MUSIC BOX
Melinda Coffey Armstead, piano
Prelude to Worship
Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 1 . . . Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Showers of Blessing . . . Daniel Whittle, James McGranhan
Musical Interlude
Come, Thou Fount . . . Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, 1813
arr. by John Carter
Postlude
Chorale: Nun danket alle Gott . . . J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, in whom his world rejoices.
Who from our mother’s arms hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
Prelude in G major, WTC I . . . J. S. Bach
A wise person once said that an important support for “the good old days” is a faulty memory.
I wake up every morning to the best day yet, where I have the most delightful job making music for the finest people I know, in the most wonderful part of the world there is. I was born at the best time there has ever been, when the music of Bach and Mozart and Chopin and Brahms (and a few others) was already printed out especially for me. Where the best music is still to be played on my lovely piano and admired by my adoring husband.
When I turn on the tap, water comes out. When I throw the switch light comes on. (Thanks, Mr. Edison, for inventing the electric light, so I don’t have to watch TV by candlelight.)
There are two beautiful, active kittens outside my living-room window, living in the woodpile with their mother. When I want a break from practicing, I can watch them play. If I feel housebound, I can take a walk on the beach.
I know some poor souls who prefer to be unhappy, because otherwise they would have to be happy. I’m privileged to know them for the benefit of their example, for the clarity they bring to the happiness of others.
Sometimes the days are so blessed and full, I want to make time stop and the earth stop spinning, to hold on to them. But that’s a big job, and if I had succeeded I’d have missed the best parts.
