Christmas Week

So I'm finally back from Utah. All in all and really fun trip. I got to spend time with my sister, meet relatives I didn't know. Eat more food than I probably have the entire semester. Spent more time playing video games than I have the rest of the semester combined. Met Duchess and Phoenix. Saw four movies, which sadly is probably more than I watched during last semester. Saw an old friend who I hadn't seen in five years. Sang with somebody who could do harmonies on the spot, didn't have to conduct the music and therefore have to sing melody, so I could sing any part I wanted. Spent Christmas day with my aunt and sister. Had an enjoyable time playing card games, improving at the piano with my sister, saw a movie, ate out, she even had quite a few presents for us. So that was a bonus. A lot of what she gave us will come into good use to. About the only thing that I didn't care for was the fact that there was barely any snow in Utah. It was pretty dishearting to find out that at the airport when I arrived home that it had snowed about four more inches than what Utah got. We spent about 15 minutes digging our puny car out of its parking spot. Although Lexington didn't get snow, we had yet another ice storm. Wish I had some pictures of it for you. This is the third year in a row we've had ice storms bad enough to pull down trees. It wasn't as bad as two years ago, when it knocked out power across town and we spent several days burning phone books for warmth. At least we had gotten out of school for two days. It would have been a third day, but there was a basketball game that day, so they decided to have school so they could have the basketball game. Wow, that was a tangent. Anyway, it was a fun time to spend in Utah and I enjoyed being nonconstructive and just taking it easy.

Aura of ???

So I finally am out here in Provo. Sorry, no insane flight stories, nice and peaceful, although a little boring. So the first night out here I stay up till 2 A.M. talking to my sister. Realize that I'm from Kentucky. So, yeah, 4 A.M. Well we discussed many things, and so I'm just putting up my thoughts about one of our conversations.

We are the most intimidating people to have others come and talk to us. I don't think intimidating is the word I want to use, but I'm not sure what else to use. If you ever see us, we are loners and very independent people. You will hardly ever see us in a group of people. I think I've mentioned something like that prieviously. My sister related the following example, which is just one of the many, many examples. In a class you have to take here at BYU called American Heritage Freshman year, they have a review session where they stick all the lasses together in one room. The entire room is full of people, some are even standing and in isles and everywhere else. My sister is in the middle of the room sitting, with empty seats on each side of her, and nobody chooses to sit in them. They'd rather stand or sit in isles or wherever else. We really can't figure out what it is. What do we say by our appearance that keeps people from ever approaching us? Granted it goes the same the other way that we don't go up to people and talk to them. Yet most people have their closenit groups and never branch out. Who knows why, whatever.

Werf #13

Well, I just got an e-mail from one of my brothers saying that their next child is due in August. This will bring the list of nieces and nephews(which will hereby be known as werfs) to 13. So who'll be next? Will it be big-n-little sis, my other brother who has yet to produce a werf and has been married for a year? Will my sister at BYU who has absolutely no romantic attraction to guys suddenly find one, get married and have a kid? Will brother who is having werf #13 pump out another before anyone else? Will the two oldest siblings surprise us and end up having more? Will I find the love of my life all of the sudden, get married and have a honeymoon baby that my brother just older than me had? The suspense is killing me. My bet goes to either big-n-little sis(if she's planning more) or brother who's been married for a year. Gotta love werfs.







No... I'm not Mormon at all.

Feeling Special

You know, with finals week being a joke for a music major, and studying is at a minimal, I've written quite a lot of things on this blog. More than every other day. I'm already so bored out of my mind that I'm ready for next semester to start, and finals aren't even over. At least that'll probably change as I get used to it and when I head out to see my sister.

Anyway, onto my blog. So yesterday, after writing up my slight changes of career plans, I head out to Kroger's to buy groceries. It's also my brother's birthday, and he wanted an ice cream cake. I looked but to no avail. I just had no clue where to get one, and had to give up on that search.

Anyway, as I'm looking around Kroger's a little girl comes joyfully up to me and starts talking to me. Now, I've been to about 10 different elementary schools and taught at at least four of them this semester. So my mind is racing to figure out where I know this child from. She said, "Remember, you got me up in class to measure my height." I used her to measure how tall a trombone is in the little brass demenstration. She was so excited to see me and talk to me. I just thought, "That is awesome." It made me feel pretty good. It's been almost 4 weeks since I'd even last seen them and she pointed me right out in the store.

The only thing that concerned me was how long it took me to remember her. I'm absolutely terrible with names, so bad that I never use names, even among the people I'm around daily. I couldn't tell you her name, and if that's what I'll end up doing. I could end up with 600 names of kids that I'll need to remember. But for now, I'll bask in the knowledge that this little child remembered me and the lesson I gave enough to greet me and talk to me in Kroger's.

