Major Milestone
After four and a half years of work, we are very pleased to be able to announce that the music for the entire “Job…” opera is finished. I’m sure there will still be some tweaks and arranging done, but on the whole it is complete.
The question now is… where do we go from here? How do we get there?
We’ve come a long way. We have reached a major milestone and we are now resting at a crossroads to the future. Nobody knows what lies down whichever path we choose to take. But we know we must proceed. If …
After the Westobou and Thomson, too
I guess this is why I never really started blogging. I have one nagging suspicion that says nobody will read it and another one that says if they do they’ll think it’s dumb. But the big problem is I get all these great ideas to write… while I’m driving in my jeep… and can’t write. Then, when I get time to do it, I can’t remember what I wanted to say. I should be writing this every week… or right after an event… not weeks later. Such is life.
Anyway, the Company did a fantastic performance at the Westobou Festival (NOT …
In The Company of Job
I attended the funeral today of the daughter of a friend. Sloan Claery was 19 years old; killed in a car wreck over the weekend. I don’t know the details of the accident and they are mostly unimportant to me. What is important is that my friend lost his oldest daughter.
What do you say at a time like that? Nothing. There are no words that will assuage the grief. Grief is a process that will only be accomplished through time… not through words. He does need supportive friends. Friends who, like Job’s three friends, would be willing to sit for days and nights …
In the News(paper)
The Augusta Chronicle visited us last Monday night during rehearsal and did a great article about The Company of Job. They also produced a really nice interview with yours truly, which is available online at this link.
While the article overall was pretty good, I did have to take them to task for one statement. According the the article, “The opera features classic hymns such as Our Redeemer Lives, played in rock-opera style with electric guitar, drums, oboe, trumpets and flutes.” Ummm… Sorry, but we don’t do any classic hymns. All of the songs are original, and almost all of …
Elation of the Big Shoe
On Saturday night, August 16th, The Company of Job hosted a dinner theater at Trinity on the Hill United Methodist Church in Augusta, Georgia. We presented an hour-long preview of our all original opera “Job: a Postmodern Opera of Biblical Proportions”. By all reports I have received, it went incredibly well.
Simply incredible.
I try to pride myself on having the right words to say when I need to say something. The only word that comes to mind after Saturday night’s performance is “incredible”.
In*cred”i*ble\, a. [L. incredibilis: cf. OF. incredible. See In- not, and Credible.] Not credible; surpassing belief; too …
Live Recording of “My Man’s Got the Blues”
My Man’s Got the Blues is the cry of Job’s wife after they lost all their children as well as their livelihood.
Quizzes, Trick Questions, and Answers that Aren’t
I read some posts recently related to a quiz that was given (just for fun) on a songwriting board I visit occasionally ( www.christiansongwriters.org ). Most of the posts were in the vein of “my answer was counted wrong, but it’s correct because…” .
Having worked for quite a few years in technical training, I can tell you that writing questions that cannot be miscontrued is one of the hardest things you can do. If you’re successful at it, you are a very good test writer.How you define something makes all the difference in how a question will be interpreted. Most …
Notes on Job
From Walter Brueggamann’s “Introduction to the Old Testament”
· Undated – uses older genres and patterns of speech and fashions them into the most artistic and practical statement of faith in the O.T.
· Challenges the basic premises of Israel’s faith
· Refuses easy resolution
· Composed mostly of lament and hymn, which is pushes to an “emotional, artistic, and theological extremity”
· An immensely sophisticated and artistic work that is removed from any particular historical context or crisis
In “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time”, Marcus Borg says that if we read Job searching for an answer to why good people suffer, we …
One Act Theater
One Act Theater is a song that I wrote the lyrics to over 20 years ago (circa 1986). I was listening a lot to U2’s Joshua Tree release and, as I often do, wrote my own lyrics to several of their tunes… or actually, just used the rhythm and flow of the song to direct my words.
I tried several times unsuccessfully to get music written for the song and figured it would be like most of the other songs I’ve written that mildew in my files with nothing else ever being done with it (I have a long list of song lyrics that …
A Brief History of “Job”
“Job” started for me in 1986 when I was reading the book of Job in the Old Testament for what may have been the first time. I realized it was an epic poem and was struck by its complexity, beauty, and emotional intensity. I decided to see if I could rearrange some of its verses to put them into modern verse that could be sung. Plenty of people had done the same thing with many of the psalms, but I did not know if anyone had attempted to put “Job” to music.
I started at the beginning ( which is a …
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