Music Notes 3-17-24
Once again, it is St. Patrick’s Day, and everyone is automatically an honorary Irishman. My own family traces its roots back to County Cork, where John and Jane Raycroft got on a boat in 1812 and traveled across the ocean to Montreal. Of course, the fun myth about St. Patrick’s Day is celebrating how he chased all the snakes out of Ireland, but the reality is very different. I won’t go into here but would urge you all to look it up – the real story is very interesting. The music and culture of Ireland is fascinating – the original language, which they still speak, is Gaelic, the music is a more folk-based music – remember the music we’ve done by the Rend Collective? They have their own version of bagpipes, where the player can actually create a vibrato and play a melody with expression and soul. The accordion is big – I have a colleague in the Master Chorale – Dermot from Dublin – who actually did a master’s degree in classical accordion and played in an accordion orchestra and was taught to play the penny whistle from age 4 (interestingly, my Italian professor in college was from Venice and played in an accordion orchestra). Of course, not all their music is folk based – there’s the matter of that little band called U2……
The Lord Is My Shepherd is a monumental work that features a tenor soloist and choir, with a big orchestra accompaniment (for our purposes, we have our own orchestra in the 10 fingers of Paul). It was composed here in Los Angeles by Meir Finkelstein 30 years ago. Meir is a British national who was brought to Los Angeles by the Sinai Temple in Westwood to be their cantor and composer in residence, where he flourished for decades. These days he is in Detroit and continues to write what is, in my humble opinion, some of the best music in the Jewish world. Back in 1995, the Jewish community staged a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. They rented the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, hired the L.A. Philharmonic and the L.A. Master Chorale (I can’t begin to imagine what it must have cost) and filled the concert with Meir’s music. They had celebrity MC’s (I remember Billy Crystal talking about growing up in an Italian neighborhood and splitting the cultural difference by having spaghetti with matzo balls). I was absolutely floored singing The Lord Is My Shepherd – my first thought was “where has this been all my life and WHY isn’t it a part of international standard repertoire?” Of, course, for the basic church choir, it’s not for the faint of heart…it’s advanced music that requires a serious tenor soloist – of course, we have a serious tenor in Jose and the choir has been tackling the piece with gusto. We’re cutting parts of it for time, but it’s such a marvelous piece that we’ll circle back to it, perhaps in the fall and do it again with all the parts. Several years ago, I was looking for a big concert work to do with my choir of lawyers, so I sent a note to Meir and asked him if we could do this. He sent me not only the vocal score, but the orchestral parts as well. It’s truly magnificent, and I hope it impacts all of you the same way it impacted me. You can hear it on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5-Z0X5eSVI
Phil Wickham is a Christian artist from San Diego. He grew up in a musical home, with both his parents at one time being members of the Christian band Parable. His father, John, is still a worship leader and his brother, Evan, started as a musician in a worship band and now is pastor of Park Hill Church in San Diego. Phil released his first album, Give You My World, in 2003 and has since released a total of 9 albums. The song Living Hope was the title song released on the album Living Hope in 2018. You’ll be able to catch his act in Bakersfield on April 19 this year. Check out his website for more information.