Legend: Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair
I realized as I sat listening to a string concert yesterday at Ham Hall, how long it had been since my soul had been nourished. The nourishment was pure worship in spirit and in truth for me. I do not intend to be offensive when I say not much of the music in contemporary church leads my soul to worship. For me, listening to Vivaldi’s: Stabat Mater or anything he wrote for that matter ;Beethoven’s 9th, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Bach , Mozart, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and hundreds of other dead guy’s music that no one reading this will know or be able to relate to, feeds something deep within.
A few years ago, during a counseling session for my mood disorder with Kevin Odor, I was told to surround myself with the things that bring nourishment to my soul. Kevin thought a great deal of my depression was a lack of balanced soul food. Sitting in the concert reminded me of how malnourished I had become.
As I heard and watched that group play a piece entitled, Legend: Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair; and the sum of the orchestra far surpassed its parts, a beautiful picture of God’s Glory came to me. I saw what the body of Christ was like as it relates to the Trinity. Through the music, I could envision how it is the work of each member to play his part to the best of his or her ability----not someone else’s part or instrument (that would be chaos), but the one given to him. I sensed what it might be like in heaven; a pure celebration of the divine romance of the Trinity. All glory going to them as we play our part, telling their story; the passion, tragedy and triumph of all they have endured. And yet, within that body of music makers, there are many stories of individuals with his or her own tale which uniquely glorifies the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; in particular, the story of one little girl; my little girl.
Caitlin went through grueling auditions to make it into this select group of musicians. She had no experience in an orchestra and sight read very little; but she could play her fiddle and practiced seriously. Midway into rehearsals and practicing two and sometimes three hours per day, she was told because she was homeschooled, she should not have been allowed in the group (it is a public school program). The orchestra chair person said she would be allowed to play this time, but asked her not to audition next year. She was hurt, but decided to continue on to the next hoop in this orchestral experience, the dreaded Re- seating auditions. This is a blind audition where the musicians play the most difficult parts of the pieces and are scored and placed according to their ability in the orchestra. Now, it is an honor to even be in this ensemble. That is why it is called, Honors Orchestra and sitting in any seat is to be cherished, even if it is in the last row.
The glory of God comes through her story when on Thursday night after over a week of wondering where her audition placed her; Caitlin went to rehearsal looking for her newly appointed seat. She was looking in the back because of her age, and lack of experience, (sixth graders are usually in the back). She could not find her name. We assumed she was out. She asked one of the teachers if she was on the list and he showed her where she was to sit. She had been judged and scored on the first stand, second chair of II Violins. Her stand was one of a group which forms an inner circle around the conductor. My little girl sat center stage, a breath away from the conductor.
What a glorious day! I watched and admired a little girl who had been through so much to sit in that place of honor, and ultimately, she played her part in harmony with the others and the Glory of God was revealed in the music as it sung my soul a Legend: Black is the Color of my True Love’s........(My Jesus’ )Hair.