CFAMC 2004 National Conference

Forging Links: Composers and Community, the Composition of Worship

A National Conference Co-sponsored by:
The Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers
Arts Ministry, Inc.
Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church

September 17-19, 2004
Durham, North Carolina, USA

CDs of the conference events are now available to order. The 5-disc set includes three lectures and a Sunday worship sermon by Dr. Begbie, the CFAMC composers concert, and the composers choral reading session. Cost is $25 for the set, postpaid. (Individual discs can be ordered for $7 - please email cfamc@cfamc.org with details of which events you would like). Please send check to: CFAMC, Greatbatch School of Music, Houghton College, Houghton NY 14744. Include your name and shipping address. Or click "Buy Now" below to place your order online through PayPal (only the entire set of 5 discs is available through this option). Please allow up to 6 weeks for delivery, after we receive your order.

 

* “FORGING LINKS: COMPOSERS AND COMMUNITY, THE COMPOSITION OF WORSHIP” is a conference for church members, pastors, conductors, worship leaders, composers, teachers and Christian thinkers.

* Lectures, discussions, new "art music" in rehearsals and a public concert, with integrated Sunday morning worship opportunities help us consider current challenges in the relationship between the church and composer as well as access resources in the community at large.

* Featured speaker: theologian and musician Dr. Jeremy Begbie, Director of the Theology Through the Arts project, from Cambridge and St. Andrews Universities, UK www.theolarts.org

* For additional information, visit www.artsministryinc.org


“FORGING LINKS” 2004

Hosts: David Stuntz, minister of music Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church (BMPC)

Carol Wooten, director, Arts Ministry Inc. (AMI)

Andy Sauerwein and Mark Hijleh, CFAMC


(Thursday evening, 9/16 – For participants who wish to arrive early, registration and packets will be available)

Friday 9/17

8:00 – 8:45 AM Registration; Optional Morning Prayer

9:00 – 9:30 AM CFAMC “State of the Fellowship” address (Mark Hijleh)

9:30 – 9:50 AM CFAMC Welcome: “Forging Links” (Dave Stuntz, Carol Wooten)

Break

10:00 – 11:10 AM Peer Reviews #1

Break

11:20 – NOON Presentation and dialogue: Scott Robinson

12:00 – 1:30 PM Lunch (on your own, dialogue continues)

1:30 – 2:30 PM Peer Reviews #2

Break

2:45 – 3:45 PM Presentation: Hinshaw Music, "Forging Links With Publishers: Envisioning Models & Practical Strategies"

Break

4:00 – 5:00 PM CFAMC Prayer Session

5:00 – 7:00 PM Dinner (on your own)

[CFAMC board meeting over dinner]

7:00 - 7:30 PM Opening Address (Andy Sauerwein; Allan Poole, pastor of BMPC, introduces Jeremy Begbie)

7:30 - 8:30 PM Jeremy Begbie: "So Much from So Little"

This lecture/recital explores just one piece – the matchless ‘Chaconne’ from J. S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor (BWV 1004) for solo violin. Probably the hardest, and certainly the longest continuous piece ever written for violin solo, it has had a mesmeric hold on composers, performers and listeners alike. The Chaconne is not only an outrageous display of the vast amount of music that can be woven out of a tiny amount of material, it is also a piece bursting with possibilities for opening up a wealth of Christian themes and allusions - a Christian view of our relation to the physical world, how creating music is a form of discovery, what it means to know joy through the cross of Christ, what it feels like to be caught up in the ‘improvising’ play of the Holy Spirit. Jeremy Begbie will draw these out, and conclude by playing the whole Chaconne, in Busoni’s virtuosic adaptation for the piano.

Break

8:45 - 9:30 PM Reception and informal conversation

Saturday 9/18

8:00 - 8:45 AM Morning prayer (optional)

9:00 AM Introduction

9:20 - 10:10 AM Jeremy Begbie: “Spirit, Spirituality and Music”

Today, the language of 'spirituality' is very much in vogue, and it is frequently attached to music. It is said that music is the most 'spiritual' of the arts. A whole genre of music has attracted the label 'spiritual'. Music is said to help us develop our 'spirituality'. In this lecture, Jeremy Begbie attempts to sort our what these claims might (and might not) mean, focusing throughout on the work of the third Person of the triune God. He asks, above all: what does it mean to say that music can be a vehicle of God's Holy Spirit?

Break

10:20 - 10:50 AM Discussion & Response with Jeremy Begbie

Break

11:00 - 11:50 AM Jeremy Begbie: "Sound Mix"

This lecture focuses on a simple fact of the perception of musical sound - that you can hear two or more tones at the same time. Jeremy Begbie how this contrasts with the way we see the world, and go on to show how 'thinking through sound' can help us understand, and experience, a range of Christian truth - the two natures of Christ, the trinity, God's action in the world, human freedom, and so on. The lecture will be illustrated throughout with slides and performance.

Noon - 1:20 PM Lunch (in-house “bag” lunch)

[12:30 – 1:20 PM (during lunch) CFAMC members “Shop Talk” with Jeremy Begbie]

1:30 – 2:20 PM Panel - Composing Worship: worship-project teams discuss process & reflect on lessons learned from building relationships.

Break

2:30 - 2:50 PM Presentation: Greg Scheer, “Worship: Looking Forward, Looking Back”

Break

3:00 - 3:50 PM Choral Reading Session I

Break

4:00 - 4:50 PM Choral Reading Session II

3:00 - 5:00 PM Open conversation time: Book & Score Table; Conversations with Composers, Jeremy Begbie; Creative-Arts Counseling

[times TBA Worship-project teams rehearse & prepare with churches]

5:00 - 6:30 PM Dinner (on your own)

7:00 - 7:40 PM Pre-concert lecture (Nelson Music Room, Duke University)

8:00 PM CFAMC in Concert (Nelson Music Room)

after concert Concert Reception: CFAMC Tenth-Anniversary Celebration, Conversations with Composers

Sunday 9/19

Teams involved in morning worship in area churches, presenting worship projects.

Jeremy Begbie preaches at BMPC, both services.

(Conference officially ends after worship)

Worship Teams have lunch with their host churches.