2010-01-12 - The Accompanist’s Husband

I have played the piano for groups, since I was 16, from youth choirs to high school chorus members to adult choirs. Now, I’m enjoying a “sub” at our present (and in my heart, forever) church, and this past Christmas season, I played a couple songs for our church’s cantata. What we accompanists play is called the “Accompaniment.” What you hear when people sing the songs, would be the melody (usually sung by the Sopranos, and what is commonly called the “tune” of the song) and the harmony that is supplied (usually by Altos, Basses and Tenors).

Why am I giving you this “choral singing 101 lesson?” I’m glad you asked! During the two months before the presentation of the cantata, I practiced each song several hundred times, which means that my husband heard the songs hundred of times each. But he didn’t actually hear the “songs” themselves. For you see, the accompaniment rarely contains the harmony or even the melody. It is often played “against” the singing, and when you hear the accompaniment alone, it can sound pretty strange! In the 30 years of our marriage, my husband has heard a lot of strange music! And I know that when he first started hearing this stuff, he probably wondered if it would ever “come together” into a song (he’s too kind to say so). But when you put it all together with the Sopranos, Altos, Basses and Tenors, you have a beautiful work of music.

Isn’t life like that, as well? In our lives, we often see what an accompanist’s husband hears. Sometimes we get focused in on our “accompaniment,” our part in something, or a difficult experience we are going through. Often, it doesn’t make sense to us. Why must I go through this? Why does it have to happen this way? What good could possibly come out of this? We can become confused, impatient, discouraged or even bitter. But at that time, we don’t hear the entire opus of our lives. We don’t realize that later in our lives, this will come together and make sense. It can also make us into the people God will use in other situations, and that the experiences will help us to become the people of God that we will ultimately be. Through our experiences, God may use us to help someone else going through similar situations.

Maybe you are hearing the discordant sounds of a devastating job loss, and while this will be extremely difficult, perhaps next year this time, you'll hear everything come together in the best job you ever had. Or maybe right now, you are facing the melancholy music of a relationship breakup. But perhaps later, you'll look back on this moment and thank God that it opened up the opportunity to meet your soulmate, with whom you will spend the rest of your life.

I have heard that there are some rare people, like Brian Wilson (who was an integral part of the Beach Boys), can hear six simultaneous parts of harmony in their minds. Whatever part(s) you are hearing right now, in the musical work that is your life, be sure of this Eventually, you will hear more and more of the lovely music God has planned for you. :

Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) “…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Jan

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http://www.cfdevotionals.org

2018-01-15