Getting Started in Music

In a newspaper interview a few weeks ago, the reporter asked me, "What got you started in music?"

People. Adults who sang to me.

1. My mother, who sang "Itsy-Bisty Spider" and "In My Heart There Rings a Melody."

2. Sandy Twigg, who played piano with gusto at our Christian Reformed church and had such a big smile and gave me my first piano lessons with flat black stickers of music notes as prizes for learning my pieces. Two notes, begin on middle C, alternate with D: "Here we go, to the zoo; funny monkey, how-de-do?"

3. Chris and Nancy Hansen, who started a children's choir at our next church and asked me to sing alto instead of soprano: "Just think of it like another melody."

4. Sister Eucebia, at the Catholic school where I was sent for punishment in fifth grade, who put a plastic recorder in my hands and told me I was going to learn to play it.

5. Sister Juliana, who saw the recorder in my hands and asked if I would play it next to her at the organ during weekly mass. Recorder and organ! Tooting ten-year-old and expert musician! I learned all the songs, and still know them by heart.

Last month, while directing a rehearsal for a community musical, I told one of the altos, "Just think of it like another melody." The next week, she told me this one remark had changed how she thought about singing: "You're the first person to teach me how to sing." Last night, she gave me a Mary Kay brush set in thanks. I am able to apply my eyeliner with precision because of Mr. and Mrs. Hansen.

Our hearts are full; nobody ever really leaves.

So—not WHAT got you started in music, but WHO?

Happy Valentine's Day, Like, Jesus-Style

In a comment under "At the Name of Jesus" 1, "The Leper" remarks that the sentimental 19th-century hymns penned by men and women alike are examples of the popular "Jesus Is My Boyfriend" style.

Since this is Valentine's Day, I'd like to share Bob Webber's phrase for these types of songs: "Valentines to Jesus."

Roses are red, violets are blue, God died for me, He died for you too.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone--and you too, O Untouchable and Anonymous Leper. Why don't you run out and HUG somebody in honor of JESUS. Don't forget to ask them, "Is Jesus YOUR boyfriend, too?"

Real Life Intrudes

Quick update--I've still been THINKING about hymns but not WRITING about them! So sorry. My husband and I are buying a house and have to move in over a period of about two weeks because of my crazy rehearsal schedules. Paperwork and packing are taking over our lives right now, until March 5. But I'll try to find a few minutes here and there for shorter posts in the next couple weeks. Thank you for your patience and for your comments, that keep coming on older posts.

"At the Name of Jesus" 2: Unlike the Greeks

I'm especially interested now in the fifth stanza:

Bore it up triumphant with its human light,
Through all ranks of creatures, to the central height,
To the throne of Godhead, to the Father's breast;
Filled it with the glory of that perfect rest.

The idea that God can change is contrary to the Greek concept of unchanging perfection and to a common piety that misinterprets the passage "Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever."

Once there was no human in the Godhead; now, for all time, there is a human in the Godhead. God has changed. He is still perfect—and we are made perfect with Him.

"At the Name of Jesus" 1: Chronological Order

The eight stanzas of "At the Name of Jesus," my #13 in the 100 Hymns Project, has a chronological and poetic order I didn't understand from the "selected stanzas" version found in most hymnals—if the hymnals keep this song at all.

The first stanza sets the theme, drawn principally from Philippians 2:5-11 and John 1: "At the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess Him King of glory now."

The second stanza echoes the Nicene Creed and is set in the relationship of the Trinity before Creation.

The third stanza tells of creation in a breathtaking echo from another ancient text, the Liturgy of St. James as set in "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence."

The fourth stanza sums up the entire life of Jesus, Philippians 2-style, emphasizing again the Name of Jesus.

The fifth stanza is set after the resurrection, when Jesus takes His Name and human body up "through all ranks of creatures" to the "throne of Godhead."

The sixth stanza is our response, part one, as we fulfill the theme by naming Christ in worship.

The seventh stanza is our response, part two, as the Name is enthroned not only in heaven but in our hearts.

The eighth stanza foresees the return of that Name in glory, when not only our tongues but our hearts "confess Him King of glory now."

I would be VERY curious to know if these eight stanzas are the only original stanzas. The author seems intelligent and aware enough to have chosen eight stanzas deliberately—in which case we begin to enter overtones of the perfect-seven-plus-one—the eighth day of creation, the day of resurrection, the day of the world to come.

Order, order everywhere—and artistically satisfying references as well.