Scattershot Symphony #32

Miracle Of Faith

Welcome to:

Scattershot Symphony

The Music of Peter Link

(That’s me.)

This week being the thirty second episode of this podcast, Normally,I prefer to let the music do the talkin’.  However, this Episode 32 is All Talk, whereas Part two, Episode 33 is All Music.

This episode, Part One, is entitled

Miracle Of Faith

A Trilogy 

Album Concept by Dora Redman 

Lyrics by Dora Redman and Peter Link 

Music by Yours Truly

This episode is a deep dive into the making of the album from inception to completion – those interested will have access to the complete journey of creation. One might go so far as to call this Two Miracles – one living inside the other. Part Two, Episode 33 is the performance of the album itself.

The Opening 

I believe that a miracle is the natural result of God’s presence in our lives – perhaps astounding, but always simply God’s immutable law in effect.

Miracle Of Faith is a Suite for orchestra and three voices – a man, a woman and a young boy.  We like to think of it as yet another Musical Theater of the Imagination special project, and we invite you to exercise your imaginations as you listen to this ancient tale of songs and instrumentals.  It is a trilogy of songs that look at the age-old story of the five loaves and two fishes told in the four Gospels of the Bible.  It covers three points of view of the same story coming from three different characters. It needs to be listened to in one 40 minute sitting as one continuous piece of music. The performance itself will be presented in a second, Part Two, episode and is available now. Please listen to Part One first.

The Inception: – As some of you know I’ve been teaching through WMU Watchfire Music University, a number of various classes on the subject of music for several decades now.  These are private one-on-one classes taught both on Zoom and here in my studio in person. I have about 40 students, most of whom are in the intermediate to advanced stages of their progress.  The subjects taught, range from songwriting to vocal produvtion to orchestration – pretty much all aspects of song composition.  I really love this sideline occupation.  It gives me a chance to meet almost daily with some pretty terrific artists and share with them my 5 decades of accrued knowledge on the subject of music. 

One of these students, Dora Redman, had been studying with me faithfully for a number of years learning mostly lyric writing and some songwriting.  She runs one of the biggest churches in NYC that also doubles as a major corporate events facility when church is not in session.  She’s a ex-Texan, pretty as a picture and a regular five foot two human dynamo when it comes to gettin’ the job done – Texan turned New Yorker.

One day she brought an idea into class that struck me at the time as both brilliant and extremely difficult to pull off.  When she presented the idea to me I remember saying to her, “Well, Dora, I warn you, I think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew here, but it’s such a good idea that perhaps you ought to pursue it anyway, and see how far you can go with it.”  

I honestly thought the complexity of the idea was perhaps over her head in terms of her writing progress, but she was excited and determined, so who was I to say, “Don’t even try.” 

So she dove in headfirst and began the research. It’s probably important to mention here that I, as a teacher, try to stay out of the actual creative process of my students’ work.  I point the way, I advise, I suggest, I try to give parallel examples, but I always try to leave the creative work to them.  Often, because of my experience, I could write the verse, finish the song, solve the chord structure problem fairly immediately, but that’s not going to help them to have me do it for them, so I draw the line at that.  Besides, it’s their composition and I do not want to put myself in a position to share the credits. 

Dora’s big on research.  It’s also one of my strongest pieces of advice to all artists.  When you’re stuck, can’t make a decision, lost, find yourself on the wrong road, it’s always best to stop and go back to research.  When you can’t reach a decision creatively, it simply means that you don’t know enough about your subject, so stop and research further before plowing on and making rash or weak and eventually wrong decisions.  

So Dora researched and researched and then researched some more.  She would come in with stacks and stacks of paper, notebooks, computer printouts, etc. until I finally said to her, “Enough with the research already!  Write the lyric!  Get something down on paper!”  Six months had gone by and nary a song written.  But she knew her subject – from 10 different angles. 

She finally began working on the lyric, but it didn’t come easy for her.  She immediately ran into many of the complexity problems that I foresaw when she originally brought me the idea.  Even with all the research, it was a bit like trying to run a marathon when the furthest you had ever run was 3 miles.

But bulldog Dora was determined, and I was inspired by her never-say-die attitude and we kept at it.  She would bring me a verse, a half stanza, a concept for the chorus, a new direction and I kept saying, “Nope. You don’t have it yet.  Go back to work.” 

