practicing the piano

I played the piano for three pieces in yesterday's Easter program at church, so I was trying to get some more practice in the morning before going to church. The kids wanted to practice too. Kevin actually wasn't too problematic because he seemed to figure out that he could only play the high notes, but when Heidi came up between my knees that made things interesting! When I decided I was done, Kevin begged me to play "Hosanna" again. (He sort of knew the song because the primary children sang some of the piece with us.)

Angels Singing of Christ's Birth

This year I have been thinking a lot about the angels that came to the shepherds to declare the wonderful news of Christ's birth. We sang a beautiful arrangement of Hark the Herald Angels Sing this year in our Christmas program, and it gave me a sense of the way the angels must have felt as they sang to express their joy that the Savior was born and that he had come to save us all. It must have been a glorious and exciting time! I am so grateful that Christ came and saved us from our sins and from death. I am grateful for the hope and peace He has brought to my life over and over again.

Here are a couple of videos of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I think these songs do a good job of capturing the joy and excitement that I have felt this year for Christ's birth and life.

Before the Marvel of This Night

Here are the lyrics to one of the pieces we sang in the Christmas program this year:

Before the Marvel of This Night

Before the marvel of this night, adoring, fold your wings and bow,
Then tear the sky apart with light, and with your news the world endow.
Proclaim the birth of Christ and peace, that fear and death and sorrow cease:
Sing peace, sing peace, sing gift of peace, sing peace, sing gift of peace!

Awake the sleeping world with song, this is the day the Lord has made.
Assemble here, celestial throng, in royal splendor come arrayed.
Give earth a glimpse of heav’nly bliss, a teasing taste of what they miss:
Sing bliss, sing bliss, sing endless bliss, sing bliss, sing endless bliss!

The love that we have always known, our constant joy and endless light,
Now to the loveless world be shown, now break upon its deathly night.
Into one song compress the love that rules our universe above:
Sing love, sing love, sing god is love, sing love, sing God is love!

visit from Ryan's parents

(Read this one--the other one wasn't finished yet.)

Last Sunday Ryan's parents came to visit us. They stayed until Thursday morning.

On Monday I did homework in the morning, and then we went and looked at the Duke gardens and walked around Duke campus. Ryan's dad took a lot of pictures. Kevin liked seeing the fish, the geese, the turtle, and the blue Heron. We enjoyed looking around the Duke chapel. There was someone in there practicing The Messiah  on the organ, and I just loved it. The organ had a really beautiful sound. Kevin really enjoyed it too. When we went back outside he kept running back inside and saying, "Song? Song?" There were a couple of students nearby who tossed their football around with Kevin for a while. One of them even told Kevin he should go vegan. (We are politely disregarding that advice, as milk is currently one of Kevin's few sources of protein.)

On Tuesday I had class in the morning and Ryan had to help administer a final all afternoon. The rest of us spent the afternoon at Kidzu, a children's museum. The favorite activity was definitely the Gravitron. (You can see a picture of it halfway down this page.) It had a magnetic wall to which you could attach various pipes to make a winding tunnel for balls to roll down. Kevin couldn't get enough of it.

On Wednesday we went to Raleigh and saw the Capitol and the war monuments all around it. Then we went to the Natural History museum. We saw dinosaurs, turtles, snakes, spiders, beetles, fish, crabs, and butterflies. Kevin's favorite exhibit? The escalators, of course. He just wanted to ride them the whole time. After the museum we went to Chick-fil-A and then drove home in a lot of traffic and even more rain. Ryan's parents babysat Heidi and Kevin so Ryan and I could go out for ice cream alone. We had such a nice time just sitting and talking after we finished our ice cream, and I realized we really need to go on dates alone more often.

Ryan's parents left early Thursday morning. It was so nice to have family here to visit! Kevin loved his grandma and grandpa.

On Saturday evening Ryan and I got a babysitter and went to a party held by one of Ryan's advisers. That was the first time I've left Heidi with a babysitter that wasn't family, but she did great, even if I worried the whole time. We had a nice time and it was fun to get to know some of the other people Ryan works with.

Yesterday we had our ward Christmas program in Sacrament meeting. It went really well. We had some really beautiful pieces and the Spirit was very strong. Playing the piano and singing in the ward choir has really strengthened my testimony of Christ this Christmas. Kevin was coughing and had a runny nose, so I ended up bringing him and Heidi home after Sacrament meeting while Ryan stayed and taught in his Primary class.

