EVMCO

The third and final quarter of EVMCO's (East Valley Mormon Choral Organization) first season has begun, and I am SO excited! Every time I go, I feel so inspired to be better, to work harder, and to refine myself, not just musically but in all areas of my life.

Two thoughts I have from tonight's rehearsal:

1) Our director, Brandon, talked about a harpist he auditioned this week. He said she played so beautifully that it almost moved him to tears, and she is only 16 years old. She has been playing for eight and a half years. When she walked in the room, you could see her purity and her focus on her face.

It totally struck me when he said, "I absolutely do not believe that it is a coincidence that this pure, radiant girl also happened to play the harp well. There is no doubt in my mind that as she refines her musical abilities and cultivates that beauty, she is growing spiritually". I think the same thing could be said vice versa: As she grows spiritually her ability to play increases.

Isn't that powerful? He's right! I can give this gift of the Spirit to my family in so many ways. True doctrine is obviously the most concentrated and important, but there are so many other supplemental ways to cultivate and bring the Spirit to them. I want to give that to my family.

2) I've been reading about types of Christ in The Lost Language of Symbolism, and so I've been thinking a lot about how all things testify of Christ. Today, Brandon was talking about vibrato and pitch (of all things) and I decided that what he was saying truly testifies of Christ.

In singing, when someone sings a note with natural vibrato, the true pitch of what they are singing is at the center, and the voice undulates in pitches slightly above and below this center pitch. When you're flat, the vibrato is unbalanced below the note, and when you're sharp the undulations fall more above the pitch, etc. Brandon was telling about a soloist in OCMCO (Orange County Mormon Choral Organization, our sister organization) and said that when they recorded his solo and looked at it on the computer in slow motion, his vibrato was perfectly balanced above and below the true center pitch.

He said that as humans, our ears naturally gravitate toward these true pitches (true A, B, C, etc). When we hear a voice with vibrato that perfectly surrounds the true pitch, it has a distinct ring to it that it is beautiful to us.

That is so beautiful to me. Christ is the True Pitch, who we gravitate toward, and when we center our lives around him, the result is beautiful. It rings.

It makes sense that singing would have so many witnesses of truth in it. We know there will be music and singing in Heaven, and I'm sure everything there Testifies of Truth. Maybe all beautiful things testify of truth in some way (or multiple layered ways) and that is what makes them beautiful. I want to find them all out! I want to be spiritually refined and in tune with this beauty that God has so graciously surrounded us with!