When preparing musical concerts, music directors usually spend a significant portion of preparation time in finding good copies of music for the program.  Especially if it is old, historical music, finding a good edition for an authentic interpretation will be important.  An accurate copy of music without errors also saves a lot of rehearsal time and performers' energy too.

English Baroque composer Henry Purcell's anthem, "Rejoice in the Lord alway" is one of the pieces for the upcoming Spring Concert in May.  First of all, I got the choral score from the Choral Public Domain Library.  After that, I ordered the full score of the Novello edition, delivered by a music store in Germany.  It was a special order edition by the Henry Purcell Society in England.  Unfortunately, the string parts were printed in the full score, but the separate parts were not available for sale. 

So, I decided to make copies of the string parts myself using a music-making computer program, Finale.  It's about 250 measures for 2 violins, viola and cello/bass continuo.  It's a time-consuming job, but I still have enough time before I have to send the copies to the musicians.  It is a pretty hard job, but it gives me another approach in learning music.  It seems like I am making my own music while tracing the footsteps the composer actually left a few hundred years ago. 

In the 21st century, the ways of learning have changed amazingly, mainly because of high tech communication tools.  More often we get our information in easy ways,  such as searching online, rather than going to a library for books.  But, no pain, no gain, is still true.  Many educators worry that our knowledge is getting swallowed by this trend.   Hasn't  my Christian life been slowed down by this convenient lifestyle these days too?  

I have finally started thinking about how I can learn more about God's message and Jesus' teaching for our lives and our mission.  Reading the Bible, sharing our prayers with fellow church families, what other good ways are there?  There's no clear idea yet, but it will be a good subject  for me to think about during this Lent season.