The blessing of acappella singing and shape notes

Sacred Harp Singing

This past weekend, some friends of mine and I dressed up and sang at an event that occurs every year out here in West Texas called Candlelight, where people come and tour the restored buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries at the National Ranching Heritage Center while people reenact what people then might have done during the holiday season. We have been singing in what used to be a train station (that has awesome acoustics by the way--wood floor and high ceiling, etc.) for four or five years now, and some of the same people are in there with us every year. However, every year some of them ask us questions such as how long we have been together as a group, whether we have made any CDs of our singing, and where we learned to sing. We respond every time that we have not sung much as a group, though we might sing in the same congregation sometimes. In fact, we hardly ever sing as a group except at this event. Yet the people that ask seem rather astounded when we tell them that. These questions--plus the fact that the people that pass by on their tour often seem to be so attracted to our group singing that they will sometimes stick around to hear the song we are singing at that time all the way through--lead me to ask myself, Is our singing that unusual? Don't people usually sing older hymns this time of year anyway?

Now, bear in mind that I do not mean to flaunt our singing talents to the world by writing the previous paragraph. In fact, few of us have had any formal musical training, that is, unless week-long summer singing schools are defined to be "formal" musical training. Thus the fact that we cause such reactions, although flattering, was rather unexpected the first year we sang in the train station. Be that as it may, the two things that I believe we have going for us are our lifelong experience with acappella singing and shape notes.

With those two things in mind, I can begin to see why our singing seems to be such a novelty. First, few in our day have sung many acappella hymns and have not had the opportunity of hearing the powerful old hymns that were written two or three hundred years ago to be sung acappella. In addition, many of the well-known songs that are sung this time of year such as "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," "O Come All Ye Faithful," and "Silent Night" sound different without the instruments. It seems that older hymns such as those contain a sound that is covered up by instruments but comes through like a soft yet brilliant light when sung without them--especially in a room with great acoustics. Some people that come through the tour--especially those who are musically inclined--are drawn to that sound and do not want to leave it.

Second, many people find it rather unusual that we are able to up and sing a song without at least pulling out a pitch pipe and without rehearsal, and yet we are able to sing four parts harmoniously and sometimes even produce overtones. Many of us who lead songs--including me--cannot say right off the bat what key a song is written in because we pitch songs by ear, not by the key. This leads to another fact about singing acappella for a long period of time: You have to be able to hear the other parts, hear what you are singing, and know whether it sounds right with no help from a piano, guitar, or any other instrument. 

Shape notes do help a lot, though. The most common shape-note system is the seven-note system, which has a shape for every note on the scale (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti) as shown on the first line below.

This system of notation is great for acappella singing because one always knows where every note on the scale is, and so one can use relative pitch to pitch a song without relying on an instrument.

Nevertheless, the most important ingredient that I believe attracts people to our singing every year is the fact that no instrument can match the instrument that God Himself made--especially when sung with the Holy Spirit's blessing by people who believe every word they are singing and have grown up learning the shape notes and singing that kind of music. Furthermore, the words are more powerful and present more vivid images than many written today. One of the songs we sang last weekend was a Sacred Harp song named "Lloyd," whose words are as follows:

My Savior and my King,
Thy beauties are divine;

Thy lips with blessing overflow,

And ev'ry grace is Thine.

The smilings of Thy face,

How amiable they are;

'Tis heav'n to rest in Thine embrace

And nowhere else but there.

Nor earth, nor all the sky,

Can one delight afford;

No, not a drop of Thy real joy,

Without Thy presence, Lord.

The last verse says it pretty well: The best things on earth (including singing) cannot be truly delightful without God's presence. In the end, we should all pray that we may have His presence whenever we meet to sing.

"Joy unspeakable and full of glory"

I love how the Old Testament seems to have more and more joyful passages the closer the Biblical timeline gets to the birth of Christ. Consider that all of these passages were written either during the decline of Judah or after the Babylonians destroyed the kingdom:
"Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad, and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." --Zephaniah 3:14-17
"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for lot, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy mountain." --Zechariah 2:10-13
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." --Zechariah 9:9
"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
--Zechariah 12:10
If the prophets could be this joyful during a time of decay and destruction, then we have no excuse but to imitate them. Now, don't get me wrong: I am not talking about some sort of Pollyanna-like "glad game" really. Rather, we should be joyful in the fact that Christ has come and saved us eternally. In fact, we actually have even more reason than Zephaniah or Zechariah or any of the other prophets had to be joyful, because that which they saw dimly in the future we now see in the light of the present day. Anyway, I think it fitting to put in a happier post since my last posts have been rather--shall we say--gloomy.
P.S. Zechariah 12:10 (the last passage listed above) is a very intriguing verse of Scripture to me. It prophesies that the Jews will mourn for Him Whom they have pierced (a phrase which points almost explicitly to Jesus Christ). Although I believe this verse was partially fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost when Peter preached to his brethren, I also wonder if it points to a future time yet to be seen when a glorious Christian revival will sweep across the Jewish people. As Paul said in Romans 11:5, "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant [among the Jews] according to the election of grace." How awesome it would be to see that day, if that is indeed the day to which these verses--one in the Old Testament, one in the New--refer.
P.P.S. Another element common to all of these Old Testament verses is that of singing. The concept of singing to the Lord is seen throughout the Bible as an integral part of worshiping God, alongside prayer. Moreover, my personal belief is that we should sing to Him using the purest instrument in existence: the voice, the only instrument designed by God Himself.

