Things I love about Jerusalem: Music

"Music eases every pain we don't know we carry."  (Olivia Hawkes, The Ragged Edge of Night)

 I love the emphasis on music here!  You can hear the call to prayer 5 times a day wafting in the windows.  You can hear clarinets and chanting near the western wall.  When we visit a synagogue or church service there is usually singing in ancient languages.  You can hear organs and carillon bells near many Christian churches.  There is  even modern Arabic music pulsing from car radios.  

Hoping to help Emily keep up with her own musical journey, I rented a used cello from a music store in Tel Aviv.  Tel Aviv is not hard to navigate by foot, but very congested if you are driving and looking for parking!  

After a lengthy ordeal of driving on narrow one-way streets, finding full parking lots, and finally walking for blocks, I rented an old-looking cello with an adequate sound.  As long as I was that close to the Mediterranean, I figured I had to go stick my feet in it.  I got strange looks walking on the edge of the beach with a cello on my back!  I was so happy when Emily first played this well-loved instrument--something about the  mellow vibrations resonating through our apartment just filled my soul.  

We have the privilege of hearing concerts in the BYU Jerusalem center auditorium usually every week.  One of the first concerts we watched was a brass quintet which played Piazzola, Pucchini, and Gershwin.  The next week was two piano soloists from Ramallah--one fiery and emotional, another powerful but controlled and nuanced.  Another week, we watched a piano and flute jazz duo.  You can hear past concerts on the BYU Jerusalem center facebook page.  

A few weeks ago we climbed the YMCA tower to join Jim Welch who is an accomplished carilloneur (click to hear).   He let me play the melody on a simple piece.  Click here to hear me playing Come Thou Fount.  

Here is Jim Welch at an organ keyboard.  I think he has a goal to play every organ in the country. 

Essie pumps the bellows at Augusta Victoria church demonstrating how organs were powered before electricity!  Better than a stairmaster!  Click here to watch the video version of students on the bellows.

Taking advantage of a day free from school because of Rosh Hashana, many of the youth of the Jerusalem District visited St. Anne's church by the Pool of Bethesda, and the Church of All Nations near Gethsemane.  Click here to hear their beautiful voices as they sang in St. Anne's Church, which commemorates Mary's parents Anna and Joachin.  This church reminds me of the blessing of righteous parents.  Nephi had goodly parents, and Mary must have had goodly parents, too!  

 

One of our youth activities was a music night where everyone brought instruments and we tried to make beautiful noises with them.  Menashe Bartlett, a counselor in the bishopric, had brought an accordion, a trumpet, a drum, and a tambourine.  We also had a flute, a cello, and a violin.  It was an evening of joyful noise!

More from The Ragged Edge of Night about the power of music:  "Humbly, conscious of his shortcomings, Anton begins to play.  The music fills the church first....A heartbeat later it fills him...it shakes his bones like a roar, like a peal of the sweetest thunder....The chords lift him higher, raising his spirit above the brass spires of the organ pipes into the peace of a still blue Heaven.  

"He doesn't realize he had sung aloud until he reaches the end.   As the last chord echoes in the nave... he falls silent and takes his hands reluctantly from the keys.   He waits on the bench, humble and still, but filled with a satisfying ecstasy, an unexpected nearness to God."