An offer I can't refuse

For the past month, I've been feeling sad... I made the decision to leave my "dream job" at the Francis Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton's beautiful concert hall. 

Being an usher there has been a fantastic experience overall. The Guest Services Team is a wonderful group of people of all ages and nationalities, but with a common love of music and serving others. 70 or so people that work together well, cheer each other on, and feel a sense of accomplishment at the conclusion of every concert, no matter how tired we get. And we do get tired, especially during the run of concerts in the Christmas season! O aching feet, O aching feet...

The patrons, especially those attending symphonies, are a diverse and interesting group, and I've enjoyed getting to know some of the "regulars" over the last 5 years. They've shared many insights about music and the human condition. What moves me especially is the spouse who brings their also aging loved one with memory or mobility issues to come and enjoy music that is particularly special to the pair. For them, I'm always willing to go the extra mile. It's not only the music that's inspired me on this job!

And the shows I've seen! Well, parts of them, at least... just in the past season, great classical music, newer symphonies (how I love to watch the musicians and try to figure out which sound is coming from where), comedy (like the Whose Line Is It? guys last month who had me laughing so hard I was crying), and so many other musicians and genres from all over the globe! Plus great Canadians like Celeigh Cardinal, Jim Cuddy, Natalie McMaster and her amazing family, Johnny Reid, Jann Arden, and Fred Penner (yes, really -- that was a sweet concert for young adults who watched his TV show in their childhood to bring their little ones to see). 

Music has always spoken to my spirit and lifted me up, and the joy it brings me counterbalances the challenges of my other "dream job." So my decision to leave Edmonton's magical concert hall weighed heavily on me for more reasons than I'll list here.

As I boarded the train to my final shift this week (a concert by the wonderful (!) Sierra Ferrell -- stay tuned for the next Monday Music Appreciation moodling), tears filled my eyes, and I thought, "oh boy, this is gonna be a rough shift if I'm already this emotional." 

And sure enough, the tears continually prickled my eyes as I walked through the doors and said goodbye to Bernie, my favourite security guard, and Connie, who has been concierge since the Winspear opened in 1992, but I held it together pretty well while taking my show notes in the Guest Services office and taking a few selfies with my favourite colleagues. 

I was doing okay until Leanne, one of our managers, came up to me, gave me a big hug and asked, "Why are you leaving us?" When I explained that two dream jobs were just one too many, she said, "I know you're doing important work at your other job, so let's just lighten your load here. How about working one shift every month or two?"

That's when the floodgates opened, happy tears for a change. I'm not sure how much I'll be around the Winspear in the future (I did purchase a subscription to some of next year's shows), but knowing that I can do a few shifts here and there and still work with friends on a less intense basis -- well, let's just say I'm overjoyed!

Wednesday music appreciation?

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Monday Music Appreciation, does it?

But Monday was my dear friend Farley's memorial service, and I wasn't thinking much about moodling. I did manage to hold myself together to sing Part of the Family because my friend Julie -- and everyone present -- really sang along. It was Farley's song, and they belted it out for him!

And his son Paul sang this beautiful song, too, which I had never heard until I met Farley. I loved Farley's version, and didn't know about Bob Franke, who wrote it, or that Stan Rogers had recorded it in a key that Farley appreciated and likely kept when he sang it.

Here it is for your enjoyment -- Thanksgiving Eve by Bob Franke, as sung by Stan Rogers.

Monday Music Appreciation #40: Love Waits by Farley Magee

My heart broke on Friday afternoon when I received word that my musical and faith-filled friend, Farley, had died. He hadn't been feeling well of late, and missed our last two Sundays at Inner City Pastoral Ministry, where I liked to tease him about me being his favourite (well, only, perhaps) back up singer. No one expected this news, and we at ICPM are pretty heartbroken, though we know that Farley is with God, doing just fine, and still alive in our hearts.

I didn't know Farley very long, but what I knew of him, I loved. He was a gentle man with an ironic sense of humour, and a very talented guitarist. The day we met, I had brought my guitar because I was told I could help with the music at ICPM, but Farley's reception to that was a bit cool -- likely because I was an unknown quantity. I told him I'd just back him up and play what I could, and it worked out okay. By the end of the morning, he had warmed up and we had a good conversation -- I guess he realized that I had enough ability that I might make the music a little richer than it would have been otherwise.