End of Semester Summary

Misaneroth sent me an article titled "The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later" This in a large part sums up part of what this semester has been for me. I have never been so completely involved that I didn't keep other options(in a way). Let's face it, if I had the opportunity to play with an well-known orchestra, I would do that in a heartbeat. Yet, knowing exactly what this can involve, the risk, the time, the relations, the personality, I decided I'd do the music education degree and play like a performance major. I've pretty much held to this until this semester. And to a degree I still hold to that. Yet my focus has shifted quite a bit this semester. My long-term carrier goals at the beginning of the semester involved performing in an orchestra while teaching at the college level. Much the same as my teacher here. If you had asked me why, at that point I would said because I like music. Could I have given you a better answer than that, maybe, but it definitely wouldn't have come from my heart as much as what you would want to hear. I had no purpose to taking that route. If you've read my blog for a while, you've probably seen that shift. So I don't repeat myself, let's just say I've got a different outlook now and there is a purpose behind it, a love behind it, and a philosophy behind it, which was never there before. I was talking with a grad student about music philosophy and other related subjects at the band banquet, she congratulated me on finding that sense of purpose that so often evades music majors who just love music and do it just because of that.

Now this has caused some things to change for me. I no longer desire to practice so many hours on my tuba as I have done in the past. It was a huge struggle for me this semester to play the amount I did. It was sheer self-discipline that I did it. My passion has left that aspect of music. Why? It was serving no purpose. If I taught any grade level between K-12(K-5th is specifically what I would want to teach), my musicianship is developed to the point that there is no further need for me to work on the technicalities of the tuba. I still enjoy it, yes, but there is no passion there, however ignorant it might have been previously. I just hope to hold out till my senior recital in March. In a way, I'm glad I lost my job last summer or else I would have spent another $7,000 for another instrument that at this point, would be useless.

Another reason of that has caused this shift of thought is just my performance abilities. I don't understand why, but any time I am in a solo situation or an audition situation, my playing has consistently been subpar. For concert band auditions, I'm always about two chairs below where my true musicianship is. My last two juries have been poorly executed and sightreading terrible. I still get an A-, but that is unacceptable. I don't know why, I'm never nervous, it's just things never work out for me in those situations. In the practice room, I am great, things work well. The other students in the studio here have heard me, and know where I'm at. My work ethic for practicing is also the best in the studio and usually the most improved of all of them, I can just never execute it for when the situations are critical.

Well, so it's definitely been a useful semester and one that I've learned a lot and my life has gone a slightly different direction from where I thought it would go, but I'm glad it's gone the direction it's gone and that I have a sense of purpose to what I'm doing, instead of just liking it for what it is.

If you've read the article, what I'm curious about is to see how many other majors are as bad at not keeping their majors employed in that field.

(Pick your poison)imony

December and May have to be the worst months for testimonies. Especially the closer it is to the time everyone is taking off and leaving for good. For Christmas we have our CES missionary couple leaving, relief society president, two couples that I can remember getting married, and I think two other people leaving. You can just imagine how testimony meeting went. I think less than half the testimonies that were given mentioned the Savior, and this is Christmas too. I did feel the spirit when actual testimonies were given. But those were few and far inbetween.

Just so you can realize how long this went on, the meeting was an hour and 45 minutes. The branch president is usually pretty sensible about these things. Even some people who realized it for what it was, mentioned that they still felt the spirit and one person afterwards mentioned that he usually doesn't care for them, but he felt the spirit about more or less the testimony of fellowship and love of fellow man. Maybe it's just me who felt that way, I don't know. I mean, you don't see the prophets and apostles talking about how much they like each other when bearing a testimony, or about how they've had this experience and how much they loved it. They say what their testimony is and not how much it's grown because of so and so person and how wonderful they are, etc, etc. I may be wrong and the only person who feels that way, I don't know. Whatever. Perhaps I just need to be more receptive and less critical. Just my thoughts.

Weights are lifted

This week hasn't been the greatest week, and it's all because of my stupidity. In one class, we had some stuff due. Well, I ended up not doing it. That was before Thanksgiving. This teacher allows for some measure of lateness, so I wasn't too worried, even though it was our final test and our final report on observing classrooms. She left for Japan for the rest of the semester and everything else is online. Well I didn't do that either. It just stuck in the back of my mind since Thanksgiving, of all I had to do. So whenever I thought about it, I would quickly run for cover and do something else, no matter what it was. Well, this can wear you down pretty much to nothing. So yesterday, I was talking to another student in that class, and she said that everything was due by midnight. Well, let's see... that's nine assignments all due by midnight, several being 3-5 page essays. Great. So at noon yesterday I attacked it and worked for the next nine hours and turned it all it. Why did I have to be so stupid as to let that hang over me for the last three weeks? I don't know. I always do that. Afterwards, this huge weight is lifted and I can be at peace, more or less. Today's been great. I can do what I want, and have no problem. There's still two finals next week, but I'm caught up. It's great. I do like how as a music major, finals are a joke. I've got nine classes this semester and two finals during actual finals week. And one of those is racquetball.

Multitasking

It's 2 in the morning and I can't sleep, so I must blog.

