I have loved the song I heard him come since I was a teen.
It is a song about the Savior, and a very difficult piece of music to perform for both the singer and the pianist.
Michelle, our daughter who will turn 18 on friday, has been working on the piano since she was very young. In the past year we have been rehearsing together to help her learn how to accompany someone singing, which is another level of piano altogether. When someone sings, it really messes up a piano performance and is a difficult talent to master.
We have been rehearsing several songs for the past year or so. I challenged her to learn this Jeff Goodrich song as it has a difficult key change in the middle of the song, and is a good place to start when learning how to accompany.
We practiced this over the thanksgiving holiday. Here is the first clip:
One of the things I have taught Michelle is that no matter what you have to keep going when you are accompanying someone. You can’t give up in frustration and start over….well, this clip from the end of the song, proves that is not always possible. Sometimes the singer can’t go on….A thousand apologies to Jeff Goodrich for massa’cring’ his song, but it was just too funny not to share….
Clip #2
No Ordinary Man is one of my favorites written by Janice Kapp Perry
This version, recorded at home, was interupted by Jeff receiving a phone call. I had asked the children to let me alone for two minutes while we recorded, but Allison was not upstairs when I talked to the boys. I made it through the second verse without any major distractions, and at our house, that is a miracle.
While not the perfect rendition of this song, I hope the message it contains touches your heart as you listen. Clip two follows right after this first one.
I plan to share video clips of some of my favorite music in the coming months to add variety and spice to the natural family blog!
My all time favorite music is anything that is written about Jesus Christ. So these first two songs, Jesus was no ordinary man and Come Thou Fount, will kick off this new part of the blog. Jenny Hatch
Some of you who have never lived with a young child may wonder why Ben is always undressed in these video clips. I get him dressed on average five times a day, and usually within minutes he is in varying stages of undress. I find clothes all over the house, once I found a pair of pants in the fridge. (grab an apple, shove your pants in the fruit bin) Sometimes it is just a shirt, or a pair of shorts that he has on, or one left sock. He is pretty good about keeping his underpants on, but as a free spirit, clothing to him is completely optional when he is running around the house.
The Broomfield Choral Festivals performance of the Brahms Requiem was yesterday. It was such an amazing experience to participate in this grand work of musical magic! Here are some photos and video clips.
Here is a picture of me just before we warmed up in the chapel.
My children, Michelle, Allison, Jeffrey, and Andrew passed out programs for the concert.
My dear friend Esther, (who is a master whole wheat bread baker), came to listen to the concert.
Michelle captured a couple of 30 second video clips of the concert on her camera. Click on the image to listen!
I went up to Ron after the performance and snapped this shot of us together, only catching half of my head in the photo. Mike Williams, President of the Choral Festival (who also serves as Stake President of the Boulder Colorado Stake of The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) was in the picture. The happiness of this moment really comes through clear. We were all so pleased with the final outcome!
Here is another Video Clip of the Performance!
Here is a picture of me with my children after the concert.
My dear friend Kent came to see the performance. He is the organist of the Colorado Mormon Chorale and a member of my ward. Recently he accompanied me as I sang the solo A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief in our wards Sacrament Meeting. Kent is an accomplished and credentialed organist in the Denver/Boulder area. It was fun to have him in the audience!
In this final video clip you can see me standing in the upper left corner of the choir. This clip was my favorite. Joy and Delight! Here is the Blog entry I wrote about the Requiem a couple of weeks ago.
This requiem was a follow up to last years version of the Mozart Requiem, which the Festival performed in memory of 9-11. With the fifth year anniversary today, the festival chose the Brahms Requiem to share with our community to commemorate the slaughter that took place on 9-11. The festival president said these great works were written for those who were sorrowful after the death of loved ones. I suppose as Americans we all feel sadness and grief remembering that terrible day.
I will always remember what I was doing on that day.
We had kept the children home from school that morning because we had planned to go to the airport to visit my sister Emily on a stopover at DIA. Emily was traveling from Utah to Italy. She had spent two months in the Missionary Training Center, and was now on her way to Italy to serve a mission for the church we attend.
We had a quiet morning of breakfast, scripture reading, prayers, and I had prepared a picnic lunch to take with us to share with Emily during her two hour layover. We never listen to the news or the radio in the morning, so we were absolutely clueless until we reached the airport. Just as we were pulling up to Denver International Airport, dozens of policemen were outside putting up barricades to the entryway of the airport. Paul rolled down the window of our car and asked one of the policemen what was going on. He said “the airport is shutting down until we figure out who bombed us”.
Paul and I just looked at each other, and then he turned on the radio. As we drove towards the children’s school we listened to the radio. We dropped the older children off at school, and then I went home to spend the whole day listening to Fox News and trying to locate my sister. Her plane was in the air during the attack, but they grounded it before she reached Denver. She was fine, and eventually made it to Italy to serve an honorable mission, but it was a very worrisome experience for me.
The next day I kept all four children at home and we spent the day updating our 72 hour kits, which had not been touched since 1999. It helped us to have something proactive to do, rather than melting down into terrorized inactivity and apathy.
I did not lose anyone I knew personally on 9-11, but Barbara Olsen had been one of my favorite television conservative commentators, and she died in the plane that hit the pentagon.
I’d like to dedicate this post to all of the families and friends of those who died on 9-11 and also to all of the babies that will be born in the weeks, months, and years ahead. May they be gently welcomed into a world that is eager to raise them in the most natural, holistic, peaceful way possible. A couple years ago I threw out the idea that a terrorist comes from a womb that has been terrorized during pregnancy. When mothers are beaten, neglected, impoverished, starved, and live a life so filled with misery that they kill their daughters to save them from living a similar life, we can almost be certain terrorists are being formed in those wombs.
When the women of the world are ALL cherished, properly nourished, and babies are born gently and holistically, then we will start to experience the eternal millennial peace that the Prophet Isaiah promised is the future for our world. Zion is just around the corner, we just have to believe it, keep the faith, and come with singing and rejoicing unto ZION! Jenny Hatch
