A Beautiful Funeral

Yesterday was a bittersweet day as we celebrated the life and passing of Professor Larry Torkelson in Vermillion. Larry died on Wednesday following a battle with a pretty aggressive cancer. He was our Chamber Singers conductor, my voice teacher for a short time, our conducting teacher and a valued supporter of both Amy and me.

We had an opportunity to rejoin Larry on stage last spring as part of an invitation only alumni choir that he put together. We had the chance to sing pieces that we had done in college and reconnected with several friends through the experience. In honor of his love for his students and the music we made together, an alumni choir was assembled for the funeral singing a few of Larry's favorite pieces. We did Mozart's "Laudate Dominum" and the "Agnus Dei" from Peter Williams' Missa Brevis which is probably one of the pieces that we all associate most closely with Larry. Making it even more special was the fact that Peter Williams flew from Monterey, CA to conduct the piece himself.

There were probably about 50 singers all told from throughout Larry's tenure at USD and we had the chance to reconnect with friends like Tom Green, Lonny Mitchell, Janice and Kevin Dart and Troy Stephens. We rehearsed in the morning in the choir room at USD, shared stories, caught up with old friends and made beautiful music. So many of us had performed these pieces with Larry (including last year's alumni choir) that we sort of have the pieces hardwired into our memory. I actually sang for the most part without even looking at the music, knowing the notes, dynamics and phrasing that we would be using from hours under Larry's direction.

The funeral was at the UCC in Vermillion where Amy and I attended church in college. The main level was full and the balcony was occupied by several well wishers and the current crop of USD Chamber Singers who performed as well. The words and scriptures that were shared pointed to the beauty of God, the beauty of life and emphasized Larry's uncommon recognition of beauty. He had a way of recognizing a moment and pulling all of us into it as well. Rehearsals were often marked with moments of transcendence when the music we were making connected with something beyond our comprehension. In hindsight, Larry was a great worship leader in this respect. He helped us recognize beauty and invited us to experience God through it. His use of liturgical and spiritual texts was more than academic, it was a way for him to connect his students' love of music with his love of beauty in the power of God.

As we sang, we were in rows behind the casket and his conducting chair from the choir room and a music stand were placed in front in the aisle. The music was beautiful, tearful, worshipful and held us in the tension between this life and the next as we celebrated a friend, advisor and co-conspirator who will be missed.

A few of those that shared at the service spoke of how they could see Larry in Heaven organizing the next rehearsal and preparing to make even more beautiful music. The way I see it, Larry was more about beauty than music. Music was simply his portal to the expression and experience of beauty. Larry's desire for beauty has now found it's ultimate inspiration and I see him captivated before the throne of God basking in a beauty beyond the greatest things he ever imagined in this life. He will be missed but he continues to inspire those who knew him and hopefully his funeral has helped move a few people closer to God through the shared pursuit of beauty with a great man.

Great Cycling Article From ESPN.com

I have a couple of sights that I hit pretty much everyday on topics from cycling to news to comics and several blogs from friends and family members. I usually get my cycling fix from Cyclingnews.com, but was pleasantly surprised to discover this article on ESPN.com this morning.

It's a spotlight on Team Slipstream and their attempts to show a new way for cycling to move forward without the performance enhancing drugs that have plagued the sport for the last 15-20 years. Slipstream will probably be the only US based team that receives an invite to the 2008 Tour de France, so here's a chance to get in on the ground floor with a team that has great potential to be an active player in the highest ranks of pro cycling.

New Music!!! (part 1)

My discretionary income has been a bit restricted in the last few years making the purchase of new music a rare occasion, but Christmas allowed an influx of new music into the collection and it may take me a few posts to comment on what I've received and heard. I received CD's from Mae, Robbie Seay Band, Fee, Jason Upton, Caedmon's Call, Lifehouse, Tree 63 and Toby Mac (who has always been a guilty pleasure for me). I'll comment on a few now and a few later as I haven't really had a chance to digest much of this flood of music I've been blessed with.

First up is "Singularity" from Mae. Mae is a band that I fell in love with right before we left Indiana three years ago when I was able to pick up their album "Destination Beautiful" on a going out of business sale. I thought they had a unique modern rock sound that was very melodic and accessible while still being very intelligent lyrically. "The Everglow" was a staple on my early commutes from Yankton to Sioux Falls to work at Citi and is still a favorite. "Singularity" continues in that vein; intelligent, creative, memorable. I've only been through the album three times, but I only put it aside because there are so many other new albums that I need to acquaint myself with, otherwise, it would probably remain the only thing I would listen to for the next few weeks. I can't believe more people don't know about these guys, but I guess that's somewhat indicative of our culture's inability to embrace the creative instead of the dispensible.

Next is "Give Yourself Away" by the Robbie Seay Band. This is a band that I've been wanting to check out for awhile, but have simply missed the boat, until now. This album is a great blend of radio friendly accessibility and artistic integrity. I hope that this band finally begins to find a broader audience because they absolutely deserve it. A combination of songs appropriate for corporate worship, seeker settings and general listening (as evidenced by their use on American Idol advertising and CW programming), "Give Yourself Away" is worth checking out and is available for a limited time on iTunes for just $7.99!