A year went by.  She had nearly finished the lyric of the first song.  She was frustrated.  I knew that the project would only get harder for her and not easier.  On the other hand she had learned sooooo much in that year – about structure, about storytelling, about character development, about scanning and rhyming and all the principles of good theater music composition.  After all it was a class in lyric writing and not really a collaboration, so, though the going was slow, the knowledge gained was worthwhile. Week after week we met and on she plowed.  

Finally the first song lyric was finished and approved.  There were 3 songs in the concept to write – 2 more to go.  And now it would get even harder.  She would look at me and roll her eyes in exasperation sometimes as if she were on a never-ending treadmill.  But she was learning so much, so we agreed to plow on.  

At these frustrating times, when the project felt hopeless, it was always the worth of the idea that drove her on.  She knew (and I knew) that she had a great idea, an idea that was both original and fascinating to explore. 

It was a timeless idea that was both ancient and modern in its teachings, and a classic story that has been passed down from generation to generation for over two thousand years – simply one of the great miracle stories of all time.  Consequently, we decided to call the whole project “Miracle Of Faith.”  

Perhaps it would be a miracle if she were to ever finish it, but she kept at it on faith – faith that she was given a grand idea by God and, by God, she was just going to finish it if it took her a lifetime. She began to work on the second song …

Most of us know the story in the Bible of the five loaves and two fishes.  If you don’t, you’ll find that it’s one of the few stories of Jesus that lives in all four of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Essentially it’s a story about the act of creating matter from nothing, or perhaps matter from faith, or even better, supply from thought.

Think: Magician pulls rabbit out of hat. 

Only this magic act took place around two thousand years ago and it’s a story that has been read and passed down from generation to generation by billions over time.

A quick recap: Jesus preaches to 5000 souls.  As the day closes and the sun begins to set, his disciples feel the unrest of the hungry – those who want to hear the Master’s words, but have sat and listened for many hours and now need to eat.  The disciples suggest to Jesus that he let them go so that they may find food, but Jesus, who simply has more to teach, knows that the real food lay in the truths that he teaches. So he says to the disciples, “So feed them.”  Astonished, they reply, “With what?  They are 5000 souls.  You ask the impossible!” 

But a young boy steps forth from the throng and says, “I have five loaves and two fishes!”  He gets it.  The disciples don’t.  The boy is willing to give his all for Christ.  The disciples essentially say, ”Get outta here, kid.  Don’t bother the man.”  But Jesus says, “Bring the boy forth.” At that, he prays and then reaches into the boy’s basket, takes the five loaves and two fishes and keeps on takin’.  The basket produces food for the 5000 … with leftovers. 

Dora’s great idea, difficult as it was to accomplish, was to look at the same event through the eyes of three different people using three different songs in a trilogy.  Those three different interpretations of the event would be told by first, the boy himself, then the second by a doubting disciple, Thomas, who first turned the boy away, and then by Jesus in the third song. 

The nature of the story and the many angles of discovery took on a largess that was hard to avoid, so we decided not to avoid it but instead to go with it.  No longer did we wish to just write 3 songs, but rather something with much more breadth. 

As many of these evolving ideas developed and I became more and more intrigued with the project, I began to wish I could get more involved as a creator in the project and finally went to Dora and suggested a collaboration. I didn’t know how she would take the suggestion, but she was relieved because down deep she knew that it might even be bigger than both of us.  

She accepted my suggestion and we reformed our working methods.  I began to work with her on lyrics.  It was also decided that I would write the music and produce the CD through our record company, Watchfire Music. 

One of our first decisions was to change the song originally to be sung by Jesus to to be sung by Mary Magdalene.  I was not particularly enthusiastic about having to write the words that came from the Master’s mouth.  Honestly, I just did not feel up to it.  And so we chose Mary Magdalene – speculated by some, more recently, to have possibly been the 13th disciple.  

Also, we thought that it would be great to have a female voice in the trilogy.  On top of that, I happen to have a pretty good access to a female voice. 