When L'afro mentioned multitasking within music, it got me to thinking of all my favorite pieces and what exactly is happening at those points of music when all is forgotten about by the sheer joy of listening to music. With most pieces I listen to, to me, it's all picked at and eaten apart by my mind. Separating parts, intonation, mistakes, form, etc. When pieces multitask, as L'afro was calling it, that's when I can no longer comprehend it all and just enjoy it. In Advanced Theory, when we're going over a piece by Bizet, I so wish I could remember the piece. It had two separate melodies that were rather simple and well done, and as the piece reaches it's climax it combines both themes with just massive orchestration. It's just raw power coming through. None of it was changed. The exact same melody and harmony, put over top of each other without regard to the other. And it worked well. I wish I had that piece. Mahler's 1rst Syphony, at the climax of the first movement, bitonality(actually I don't think it's true bitonality, but that's another topic) is introduced to the piece. The orchestra is playing one chord, while the trumpets blare out a huge sextuplet passage on a totally different chord. Marching band, we played a Del Borgo piece. At one point, the woodwinds were doing a folk melody, the brass a choral, and the tuba players doing a baseline with just power. It was bliss. Ben Folds and his ability to just unleash on a piano and provide just raw emotion into his pieces. Charles Ives, for the same reason. Have you ever heard an original recording of Charles Ives? It's absolutely amazing, you can't analyze it, it's just too much, besides that fact that it is unanalizable. To some people he probably swings too far to the left of the pendulum of emotion verses intellect within music. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you any more, plus I should try to sleep.

That's not to say that other parts aren't nice. As I have listed, one of my top four favorite songs is TMBG's Dr. Worm. My favorite part in that piece in when it's just a nice simple voice with nothing else followed by the contrasting section afterwards that adds everything. You gotta have that contrast and blend to make the piece worthwhile. With a lot of songs I hear today, the nice simple introductions are the best parts. Once they open their mouths and break their guitars out in chords, it destroys the musical aspects of what was started. Anyway, I was just enjoying listening to climaxes of songs in my head and wanted to write it down. So stupor, bliss, whatever you call it, here's to multitasking, which unfortanantly I'll probably have to do a lot tomorrow, or I guess today. Deadlines, gotta love em. Last day of actual classes here I come. Okay, now I'll try to get some sleep.

Trueblat's Last Name(TLN)

So I've gradually let people in my family know about my blog sight, and welcomed them to read it. But certain family restrictions have continued to block my family from ever viewing my blog. I told my sister out at BYU about my blog and told her she's welcome to read any part of it she wants. I get an e-mail from her several days later. I'll post an excerpt for you.

"Also, I thought about it and decided that I won't do the blog thing cause I don't have much time. Also, I decided that I won't read yours unless you want me to because the way I understand it is that it is kindof like your journal and that info should be yours to be able to write without fear of a sibling."

This is a TLN trate. You all probably don't understand how big of a deal that is. Let me try to explain. Growing up in backwoods Kentucky, in a family of 9 kids, and live in the same house for about 26 years. The community knows you, your family, what's expected of us. Add being Mormon on top of that for another can of worms. We were something of a very unique family. Teachers knew what being a TLN is. They would try to stay and see how many TLN's they could teach. I think the highest was 8 of 9 TLNs. We were never called by our first name. Whoever was oldest in high school was TLN, and whoever was the younger in high school was Little TLN. Let me put down a list of stereotypical attributes associated with being a TLN.

- You are exceptionally smart.
- You can eat more food than anybody else.
- You can play any musical instrument and have excellant ears and sightsing abilities.
- You can sleep through any class you feel like and still get A's.
- Better yet, you can sleep anywhere.
- You are atheletic.
- You are pain resistant.
- You can beat the crap out of anyone, but choose not to.
- You are very mature.
- You are respectful to all.
- You are essentially perfect.
- You are as emotional as a rock.

These are the public ones that the community saw in us. Some of us thrived under these stereotypes, others didn't. I'm one who thrived and felt I had to meet every single one of these standards as I was growing up. I still suffer trying to stay awake through class though. And the sleeping only effects the guys in my family. It's the private stereotypes we give ourselves that tends to make us worse off. The one that caused my sister to write that statement. We are a very closed mouth family, escpecially when it comes to problems or private matters. I think it stems from the stereotypes that were given to us and we allowed ourselves to follow them. So what happens when we can't live up to this. We hide it from all, don't let it be seen, and make sure we don't see it in others of our family. We are terrible at this communication thing. Certain people in our family have realized that and are taking steps to correct that, my mom included. The problem with this sister is that I'm sure she hasn't realized it yet. As intellegent as she is, she tends to not be able to look within herself moreso than us others. Telling outright never works, and I've gotten her to realize a couple of things in roundabout ways, before. But anyway, back to the subject at hand. Where was I? We don't dwell in others people's business, but to the extent that we don't know each other, and choose not to. If she were to read my blog, she would find rants and raves that nobody would have ever guessed come out of me, perhaps she saw them and thought it was too personal and made her uncomfortable to read. She should realize I'll write whatever I want regardless of whether she's reading it or not, and the rest of my family included with that. Perhaps I want them to see more of the meat in my life than just my daily schedule that I e-mail occassionally. That's why I told her. I know this contradicts what I first intended this blog to be, but really, now I don't mind what my family sees of this. I mean I've written several blogs about specific family members. Even if they would happen to read them, they're all too freakin' private and wouldn't feel comfortable even talking to me about it. There are some major flaws in my family and I intend to root them out of myself, hopefully others will learn. LEARN TO COMMUNICATE PEOPLES!!! I don't know if any of this made sense. There is really much more behind this than meets the eye. The stories I could tell that would show my point. But I hopefully made some type of point in this.