It was five years later when I joined the ministry team at ICPM, right in the middle of Covid. It was a fall day, and Farley was sitting outside, playing his guitar to entertain the folks waiting in line for lunches, and I recognized a hymn he was playing and started to sing it. His head swiveled toward me, and he grinned, and from that Sunday on, he often played the tune to see if I'd catch it and sing along. It was like an unspoken communication between us.

But my favourite memory of Farley by far is a September day when we were waiting for an event we were both attending in St. Albert at the invitation of Pastor Quinn. We arrived a few hours before other folks were due, and I asked Farley if he'd like to go for a walk. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon, and we walked down the hill to the Sturgeon River and wandered its banks all the way to the St. Albert community garden, enjoying the warm sun, the scents of autumn, the lazy river, and good company. I learned a bit about Farley's life, his long time grief from losing his daughter to cancer when she was only 7, and I shared some of my own grief at that time. We became better friends that afternoon.

I will really, really miss Farley every Sunday morning. His was a talent that can't be replaced. He often started our Sunday mornings with "Here Comes the Sun," and segued into bluesy riffs on a theme sounding like Fred Penner's "The Cat Came Back" or Woodie Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant." My friend, Linda, and I would dance, and people would smile. Farley's music lent a peaceful calm to many otherwise chaotic Sunday mornings. His "smudge music" was one of my favourite sounds. I only wish I had recorded it.

And this song, written by Farley, is another favourite. The first time he played it as a meditation for the Community of Emmanuel, the tears rolled down my face. It's such a beautiful expression of what Love does, what Love is. As Linda commented today, it pretty much summarizes Farley's theology and belief. I'm so grateful that he allowed me to record it. I asked him once, if his favourite artist could record his song so it became famous, who would that be? "I'll have to think about that," he said, but he never got back to me on that question.

I know I've posted the song in these moodlings twice already, but third time is the charm, or something.

I will always miss harmonizing with you, Farley, your philosophical commentaries on life and the goodness and omnipotence of God, and the twinkle in your eye when anyone made you laugh. You liked to say, "God knows. I don't." Well, now you know God's love for you in its fullness.

Farley, my musical brother, you were one in a million. Rest in peace, beloved friend.

Monday Music Appreciation #31: A catchy dance tune

This week's music appreciation is actually a video from 2021's remake of West Side Story, a movie I completely missed (thanks, covid). It came to my attention through the Symphony for Kids at the Winspear last week, M is for Music, as (I Like to Be in) America was used as the piece to introduce all the different sections of the orchestra -- brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion. It's a wonderful, lively tune, and it made me wish I was up on stage dancing with the lead performer because she was clearly having a marvellous time! America was written by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

The original movie (1961) featured a feisty Rita Moreno as the lead singer/dancer in a dark back-street-like studio, all in one piece and faithful to the story, but I like Ariana DeBose's version from 2021 even better because of all the sunlit street dancing (which doesn't actually jive with the timeline for the Broadway play). I think I'm going to see if I can find and watch both movies, just because my life could use a musical right now. 

Enjoy!

Monday Music Appreciation #28 -- That organ!

The Davis Concert Organ at the Winspear Centre for Music where I work is an amazing masterpiece in itself. But when you get someone who can play the thing, it's absolutely incredible.

I didn't get to post about our most recent organ concert for Monday Music Appreciation last week due to another trip to visit my father-in-law, but hold onto your hats. The piece in the video below was performed at the Winspear last week by Jean-Willy Kunz, with Kerem Hassan conducting the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. I sat in my usher's chair shaking my head with amazement through the whole thing, but I've only given you the last three minutes or so to listen to here. The final notes had me on my feet.

If you want more, Youtube has Guilmant's entire 20+ minute long Symphonie No. 1 in D minor for Organ and Orchestra, posted by conductor Jason Tramm, organ by Gordon Turk with the midAtlantic Orchestra (a 2018video made in Ocean Grove NJ) if you click here.

Imagine the floor vibrating under your feet and enjoy!

Monday Music Appreciation #19 -- Handel's Messiah Amen

(Yeah, I know it's Tuesday, but I accidentally set the publication date incorrectly for this moodling to next Monday, oops! And didn't realize it until this morning.)

