The Word – Music Story

The present influences what we believe about the past.

Who was Jesus? A myth? A good man? A teacher? A prophet? Much hinges on the answer to that question.

The Apostle John answered that question in the prologue to his Gospel. Jesus, the Word, was in the beginning. He was with God. He was God. He created all there is. He became a man. He was rejected. He gives life to all who believe in him.

Did the early disciples actually believe this? Or was this a later construct?

The present influences what we believe about the past.

The John Rylands Library at Manchester, England houses fragments of ancient writings. In 1934 a fellow at St. John’s College at Oxford was sorting through some papyri from Egypt. He found a small fragment of the Gospel of John. Since penmanship constantly changes over time, papyri can be dated by its writing style. Originally dated by paleography to 117 – 138 AD, most scholars currently it date to 125 – 150 AD.

Earliest fragment of the Gospel of John

John was an eye witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Although it is traditionally believed that John wrote his Gospel while in Ephesus around 90 AD, he most likely wrote it before the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70.[1] His eyewitness account was copied and a copy made its way to Egypt. Within 100 years of Jesus’ death, Christians in Egypt had written eyewitness testimony that Jesus lived, died, was buried and came back to life, and that he is God!

The present influences what we believe about the past.

The John Rylands Papyrus P⁵² shows that there was no time for myth and legend to develop between Jesus’ death and the Gospel of John showing up in Egypt. The early disciples believed Jesus was God. This was not a later construct.

I set John’s prologue to music and incorporated it in a musical, "The Majesty of the Maker." This video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Click here to download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.

Print sheet music for choir (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML) sheet music for chamber ensemble is available for The Word. 

Click here for PDF.

Click here for MusicXML.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML files.) 

Click here to read about the John Rylands Papyrus P⁵²

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[1] John 5:2 “Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool …”

Magic Eight – Music Story

How do you celebrate your eighth birthday when you have a touch of Irish in your blood and were born on St. Patrick’s Day? Have a sleepover with four girlfriends and do as many mythical things as you can think of!

Wear fairy wings.

Make dragon snot slime.

Store slime in dragon eggs.

Make mermaid brew from instant.

Toast with edible Jolly Rancher shot glasses.

Serve unicorn poop ice cream with birthday cake.

And, of course, your friends howl “Happy Birthday to You” like they were werewolves.

From the album “Silly or Celebratory – Songs for Sara Lily” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Magic Eight.

Click here for print sheet music (lead sheet format).

Click here for digital sheet music for pop/rock band.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.) 

The Song of Habakkuk – Music Story #2

A society governed by lists is easily corrupted. The words can be twisted. Even a list written on stone can be attacked with chisel and hammer.

His nation had deteriorated into a checklist society because their worship had deteriorated into a checklist religion. The law was intended to direct the passions of the heart toward its Maker. But they twisted it to justify unrestrained passion. Trickery and bribery were passion’s chisel and hammer; injustice, quarrels, fighting, and violence its outcome. The nation had become thoroughly corrupt. As a result God was sending a brutal people to conquer and deport them.

Twice Habakkuk asked God “why.” Both times God answered with “who,” inviting trust.

How can God be trusted when injustice rules the day and tomorrow is terrifying? Habakkuk considered the defining moment in his nation’s history. They had been slaves. God was angered by their circumstances. In God’s wrath he was merciful. He miraculously rescued them from slavery. As Habakkuk focused on God’s character and power, he trembled in awe. God had not changed. Even when angered, God was merciful. He was still Savior! He could be trusted!

Habakkuk was a singer-songwriter. He set his thoughts to music. He composed a worship song that would be his prayer then and when tomorrow became terrifying.

From the album “Apologia – Answers for Troubled Minds” this video is scrolling playback of music from the third chapter of Habakkuk. (Click here for music from the first two chapters.)

Kathy

Click here to read the third chapter of Habakkuk.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Song of Habakkuk – Part V.

Clickhere for print sheet music (lead sheet format). 

Click here for digital sheet music for trombone & strings.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music.
Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.) 

The Song of Habakkuk – Music Story #1

Everywhere he looked he saw violence and injustice. He was powerless to change it.

He was a singer-songwriter, a musician, a prophet, a student of his culture. He was deeply disturbed by the pervasive moral decay all around him. No one was able to stem the tide of violence and corruption. The wicked outnumbered the innocent. They intimidated the blameless, twisting the law, perverting justice. Ironically, these were God’s people who so flagrantly violated God’s laws.

He cried out to God, “How can you tolerate this? Why aren’t you doing something about this?”

God replied, “Watch and see what I am about to do.” God would send a brutal, godless nation to conquer and deport them. These warriors were a proud people who worshipped the works of their own hands. They were a law to themselves, believing that their cruelty was justified; their might made brutality right.

Confused, he complained to God. “Why do you let the wicked destroy people who are better than they? How can you condone this?”

God answered him, assuring him that these brutal people, too, would be punished. The wicked, never satisfied with what they gained, would bring about their own downfall and death, their gains turning to ashes in their hands. But the righteous person trusts God and lives! God’s justice would prevail and his glory would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Twice Habakkuk asked God “why” and both times God answered with “who.” Habakkuk wrote down his questions and God’s answers in the first two chapters of the book by his name. Then, in the third chapter, Habakkuk modeled what trust in God looks like in a morally corrupt society, one ripe for punishment.