Missionaries

Wow, I didn't realize how long that last blog was. That was ridiculous. Sad thing is that I enjoyed every minute of it. Anyway, after reading the board today, and finding people talking about the whole Elder and Sister thing. Sisters and their stereotypes and Elders and theirs. I wanted to put in my two cents but I didn't feel it was appropiate on the board. I agree with both sides. That in the end they're all just stupid and immature. The irony of that statement is that now I'm being stupid and immature. Elders are immature. I'm going to put a quote from a sister in my mission here that I quite liked about the stereotypical sister, "Sister missionaries go on missions for two reasons, there's something wrong with them physically, or something wrong with them mentally, I'm just fat." Now I know not all missionaries fall into this stereotype, or my view of missionaries in general. I just think on my mission I was so completely jaded to the whole stupidity of what missionaries are today. To this day, I don't talk to the missionaries unless I have to. After my mission the sight of missionaries sickened me. At least now I can tolerate their presence. I'm glad that the First Presidency has taken steps to correct that. LDS culture butchered what a missionary should be and I don't know that it'll ever recover. Wow, now that I've written this up, I want to delete it, but this is my blog and how I feel, no matter how wrong it may be.

Hymns

In reading the response that Epigrammarian the Discordant had about hymns, I decided to write up some of my thoughts about hymns in general and more random ramblings. First of all, I really enjoyed what he had to say about them. I've had the opportunity for the past year and a half to be in charge of all of the music. So I've had my experiences and my sisters to go off from.

Some of these I do think vary from ward to ward as far as what's played and what isn't. At this point, I've probably played through every hymns several times, so I am familiar with all of them from a musical standpoint. The words are a different story. Being an instrumentalist more often than not, I tend to ignore the words too much, and focus on the music. So here's my two cents on all of the hymns. As a general rule for all hymns, take the tempo up about 20 clicks.

#1 The Morning Breaks - Never played or rarely to my knowledge. I think I did it once in sacrament. Main reason is the range, the song is fairly easy, but how many in a congregation can belt out a high F.

#2 The Spirit of God - In my home ward it was way overplayed quite a few years ago, yet to me it seems this song is now used for more sacred and special occasions than as a sacrament hymn.

#3 Now Let Us Rejoice - I usually don't mind this one too much, although I can't stand singing the base parts pedal tone, or the alto part. It gets annoying. I don't mind the tenor voice so much. On another note, this song's tempo is off by a large margin. It should be in 6/8 timing. So quarter note about 160 to avoid the bogging down as Epigrammarian mentioned.

#4 Truth Eternal - I can't say I have an opinion about this one, largely because I can't hear the melody or harmonies in my head as I'm listening to the Pixies right now. Standard run of the mill stuff, from what it looks like. Although it is one I can honestly say people don't do.

#5 High on the Mountain Top - Played often enough to be familiar with most people. Tastefully done, something other than a typical base part. I feel this one's done about the right amount.

#6 Redeemer of Israel - Easy and overdone.

#7 Israel, Israel, God Is Calling - Same as above.

#8 Awake and Arise - I have a story to go with this one. As a youth, they allowed me to choose the hymns for a stake priesthood meeting. Well, I decided to be funny and choose this as the intermediate hymn. This is why you don't let little immature kids choose what to do in a program. I was supposed to play piano too, but I found this one beyond my level at the time. Now I look at it and it's a joke. It isn't played often enough though. I think two times in my lifetime I can remember. Both times I chose it.

#9 Come, Rejoice - Good one, not done often enough. Ignore where it says in unison. I say this for anything unison though.

#10 Come, Sing to the Lord - Melodically and harmonically not too pleasing to me. Pretty standard hymns, although it's another that's never played. I think I've done it once.

#11 What Was Witnessed in the Heavens - Here's a good story for this one. I chose this to sing back in March. Our organist didn't show up for church, so I had to sit down at the piano and play and let some girl conduct for me. Well the piece starts with just the men singing and I was sightreading. So I hack through an intro, and the chorister starts us off, and since she didn't start off with the men's part, no one entered. So while sightreading through the piece,(or better yet, playing it for the first time within the past year) I started to sing out at the top of my lungs before the congregation finally caught on. Needless to say, I made a ton of mistakes trying to keep everything together. Not a bad one, and some range issues too.

#12 'Twas Witnessed in the Morning Sky - I'm listening to Weezer now, so I can't hear it in my head. It looks interesting enough to offer some merit. Yet another one never played.

#13 An Angel from on High - I do enjoy this one. It has a change of meter, and makes it more fun, with some decent harmonies. I feel it should be played more often.

#14 Sweet Is the Gospel Brings - This is a nice little ditty. This may get some playing time in wards, not a hard melody, and I think it's pretty recognizable.

#15 I Saw a Mighty Angel Fly - I gotta respect Ralph Vaughan Williams as the first composer to seriously write a tuba concerto with orchestra. So I give this one my approval. Nice little melody, easy, recognizable, and I think it's done about right, that or I recognize it right off hand more than others. Epigrammarian(who shall now be known as Epi so I don't have to write it out every time) felt it was underplayed so if you don't know it, get your ward to do it. It definitely should be done.