Last (for this round) is "We Shine" by Fee. I've seen Steve Fee lead worship on several occasions over the last seven years and have appreciated his ability to engage a congregation in small and large settings. This album is the first label release for his band "Fee" and hopefully will give him a chance to gain some exposure. At the same time, I think there is a lot of room for growth. There are a lot of good songs, good melodies and creative production, but lyrically I think he's capable of a lot more. Occasions for predictable rhyme schemes abound and this is the only criticism that I have of the album as a whole. I think that he has the ability to push beyond the obvious in lyrical content and hope that he'll push himself on his next project because I think he is capable of creating something truly impacting and memorable if he challenges himself. Even so, I think we'll find a few of these song work themselves into Mercy's services either as corporate songs or prelude material.

These were the CD's that I've had a chance to listen to multiple times, so I will reserve comment on the rest until I've had a chance to listen to them a few more times.

New Gear!

We have been working on getting an in-ear monitor system up and running at Mercy for several months now and I am finally ready to make the jump. One of the challenges for un in terms of sound production is that the room that we play in is great for acoustic instruments but horrible for a full band with wedge monitors, guitar amps and such.

So, one of the adjustments that I am making is setting myself up so that I don't have to run through my Peavey Classic 30 (an amp I love, but which winds up producing a decent amount of stage noise that muddies up the sound in the room). Instead, I will now be substituting a Sans-Amp processor and Xotic Effects AC Booster distortion pedal.

The Sans-Amp does a decent job of modeling the sound you would get from an amp, but obviously isn't nearly as warm a sound as my Classic 30. It's a trade off, but one that should give the sound person more control of what it sounds like in the room. It has three amp settings (Fender, Marshall and Mesa Boogie) as well as three different mic placement simulations and three different channels (clean, distortion and overdrive) which will give me a pretty broad range of tones to choose from, so I should be able to find something that I like.

The distortion pedal was a surprise to me as I was pretty focused on getting an Ibanez Tube Screamer for a month or so, but once I sat down at the store to try pedals out, it was pretty obvious that the Xotic Effects pedal gave me a much warmer tone and broader tonal range than the Tube Screamer. I probably played for 10 minutes with some Boss pedals when I first started, another 10 with the Ibanez and Xotic AC and then another 20 with the AC and the Xotic BB before finally picking up the AC. I liked the BB as well, but felt that it was maybe a little too bright for how I play with the team and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to tone it down enough to really fit in as a second guitar player. The AC is a bit heavier on the mids and lows, but I should be able to dial it in so that it isn't too muddy for the band mix.

I can't wait for rehearsal tonight as I'm going to give the new set up a test drive even though we don't have the in-ear system yet. Hopefully, we'll have it in the next few weeks and we'll be one step closer to being able to make a really live room livable for our worship team.

A good trip

I'm not going to go into the minutia of all of the events of our trip to Indiana as you can get a pretty good overview on Amy's blog, but I do have a few things to comment on.

First, I love how easy it was to step back into each others' lives. We hadn't been back to Marion since May of 2006, but I was amazed at how it seemed like we picked up right where we left off with so many of our friends. I guess it shows how much of a family we are. Obviously we wish we could see each other more often, but such is life.

It was also nice to get a chance to sing at Hanfield and play with a few friends again. It was an easy mode to step back into in terms of leading that congregation. I know that we won't always be doing special music when we go back to visit, but I'm glad that we've had a chance to on a couple of occasions and that people are genuinely glad to see us when we come back.

It does look like we might be back again in July for Cori Helm's wedding, but I haven't looked at the schedule too closely to see if it will be the whole family or just Amy and the kids. I used up half of my 2008 vacation time before I even worked a day and I'm not sure how exactly I'll tap into what little bit is left.

Re-entry

It seems that a week of sitting around having conversation with friends for every waking hour does not keep you in condition to be on your feet at work for nine hours. I hadn't really given it much consideration, but really noticed my back aching and a general state of fatigue today at work.

I also learned that while I was gone, one coworker was fired and another gave his two weeks notice to take another job. I asked one of the other guys if I needed to go back on vacation to get rid of anyone else, but figured they might start to think I had quit and hire somebody new for my job.

Tomorrow is my day off (after one day of work) and I'm hoping to have coffee with Aaron, pick up a distortion pedal to complete my "amp-less" guitar set up, put away Christmas at the homestead, rehearse with our worship team and have a product meeting at work. With any luck, I'll be able to sneak in a bike ride as well.

Back to the Grind

My hiatus from this space was a bit extended from what I had hoped. Christmas season in retail and church, the holiday season itself and a trip to Indiana for a wedding tend to take a bit of time out of you. Hopefully I'll be able to start getting back in the flow if only with short posts, but for now, it's back to the grind.