From the album “Apologia - Answers for Troubled Minds” this video is scrolling playback of music from the first two chapters of Habakkuk. (Music from the third chapter here.)

Click here and here to read the first two chapters of Habakkuk.

Kathy

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Song of Habakkuk I-IV.

Click here for print sheet music (lead sheet format). 

Click here for digital sheet music for orchestra.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.) 

Christmas Every Day – Music Story

Everyone – naughty and nice – longs for a place that meets the deepest longings of the human heart, a place where it’s like Christmas every day of the year.

A place where there is

·         Community instead of privilege

·         Forgiveness instead of payback

·         Harmony instead of conflict

·         Intimacy instead of walls

·         Transparency instead of hidden motives

A place where bullying, violence, and sexual harassment are unknown. Thievery can’t be found. Jealousy and envy have no quarter.

A place where there are no good-byes. A place of permanent prosperity, where no one lives in squalor or want. A place of generosity. Where random acts of kindness are common place. Where there is thrill in discovery and creativity. And joy over what others have and will accomplish.

This is a place where there is no evil. Where justice and mercy are perfectly balanced. It’s God’s place. His city.  It’s out of this world, but coming soon. He promises, “Everyone who conquers will inherit all these blessings, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

Those who enter, enter by his rule. “See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay everyone according to the deeds he has done. I am the A and the Z, the Beginning and the End, the First and Last. Blessed forever are all who are washing their robes, to have the right to enter in through the gates of the city and to eat the fruit from the Tree of Life.”

May you enter that city. Merry Christmas to all!

From the musical The Majesty of the Maker! this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Click here to download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.

Click here and here to read about the city.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Christmas Every Day.

Click here for print sheet music.

Click here for digital sheet music.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music.
Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.)

(Quotes are from The Living Bible.)

Mystery - Music Story

The Making of a Music Story

Colossians 2 describes Jesus as the mystery of God! Mystery would be an awesome theme and title for a song based on that chapter.

My notes on Colossians 2 spill over into the next pages. I’ll write then rewrite and rewrite lyrics.

The final revision of lyrics sits at my work station where I play around with melody lines in major and minor keys.

Now to create the song on my computer. Going for a nocturne-like arrangement of Garritan® virtual instruments.

Finale®, my music composition program, creates a WAV file of the score. I add it to my iTunes playlist and listen on my iPod. The arrangement needs work.

So I edit the score. Again. And again. And again.

Now to make a video. I’ll need a public domain image as backdrop and interesting fonts for music and lyrics.

From the album “Sing” this Music Story video is a screen capture of Finale® playing Garritan® instruments.

Kathy

Did Mystery capture the theme of Colossians 2? Click here to read the passage.

Print sheet music for viola and piano is available for Mystery.

Click here for PDF.

Do you play or teach the viola or piano? Mystery is on SmartMusic, the comprehensive music practice app!

Click here to practice the music. Click here for SmartMusic help.

You can change key and instrumentation with MusicXML - digital sheet music.

Click here for MusicXML.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.)

Mystery is on SmartMusic here.

Sandhill Cranes Lullaby - Music Story

Dear Sara Lily,

This lullaby was written for you, to celebrate your first Christmas, the Christmas three months before your birth.

Sara Lily

It was a chilly November day that sandhill cranes sang to me. Grandpa and I were outside washing our cars before winter set in and it snowed. We heard beautiful music in the skies. Grandpa pointed to sandhill cranes flying south to Georgia and central Florida for the winter.

Sandhill Crane

These cranes would return in March or April, singing as they fly over our house again. But most cranes take a different migration route.

Spring Migration Routes

Something magical happens every spring in Nebraska.

Crane Trust, Wood River NE

Over a quarter of a million cranes crowd together along an 80 mile stretch of the Platte River waiting for warmer weather. When it warms up, they will fly away to Canada, Alaska, or Siberia to raise their young.

This lullaby was my Christmas, 2009 gift to you. The baby born on the very first Christmas slept near animals on a mattress of hay. Jesus’ mother, Mary, wrapped him in strips of cloths and laid him in a manger, the animals feeding trough. He may have been serenaded by sheep or donkeys or oxen.

I hope you never outgrow lullabies. I hope you find wonder in the wild and beautiful songs just outside your window. I hope you grow to love the Creator who writes these songs in the hearts of his creatures and who then chose to become that Christmas baby.

Love,

Grandma

From the album “Silly or Celebratory – Songs for Sara Lily” this video is scrolling playback of the song. Pizzicato strings imitate the vocalizations of sandhill cranes. Put headphones on and they will fly right over your head, moving from ear to ear.

Click here for the original Sandhill Cranes Lullaby Sara Lily video (music overlaid on slides).

Click here and here for Sandhill Cranes Lullaby wall art.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Sandhill Cranes Lullaby.

Click here for print sheet music (lead sheet format).

Click here to for digital sheet music.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music.

Check the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™ files.)