The Boy:

So I admit it.  As a composer I wrote a far too difficult song for our boy, the boy who offers his five loaves and two fishes to Jesus.  I don’t know what got into me.  Perhaps it was the great length of the lyric that I started with, perhaps it was just the magical weaving of the story that swept me up.  I knew going in that the lyric was long, and that it would just not be your normal 3-4 minute song.  Perhaps the breadth of the material and the largess of this wondrous character 

caused me to simply write it as I heard it and not consider the age of the performer. But when the song was finished, I knew I had to find somebody very special to sing it. So I started looking for someone who would sound younger on the recording – someone around the age of 14 to 16. 

We set up an audition to hear 5-7 highly recommended boys sing for us.   The results of the audition were most disappointing.  The boys were either too old and not good enough or simply not good enough to sing this most difficult song. I began to consider re-writing the song whose lyrics had taken a year and a half for Dora to write.  Yikes!  Not a good idea … 

But then our audition pianist, seeing my disappointment said, “Hey, I worked with two very talented kids who are better than these guys about a year ago.  Maybe you should see them.” Desperate, I said, “Get me their names and email addresses and I’ll contact them.” The first was a sweet kid and more the part, but again, just not good enough.  The second, was a very young 12-year old boy named Noah Marlowe who was unfortunately away for a couple of months around the Christmas holidays playing a leading role in the national tour of the musical, Elf. I spoke to his dad, a lovely man, who explained that Noah was away until mid January of 2014.  I asked if Noah had any recordings I could hear.  Dad’s answer was “No, but there is a YouTube video of him singing a song as a special guest in a cabaret act.” 

I’ve never done this before, but being desperate, I actually cast Noah from that YouTube Video.  He was good, and I thought he might actually be able to pull it off.  But I had never heard him live and that was scary.  So we took the next couple of months off and waited for Noah to get back home.  We set up the first rehearsal with the stipulation that if it turned out that he couldn’t cut it, I would just pay him for the rehearsal and move on. Then came the day of our first rehearsal.  

Within an hour I was convinced that the Good Lord wanted this project to succeed, because we had found our boy.  Not only did we have a superb talent developed far beyond his years, but, at age 12, his voice had not yet changed and so he sang with a wondrous and charming youth that was just perfect for the song.  Not only that, but I knew that with hard work and several rehearsals, he’d be able to perform the song on a high caliber. We met once a week for a month for a couple of hours at a time.  

In the course of our rehearsals it became clear to me that he had never recorded in a professional studio, so for our last two rehearsals I put him in the vocal booth and taught him the fundamentals of vocal production in the studio – how to sing on a studio mic, how to prepare, headphone techniques, placement, etc., etc.

Noah’s ability to ingest information was quite special.  His concentration beat many of the adults that I work with.  His work ethic was superb.  I gave him his homework and he came back each rehearsal with everything fully learned.  His ability to decipher information was far beyond his years.  His ability to take direction was both humble and totally productive. 

The experience that I had working with Noah in rehearsal was simply professional.  That, by the way, is my highest compliment.  “Professional.”  Totally unexpected from a 12-year old boy. But best was the character of the lad.  Here was an ebullient talent packaged in the graceful character of a fine person.  Here was a kid whose career had already achieved more than most performers dream of at age 12, but still a great regular kid with no apparent ego, willing and eager to learn and simply a joy to be with.  

We became pals, and that was very special to me. I must also give credit to his parents, Michael and Dana, for the qualities of the child reflect the exceptional qualities of the home and family – and, of course, the parents.  Noah is obviously a product of his very cool parents. 

And so finally he was ready to record. 

3 hours is a real workout for any pro singer.  The concentration it takes to pull off a great vocal is so intense that it’s usually the mind that goes before the voice begins to tire.  Most people think you just get behind the mic and sing the song a few times, but not with me.  It’s almost always a marathon of exploring, technical correction, fine-tuning, emotional focus and joyful endeavor. After each take I give notes – usually no more than 4 or 5, and then send the singer back in the booth to sing the song again incorporating the notes.  That doesn’t seem so bad, but after 7-11 takes, that’s a lot of notes to remember and incorporate.  This is why preparation is so crucial to a great vocal.  Learn as much as you can before the session, not during the session. I wondered if a 12-year old boy would have the stamina to do 10 to 12 takes.  Once we hit take #5 I began to ask him how he felt, if he was tiring, was his throat sore, could he do one more.  His repeated answer was, “I’ll give you whatever you need.” 

