[Choir] today's service

[Richard Riley]

"I Believe" had a very significant impact on listeners this morning - or so
I believe. My back, of course, is to the congregation, but at the end of
every piece you sing I DO listen for a murmur, or the sound of arms being
raised, or (of course) for the occasional applause in our more extroverted
pieces. I could tell that you touched them this morning, and for that I am
glad for you, and for them.

I was so glad that Joan was able to amplify on the text - that they were words
scratched on the walls of a cellar in Cologne, Germany by a Jew hiding from
Nazi persecution - as that was not indicated anywhere in the edition that
we were using.

Now, here's a different, rather oblique reflection on a different moment in
today's service, and a request:

When I was a choirboy back in the mid-to-late 60s, I sang in an Episcopal
cathedral in Baltimore. Over time, as I became a student of the
organist/choirmaster, he began to tell me stories about what he had
experienced while making music in the cathedral. One story that I've never
forgotten was about what happened one time while he was playing the
postlude. He was playing a piece by Bach, who as I'm sure many of you know,
wrote some absolutely great music for the organ. But in this cathedral, it
was not at all uncommon for the parishioners to start talking the minute
the postlude began. And if it was a big, loud piece, everyone talked more
loudly. As the organist played this great (loud) piece by Bach, the noise
level of the congregants got so loud that he became frustrated that no one
was listening. So in the middle of the Bach, without pause, he began
playing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen", and, you guessed it, no one
noticed! Not a great moment in church music.

So I pass along this observation and request from a fellow who in the
congregation  this morning. One of the ways that UCM is special is that we
sit and listen to the postlude, and indeed Eliza has "taken" us to some
wonderful musical places at this point in the service because we are
listening. This morning this gentleman's focus on the music was distracted
by the popping sound of 3-ring binders while Eliza was playing. You were
doing this to be ready for my eager collection of your music at the end of
the service, but lets make sure that both you and I go into "post-service"
mode only when we are truly done with the service.

Finally, also at the end of today's service, I had a request from Tom
Schersten, one of our newest members of the choir, for the names of all who
are currently singing. Tom is a bass. Some of you who live in the far-off
lands of soprano and tenor are harder for him to know. And I can imagine
that there are others of you who feel similarly about those exotic people
who sing outside your section. Here's a list of those who have been singing
in recent weeks:

*Sopranos*
Brenda Bean
Beth Damon
Kairn Kelley
Fran Krushenick
MaryJean McKelvy
Charlotte Root
Ginny Sassaman
Lani Seifert
Cecile Sherburn
Joan Stepenske

*Altos*
Bettie Barnes
Liz Benjamin
Bronwyn Fryer
Erin Kelley
Catherine Lowther
Mhairi Paget
Nan Prince
Susan Bull Riley
Sue Stukey

*Tenors*
Sarah Hooker
Ed Hutchinson
Phil Morse
Donia Prince
Lindsay Wade

*Basses*
Bill Paine
Christen Lynn
Bob Riggen
Tom Schersten
Harris Webster
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