Yet more ponderings

Yes, I admit it. I've been guilty of reading through the prophetic books of the Old Testament just because--well--it's still part of the Bible, you know, and I should probably read through them since the New Testament quotes them so much--I mean, at least for reference purposes. Of course, the beautiful Messianic prophecies of Isaiah especially catch one's attention, but haven't we all been a little guilty at one time or another of zoning out somewhat when Isaiah and the other prophets begin warning of destruction against such-and-such unpronounceable city or such-and-such country that was located over somewhere in that region thousands of years ago or the Somethingorother-ites that sometimes sound like something out of a modern Dr. Seuss book? In other words, we are tempted to maintain a rather detached view of these prophecies since they'd already been fulfilled (at least, most of them) by the time Jesus Christ lived on this earth.

However, as I'm reading through the Old Testament again, somehow I seem to notice more than I ever had before how--well--really modern the prophets sound in their judgments against nations and kingdoms. Take Isaiah 31:1 for example: "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." Now, at first glance, I'm tempted to glaze over when it comes to the part about horses and chariots since those haven't been used as weaponry for centuries and when it talks about wanting Egypt to help since nobody gets help from Egypt today (in fact, there the ones that need help now...). However, that misses the point of this verse entirely. Perhaps recent events in the news regarding toppling governments and economic uncertainty around the world have given this verse fresh vigor for me. What Isaiah is saying here if you peel back the layer of historical terms is really, "Trusting in alliances or modern weaponry--including (especially nowadays) the power of money--isn't going to save your nation when you've turned away from God." In fact, the verse states that woe will come to those who trust in those things. Sounds rather modern, doesn't it?

In short, when one peels back the layers of names of countries and cities that have been dust-piles for the longest time, one finds that the prophecies have lost none of their fire at all. In fact, they seem to be refulfilling themselves today. Once again, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun" (Eccl. 1:9). God hasn't changed his attitude toward nations who, like Israel, have forsook him as a nation or are forsaking him (think "America"); nor has he changed his attitude toward the heathen nations like Assyria, Babylon, Edom, Moab, Philistia, etc., who have never as a whole worshiped him as the one and only God (e.g., the Muslim nations of the Middle East). This is the part when I get that shiver up and down my spine because of what history teaches happened to those nations: utter destruction. The city of Tyre, which was viewed at one time as the harbor of the nations, was torn down and literally dragged into the sea. Today, it's just a fishing town (fulfilling Ezek. 26:14). Jerusalem was burnt with fire and the temple was destroyed, first by the Babylonians and finally by the Romans. To this day, it has never regained its magnificence and splendor. With all this in view, what does that mean for us? Are we to suffer their fate? God's word is clear: our nation's destruction will come, unless we repent. Countless times in the Old Testament Israel is instructed to turn and repent to save herself from destruction, but she did not during the final days of the kingdom of Israel first and the kingdom of Judah afterwards, and was destroyed. We would do well to take heed to that warning.

The following is a poem that I wrote after reading through Jeremiah 9, one of the saddest passages of that book, yet a glimmer of hope (from verse 24) remains at the end:

Jeremiah's Lamentation:

A Poetic Paraphrase of the Ninth Chapter of the Book of the Weeping Prophet

O that I could but weep and cry,

For on my nation God's wrath doth lie!

O that I could fly from the vile,

E'en if to some deserted isle!

But God is just; He sees their work--

He sees that they His laws do shirk.

From evil they cannot be still,

And regard not Him on Zion's hill.

They lie, they all; there's not a soul

Whose reputation is all whole.

E'en family one can't believe,

For lies abound, and truth doth leave.

A bond, a pact, is worthless now;

They teach their tongues lies to allow.

Fatigued and tired are they from sin,

Yet do they walk e'en more therein.

For th'land I weep--it is on fire;

The flames do rise continually higher.

The beasts and birds, they all do flee.

No person in the towns I see.

Who is the wise one who doth know

For what the land doth perish so,

And why the wilderness is burned,

That travelers from it must turn?

Yet saith the Lord, "My judgment's right,

For from My laws they do alight,

And after their own hearts do walk;

To bow to idols they do not balk.

"Yea, verily may they weep and cry,

For I cruel waters do apply.

