On politicians and education

I’ve been working my way through Tillich’s Systematic Theology.  One of the concepts he addresses is the fundamental indissolubility of form and content.  That is, we can separate form and content at times for pedagogical purposes, but in real...

How to sing in 10 easy steps

I’m not a lawyer, but I have watched a lot of Law and Order, so I feel some amount of confidence in my courtroom expertise. In a similar way, I’m not a vocal teacher, but I have spent the last 25 years playing for hundreds of voice teachers and choir...

Watching Calista Flockhart conduct

A dear friend bought me a ticket to see the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Keith Lockhart.  When we arrived, a rather saucy, brilliant, and irreverent member of our musical community greeted us by saying, “I can’t wait to see Calista Flockhart...

w-t-wpqe

I found myself as the leader of a small group of 50 or so people living in an abandoned mining town in the Colorado mountains. The community lived in isolation from the rest of the world. The main problem was that no one in the town believes that it would be possible...

Elder Elder

Upon seeing the plaque outside the Elder Gallery at Nebraska Wesleyan University the following occurred to me.A man finds himself in the ironic situation of having the last name Elder when he converts to Mormonism.  Upon his mission, he is naturally referred to...

Some musical questions

I was contemplating the opening progression from Bach’s harmonization of “Christus, der uns selig macht” a few weeks ago (#307 in the Riemenschneider).  What struck me at the beginning was that when I first went through it, I heard the first...