#16 What Glorious Scenes Mine Eyes Behold - Harmonically very typical, very few jumps within the melody, easy. I doubt it's played often enough.

#17 Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake! - Another one that's pretty typical, although he does do some things out of ordinary. Range is a little high. I think this one is played a little bit.

#18 The Voice of God Again is Heard - This one should be recognizable to most people and is probably played the right amount.

#19 We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet - As I said, I should pay attention to lyrics more often, but more often than not, this is overplayed. It isn't even harmonically interesting, so it must be the lyrics and somewhat the melody.

#20 God of Power, God of Right - Also pretty typical of hymns. Although the V of V doesn't follow the typical principles of threes. Also if you look at true voice leading, it does have its mistakes, but not like anybody's going to notice that.

#21 Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice - Sung often enough. Really no need to comment.

#22 We Listen to a Prophet's Voice - This is one that the primary sang a few years ago and learned all the verses to. So I'd say it receives the right amount of singing time that it should.

#23 We Ever Pray for Thee - I don't believe this one is sung very often. I may have heard it in sacrament, can't remember.

#24 God Bless Our Prophet Dear - A few jumps, so if unfamiliar, the congregation will really need someone to follow. That's the problem with leading music, I have to sing the melody and never harmony so everyone knows what they're supposed to be singing. Anyway, I rarely hear this one too.

#25 Now We'll Sing with One Accord - This is one of two I actually needed to use a piano before I could say anything about it. I quite like this one. Now that my memory has come back to me, I'm fairly sure I've done this in sacrament meeting. The melody is familiar enough in parts. I just needed to make sure the end of the third and fourth lines weren't messed up. I'd say it's underplayed though.

#26 Joseph Smith's First Prayer - One that's known, although I've had bad experiences with it. Like a companion that wanted to sing it at 1rst discussions and was incredibly flat the entire time and kept dropping keys.

#27 Praise to the Man - This I feel is overdone. I enjoy it, but it's also one that is played over and over. One of it's redeeming qualities is that it's a Scottish folk song, possibly a drinking song as well, and works well for other things as well. Actually a lot of church songs I can picture being drinking songs once the lyrics have been changed. It's also a melody that I've heard outside of LDS culture, though as with most folk songs, there are slight alterations of the melody.

#28 Saints, Behold How Great Jehovah - I think I've done this song several times in sacrament. I really do enjoy it. I'm not sure if it is considered underplayed or overplayed in other areas. I think it gets some amount of time.

#29 A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief - I feel it is played about the right amount. If not then overplayed. But I do enjoy it, although I've yet to remember hearing all seven verses. If I think about it, I don't believe I've done this in sacrament yet.

#30 Come, Come Ye Saints - At least where I'm at, I haven't heard it so many times that it's gotten annoying, so I have no qualms against this one. I wait, I do have one. During the bicentennial when they introduced the orchestra with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I didn't particularly care for the arrangement. It was very much more geared to the choir than the orchestra, but I'm a very biased person too, so that's not too surprising, considering how new the orchestra was. Most of the music from that I didn't care for too much. It's improving though. It does have the redeeming quality of having different meters. We American's are so square and everything has to be 4/4 or 3/4 or some other common meter. We never change things up as far as our culture goes. I know there are exceptions and I could name some, but in general.

#31 O God, Our Help in Ages Past - A little typical hymn. Obviously rarely played. I don't know if I've done it or not. It's so typical of these little ones to sound very much alike.

#32 The Happy Day at Last Has Come - Nice joyful little piece. Underplayed.

#33 Our Mountain Home So Dear - Another one that wouldn't be played that often. Looks like it could get bogged down if too slow. Although he does better in the 3rd phrase as far as the harmony goes.

#34 O Ye Mountains High - I think I've done this once. I can see that if ever played a lot, it could get old quick. But not bad once in a while.

#35 For the Strength of the Hills - It's played often enough that I think it's recognizable and played about the right amount.

#36 They, the builders of the Nation - I think this one's played about the right amount too. I enjoy it.

#37 The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close - I actually considered this one back at the beginning of spring. I had to decide against it. My organist would have had a heart attack and the congregation would be at a loss. Much the same as Epi was saying. Perhaps I can find a several talented individuals to do a quartet while I play it for a special number.

#38 Come, All Ye Saints of Zion - This is yet another one that I feel gets the right amount of time during meetings.

#39 O Saints of Zion - I think this one also is known and sang the right amount.

#40 Arise, O Glorious Zion - I don't think this is as well known as the ones mention before, it might be played now and again, but not often enough. The piece doesn't seem voice friendly though.

#41 Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise - Nice melody, just from listening to that in my head, I believe it's underplayed. I might have done it once in sacrament meeting, but I don't remember.

#42 Hail to the Brightness of Zion's Glad Morning! - Based on the name alone, I already don't like it without even looking at the music. Why can't they give pieces actual name of what they're about instead of giving the first line as the title of the piece. That's basically a cop-out. I really don't care for it. Somebody can call me out on that if they want, but I feel way too many hymns have the first line as a title regardless of what the contents talking about. This is a rant for all hymns in general, this just happens to have a worse name than usual. It's rarely sung to my knowledge.

