Father Christmas: A Musical Christmas Card

Posted on December 8, 2011 by composerinthegarden

We have long considered creating an online musical Christmas card instead of sending paper cards and Christmas letters; this is the year that it happens. “Father Christmas” was composed from a dream that my husband had of his father. Bill handed me the text and music for the chorus, I completed the text and music for the verses and bridge and scored it for keyboards and percussion. Our friend Judy joined us to record it for the “Christmas at Duquesne, Vol. 2” CD. Now we would like to share the video version with our friends and families as our Christmas greeting this year. May the blessings of love and peace be with you throughout the coming year. Enjoy!

Father Christmas Lyrics
©2008 Lynn & Bill Purse, All rights reserved

Father Christmas, Father Time
Mother Earth in ancient rhyme
Help the angels sing your name
I’ll see you Father, once again

Christmas seen through childish eyes
Glitter gold and treasures prized,
and yet around each childish heart
the warmth of love and family start

A world of sorrow, a world of pain,
a world in which there seems no gain.
But nonetheless, remember this,
a world was won by a child of grace

Looking back on memories, I see the joy of family
A father’s love, a mother’s joy for all their children, girl and boy

Fathers, mothers, listen now
Sisters, brothers, make this vow
to love each other on this earth
and share the bonds of love and mirth

Lynn Emberg Purse, vocals and keyboards; Bill Purse, vocals and percussion, sound engineer and producer; Judith Bowman, keyboards. A special thanks to my niece and great niece Jessica and Olivia and to my mother and my husband for allowing me to film them, and to Michael for providing the red rose.

Soundtrack on the “Christmas at Duquesne, Vol. 2” CD available at the Duquesne University’s Mary Pappert School of Music, 412-396-6080. All proceeds go towards scholarships for Duquesne University music students.

Another Christmas music post that you may enjoy – Keeping Christmas

Keeping Christmas

Posted on November 25, 2011 by composerinthegarden

. . .and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well . . . May that be truly said of us, and all of us! “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

Many years ago, I went on an overseas musical tour to entertain the troops during the holidays. I didn’t think it would bother me to be away for the holidays but Christmas Eve found me in tears. In a lovely tropical land, but with nothing to give as gifts except stale candy and magazines from the tiny PX, and performing Christmas music for an audience that was in holiday denial, I was sorry I had agreed to the trip. A fortuitous invitation to a midnight mass changed everything for me. On a warm tropical night, in a soaring cathedral built of Philippine mahogany but with no walls, people gathered by candlelight to celebrate Christmas. Sweet voices rose in singing “Silent Night” to the accompaniment of acoustic guitars, the original instrument used for that lovely carol. I felt all preconceptions and expectations about the holiday slip away from me – the night was magical, a quiet miracle. When I returned home, I remembered Scrooge’s change of heart and vowed to “keep Christmas” any time I had the chance but also to remember that it was bigger than custom and ritual.

Jump forward 25 years. When asked to write and record a pop style song for a Christmas CD, I remembered that remarkable Christmas Eve. The lyrics were written in ten minutes during a chamber music concert on the back of the program. Influenced by the music that was being performed at the time, I included two violins and a cello in the score and “Christmas In My Heart” was recorded for the “Christmas at Duquesne, Vol. 2 CD”.

This song is dedicated to everyone who finds themselves away from home during the holidays, with a gentle reminder that you carry the real meaning inside of you. Trust that magic will happen.

Christmas in My Heart

If there was no tree this year, no rows of twinkling lights,
no ornaments, no bells to ring, no frosty snowmen bright.
I’d miss the cheerful bustle with which the season starts,
but no matter where I find myself, I’ll keep Christmas in my heart.

If there was nobody singing carols, no cups of Christmas cheer,
no bows, no boxes, no ribbons to tie, no special gifts to share.
I’d miss the sounds, the sights, the smells with which the season starts,
but no matter where I find myself, I’ll keep Christmas in my heart.

I may be so far away, missing everyone I love,
Standing on unfamiliar ground where nothing looks like home.

