The things you find!

This post will be, quite literally, about notes of faith - as in, my adventures in sorting and packing St. Andrew's music library this week. The above cantata book contained a bulletin from 1954 when this cantata was presented. More about that in another post. Then there are the various copies of music that have migrated from, well, I'll let the pictures tell you.

St. Vital United was a few blocks down the street.

These two churches are about 1,200 miles away! How did the music get to Winnipeg?

This piece migrated at least twice. If you look carefully under the Riverdale stamp, you can see "Property of First Avenue Baptist Church" - which could be just about anywhere!

Lastly, we have detailed instructions on using file folders. Judging by the typeface on the company logo, I'm guessing these came from the 1920's or so. The music in the file folder would confirm that!


Here's the logo in detail:


So now you know some of the things I found. They gave me a few laughs along the way, and that was a good thing this week.

Dumbing Down?

I was trying to find the top of my piano yesterday! This means picking up the books that are on it, wondering (or remembering) why they were put there in the first place, and deciding if they still need to be out. I began thumbing through an old camp songbook and came across a piece with a melody that, while somewhat predictable in nature, took a few turns in unexpected directions. In spite of my last 'rant' on the topic, this time my thoughts took a different twist. By not giving a congregation the opportunity to learn and sing such a hymn, am I/are we dumbing down? That is to say, are we setting the bar too low in congregational singing?