Sounds of Sunday

Today has been a beautiful day, marked with uncharacteristically favorable weather and quite full of auditory goodness.

How so, you ask? Ooh, thanks for inquiring. I'll tell you. :)

In this morning's worship service, we sang such classic hymns as "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and "Because He Lives", along with a personal favorite of mine by the name of "And Can it Be". This last is a meaningful and doctrinally sound song describing one's first coming to know Christ as Lord and Savior and then rejoicing in His merciful forgiveness. "Amazing love! how can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?!"

While singing these familiar songs of the faith, on this morning I made a few attempts at some form of harmony. Our hymnal has four-voice parts printed neatly for the benefit of those who can sight read - however, as I am not as of yet among that skilled class, my harmonic contribution remains inconsistent in frequency and imperfect in accuracy. Further practice will doubtless improve both.

Later on, in the afternoon, I sat comfortably situated in the cushioned alcove of my bedroom, looking out through the open window upon the skies of blue and clouds of white, fully enjoying the bright sunny day while using the computer. Loreena McKennit's musical performance of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes played as I typed a few comments in response to Nathanael's.

I then turned to reading about and watching performances on the sitar, the instrument Nathanael called to my attention two days ago and which I have since quite fallen in love with. :) Though some music played on the sitar still seems as mere buzzing noise to my Western ear, I've rapidly grown to love this instrument in its gentler moods.

This is a recording well worth watching. Admittedly, it takes a bit of time to warm up to the unfamiliar tone of the instrument, and the unusual arrangement of the pitches can be a trifle jarring at times. For the most part, though, I'm completely drawn into the intriguing exotic sound of this instrument and its accompaniment.

(For some reason the second video won't embed properly at present. Click here to view it on YouTube.)
This presentation seems one of sober joyousness. Sporadic yet measured, calm while invigorating, mesmerizing warmth mingled with tingling twang. I love it. :]

Having spent enough time on the computer, I moved downstairs to the music room, where I was speedily presented with a difficult decision. "I have both a banjo and a guitar. Which instrument should I pick up first?" :) In this instance the guitar came first. Conner and I spent approximately a quarter of an hour in experimenting with strumming techniques and trying out various effects on the strings. It was fun.

Next, I brought my banjo out to the bench beneath one of our trees and played a multitude of melodies from memory while enjoying the lovely environment on this beautiful day. Spring-like weather + plectrum perfection = happy Zopers. :)

Much of my evening was spent in a delightful conversation with the cousins, in which we discussed a host of subjects ranging from sitars to mandolins to potential guest posts to pop music in the most animated cousinly fashion. It was grand. :)

At some point in the evening I remembered that three pages of homework had been assigned to me on Friday, had been entirely neglected since, and would be called for tomorrow morning. Three quarters of an hour were duly spent in noting dots upon partially filled out staves, adding inner voices to four-part arrangements for chord progressions in root position and first inversion.

Thus endeth the day!