I very much like to do whole takes – that is, to have the singer sing the whole song each time.  That way the emotional arc of the song is performed each time.  Usually the first 3 takes deal with the technical notes – a little pitchy here, change the vowel here, watch the rushing here, nail this note here – that sort of thing.  I try to get the technical out of the way within the first 3-4 takes so we can get into the performance and the emotional content of the song once the technical is solid.  

One thing for sure about recording vocals – the singer has to be deeply involved with the ‘in-the-moment-living’ of the song for it to be a great vocal.  Noah sang 6 solid takes of the song and I could hear his voice begin to tire slightly.  I asked him to do one more and again his answer was the usual, “I’ll give you whatever you need.”  His seventh take was brilliant.  He nailed it – fully emotional, technically astute. I knew I had the song in the can – a most impressive debut for this young talent.  His first studio recording and already an old pro.

His song – entitled God Made It So:

This is a theatrical song – one of three performed in a very theatrical CD.  So this is not music to listen to while washing the dishes, getting the kids ready to go to school in the morning or as background music to anything.  Get in front of those speakers or get those headphones on, lie back in your favorite chair, turn the lights down low and dive into the listening experience.  We’re gonna tell you a great story, so listen up. It’s about one of the coolest moments ever witnessed on the planet, so we need your full attention.  

A lot of the music is purely instrumental, and that tells a story too, so we ask you to close your eyes and imagine what you think might be happening.  We’re going to lead you in the right direction here with hints like the title of each instrumental and, of course, the sung songs themselves, but the rest is up to you – you and your imagination.  In my imagination I know what’s happening in every bar of the instrumentals, in every phrase of the music.  It’s like I first saw the movie in my mind and then I scored it.  So you should listen and imagine your own movie.

Here’s an example of the lyrics of our first song as sung by the boy.

The Lyrics:

Well the news of the Prophet traveled fast 

And a hope filled Mother’s heart. 

When she heard of the miracles 

She begged me to find him 

Hoping she might be healed. 

So I carried her with me to the market place 

And as the crowd began to fill the streets 

Calling his name 

And following after him 

With expectation in our hearts 

Mother and I, 

Hope and doubt, 

Followed along as best we could 

Each step was a struggle but we finally arrived 

Then Mother began to cry 

There were so many people on that mountainside 

And much to my dismay 

The Sun had set, his sermon done 

Her chance was slipping away 

So I left her behind, took the basket of food 

And crawled through the legs of the multitude 

Upon reaching the front 

There he was 

Jesus and the twelve gathered ‘round 

Then I heard them tell Jesus,

 “Send the people away.” 

In despair, I began to pray 

(One said) “If we don’t feed the people they will leave, I fear” 

And my chance would disappear. 

So I gave that one my basket of food 

“Take mine.  It’s all that I have.” 

He scoffed as he said 

“That’s not nearly enough” 

And brushed me aside with a gentle rebuff 

Ah, but Jesus said “Bring the boy here 

He brings to us all that we need”

Then Jesus turned away from the crowd 

And began giving thanks out loud 

And I heard the words as I stood at his sandaled feet 

Then he took from my basket for all to eat 

My two small fishes and my five loaves of bread 

But he didn’t stop there.  

He reached down again 

And brought forth from my basket 

Out of thin air 

Until more than five thousand were fed 

And what I’ll always remember 

And always will know 

Is how Jesus believed in his heart 

And how God made it so 

The Second Song:

Through The Eyes Of A Child is very much a song of Dora’s and my imagination.  In none of the four Gospels is it stated exactly which of the disciples were on hand at the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes.  Since it is unclear exactly which disciples were there and who said what, Dora and I decided to make it up.  

Actually, in the first song, God Made It So, there was a lot left to our imagination as well.  For instance, the back-story of the boy and his mother was total conjecture on our part.  There was a boy who stepped forth in only one of the Gospels, but that’s all we know about this young lad.  So we exercised what is called “theater license” and simply made it up.  Who’s to say anyway how accurate the Bible is?  After all, Luke was written some two hundred years after it all happened … 

So we decided to make the main disciple the infamous doubting Thomas, who later in the story of Jesus so doubts his master’s return from the dead after the crucifixion that he has to touch Jesus’ wounds to see if he’s not really a ghost.  We figured that someone had to scoff at this innocent boy’s faith, so why not good ol’ Doubting Thomas?