Yea, verily may they mourn and wail,

For I their false hopes do assail!"

Cruel death is come into our land,

And there is none to lend a hand

To bury all the dead around,

For dead men shall so much abound.

"Let not the wise their wisdom boast;

Let not men trust in pow'r and hosts,

And let not rich men's glory be

Their wealth, their great prosperity.

"But let their glory ever be

To understand and to know Me,

The great Jehovah, Adonai,

And to me let them send their cry.

"In lovingkindness, judgment right,

And righteousness I do delight,

But let them not trust in their work,

For punishment in that way doth lurk."

And that ends yet another post that is much longer than I ever anticipated, but I hope it still remains thought-provoking although rather (all right, very) wordy. Goodbye for the present!

Today's ponderings

It's amazing how a thought will randomly come up to me and grab me when I least expect it, leaving me to wonder whether I should drop what I'm doing and write it down or just shrug it off, as it were. Such an event happened to me today while I was at Walmart just minding my own business. Be that as it may, I bought what I was going to buy at Walmart and came home in Red Butler, my little red 1996 Honda Civic (more on that later), and wrote down the thought before it escaped. Thankfully it didn't take long to put it on paper since I had a nice pile of dishes to wash and put away and textbooks to look up online (oh the joy...). So, here 'tis!

Today we see more clearly than ever the decline of the nation dubbed "the world's last beacon of hope and freedom." Suddenly the nation and the world see the hammer and chisel of financial neglect poised for a mighty blow which would threaten to crumble the very foundation laid by the Founding Fathers.

Yet an even more long-lasting threat plagues the nation: the systematic decline of the Western nations in righteousness and power. The date in the past when this downfall began is hard to place, however, because at no time has all of the West been at its peak. In fact, one can almost see a sort of sinusoidal motion [to use a mathematical term] in history in the West from east to west. As one nation rises, another declines; as one nation reaches its peak, another begins to rise to take its place. For example, as England rose in 1588 after the defeat of Spain's armada, Spain declined. As England reached its pinnacle of power, the United States began to rise. As the United States became the most powerful nation on earth, the continent of Asia (especially China) began to rise. Not only has power traveled thus, but the light of God has also generally done so and is doing so as it disappears almost completely in Europe, fades in North America, and brightens in Asia. Just based on this pattern, who seems to be next in line for world power? The oil-rich, fierce Middle Eastern nations.

The words of the Old Testament prophets can often seem archaic at best, with words of impending doom on nations that had ceased to exist before Christ walked the earth; but, as the West as a whole slips into the darkness from which it came, one can almost hear those words of the prophets echoing down through history with one simple yet profound statement: "What happened to Israel, to Judah, to Egypt, to Babylon, is about to happen to you."

Nevertheless, by now means should we slip into the error of fatalism, nor should we wish that we could have been placed elsewhere on the "sinusoid of history." Rather, we should pray that God would not forsake this nation and cast it into another Dark Age but would mercifully renew this nation's light of truth and freedom to the world, and that we would be His lights no matter how dark the spiritual twilight of the West may become. Let us not cower as darkness rises in this land and, with it, persecution--now indirect but becoming more blatant year by year. Let us face the darkness with the godly defiance of the Christians in Roman times and rejoice as the light of the gospel reaches another land formerly in the darkness. For the day swiftly approaches when the gospel will finish its march around the world--whether east to west or otherwise--to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people and the last of the elect will be gathered into the fold. Then God's purpose for this world will be complete, and the Light of God will ascend to heaven with all His children, leaving the world and the wicked for the final, everlasting judgment and destruction. 

 

A first welcome and introduction

First of all, welcome to this, my humble online abode for prose, poetry, and silliness (as put forth in the title above). How often I shall update this blog I cannot say, but I shall to the best of my ability put forth my ponderings on a regular basis for the consumption of all who may be interested.

As for the name of the blog, I have to tip my hat (although I'm not currently wearing one, but I'm sure you take my meaning) to my sister Stacey and the Ritchies. First, thank you, Stacey, for coming up with one of the two possibilities that I originally had in mind for the blog, namely "The Cliffs of Insanity" (from The Princess Bride, in case anyone is wondering). Second, thank you, Eliot, for allowing me to rather randomly steal--er--commandeer one of your statuses (or stati?) to ask about ideas for a blog name. Finally, thank you, Kim, for coming up with the compromise between the two possibilities (the afore-mentioned "The Cliffs of Insanity" and my idea, "Chronicles of a Bookworm") which became the title for it.

(My congratulations to anyone that was able to safely navigate that treacherous sea of parentheses found in the paragraph above and encircling this sentence. Perhaps I should change the name to "Chronicles of Parenthetical Insanity.")

My wish is that this blog be a place for my readers (should there be very many) to ponder life's often-humorous randomness and partake of some silly, random laughter in the process. Anyway, here it goes!