of wards (congregations) in a Stake (like a diocese) you might get a bishop in one ward who will only allow music or arrangements from the hymnbook right next to a ward like mine where my friend M played the "Meditation" from Thaïs in Sacrament meeting. (Which was awesome, BTW.)
But vocal music is especially thorny. Instrumental music from outside the Church you can often get away with much easier, since it doesn't have any words. Vocal music, on the other hand, has to have a text that is doctrinally accurate and in the language of the congregation (not that I mind), but that tends to eliminate a lot of the music from non-LDS composers. In addition, music in the Church needs to avoid drawing attention to the performers themselves and away from the service.
Thus, when you combine the guidelines on appropriate music with an untrained laity who typically volunteers to do solo singing you tend to hear a lot of Je-zak in LDS Sunday meetings. No wonder I'm treated like such a freak when I visit my home ward.
I actually wrote a paper this semester about music education in the LDS Church and was able to briefly mention the amount of singing that accompanies our worship (group singing in almost every type of meeting, both formal and informal) and the huge amount of discretion allowed to local leadership to determine how strictly to interpret the directions from Church headquarters on proper music in worship. Because of this discretion, in a given geographical cluster of wards (congregations) in a Stake (like a diocese) you might get a bishop in one ward who will only allow music or arrangements from the hymnbook right next to a ward like mine where my friend M played the "Meditation" from Thaïs in Sacrament meeting. (Which was awesome, BTW.)
But vocal music is especially thorny. Instrumental music from outside the Church you can often get away with much easier, since it doesn't have any words. Vocal music, on the other hand, has to have a text that is doctrinally accurate and in the language of the congregation (not that I mind), but that tends to eliminate a lot of the music from non-LDS composers. In addition, music in the Church needs to avoid drawing attention to the performers themselves and away from the service.
Thus, when you combine the guidelines on appropriate music with an untrained laity who typically volunteers to do solo singing you tend to hear a lot of Je-zak in LDS Sunday meetings. No wonder I'm treated like such a freak when I visit my home ward.
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