All drama needs an obstacle, a push and pull.  If it’s easy to accomplish the quest, then there’s no play.  With Doubting Thomas we had our foil.  It’s Thomas who says, when the child steps forth and offers all he has in his basket, “ Get outta here, kid.  That’s not nearly enough to feed this multitude.”  But the more we explored this man, the more we looked into his character and thought about the way he interacts with Jesus, the more I personally felt compassion for this gentle doubter. 

Which of us today have not had our doubting moments in life – especially when it comes to the so-called miracles of healing?  

So we wrote the song from the point of view that as Thomas tells the story, he’s a much older man now looking back on his life and his most special time spent with the master.  He’s a guy who followed Jesus, but he was the skeptic of the group.  Every creative group needs a skeptic.  A good skeptic can help keep the balance in group discussions and decisions.  Jesus probably knew what he was doing when he included Thomas as a disciple. So we saw Thomas as a life-long doubter – one of the disciples who never quite “got it” the way Peter (who later raised the dead) did and John and some of the other great disciple stories in The Acts.  

Thomas is never mentioned after the Gospels and we just figured that perhaps he was one who never quite figured it all out. 

Now remember, some of this is simply fiction.  We’re not saying that this is absolutely what happened.  Rather, this is  musical theater of the imagination.  Essentially, we took these age-old stories and asked ourselves, “What if …?”  Again it’s simply called “theater license.”  We’re sometimes mixing fact and fiction – reality and conjecture. 

Casting the Second Song:

I am a man of faith.  I run much of my life on faith – faith that I can always write the next song, faith that I will wake up the next morning, faith that the music business will come back to life, faith that I am well. I can also have my more skeptical moments as well.  I try not to, but this time around I’m faced daily with my own humanity.  I suppose that my life’s quest is to just get over it – to get over or beyond my own humanity. 

So as we wrote, I understood this guy, Thomas, more and more.  You might say that on certain levels I even began to identify with him – on certain levels.  I certainly have compassion for the guy. However, when it came to finding the right male voice for the role, I could not find the perfect choice.  

I coach and teach singers, but I do not consider myself a singer per se.  But this nagging thought kept coming to me saying, “Sing it yourself.  You know this guy, you feel this guy.  You could do it.“  But then I’d think, “No, you’re not in shape, this song requires a bigger voice, this song requires more than you can give it.” But the more I looked for the right guy, the more I came up empty. So finally I thought, “Well, why don’t you just try it. So I made the commitment.  

I began to get my voice in shape.  I began to exercise for an hour a day – scales, chest voice, head voice, etc., etc.  I did not sing an actual song for 3 weeks – just gettin’ in shape exercises.  It wasn’t easy for me.  

After 3 weeks I decided, besides vocalizing, to start working on the song.  I was shocked at how difficult it was even though my voice was now in pretty good shape. Because I now teach these things, I had to take the teacher’s hat off and put the performer’s hat on.  That was very interesting … I must admit, recording this song has made me a much better teacher.  It’s also made me a much more compassionate teacher.  Singing well is extremely hard.  Singing well enough to record is ten times harder.  Because when you record, it’s for all time, a permanent record.  It has to be perfect. In considering perfection I finally came up with, “Well, it’s as good as I can do it.”  Is that enough?  I certainly hope so. 

The Orchestrations:

For a couple of decades I worked on Broadway and wrote music for many plays and musicals.  During that time I also wrote the soundtracks for a number of movies both in Hollywood and for the Monday Night Movies of the Week on television. I enjoyed the work and learned to underscore the emotions of the scenes and write the music reflecting the moments on screen.  For Broadway I developed a reputation as the guy people went to when they wanted to underscore their plays – an art form in the theater that really had not been explored all that much.  For a decade I was able to work on a number of Broadway shows and develop that side of my work.  

I was nominated for the Tony Award twice for my underscoring work in plays in the Best Composer For A Musical category because there was no category for what I was doing. Those two shows were Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor and William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which became the longest running Shakespeare play ever to run on Broadway. 

