August 25, 2020 – I have the privilege of working with some fine musicians (and good friends) here at Peace. With the pandemic dictating that large groups should not gather for music making, I have been working with some smaller groups. The month of July saw several recording sessions with David Trelles on violin, Jan Rasmussen on handbells and yours truly on piano. Because it took several recording sessions, you may notice changes in clothes between the three recordings below. Cindy and I were also experimenting with using two cameras for the video, with mixed results due to formatting differences between the two cameras.
I heard Tim Doran play as part of a Handbell Duo the last time that the Handbell Musicians of America Area Festival was in Duluth. Several years later, at another festival, looking for new music (a never-ending task), I happened across a set of trios for handbells, violin and piano that he arranged. All three of the pieces below are from this set of lovely arrangements. I hope you enjoy listening.
Amazing Grace
A hymn well-known and loved far beyond Christian cultural circles, Amazing Grace is a text written in the 18th century by ex-slave trader John Newton. In the poem, he reflects upon the saving grace of God that enabled him to entirely change his life, leaving his slave-trading days behind.
Jesus Loves Me
Another much loved hymn, often thought of as a children’s song. Yet, my favorite story (perhaps apocryphal) about this song quotes renowned 20thcentury theologian Karl Barth as saying that the phrase “Jesus Loves Me, this I know – for the Bible tells me so” could function as an adequate summation of his entire 20 volume systematic theology.
God So Loved the World
This is by far the best-known segment of a much larger work, The Crucifixion: A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer written by English composer John Stainer in 1887. I remember singing it as a high school student in the choir of my home church. The lyrics are based on a well-known text from the Gospel of John – chapter 3, verse 16.