I walked out this morning and found one early bloom on my Rose of Sharon bush. To celebrate this, and the whole summer season, here is a video of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing "Summertime" from the opera “Porgy and Bess” by George Gershwin.
One of the definitions of the word “soul” in the Webster dictionary is “a strong positive feeling (as of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor) conveyed especially by black American performers.”
My father liked to use the word “soul” in music to describe a quality that is difficult to define. It is a performance, of any type of music (his preference was classical) that conveys something beyond bare emotional fervor. To him it was much more subtle, something that goes more deeply into the heart of the music. All I can say is that I know it when I hear it. It seems to me that there can be a quality that goes beyond the technique, musicianship, and emotion of the performer into something holy, something that seems impossible without a connection to a higher power. Perhaps it is akin to what the woman felt when she touched the hem of Christ’s robe.
I believe that church music does not have to be difficult to be effective. Many of my compositions are written for churches that have limited resources. Below are two free choir anthems based on hymn tunes by famous composers.
"How Wondrous and Great" SATB with piano or organ. Based on the hymn tyne LYONS attributed to Joseph Michael Haydn.
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October, 2007