So when Dora and I were in the middle of the writing of the three songs, I decided to imagine the scenes leading into and around the three songs and essentially score these imaginary scenes. And so I ask you to fully use your imagination.

Here are the titles of each Orchestration  – the hints that may stir your imagination:

The Opening – The Overture

The Sermon – The spirit and soul of Jesus’ teachings 

The Miracle – Two miracles really – the feeding of the 5000 

and the healing of the Boy’s Mother

Celebration – A Dance of Joy

In short, the songs give you enough information to imagine the scenes of the orchestra sections, and the titles of the 4 orchestrations set the scene. In my own imagination I can tell you what’s happening during every beat of every measure of the music.  I thought that I might describe in a paragraph or two those scenes as I saw and heard them, but then decided that I would be stripping you, the listener, of your own experience in your own imagination.  

I guess it’s sort of like if Stravinsky took you through each moment in his Rite Of Spring and told you what he was thinking.  I’d rather just listen to his music and get lost in my own dreaming. So I’m going to leave it at that.  Dream on, dear listener.

The Third Song: The Evidence Of Things Unseen

As I mentioned earlier, Dora’s and my first inclination was to write this song for the character of Jesus.  I was never comfortable with this idea.  The master’s words are so iconic, so immortal that I did not want to in any way dilute the power of his thoughts.  I decided to let the master be the master and so we switched the character to Mary Magdalene. 

Besides, we needed a chick in the band. 

Again, we went to our imagination and suggested that Ms Magdalene might have been there that day at the site of the miracle and also because, in our imagination, she was so close to Jesus, then she might have some special insights as well with a woman’s POV into the whole matter. 

We called the work Miracle Of Faith not because of Jesus’ faith, for in our minds Jesus worked much more from a point of understanding than faith, but really because of the boy’s amazing innocence of faith.  He so easily believed that the master could heal his mother that he was willing to give all he had to feed the 5000. 

It says in the Bible (Hebrews 11:1), “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”  If this miracle is not the perfect example of this quote, then I don’t know what is.  

Dora and I talked a lot about the “magic” of pulling rabbits out of a hat.  The magic of pulling enough food out of the boy’s basket to feed the multitude.  The idea of the many clowns at the circus all coming out of the tiny little car much to the audience’s delight.  This image has thrilled people’s imaginations for centuries. 

But Jesus was not a magician and what he was doing was not magic, but supremely natural.  The creation of supply through positive thought.  If matter is an illusion to begin with then why would this not be a natural occurrence for Jesus.  We even considered not using the term “Miracle” in our title for just that reason – because most people see miracles as some form of magic instead of being what they really are – simply God’s law in action and abundance. 

We envisioned  Mary Magdalene sitting back on a rock watching the whole event and, having seen so many of the master’s ‘miracles’ before, simply seeing the entire event as normal and then understanding it all perhaps even on a higher level than the disciples themselves.

The writing of this song was a total joy.  Once we had the lyric locked down and finished, the music of the moment simply poured forth almost effortlessly.  Why?  Because it was the third song in the trilogy, because the moments had been so researched and discussed for many months and we had lived in the shoes and already written the scene twice from different points of view.  Because we understood the characters, because we saw in our imaginations the whole scene like a movie.  

In essence it became, for me, like a three camera shoot of the same scene.  I was, this time, camera #3.  I know that Mary, for instance, was over there, somewhat behind Jesus, back there on the left, sitting up on that rocky abutment quietly watching it all go down.  I know what she was wearing and I know how the shadows fell as daylight turned to dusk.  I know how much she loved Jesus and stood with him in these oh-so-special moments. I know the mood of the hungry crowd and can hear the murmuring as the food is passed out. 

I feel the incredulity of the multitude and the gratitude and the wonder.  I feel the shame and the pride of Thomas juxtaposing his wonder.  I feel the calm assurance of the master and wide-eyed excitement of the boy.  I dive into the mind of Mary and the music simply pours forth, it passes through me, through pen and paper, through the keys of my keyboard, through the digital zeros and ones of my computer, through the vibrations passing through the air to your ears, through the wonder of the oneness of people connecting through this amazing language called music. 

