Wynton’s Blog

The great Maestro Kurt Masur once said, “Let’s face the new year with a new brain”

I offer this prayer and the ensuing section of the yet unreleased Abyssinian Mass today to thank and express gratitude to everyone involved with our music on any level of participation.

The great Maestro Kurt Masur once said, “Let’s face the new year with a new brain.” We all laughed, but he had an excellent point because all of us are struggling with something. Some form of dues always winds up on our plates (even if it wasn’t on the menu), and it always costs more than we have.

New Year is the time to renew, to assess and to reassess, to direct and to redirect ourselves to (yet again) think what we want to think, do what we aspire to do and be who we wish to be in spite of the challenges that add chaos and character to our lives. It’s time for the comeback, and with the intensity and resolution to STAY back.

This prayer and the following anthem is a supplication to The Most High. I always mean to evoke God in the most universal and loving sense, not in the “us versus them” dynamic of good (true believers) versus evil (non-believers). It is never my inclination or desire to recruit people to a religion or to proselytize for a particular way of believing. Instead, I strive to inspire belief, to elevate consciousness by encouraging empathetic reasoning with ‘others’, and to create new pathways for a richer communication by discovering and revealing a common musical language.

I believe in the healing power of creativity. We are all creators. Creation begins with thought, discovery with search, and revelation with action. May this New Year see all of us connect or reconnect with our dream, and may it be a vision worthy of our investment.

This is the Benediction of the mass explained by Deacon Chris Crenshaw.
Followed by the Anthem performed by the JLCO and the Chorale Le Chateau under the baton of Maestro Damien Sneed.

BENEDICTION

Lord, from You, all things.
Though we are many,
In life and death,
We are truly one.

Just the calling of Your Holy Name
Releases us to perceive
The oneness in all, of all.

You have given us
through Your word,
the Divine thought.

And the Divine thought is
the Divine manifestation
IS Holy action.

Mighty is the healing of Thy name
O! Most High.
Go forth and shout it
In kingdoms earthly and divine.

ANTHEM

Glory to God,
Glory to God.

Glory to God in the highest,
Glory to God in the highest.

Glory to God,
Glory to God.

Glory to God in the highest,
Glory to God in the highest.

He spoke the light from darkness,
He framed the open sky.
He laid the earth’s foundation,
Caused forest and field to thrive.

Glory to God,
Glory to God.

He set the bright stars in motion,
Made all that swims and flies.
Brought forth the animals that walk the ground,
He never blinked His eyes.

Glory to God,
Glory to God.

He forged a man and woman,
To be fruitful and multiply.
Sat down on that seventh day,
And heard them testify. Ooo!

Glory to God,
Glory to God.

Glory to God in the highest.

Glory to God in the highest.
Glory to God

Wynton

Posted on January 1st, 2016