I have been in a slight panic. Nothing serious to be sure, but I am confident of my nervousness to come. Since becoming just a housewife years ago, I've mostly put my violin down. Pre-kids I was getting rather ok. (Good is debatable in music and depends too much on the company one keeps, so I'll label myself, ok.) Post-kids is another world. Who has enough time, and I ran out of opportunity. Well, Christmas season is upon us, so opportunity has found me. It's crazy ensemble time at church. A matter of what instrumentalists are available, so what can be put together that Bach would have never arranged for? Well, how 'bout a trumpet, horn, violin (ME), viola, and cello? Hmm, not too big a shock that there's nothing written. But one of these is a more regular and serious musician (she's single and has no kids) who has found music for four, but nothing remotely resembling Christmas. This is now real, and I've been seriously practicing: daily, for close to an hour. (I was good enough to know that I stink these days.) I was taking a break today, playing some pretty Christmas tunes on the piano. Several years ago, I arranged "Good King Wenceslas" on the piano. I keep trying to remember what I did each year, but it slips my mind, or more my fingers. So, I finally decided to write it down. I enter the song into my software and begin to play it back. My mind starts rolling, and before I know it, I've warped this into a 5-part version. I pull a recorder part from some website, quiet a stanza to just horn & viola with the cello bass line, find another descant on youtube, and away I go.
I know I'm not all that talented, but every now and then, I get whisked away into something that might actually be good. It makes me wonder, how can my Good King use me? What if I ever let Him use me to the potential He has given me? "Attempt something so great for God, that it be doomed to failure lest He be in it." Yet can I stand up to attempt anything? The king of the song was really a duke, and he had it in him to care for a poor man. He is now remembered for all time because of a simple good deed. Do I over-great what my actions need to be, and therefore know that I might never measure up? This good king reminds us that it is the simple acts bestowed to those less fortunate than we that can be divinely transformed into life-giving heat being in the very foot steps we leave. I shall continue to practice my violin for now, and maybe I can chase a little of the nerves away. Who knows what may come of it? Perhaps my crude notes will bring something greater to those who hear. I'll leave it in the hands of my Good King.