My wonderful Winspear ushering job means that I get to hear Handel's Messiah in December each year. I've always loved different parts of it -- the rousing Hallelujah chorus for its excitement, For Unto Us a Child is Born for its back and forth between duet choruses, Comfort Ye My People for its soaring tenor, and Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion for its amazing soprano aria, to name just a few. After this moodling, I think I'll go listen to it all again!

Of course, in the chamber, it's easy to feel that once the audience sits down after the Hallelujah chorus, it's all downhill from there. But is it?

Not exactly. What struck me most this week was the final Amen. In particular, the violin passages between the singing. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra's violins played it with such incredible feeling this year that I sat up and took notice. They probably do that every year, but this year, it hit me!

I've listened to the Amen a few times since. Amen means we believe. A heartfelt Amen goes a long way in these very long winter nights. See if you don't agree.

Monday Music Appreciation #12 -- A small salute to Gordon

Once upon a time I owned a cassette tape of Gordon Lightfoot's greatest hits. Gord's Gold, it was called, and I listened to it until it wore out. The album originally came out when I was ten years old, and my parents had a copy, I think, but I didn't truly discover it until I was twenty-three, picking up my cassette on a whim at a sale table. I was teaching at the time, and Gord's Gold accompanied me through a lot of late afternoons and evenings in my classroom as I marked, planned and prepared lessons. Every song on it just felt good, and there were enough of them with so many different styles that they didn't ever bore me. 

When Gordon Lightfoot died recently, I meant to do a little tribute. As I moodle here, I'm surprised that two and a half months have passed already since he's gone. Not knowing him personally, it doesn't really seem like he's gone, as there have been so many occasions where I've heard his songs floating off the radio or TV -- in his own and other voices. His music lives on in those who sing it, in all of us who love it, and that's probably the best kind of immortality.

This morning began with a gentle rain, and immediately, Rainy Day People came to mind. I suspect that the musician who was a bit of a wild child when fame first reached him eventually became something of a rainy day person himself. 

Thanks for the music, Gord. You really were gold.

Monday Music Appreciation #11 -- down the rabbit hole with Petula Clark

This morning as I walked around my garden, a long lost song sprang into my head. Unsure of the lyrics, I put "Thank you for every tree and flower song" into my browser, and proceeded down an internet rabbit hole, learning about one Petula Sally Olwen Clark, a famous international singer who is now 90 years old somewhere in Switzerland, and who has been singing publicly since she was 7. Petula has had quite a life (it takes a while to read the wikipedia link above), has befriended a lot of interesting people,  and was still performing as recently as January of this year in honour of Stephen Sondheim, God bless her.

Given that my 2023 word of the year is "Appreciation," and we've just passed the year's halfway point, it seems fitting to post Petula's "Thank you" song today. It came out the year before I was born, is sung in five different keys, and has lyrics that can seem rather trite to our more sophisticated sensibilities. 

But should that be the case? 

In a world where so much seems to be going wrong, our so-called sophistication can make it a challenge to remember to say Thank you, but it can't be said (or sung) often enough. 

Thank you, Petula, and Thank you, God.

Monday Music Appreciation #10 -- A rose for Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson roses

Oscar Peterson is blooming in my yard. Or rather, the rose named after him is.

One of my rosebushes didn't overwinter, so when we bought the shrubs for our front yard at the garden centre last month, I gravitated toward the Rose House... and was having a hard time deciding on which rosebush to choose as a replacement. Until I noticed Oscar Peterson...

The real Oscar Peterson was an incredible Canadian jazz musician. After my best friend, Cathy, learned to play his Hymn to Freedom for her dad's 80th birthday, she played it for me too. It was love at first listen.

Last fall, I got to hear the piece played live at a jazz evening at the Winspear, and that performance was the highlight of the night for me. It actually made me quite emotional, which is what often happens when I hear good music. 

I came home to read all about Oscar Peterson according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, learning more about him and his music, and spending time listening to other online recordings of an amazing musician. But Hymn to Freedom remains my favourite.

So it was a no-brainer to bring home a hardy Canadian rosebush named after him. 

If you've never heard Hymn to Freedom or seen Oscar play, here's a treat! Enjoy!