#43 Zion Stands with Hills Surrounded - I've done this one once. It has a okay melody. Almost reminds me of a kid's song. The opening motif at least. I think it does get sung though, not quite sure.

#44 Beautiful Zion, Built Above - I don't care too much for the song. I started to say why, but it ended up being really, really conceited, so I'll just leave it at that. I think it gets played though.

#45 Lead Me into Life Eternal - This is another pretty typical short ditty. Enjoy it, sing it at least every now and again, and move on.

#46 Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken - I think I've done this hymn twice since I've taken this calling. I do enjoy it. It should be sung more often. As far as the comment about this being Haydn, I just want to make mention that this is the only song by Haydn in the LDS Hymnal. I wish he were an exception, but the hymnbook does leave out a lot of decent songs that could be used. On a side note, I'm probably the only person who has spent sacrament meetings studying the hymns, meters, rhythms, composers, authors, harmonies, etc.

#47 We Will Sing of Zion - See #45.

#48 Glorious Things Are Sung of Zion - AABA form, uses the principle of 3 that I mentioned earlier. Should be really easy for a congregation to pick up because of it, but I'm pretty unfamiliar with it, outside of sitting here sight singing it. So it probably should be sung more often.

#49 Adam-ondi-Ahman - If I remember correctly, this was done during general conference, I thought it was very nice. I agree that it needs to be played more.

#50 Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise - I know I've done this at least once in sacrament, and just last week, I was playing it for prelude in institute. It's a nice melody, perhaps a little hard for congregations to pick up the melody as there are quite a few leaps in it. It probably doesn't get played as often as it should.

#51 Sons of Michael, He Approaches - Doesn't sound too bad in my ear. Perhaps a little hard for congregations, but looks fun from my perspective to do. I think it would be considered underplayed though, for a reason. I don't many congregations singing that high. I do like how the composer allowed for more complexities in the music while leaving the melody simple for the congregation.

#52 The Day Dawn Is Breaking - I feel this one is done enough. A couple of problems. Learn to write it in 6/8. It will flow much better. In this case, 80 for dotted quarter. If you chose to have the chord structures and harmonic motion more than once every four measures(okay I'm exaggerating), then your tempo will work, otherwise pick it up a notch.

#53 Let Earth's Inhabitants Rejoice - For some reason this piece isn't flowing naturally for me. Frankly, I think it's better to take in 1/1 with the tempo at about 60. Just by looking at it, you know it isn't played in sacrament meeting near enough.

#54 Behold, the Mountain of the Lord - Not a bad little melody, he did break some voice leading rules quite blatantly that leads to some bad harmony, In general I like the harmony, just the way he written it. I think it should be played more.

#55 Lo, the Mighty God Appearing! - This one sounds familiar to me, and I think it does get some playing time. I could be wrong on this though.

#56 Softly Beams the Sacred Dawning - This one doesn't get playing time because of the fact that it is in D-flat. I believe it is the only one to have that many. I played it a couple of times, but I'm not sure if I've used it in sacrament. This hymnbook has been made so user friendly. If you find an old hymnbook, other more unfamiliar keys are used and the difficulty of pieces was much harder. This is probably one of the last remnants of that era.

#57 We're Not Ashamed to Own Our Lord - We Own the Lord? I'll blame this on my illiteracy and incompetence of not knowing what he's talking about and move on to the music. The harmonies are nice and different, some sequences make it easier to learn, don't believe it's played though.

#58 Come, Ye Children of the Lord - A melody that is well-known, so I believe this one does get playing time as it is familiar with more than just LDS.

#59 Come, O Thou King of Kings - The harmonies in this rub me the wrong way. I think it's just too much parallel motion for me. This tends to hold true for the sunshine songs too. I does get played though. Probably the right amount.

#60 Battle Hymn of the Republic - This is the most fun hymn to play in minor really loud and fast. I have fond memories of a vocal major and I playing all the hymns in minor while she's belting out the melodies very dramatically. The Relief Society meeting that was going on down the hall didn't really like us at that point. I think it gets overplayed, though its redeeming quality of being awesome in minor makes up for it in my book.

#61 Raise Your Voices to the Lord - Another very typical short hymn.

#62 All Creatures of Our God and King - I really enjoy this one a lot. It's one of my favorites as far as harmony. As much as I enjoy it, I've only done it once during sacrament, and unfortunately, I had a performance the same day and couldn't attend church to lead one of my favorites.

#63 Great King of Heaven - see #61

#64 On This Day of Joy and Gladness - It sounds joyful and glad, but also goes high for a congregation, hence I don't think it gets played as it should. I really doesn't look too bad though.

#65 Come, All Ye Saints Who Dwell on Earth - I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The rhythm is quirky, and I can't decide whether I like it or not. Everything else about it is pretty standard. I think I've done this in church once.

#66 Rejoice, the Lord Is King! - Very well known, might be to the point that it's overplayed. That might just be the fact that I've done it more than a couple time in sacrament. I do like it.

#67 Glory to God on High - Another one that is known. It's okay. Probably played the right amount.

