Lent Day 16: Worship Service Music

"ONE and two AND three and FOUR and ONE and two AND three and FOUR and"

That's my mantra for the day, to get the musical syncopation into my entire being by tomorrow morning.  I'm part of a worship band at my church, and we play on the first Sunday of each month during the academic year.  Tomorrow is the only time we play in Lent, and we ordered special music (published just this year) for it.

The music is extremely contemplative and ethereal.  It sounds simple and on the page looks simple, yet there are subtleties in the soul of the music that bedeviled me at today's rehearsal.  Actually this happens every month if I haven't really practiced before the rehearsal, but I had been doing better this year up until this month.  And I assumed the piano part was simple, and by itself it is.

However... with music this delicately layered, the piano part is truly just a component, and must align tightly to a cantor, and to the assembly.  The whole thing needs to work together, and the cantor and the band (and in this case mostly the piano because we dropped the guitars for this month) need to be able to cue the congregation.

In a way, I wish I didn't have to do the music tomorrow.  For the first time in a long time I've had a stretch of worship services in which I don't usher, play music or fill the assisting minister role.  I've gotten to just absorb all the sights and sounds of the services of and in Lent.  But I'm glad for tomorrow's opportunity:  I get to contribute music to the service.  And with enough practice tonight, the melodies, rhythms and words are in my entire being, ready to share tomorrow morning.

Oh, and the words that go with my counting mantra above?  They are:

"Hold   us   in   your          mer - cy.            Hold   us   in   your          mer - cy.               "
"ONE and two AND three and FOUR and ONE and two AND three and FOUR and"


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