“A lot of years ago, a minister in the church where I was choir director started his sermon by saying, ‘You probably can’t imagine a saint knocking out Kenny Lane.’ (WBA & WBC Lightweight Boxing Champion in 1964.  He hailed from Muskegon.)  This was certainly a novel concept for a lot of us who heard that line.  He went on to define saint and lo and behold, by his lights, it was imaginable.

With this in mind we chose November’s program.  Marian anthems are obvious as is, I guess, something about St. Cecilia.  We as musicians, after all, claim her as our patron, and composers from time immemorial have written about her, or odes to her day, November 22.  The Benjamin Britten piece is as challenging a work as we have undertaken in a while and is proving to be good for us.  It’s audience friendly and quite understandable.  The Hymn to King (Saint) Stephen was an agonized cry of the Hungarian people to their patron saint as they were being strangled by Hitler’s iron rule in 1939.  

Then we moved to the idea of saints as the great cloud of witnesses and the music, scriptures, and traditions which deal with that.  In the book of Wisdom from the Apocrypha we find the text about ‘the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God…’ and in Revelation we find, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord…’  These too are saints.  While the texts deal with the departed, they are infused with hope and comfort.  When we get to the American music on the program, the saints are alive, optimistic, and bound for better things.  The southerners seem to do it best.  The spiritual has a dual meaning when it speaks of bondage being ended.  Grieg sings of the Great White Host, and a southern hymn tune asks everyone to join on the journey to the Promised Land.  Our last number, Come, Come Ye Saints, is from a southern hymnal of 1844, but is now a piece most closely identified with what we know as the Mormon Church.

Once again we are privileged to sing in St. Mary’s Church.  Just walking in there to practice makes us a better choir.  We find ourselves surrounded by beauty at every turn and in an acoustic setting that really compliments what we do.  We are forever grateful to all who make it possible for us to be there.

As we approach our final rehearsals we are more and more taken by the music we have the opportunity to sing.  Join us, please.”