#68 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God - Latro changed this song for the rest of my life by his thoughts on the title. So much that I couldn't resist seeing how well it would actually work and playing around with it. So without further delay:

1rst version: This version is the one that can be sung during sacrament meeting without interrupting the song. I don't recommend the pianist or organist trying to follow it, just the occasional singer. I'm not sure how Latro's been singing it, but this is how it's been running through my mind. I'm sorry it's not clearer, I'm still new at this picture stuff, don't have proper tools and converted these so many times that they're pretty screwed.

 


2nd version: The previous example doesn't do Latro's words justice as they pass by in a fleeting second. So something had to be done about it. So we can just let each syllable have it's own quarter note.

 


3rd version: Let's face it, singing it that last way was boring and monotonous. And the phrasing of it is absolutely terrible. I was trying to decide how I could stay true to the composer's intent while adding Latro's words, and keep the phrasing somewhat decent. Note: this is impossible. I had to give 'ideological' it's own phrase. By the time you actually finish singing it, you've probably already forgotten what it started with. This must be why you never see any really large words in hymns. But here's what I finally came up with. I just elongated the form and included two extra phrases, making it A,B,A,B,A,B,C,D,E,F,B, instead of A,B,A,B,C,D,E,F,B. That's probably not correct, but I'm just using the formatas as the form, just to make it easy. So anyway, I'll quit saying what I was thinking and just post it.

 


 


#69 All Glory, Laud, and Honor - Pretty typical, although a little high. This would be why nobody knows it. The starting interval also seems a little weird, outside of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Start, very few songs open with a fifth. And even then twinkle has no pickup, this has a pickup that starts on the I and goes to V. Weird.

#70 Sing Praise to Him - Doesn't sound too bad, rhythmically, not many congregations would be able to follow it without a strong organist and conductor.

#71 With Songs of Praise - Seems pretty typical, I can't say I've ever done this in sacrament or not. So it's probably underplayed.

#72 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty - I like it, although it does go a little high. I think it's done the right amount. Enough to be known, and not overdone.

#73 Praise the Lord with Heart and Voice - Fairly simple hymn, easy melody, not known though. I don't remember doing this one or not.

#74 Praise Ye the Lord - Another pretty typical hymn with no real defining features.

#75 In Hymns of Praise - Nice little melody, not difficult and I believe it is actually played. I wanted to see about when this piece was written, but they left the dates of the author and composer.

#76 God of Our Fathers, We Come unto Thee - This one is recognizable if just for the end. Easy and doable, I think it's played the right amount.

#77 Great Is the Lord - I think this would work better if a little lower in pitch. I can't belt out anything higher than an E, so an F, I think would be out of the question for a congregation.

#78 God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand - Story time. My organist really likes this one. After weeks of torment doing new and obscure hymns, when I had this one for sacrament, the volume was ten times louder and the speed was fast enough that I barely could keep up with him. This one should be done more often.

#79 With All the Power of Heart and Tongue - Doesn't seem like a bad one. I think it's done every now and again. I'm sure I've done it.

#80 God of Our Fathers, Known of Old - This is the second it the first 85 hymns that I'll need a piano. It looks decent. I think the beginning it alright. I'm hesitant to say anything about it till I hear the 9th and 10th measures. I can't hear it in my head, and it is analyzable, I just am not sure about its sound. I may get back to this one later.

#81 Press Forward, Saints - I do enjoy this one. It might be overdone in some places, but I think it tends to be done the right amount.

#82 For All the Saints - More story time. I was attending my sister's ward down in Berea when she assigned this as one of the songs. Well she realized afterwards that verses 1, 2, and 5 are separated from 3 and 4. So the bishopric announced that they're just doing 1, 2, and 5. The organist was also scared of trying to play this piece and left to go practice at home. I decided to play prelude, and the guy just assumed that I'd play all of sacrament, so I got to sightread this number for them. Surprisingly the congregation did very well for having never heard it before. It should be sung more often, and with all five verses.

#83 Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah - This one should be well-known but not overplayed. Nice little melody and you do get some fun things in the base part.

#84 Faith of Our Fathers - I think this one is usually done as well. It seems okay.

#85 How Firm a Foundation - This is probably overplayed if anything. As a side note, there are different versions to this song. I was checking out a Baptist version of it, and the chord structures seemed relatively the same, but the melody had it's differences. I wished I had a chance to hear it, but we were performing with the tuba-euph ensemble.

#86 How Great Thou Art - We actually sang this last week. Pay attention to whether the congregation actually sings the correct rhythms. It's absolutely butchered, and there's not too much you can do to prevent that.

This concludes my views of the first fourth of the hymnbook. I'll do the rest throughout the month. Another reason I'm doing this is so I can see different aspects of the hymns and compare them as a whole so I can go ahead and make out the sacrament hymns for next year over the break. The past year, I really didn't keep a good balance of what was being sung, so hopefully this will help me decide what to use.

Obituaries

Trueblat's mind:
Time of death - sometime early this week
Cause of death - Turkey

After an entire semester of keeping on the go constantly, Trueblat's mind saw it's opportunity for a break. It fell into a coma and apparently never recovered. Since three days is enough time to tell whether something is dead or not, I have pronounced it dead. The cause of death will be blamed on an overdose of turkey. Trueblat has remained inoperable since the ultimate demise of his mind since not one assignment this week has been turned in on time, and if it has, it was done wrong. Trueblat also lost all pencils, and can no longer write anything down. He also forgot to set his alarm twice in a row after never having done so previously. Trueblat is desperately searching for another mind so he might possibly do well on finals, but so far, to no avail.

