Julianna loves books. She loves music. And especially, she adores reading books that can be sung. When Alex was little(r), I used to scour the section of the children’s stacks for books on trains and emergency vehicles. Nowadays, I scour the poetry section for songs I know. One of her favorites is called Child of…
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7 Quick Takes Friday–the Christmas Carol edition
1. The local “Christmas station” plays a sometimes-delightful, often appalling mix of cheesy ’80s pop stars (think Hall & Oates “Jingle Bell Rock”), some great Mannheim Steamroller, and several versions of Feliz Navidad and Chestnuts Roasting—but virtually ZERO religious content. This got me thinking about the kids at school. When we would plan our Christmas…
Read MoreBig Bad Voodoo Daddy (Thursday Motherhood Moment)
Precious moments. We’ve all had them—those moments that make your heart catch every time you remember them. No matter how often you revisit them, they never get stale or lose their power. Tender or funny, poignant or inspiring, they fortify us against toddler tantrums and pubescent (and pre-school) power struggles. Leave a comment sharing your…
Read MoreThe Image and the Hope
This summer, GIA released The Image and the Hope, a CD of flute pieces from the GIA catalogue, including two pieces (“Morning Mist” and “Falling Snow”) from my collection, “Times and Seasons.” Dominic Trumfio is a wonderful flutist, and he and Kelly Dobbs-Mickus did a great job with this CD. It’s a beautiful recording, from…
Read MoreInspiration, Insomnia
I had forgotten. The creative process is a consuming one in any form. I tend to get my brain wound up, and then, even if my entire being is crying out for rest, I can’t get to sleep. It can happen after critique group, it can happen when I have a new article assignment or…
Read MoreReflections on Text and Style
July 7, 2009: I began the day with “O God Beyond All Praising” and ended it with “Rockin’ the Runway,” which is essentially Contemporary Christian/Praise & Worship. In the middle I worked on my own hymn text, so while I stood at the concert tonight singing, I was also analyzing the texts. Many of these…
Read MoreAn NPM Convention Journal
This will be considerably longer and less polished than my usual but I’m not taking the time to do exhaustive revisions. I spent this week in Chicago at the NPM (pastoral music) convention, which was in Rosemont, out by O’Hare airport. Here are the scattered reflections of a week… Day One: Sunday, July 5 12:38…
Read MoreThe Muscle That Is Exercised
Several years ago, a liturgical songwriter I admire made the comment that he hardly ever wrote any music anymore. This is a man whose gift with words, and his music in general, are really powerful, and it made me sad, wondering what caused his dry spell. That was before Alex was born. At that time,…
Read MoreAn Afternoon at the Missouri Theatre
Yesterday, I took Alex and Nicholas to a children’s concert by the Missouri Symphony Orchestra. It was a multimedia presentation of “The Planets,” which is one of my all-time favorite orchestral works, and the concert was at the Missouri Theatre. I’m trying to introduce the kids to classical music early enough that they take it for granted,…
Read MoreThe Player Piano
When I was a little girl, my grandparents had a player piano in the basement of their split foyer on Epperson Street. We were far too small to run the foot pump, and Grandma was very particular about putting the rolls in herself, so the whole experience took on a mystique. I don’t remember a…
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Kathleen M. Basi 