I recently started serving as interim music director at a church where I’m an associate organist. The music director had left abruptly, and the music staff has been on edge because of that and some preceding months of frayed communications due to the pandemic. So, I organized a music staff meeting, and invited the pastor to address them and answer questions.
The pastor began by affirming that everyone is still employed, the music program is valued, and that “a beautiful space should have beautiful music”. He also hinted that in the future, the range of musical style in the program might be broadened. In some situations that might strike terror in the heart of an organist, but for this particular early music-focused program, it’s more of a question of life after Mozart. One of the staff asked, “So we could sing something written last week?” And he replied, “If it’s beautiful”.
That answer can be seen as simplistic, but I love that it was free from dogma; free from treating music as a commodity to attract market segments; and free from lading music with the burden of addressing society’s ills. It’s very hard right now to advocate for beauty, and yet as musicians it’s our goal and our fuel.
Many folks are emerging from the pandemic’s enforced sabbatical with greater clarity on what is beautiful in their lives, and what beauty they would like to create. I hope this is true for you, and that we can all carry this newfound awareness into the times ahead.
In Beauty May I Walk
Navajo Prayer
In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.