This is it...the online catalog image of the exact model of piano that was given to our congregation this week (for those in the piano know, it's a Kawai RX-3, 6'1" professional grand piano). I played it last night, and I was entranced. (Not that I'm a pianist...far from it! But I can play enough to test-drive it.) It sounds the way a piano ought to sound in a church sanctuary. There's a wide dynamic range. It sounds full and rich in the bass and delicately glorious in the high treble. Just...well, wonderful, and about as perfect as a human-made instrument can sound.There's just something holy about being alone in a dark sanctuary with a good musical instrument, praying musically, that brings a musician closer to God. And that includes singing, at least for me, since that's the instrument I'm most trained on and for which I have the most natural talent. But the combining of sound and the heritage of our faith's expression (in Scripture and hymnody) is unlike anything else for me. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to pray in this way.
In the words with which we will close the first hymn on the Sunday we dedicate this wonderful new gift,
Let every instrument be tuned for praise!
Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise!
And may God give us faith to sing always
Alleluia!
(from When in Our Music God Is Glorified, text by Fred Pratt Green)