Yet in a quiet moment, in a starry silent night
the shortest day is over and the dawn is growing bright.
I sing an alleluia and a candle lights the dark.
No matter where I find myself, no matter where I find myself,
no matter where we find ourselves,
we’ll keep Christmas in our hearts, in our hearts.

Lynn Emberg Purse, Vocals and keyboards; Bill Purse, bass, sound engineer and producer; Rachel Stegeman and Charles Stegeman, violins; Chris Bromley, cello; Billy Kuhn, drums. CD available for purchase from the Duquesne University Mary Pappert School of Music, 412-396-6080. All proceeds go to support scholarships for music students.

A special thanks to those who provided photos, especially Andrew Fichter and Michael Ortiz. Many photos were also provided by Photos8.org and Photos Public Domain – please support those public domain/creative commons websites that provide beautiful photos at no cost and support artistic creativity.

Another Christmas post you may like: Father Christmas

Garden 11/11/11

Posted on November 15, 2011 by composerinthegarden

This year, the garden seems to go on and on. Here is a little tour of flowers, fruit and foliage filling the garden on November 11. Even as the leaves fall, next year’s growth appears.

More next time, after this week’s big concert.

At the speed of light

Posted on November 7, 2011 by composerinthegarden

The speed of light is the same for all observers, no matter what their relative speeds. Einstein

Tonight the air is crisp and cold and the sky is bright with winter stars and a growing half moon. Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper float over the roof of the house and Orion the Hunter is rising in the southern sky.

The “more than half” moon is bright enough to cast shadows across the dark tangle of the garden and thread between the almost leafless trees. The four seasons seem an inadequate description for the ongoing flow of changes that I notice in the garden; it morphs from moment to moment each time I step outside. As I set up my camera for a long exposure, I think of a card that a friend sent describing the thirteen moons of the native American tribes. What is this moon tonight? Harvest is over and winter will arrive soon; perhaps this is a liminal moon, a threshold between the season that has ended and the one yet to arrive.

The lyrics and melody to “Light” (See blog post Fire and Light) run through my head and keep me out in the cold night gazing up at the sky. “Gathered on the waters, reflected by the moon, even once removed, its power streams into the night. Light . . .” The piece is being premiered in ten days and I am preparing the visual media that is part of the performance. Solar flares, clouds across the moon and the water, light sifting through trees and clouds – the images and the music are inextricably intertwined and indeed, this piece was born from nights spent just like this, in the quiet of the garden filled with light.

Here is a sneak preview of part of the piece, with a MIDI soundtrack sans sung lyrics. The lyrics to the clip shown above:

Light, Light, Light. . .
Gathered on the waters,
reflected by the moon.
Even once removed, its power
streams into the night,
Light, Light, Light . . .

Turbulent Transitions

Posted on October 31, 2011 by composerinthegarden

I stood on a hill in Dunoon, Scotland, in the middle of March many years ago. Powerful winds brought a succession of rain, sleet, snow, hail, and sunshine over and over again in the course of an hour – a microcosm of the turbulent transition from one season to another. The change of seasons this week in Western Pennsylvania was less compressed – spread over days rather than minutes – but otherwise not so different. The week began with a warm evening on the deck, listening to what surely would be the final cicada and frog chorus of the season. Gusty winds brought cold temperatures and days of rain, followed by an enchantingly beautiful misty morning immediately followed by a snowy morning, all in less than a week.

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Though I’m reluctant to acknowledge the end of the gardening season and the coming of winter, I must admit that I love the turbulent changes that the seasons’ transitions bring. There is a certain security in knowing that one season will follow another, an overarching stability of structure. But the passage from one state to another is filled with chaos, unpredictability and extreme fluctuations. It is this push pull of change and stability that fascinates me, and it seems to be at the heart of my artistic endeavors as well. Achieving a balance between the familiar and the novel, the security of what has been done and the adventure of exploring new ideas, is an ongoing dynamic in my work, and perhaps in my life as well.

A video celebration of nature’s transitions in my garden, set to the music of “Falling” from “Three States of Being.”

Here’s another take on the idea of transitions as passages, courtesy of Margie Strosser.

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The intersection of music and the garden as intertwined creative art forms

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