Music
We love music.
It expresses our spiritual yearning and can serve to open us up to spiritual experiences.
Ephesians 5:19
"Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart"
It expresses our spiritual yearning and can serve to open us up to spiritual experiences.
Ephesians 5:19
"Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart"
From our Choir director, Fred Cummins:
A very accomplished cello duo playing an AC/DC song in front of an audience dressed up in 18th-century costume. Funny, impressive, very cool.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/83896505/
The last time I saw string players shred the hairs in their bows like this is when I heard the Kronos Quartet play, as an encore, Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze.' It was wonderful. I loved it. Several people walked out. Oh well.
While I'm at it, 2 recommendations if you're willing to travel to SF for interesting music:
A 'folk rock' musical at the 'Z Space' (in the Mission, on Florida between 17th and 18th) named 'Hundred Days' (http://zspace.org/new-work/hundred-days). Saw this last night. Liked the music and the performers very much but wasn't entirely convinced by the story. Don't know how to label the music. 'Folk rock' sounds quaint, and this isn't quaint. Indie? ??? It's NOT 'classical,' though there's a cello player.
The Switchboard Music Festival (http://www.switchboardmusic.com/), mentioned in a previous email (April 12). Check it out if you're interested in non-academic (i.e., tonal) music that experiments, merges styles, etc.
A very accomplished cello duo playing an AC/DC song in front of an audience dressed up in 18th-century costume. Funny, impressive, very cool.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/83896505/
The last time I saw string players shred the hairs in their bows like this is when I heard the Kronos Quartet play, as an encore, Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze.' It was wonderful. I loved it. Several people walked out. Oh well.
While I'm at it, 2 recommendations if you're willing to travel to SF for interesting music:
A 'folk rock' musical at the 'Z Space' (in the Mission, on Florida between 17th and 18th) named 'Hundred Days' (http://zspace.org/new-work/hundred-days). Saw this last night. Liked the music and the performers very much but wasn't entirely convinced by the story. Don't know how to label the music. 'Folk rock' sounds quaint, and this isn't quaint. Indie? ??? It's NOT 'classical,' though there's a cello player.
The Switchboard Music Festival (http://www.switchboardmusic.com/), mentioned in a previous email (April 12). Check it out if you're interested in non-academic (i.e., tonal) music that experiments, merges styles, etc.
Our Musical Partners
"Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise." - Martin Luther
Music is an integral part of our worship experience. Each Sunday at our 10AM worship service one of our choirs gifts us with music they have prepared. Our choirs are the Chancel Choir, the Chamber Choir, the Bell Choir, and the Elementary Choir. Our choir directors, Fred Cummins (Chancel, Chamber), P.L. Groves (Bell), and Kristin Burns (Elementary), offer a wide variety of musical styles and integrate their selections with the scriptures we are studying. We sing several hymns each Sunday, pulling all church attendees into worship through music. Our Hymnal is Hymns of Truth and Light, which we chose because of it's balance of Progressive Christian theology with maintenance of traditional protestant hymns.
In addition, we enhance our worship with guest professionals and offerings from church members. We are very lucky to live in a place that attracts such talented musicians and to have in our own congregation some gifted performers who share their gifts with us.
Some of our musical partners are [links]
Squid Inc.
Dave Powell and Nancy Ross
Squonk
The Tuttles
Mark Hanson
Greta Pederson
Albert Sammons
Ruth Rainero
Crescendo
Music is an integral part of our worship experience. Each Sunday at our 10AM worship service one of our choirs gifts us with music they have prepared. Our choirs are the Chancel Choir, the Chamber Choir, the Bell Choir, and the Elementary Choir. Our choir directors, Fred Cummins (Chancel, Chamber), P.L. Groves (Bell), and Kristin Burns (Elementary), offer a wide variety of musical styles and integrate their selections with the scriptures we are studying. We sing several hymns each Sunday, pulling all church attendees into worship through music. Our Hymnal is Hymns of Truth and Light, which we chose because of it's balance of Progressive Christian theology with maintenance of traditional protestant hymns.
In addition, we enhance our worship with guest professionals and offerings from church members. We are very lucky to live in a place that attracts such talented musicians and to have in our own congregation some gifted performers who share their gifts with us.
Some of our musical partners are [links]
Squid Inc.
Dave Powell and Nancy Ross
Squonk
The Tuttles
Mark Hanson
Greta Pederson
Albert Sammons
Ruth Rainero
Crescendo
Ways to participate
in Music at Foothills Congregational Church
Join a choir
Adult choirs meet Wednesdays at 7:30pm
The bell choir meets Wednesdays at 6:00pm
Share your gift of music in worship
Do you play a instrument, participate in a musical group, or like to sing solo? Would you like to share your musical gifts during worship? Contact our Music Director, Fred Cummins, by filling out the contact form below.
Adult choirs meet Wednesdays at 7:30pm
The bell choir meets Wednesdays at 6:00pm
Share your gift of music in worship
Do you play a instrument, participate in a musical group, or like to sing solo? Would you like to share your musical gifts during worship? Contact our Music Director, Fred Cummins, by filling out the contact form below.
About the Power of Music
Why Does Music Feel So Good?
by Virginia Hughes
Music "is an exercise for the whole brain."
One day several years ago Valorie Salimpoor took a drive that would change the course of her life. She was at the peak of what she now calls her “quarter-life crisis,” not knowing what kind of career she wanted or how she might use her undergraduate neuroscience training. Hoping an outing might clear her head, that day she jumped in her car and switched on the radio. She heard the charging tempo and jaunty, teasing violin of Johannes Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5.
“This piece of music came on, and something just happened,” Salimpoor recalls. “I just felt this rush of emotion come through me. It was so intense.” She pulled over to the side of the street so she could concentrate on the song and the pleasure it gave her.
When the song was over, Salimpoor’s mind raced with questions. “I was thinking, wow, what just happened? A few minutes ago I was so depressed, and now I’m euphoric,” she says. “I decided that I had to figure out how this happened — that that’s what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”
Music moves people of all cultures, in a way that doesn’t seem to happen with other animals. Nobody really understands why listening to music — which, unlike sex or food, has no intrinsic value — can trigger such profoundly rewarding experiences. Salimpoor and other neuroscientists are trying to figure it out with the help of brain scanners.
Read More...
by Virginia Hughes
Music "is an exercise for the whole brain."
One day several years ago Valorie Salimpoor took a drive that would change the course of her life. She was at the peak of what she now calls her “quarter-life crisis,” not knowing what kind of career she wanted or how she might use her undergraduate neuroscience training. Hoping an outing might clear her head, that day she jumped in her car and switched on the radio. She heard the charging tempo and jaunty, teasing violin of Johannes Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5.
“This piece of music came on, and something just happened,” Salimpoor recalls. “I just felt this rush of emotion come through me. It was so intense.” She pulled over to the side of the street so she could concentrate on the song and the pleasure it gave her.
When the song was over, Salimpoor’s mind raced with questions. “I was thinking, wow, what just happened? A few minutes ago I was so depressed, and now I’m euphoric,” she says. “I decided that I had to figure out how this happened — that that’s what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”
Music moves people of all cultures, in a way that doesn’t seem to happen with other animals. Nobody really understands why listening to music — which, unlike sex or food, has no intrinsic value — can trigger such profoundly rewarding experiences. Salimpoor and other neuroscientists are trying to figure it out with the help of brain scanners.
Read More...
Music has the ability to make concrete the abstract
Music has the ability to pull people together
Click here for more from the "Notes & Neurons" conference.