Monday Music Appreciation #9 -- The Davis Concert Organ and Nathaniel Gumbs

I've never really been a fan of organ music -- until now. As someone who grew up after church music was "modernized," I always found the dirgy stuff played at church was depressing, and the only time our church organist, Joe Rolheiser, made me happy was when he sometimes played a rollicking version of It's a Small World after mass ended. In days when applause in church was unheard of, we all applauded when he finished; he was that good!

Last week, my wonderful niece, Charlotte, made me into a definite organ music convert. She took me to hear Dr. Nathaniel Gumbs play the Davis Concert Organ at the Winspear Centre for music (where she and I both work), and I'm already looking forward to hearing that organ played solo once again.

The Davis Concert organ is a wonder in itself. It has 6,551 pipes that make more than that many different sounds. Remember Nimrod from my moodling on Elgar back in March? It also sounds beautiful on the organ. 

I never knew a concert organ could have bells and trumpets and soft harp-like tones. Here's a little video that kind of blew me away -- I had no idea the organ took up so much space behind the concert hall's back walls!

And Nathaniel Gumbs is a wonder, too. At Thursday's concert, his hands flew over the keyboards and his feet flew on the pedal board, even though he's recovering from an injury that messed up his ability to play a more complicated Bach piece. Charlotte was telling me that he taught himself to play piano, then started to sneak into churches to learn how to play the organ, too, and eventually got a doctorate. 

Dr. Gumbs is currently director of Chapel Music at Yale University, and holds posts in a few other places as well. In the video below, he plays the finale from Sonata No. 1 by Florence Price, an African American composer whose works were almost lost through neglect. It's a powerful piece, and I'm so glad he played it to show off the Davis Concert organ last week, and for the making of this video. I'm so grateful to Charlotte for taking me (still on crutches at the time) to hear him play live. Char, the next organ concert is on me!

Please enjoy Sonata No. 1 as your music appreciation for today. It's worth wondering at.

Music Appreciation Monday #8 -- Ode to Joy

Beethoven was completely deaf by the time his ninth and final symphony was given to the world, which makes it all the more amazing. The fact that he wrote it simply because he wanted to lift the world up to receive joy, to encourage people to live in harmony and love is also noteworthy -- he composed it not for money or fame or legacy or any other number of reasons that motivated the composters of his time. He did it because it simply needed to be done.

This past week, I was able to hear it twice at the Winspear Centre for Music where I work, and the 150 voices of the 6 combined choirs gave me goosebumps and brought me to tears simultaneously. It's an incredible piece of music, carrying a whole lot of unifying sentiment.

Of course, the 67 or so minutes of Beethoven's 9th deserves to be heard in its entirety to get the full impact of the emotion and joy it can carry. But here's just the choral part of it, for your enjoyment. And especially for Eleanor, who is, perhaps, my most regular Monday music appreciator.

Enjoy!

Monday Music Appreciation #2 -- and now for something completely different

At work at the Francis Winspear Centre for Music on Friday night, I was lucky to sit in on a viola concerto played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra strings section, with Clayton Leung giving a wonderful performance.

This video is not a viola concerto. But it's absolutely incredible all the same. In an effort not to spoil it for those who haven't run into 2CELLOS before, I'll only say that the performers are two very talented, classically trained Croatian cellists named Luka Sǔlić and Stjepan Hauser. Watch those fingers fly... and stay for the end if you can. It made me laugh with delight!

They're So Fine

They've done it again... Double Double has put out a catchy new song with a pretty neat little music video that I can't help but share here for your enjoyment. 

I've been following the band's work quite closely because I happen to know them, and this tune has been one of my favourites since the very first time I heard it in a crowded little place on Whyte Avenue. It's taken directly from the lives of two band members who relied on long-distance phone calls for a while because their work kept them apart quite a bit in their relationship's beginnings. Big kudos to the video creator(s) -- nice to see the Edmonton skyline in the background of this fun little stroll taken by the band and their musical instruments! The walkers, in order, are Neil, Christina, Jessamy, and Landon.

If you like this tune as much as I do, you can add it to your music through most of the big music apps: here's are links to Spotify and Bandcamp. And if you leave the band a comment, I'm sure they'd love to hear your feedback. 

Way to go, Double Double and friends! And Matt, I love the video! Well done.