Bring me my bow of burning gold

After doing the Beethoven, it was nice to get back to our church choir and a bit less intensity. Also we're doing a song I love, as a William Blake fan -- and it's a great song of social action.

Jerusalem

AND did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

William Blake

This song fits very well with the community dialog concerning poverty, rising from the library's community read of Nickel & Dimed. Neither is this a big stretch from our recent travels to Transylvania, as we contemplate what we are called to do for our friends there. I usually find things to like in Blake, but this is a favorite, reminding us how we are all empowered with marvelous tools and called to use them in larger struggles.

Diesen Kuss der ganzen Weld

Last night, I was fortunate to sing with 150 other people in a Community Chorus performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra. It was a wonderful opportunity, a difficult piece to sing, and ultimately a truly powerful experience. Several of us commented after ward that it went by so quickly. It's a demanding piece and requires physical and mental focus and energy, so much so that the time slips away.

One of the gifts music gives is the requirement to be "in the moment", and we got to spend six months of preparation in order to spend a long moment in a bit of Beethoven's world. Even after repeated listenings to several recordings of the work, even after rehearsing so long and so often -- daily practice and twice weekly rehearsals for the past couple weeks, I barely scratched the surface of Beethoven's musical art. The tempo shifts, dynamics and harmonies brought a high degree of drama to Schiller's transcendent words.

And then there's the experience of singing together with 150 people. This was another new experience for me and there's tremendous power in so many people working together to create a tightly constructed performance. We were fortunate to have a gifted choir director in Austin Boncher, who surely has a great love for music and teaching in order to build a choir from scratch. Austin needed patience, persistence, humor and talent to bring us together and help us climb to where we needed to go. And all that was just to get us ready for the symphony, soloists and conductor. To complement all that talent and create the synergy of the fourth movement was a unique privilege. To sing with eleven people form our church choir as well as three other people from the library was all frosting on the cake!

Freude, for sure!

Spirit of Life

10 year old Orsy Mate sings at the farewell party after Easter service, while Tony records her and her brother Zsolt and Andy look on. (video taken with Treo cellphone)

Beer Barrel Polka in Transylvania

A party at the Koppandi parsonage in Torocko-St. George: Dean dances with Eva Koppandi while Boti plays; Zoli claps & sings. The "Beer Barrel Polka" -- fun in any language!

we're back

Weary travellers arrive in Chicago - Fox Cities in a few hours!

Things we won't be saying as often:

• No more palinka! Kitschi!
• Blessed Bill & the Manholies!
• No Woman, No Cry
• Mogadishu
• Wow -- that's great soup!
• Can I have some hot water for my coffee?
• Wait -- that was only the first course? I definitely should not have eaten so much!

skipping stones in waterfalls

Almost heaven, Transylvania - Dean & Tony in the mountains above Lupeni, Easter afternoon. An incredibly beautiful near-freezing mountain stream, dense woods, rocky cliffs, snow-capped mountains. This would be a great place to hang out for a few days in the summer!

Easter in Lupeni

Rev. Koppandi Zoltan (Zoli) in the pulpit.