Rich Days

This March has been perhaps the busiest ever at our house or at least for the people who live at our house. But I could be wrong about that as there have been some really busy Marches before.

At any rate, last Thursday I enjoyed an evening of "ekphrastic" poetry featuring poets from Southeastern reading at the Polk County County Art Museum. They were responding to large canvases of imaginary seascapes. Their words left me with a desire to listen to whale songs and shrimp songs. A composition is forthcoming.

If you're not familiar with the term "ekphrastic" I suggest looking it up as it's a fun one to know.

On Saturday night, I had the privilege of coordinating a concert to conclude the 2015 conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. Our aim was to convey a sense of diversity, and we did so with a range of ensembles and repertoire including

• a piano solo from Arthur Farwell's Impressions of the Wa-Wan Ceremony of the Omahas
• a Chinese folk song sung by a colleague
• a pasodoble played by our string quartet
• a string quintet I wrote based on a phrase from King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail
• several Latin selections played by our big band and a combo   

It was a joyous experience as a result of much collaboration between members of the Society, our students and faculty, and the folks at the Lakeland Center (the venue where the event took place). We were touched by the enthusiasm of the Society's members who noted the special appropriateness of the program as a bridge to the theme of next year's conference. To me, that says the Spirit was also involved in this collaborative effort. For anyone who might be interested, I've copied my comments from the event at the bottom of this post.

Then on Sunday, I attended the Central Florida Bach Festival where soloists, choristers, and instrumentalists were joined by the Florida Southern Girls Choir, which Kathy conducts, for an inspired afternoon of Bach.

The program was the life Christ through the works of Bach, a "What if Bach wrote Messiah?" if you will.  Movements from various cantatas and from the Christmas oratorio and St. John Passion were masterfully programmed to create a new oratorio of sorts. It was a combination of works Bach could possibly have arranged that way but didn't. The audience was exhilerated by the experience.

I expect to remember these rich days for a long time.



-->

SPS Concert Remarks

My name is Charles Hulin and I am the chair of the Department of Music at Southeastern University. On behalf of our music students and faculty, I want you know that we consider it an honor and a privilege to share with you this evening. It is our sincere prayer that the Spirit will use this musical offering to provide each of you some distinct blessing as you go from this place.

In choosing the repertoire for this occasion, we sought to create an atmosphere of reflection as well as celebration. And in keeping with the nature of this conference, we are also presenting works that move beyond some of the usual boundaries of our music-making.

We begin with a performance by one of our piano majors, Caitlynn Christiensen.  She will be playing an early 20^th century work by the American composer Arthur Farwell. It is titled “Receiving the Messenger” and it comes from Farwell’s work Impressions of the Wa-Wan Ceremony of the Omahas, which expresses both the composer’s European schooling and his engagement with Native American culture.

Next, Dr. Shudong Braamse, one of our voice faculty members, will perform a stirring Chinese song in which the singer, who has travelled far from home, addresses her mother. She says to her, “When the ripples in the river smile at you, when the bamboo flutes are played for you, when a beautiful boat is sailing toward you, when you hear a folksong floating from far way – that is me!”   

We now turn to our string students for a very famous piece of Spanish dance music, a joyful pasodoble by Pascuel Narro. Our string quartet consists of Wesley Mason and John Morgan Roe on violins, Lorenzo Sanchez on viola, and Ronnie Wiesniewski on cello.

Violinist Winter Jackson and percussionist Mike Tuck will join the quartet for our next work, which is an arrangement of the spiritual “Deep River.” A few years back, I wrote this arrangement to commemorate Martin Luther King Day. Its title “Psalm of Brotherhood” comes from a passage in King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail in which he wrote: “Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.” (I would submit that in some ways it might still be that time.)

  

Now is it is my pleasure to introduce my colleague and friend, Dr. Mark Belfast and the Southeastern University Jazz Ensemble.

Psalm 23

Last night, I was reading the prologue to the Gospel of John with some friends and it struck me that only one portion of one verse of the passage is in present tense. Verse 3a reads, "The light shines in the darkness . . ."

My mostly subconscious assumption seems to be that one can and should always be in the light. But this passage acknowledges that light shines in the darkness in the present tense.

Such a beam of light fell across my soul during an SEU chapel gathering yesterday. In the early morning, we were led to read and pray Psalm 23. I suddenly found myself reading and praying it in a way I never have before.  

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
     I have to stop here for some time to acknowledge that so many do want.
  
² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
     Green pastures -
           Under monuments or no monuments, 
           we eventually lie down for eternal rest 
           in the earth's great green pastures.
                  Thanatopsis  
     Still waters -
          Prayer for clarity and peace
          for myself and others. 

³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
     What is this psalmist's idea of the soul? And what is its restoration?
          Whatever the idea, it seems that he, too, 
          was seeing himself as more than meets the eye
          all those years ago.
 
⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
       Even in the face of death and evil,
            security in the spirit can remain.
                   
⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
       Essential to faith is relationship with enemies.
            In that regard,
            Christ enacted sacrificial love,
            removing emnity.
            The cup of his blood overflows.
            That is our model.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
       A moment of receptivity and openness before the richness of God's self.