i forgot to mention playing in the assembly worship band for the week. david mac asked me the week before... so I took the Martin and mandolin and had a lot of fun, apart from the early mornings! for the opening worship I accompanied a school choir along with keyboard and double bass. the worst part was sitting centre stage so I couldn't nod off or pull faces.
for the rest of the week we had a growing cast of musicians, backing some of the northern aboriginal folk on occasion, adding a sax, violin and bass along the way. i was glad i took the mandolin, as it worked well with a quite a few songs, and people kept complimenting me on my 'banjo' playing!?
we played 'like a candle' which was a bit weird as i never play it. but nice anyway. a few tassie folks knew the history of the song and wanted to chat. i'm still puzzled by this song as i wrote it as a memorial, not as a 'worship' song, and lyrically it doesn't do what a worship song ought to do. i'm sure that many people can't work out whether the lyrics are referring to us, jesus, or someone else. mmm.... but I gave it away to the church, so it doesnt belong to me anyway.
this is about to turn into another blog entry about music... i'm quite comfortable both affirming the church's music traditions and practices, and varying them. i love playing with worship soundtracks, even though the worship constraints usually make the soundtrack impossible to honour. (now there's a thought to ponder). and yet, while my music sensibilities currently lend themselves to using background and foreground recorded music, i still value 'live singing' greatly. i'm just not sure how to do it and where to put it, so to speak.
so I'm drawn to putting roddy hamilton's liturgies into song, and about to listen to Trish Watts (oops - I just typed that as Trash Witts - sorry!) one or two line taize-style songs.
this is the electronic/acoustic music that i'm dying to get time to make ambient soundscapes with few words, but deep words, repeated in some ways, and the open invitation to hum or sing and drink in the lyrics.
well I've got a few days off, so let's see...
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