One of my long term projects is entering all of the choral anthems in our library into an Excel spreadsheet. This should make it easier to find anthems by title, composer, season, biblical citation, ELW number and many other ways.
As I was working last week, I came across Ralph Vaughan Williams' "O Taste and See." Across the folder was written "July 20, 1970," which I am assuming is the last time this anthem was sung at St. Mark's before it was filed away just like any other piece of music is filed after being sung.
This one, however, was not like any other anthem for stamped boldly across each copy were the words "Hendricks Ave Baptist Church / Jacksonville, 7, Florida." Had this piece of music been on loan to St. Mark's for forty years? It would be kind of embarrassing to try to return it now. Maybe I could just sneak over there, under cover of darkness, and slide it under the choir room door. Maybe they wouldn't even want it back.
Another important piece of this story: just over two years, A fire started in the choir room at HAB, made its way to the sanctuary, and the church burned to the ground just before Christmas. They have since rebuilt a beautiful new worship space with a 60+ rank Schleuter pipe organ.
I sent an email to Tommy S., Minister of Music at Hendricks and asked him what he would like for me to do. What to me was a folder of yellowed anthems, so old they cost 20 cents a piece, was something to treasure. You see, the fire had destroyed the choral library. This piece of music was an artifact of the not-so-distant past, an artifact that will soon be going home.
