Wonderful Musical Magic

Last night I couldn't help thinking of an old story, something told to me long, long ago, by an organist--the organist, the very one who'd been asked to do a concert on a brand new pipe organ a country church had just proudly installed. They needed someone professional, someone who knew how to handle the instrument, they told her. It would be the new organ's inauguration, so they needed a real organist, a professor of music.

She drew up a program that must have passed muster because no one said a thing when she submitted it. I don't know what was in that recital, but real musicians love to test themselves and each other and even their instruments with stiff challenges. I'm sure what was printed on those inaugural programs was fairly standard pipe organ fare, standard, that is, for the professor.

It was fine--the whole program was a wonder and a success. You might say "she pulled out all the stops," if it weren't a third-rate pun. That brand new organ astounded them all with its range, its power, and even its delicacy. The folks in that church heard music they'd never, ever heard before, and it left them speechless.

Almost. 

At the very end, when she was taking her bows and giving that brand new organ a reverent sweep of the arm, as if the organ were the star, some guy in the audience just couldn't help himself. 

"Play 'Stars and Stripes Forever,'" he yelled because, dang it, it's something he was dying to hear. 

Later she could laugh about it, but when she told the story you could still note that right then-and-there she took that line like a slap in the face. 

I thought of that story last night when listening to my granddaughter's high school choir concert, her last. Every selection mounted a challenge for those kids, intricate, expressive pieces that simply to describe requires more musical knowledge than I have or can fake. Before each piece, choir members stood and talked about what they were about to sing, did so in a fashion that made those rare pieces far more accessible. "Listen for the the alto solo," some young woman would advise, creating a road map. 

Pardon my blue-collar musicianship, but I also found myself hoping they'd break into something I knew--"Beautiful Savior" maybe. It would have been nice, I told myself, my grandpa's favorite hymn. He's been gone for three-quarters of a century, but he manages to return every time we sing that one, which happens, today, quite infrequently. "Beautiful Savior" would have been nice, I whispered to myself. I didn't yell.

Don't get me wrong. I loved the music and the concert. It's a joy, a thrill, to watch and listen to kids perform at their highest level--and that's what was happening through the whole concert. It was pure musical blessing. 

But then the director, who's leaving, stepped up to the mike and announced that they were going to finish the concert with one last piece, a great favorite of hers, she said, because when she was in her high school choir her director ended every last concert with "He Is Wonderful." She said she wanted to end with that piece because her director was someone she'd admired, even loved--and he had died. They weren't going to sing it for him, nor even for her, but for Him. 

And they did, a throbbing round of seemingly unconnected musical lines that interweave and harmonize beautifully beneath a rhythm that made every knee in the place bounce bountifully.  

What that guy in that country church with the new pipe organ wanted wasn't John Phillip Sousa. He wanted something alive in himself, some old magical harmony capable of bringing back a moment, a place, a person, a memory. What he wanted was a momentary stay against confusion, a honest to goodness return a something he'd once felt in a piece of music. 

Last night we didn't sing "Beautiful Savior," and I have no historical moments with "He Is Wonderful." But what was clear was that my granddaughter's talented director certainly did. 

I didn't know her choir director, the one who's gone; but I don't doubt for a moment that all during that anthem's gorgeous frolic, his former student, the one who directed all night long so effectively, felt that man blessedly right there beside her. 

And that too was wonderful. It was a wonderful concert, a night full of wonder.

If you click below, you'll hear it--that final hymn of praise. I checked--no ghosts, no spirits wander on stage; but that doesn't mean no one was there.
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