CTR Ring:
Date of birth: December 25th 1996
Time of death: Monday November 29th, 2004; 9:10 A.M.
Cause of death: Abuse and old age

CTR Ring lived on Trueblat's left middle finger for the duration of his life. He like to play a lot though. He loved spinning in circles on the table in English class. It was here that CTR Ring became a cripple from playing to hard. He had a nasty break on his backside that affected him the rest of his life and Trueblat's finger for that matter. CTR Ring's cripple has made Trueblat's finger bleed on quite a few occassions. Biffing it ice-scating, crushing it under the weight of five chairs, on and on. CTR Ring wasn't loyal to middle finger thought, and would switch between other fingers often when bored. Already being crippled, CTR Ring developed some side pains from the gradual wear and tear and eventually snapped. CTR Ring could no longer function as a ring and received a proper burial in the SCFA trash.

Timex Watch
Date of birth: December 25th, 1999
Time of death: Unknown on November 30th, 2004.
Cause of death: deluge

Timex Watch was a savior for Trueblat. Running the schedule he runs, he times everything to within minutes. Timex was with Trueblat every minute of the day. Timex was especially special to Trueblat because it was just what he needed. With a velcro band, Timex didn't have any metal as part of it. This allowed for no scratches on Trueblat's tubas, we he very much appreciate. Towards the end of Timex's life, he was getting pretty worn down. His velcro had been used to the point that only a few parts still actually stuck together. But he still just kept on ticking. Timex met his untimely demise after being biked through the downpour on Tuesday afternoon. At showing his displeasure for Trueblat's abuse, Timex bleeped loudy for a short period of time, and proceeded to die. Timex has not yet received a proper burial. A date hasn't been set yet, but the time remains 12:00.

Racquetball

You know, I sometimes forget just how competitive my family gets at times. I've lost a lot of my competitive edge when it comes to a lot of different sports. In 99 I dislocated my shoulder tackling a guy twice my size, well 40 dislocations later, surgery, and a few more dislocations, etc., etc., and I've had to calm down a lot while playing sports. Racquetball is one of the exceptions to the rule. Since I'm right-handed, I don't have any sort of problem playing and risk dislocating my shoulder.

So anyway, today in racquetball, we're continuing to play doubles. Now normally, the teams would have been pretty much even, but a couple people showed up late, so teams were rather mismatched. Since I was second in the singles tournament, I was paired with the second worst. The other team was the guy who got first and the guy who got third. So our strategy was I cover front and she covers back. Now since these guys play hard, and I let my competitiveness get the better of me, it leaves most people rather amused. I don't get angry or anything, I just sacrifice my body to win. I've gotten so good at diving and running into walls at full sprints, that I can be back on my feet before they have a chance to return it. Some words that they've used to describe me is a cat or a breakdancer.

Well, I positioned myself pretty close to the front. Usually in the service zone, or more forward than that, and use my reactions to try to get some kill shots in and gain the lead. Well, the game was pretty much tied throughout with no one gaining a real lead. And at this point, no thought is being given to the condition of my body. So I'm pretty far forward, and a ball was hit high and left. There was no way my partner was going to get it, and I had one chance to get it. Now being in the center and having to cover a distance of about 6 feet to hit a ball based on a really quick reaction, especially when you expected the ball to go the right and started for that direction before the ball was even hit. I dove for it. Now, normally, when you dive for a ball, it's close to the ground, so you fall from a fairly low point to the ground. Well, since it was five feet off the ground, and it was technically a dive made for a really interesting picture. You see me dive and have my body horizontal to the ground about four feet above ground. The other players just watched like it was some slow motion matrix thing. Since I didn't have time to bring my racquet around to hit it to the front wall, I swing it towards the back wall with all the might I can afford in hopes that I can make it get to the front wall. I plow my head into the wall as my body smacks the floor. I'm up in time to see my ball hit 5 feet before getting to the front wall. Everyone just stares at me in disbelief at what I was trying to do. I wish I could say this was a one time ordeal, but I'm the worst for beating myself up at this game. I've slammed into walls hard enough to knock my glasses off, done so many somersaults and spins, kicked off walls at full sprints, dodged so many missiles by jumping over them or pulling my legs out from under me to avoid getting hit. I gave myself a really good charlie horse doing that last one, which left me limping several days. I also limped for a while after diving knee first into a wall. My racquet looks just about as bad too. I ran into a wall with my racquet perpedicular in front of me. My racquet is now more of a trapezoid now(if that's the correct word, I haven't had geometry since sophomore year of high school). I wish I had a video of all these, I'm sure my words don't do it justice.

Well, we ended up losing 13-15. Not as bad as I thought we'd do. I actually was the person the last point was scored on. He used a Z shot, and hadn't used one yet, and I forgot to compensate for the spin. Oh well. It's a fun game and one I can actually be competitive in, unlike basketball, football, volleyball, etc.