We've had quite the series of illnesses this fall. I'm definitely getting tired of it. There was the cold I got at the beginning of the semester that spread to my eyes, then a few weeks later the kids had colds, then I got swollen lymph nodes, then Ryan and Kevin had sore throats and fevers, then Kevin had stomach cramps and threw up a couple of times (in the grocery store and the doctor's office--lovely!!), and now the kids have colds again. I am being very consistent about washing hands as soon as we get home, but somehow the germs are still sneaking in. Maybe we should just never leave the house until February? That being said, we have loved the extended fall weather this year! Up until this week it's been the perfect temperature. (Anybody want to move closer?)

Today at church we sang The Star Spangled Banner. I felt that the words of the song were very timely for me because they brought peace to my heart with respect to some things that have been worrying me lately. The United States is a great nation, but I worry because there is a lot of corruption in our government and many people are rejecting God and refusing to obey His commandments. I don't know if things will get better any time soon, but I at least felt hope and comfort. I know that God will guard and protect us if we are righteous, and even if there isn't a lot I can do to change the direction things are going, I will still be blessed if I continue to live a righteous life and if I try to share the gospel. I feel very strongly that the best thing we can do to change the direction our country is going is to share the gospel and stand for truth and righteousness. It's also important to keep an eternal perspective and try to remember that ultimately it will all work out. I look forward to the time when Christ will rule and reign. Many people are offended by the suggestion that Americans must trust in God and obey Him, but I firmly believe that unless we do so, our country will fail and fall.

Here are the words of the third verse of the song, which struck me so powerfully:

Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Day of Service

A couple of weeks ago, our ward had a talent show, and I decided to play a piano piece by Rachmaninoff that I played in my senior recital four years ago. The next Sunday, a brother from our ward asked if I would like to play that piece and maybe one or two more at an assisted living center on the Day of Service, an event sponsored by the wards in our area in which several service projects were arranged in the community. I told him I would love to do that. Yesterday was the Day of Service. I went to the assisted living center thinking that the residents might appreciate having someone to visit, but wouldn't care too much about me playing the piano. When I walked in, the people I saw were mostly sitting in chairs with little expression on their faces. I guess you can't know for sure how much they're taking in, but I didn't feel like I was doing anything special when for all I knew these people weren't even aware that someone was playing music. But after I had played a couple of songs, the brother who had asked me to come told me that there was a lady who wanted to meet the person playing the piano. There was a sweet, bright-eyed woman with white hair sitting in an armchair, and she said she used to play the piano ("Beethoven, Mozart, Bach . . . I played all of those") and asked me to play some more songs. So I played a couple more, and then I went and talked to her again. She told me about how she would love to still play the piano, but she can't get onto the piano bench because it's not very stable and she has to use a walker. She also said that she had just been saying that she wished people would come sometimes and play classical music, and then I started playing, and she was so excited to hear someone playing classical music. I'm grateful that I was able to gladden someone's heart with my talents. Sometimes I have wondered if it was even worth it to learn to play the piano when I can't really practice regularly right now and the only benefit seems to be that occasionally I have some fun playing songs, but then I have experiences like this and I'm reminded that it was worthwhile, even if it was all just to bring a little sunshine to a little white-haired lady at a nursing home.

So what else have we done?

My life does not revolve around being pregnant. Okay, it does, because everything I do has to be negotiated around the temporary addition to my torso as well as the added weight it has brought, but what I mean is that there's more to it than doing baby stuff. I'll prove it.

We went to hear the North Carolina Symphony in the grassy area in Southern Village with some of our friends. We all brought our own dinner and a treat to share, and we watched the concert on blankets and lawn chairs. I really enjoyed the concert. The concert had a movie theme. All of the pieces had been played in a movie. Here's the program, with some of my comments:

1. Richard Strauss: Fanfare from Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30 (from 2001: A Space Odyssey)
2. Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, Movement IV Saltarello: Presto (from Breaking Away)
3. Johan Strauss, Jr.: Wiener Blut, Waltzes, Op. 354 (from The Great Waltz) (The director explained that Wiener Blut means Viennese Blood and it's supposed to mean that the piece has the energy that you only find in Viennese Waltzes)
4. Amilcare Ponchielli: Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda (from Fantasia--remember the part where the hippos, ostriches, alligators, and elephants are dancing around? The director was also kind enough to let everyone sing, "Hello, mudda. Hello, fadda. Here I am at Camp Granada" . . . so that people could get it out of their system and enjoy the piece {I appreciated that he said nobody was allowed to sing along while the symphony played.})
5. Richard Wagner: The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walkure (from Apocalypse Now, and also the Bugs Bunny episode where Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny are dressed in togas and hats with horns like the Valkyries--the only one I remember where Elmer Fudd actually got Bugs, and of all the responses he could give he cried like a baby about it)
6. James Bates: Western Opener (a medley of themes from several different westerns--we came home and watched The Magnificent Seven because I remembered from this piece that I still hadn't seen it)
7. Henry Mancini (arranged by Custer): A Tribute to Henry Mancini (a medley of several different songs by Henry Mancini)
8. Robert Wendel: When TV Was Young (a medley of several different theme songs from TV shows of the 50s--everybody loved this one and a bunch of people danced or sang along. I recognized most of the songs, but RT said he only recognized one--he didn't grow up watching TV).
9. John Williams: They were out of time, so the crowd had the option of hearing Superman March (which was on the program) or Star Wars (which was the encore)--most people seemed to want Star Wars, so that was what they played.

The reason I put the whole program on here, besides that I wanted to comment about several of the pieces, was so that you could see the order the pieces were played in. I think the order was intentional. At the beginning the pieces were classical art music, even though they had been played in movies. Most people wouldn't recognize them from movies. In the middle of the program, the pieces were still classical music, but they were very familiar to the people in the audience (Dance of the Hours was from Fantasia and the basis of a very annoying song about Camp Granada, and Ride of the Valkyries was used in a well-known Bugs Bunny cartoon). The last few songs were pretty much pop music (although I think Star Wars is great music). By arranging the program in this way, the symphony was able to keep it entertaining for the audience. At the beginning everyone was a little more capable of appreciating the great classical music, and at the end when they were a little more tired they still had a great time because they were hearing fun, familiar songs (which were still good music). Pretty smart.

It had been a while since I had gone to hear a symphony concert. I love listening to really good musicians in person. A recording just can't do it justice. The North Carolina Symphony had a really good sound. It was so nice to just sit there and feel the energy and beauty they put into the pieces. Being an oboist myself, I felt like I couldn't get enough of the oboes--they did such a nice job. I haven't had an oboe to play since we left BYU (they had some really, really nice ones that I could borrow for free), and I've really missed it. Someday I'll be able to come back to the oboe again. For now I love to hear good oboe music. I also realized how much I miss playing in a symphony. I got to play the oboe with the Magic Valley Symphony (a community symphony in the area of Twin Falls, Idaho) for a couple of years when I was in high school, and I really loved it. I think I'd rather play in a band or symphony than do an oboe solo.

I also remembered how annoyed I am that some music has been cheapened and ruined because it's been overused or parodied. There's the William Tell Overture, for example--everyone can sing it and even make up parodies using the tune, but I've rarely heard a group play it as art. And of course there's the Dance of the Hours, which nobody can listen to anymore without thinking about Camp Granada. I do appreciate that we've had some fun with those songs, but they will never be the same for me.

One thing I appreciated about the symphony was that even though they were playing fun, familiar songs, they didn't let that ruin their sound. Even in the fun songs at the end they still played with good tone and used dynamics. I remember my band director always had a hard time getting us to play with good tone when we were playing pep band music or arrangements of movie music. As soon as people realized they were playing something familiar they stopped thinking about playing good music. I guess that's what made the NC Symphony good, and my high school band just a high school band.

It was fun to watch a concert in a casual atmosphere like this, rather than in a formal setting like an auditorium. People brought snacks, lawn chairs, and blankets and had a fun time. It was actually much more family friendly than a regular concert. It was the sort of thing you could bring your young children to, because if they were a little wiggly or cried a little bit you didn't have to feel mortified like you would in an auditorium. I intend to keep this sort of thing in mind so that I can still occasionally enjoy a concert while the children are small--and maybe it will help them to appreciate good music.