The song does what it is supposed to do.  It ties the knot; it ties the bow.  It explains the miracle as natural without trying to explain the science behind it.  It says that there are things beyond our understanding that are yet to learn.  And that a little boy of twelve can actually work the principles of this science without even understanding the science like the master, but just simply through his own innocent child-like faith. The song sings itself.

The first two sessions of this project certainly had their degrees of unfamiliarity for me.  First recording an inexperienced 12-year old boy and secondly, recording a very experienced myself, put me in somewhat of a different zone.  So it was only fitting that the third session would go smooth as silk.  And it did. Julia Wade is as pro a vocalist in the booth as I’ve ever worked with.  She comes in totally prepared for the work, she’s smart and experienced and has all the chops necessary to accomplish just about anything I want. On top of that, she loved the song and had been singing it around the house for weeks.  Also, if I may further praise my artist (and wife), Julia is a committed actress deeply involved with the subtext of the songs she sings.  That, coupled with a great and highly trained instrument, makes her a joy to work with. 

It’s also interesting to note here that Julia has had a twenty-year fascination with the life of Mary Magdalene.  She’s read many books about her, poured over every mention of her in the Bible and already played her once several years back singing a song of mine called I Was There.  So this experience, for her, was a continuation of the exploration of that character. Hers is a voice that I can hear in my imagination as I write, so I know pretty much how it’s going to sound as I’m writing – a great gift for a composer.  Also I know her instrument so well that I can orchestrate a song without her having previously recorded a scratch vocal because I can hear her in my head.  This way the orchestra and Julia can work as one. It’s a good partnership. And more importantly, we have a great time together workin’ it.

Originally I said Miracle Of Faith probably could not be done.  I was wrong and I’m delighted that I was. The whole experience  runs a little less than 40 minutes.  We ask you to take that first listening at a quiet time where you can really relax and let your imagination soar.  It’ll be worth the ride.  Give it a try. 

It’s a story told over and over now for over two thousand years and continues to bear repeating.  A story of some bread and fish – and a boy and his faith – and a man and his amazing understanding. It’s a story about what most would call a miracle, but we’ve come to understand it to be simply a natural fulfilling of a need.  It’s a story of what could be,  if only we each could have the faith of a child.  It’s the possibility of what lies out there, or in there, for each of us 

if we just lead a more spiritual life.  It’s the truth in action. Enjoy!

So there ya’ have it!

Miracle Of Faith – Part One. Part Two is the performance itself, in its entirety. It is available now for your listening pleasure – as Episode #33. Enjoy!

I’d like to thank Dora Redman for introducing this splendid concept into our classes.  I’d also like to thank my fellow cast members, Noah Marlowe and Julia Wade for their terrific performances on this CD.  Also many thanks to my then two usual sidekicks, Phil Klum for Mastering and Craig Wagner for CD and Digi-Book Design. I am also deeply grateful for the amazing support of my son, Dustin, who, through his great generosity, enables my studio, Link Recording Studios, to stay on the cutting edge of technology.  Lastly, thanks to all the staff here at Watchfire Music for their constant support and dedication to all my projects 

Credits 

Digi-Book Design and Implementation by Craig Wagner Photography of Noah, Peter, Julia and Dora by Jaffe De Vault 

BTW, if perchance you might want to have a more visual experience of this podcast, follow this link to the gorgeous digibook that this podcast was drawn from. It offers you even more of the process of the creation of the album. You’ll find the Digibook at watchfiremusic.com/digibooks

To Purchase the Miracle Of Faith album, go to www.WatchfireMusic.com It is Sold Exclusively at

WatchfireMusic.com

Also, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts … etc.

A very special thanks also to Stuart Barefoot, our Associate Producer for all your invaluable knowledge and good vibes.

And a posthumous thanks to Ludwig Van Beethoven for your opening 4 bars. 

Julia

(over playout music)

This podcast is presented with loving care by the staff at Watchfire Music. If you liked what you heard, we got lots more where that came from. In the meantime, you can find the songs you just heard on watchfiremusic.com. There you can purchase the singles or albums and have access to all the lyrics. Also, there you will find all previous podcasts and future scheduling.

If you just became a Scattershot fan, tell your friends and Stay tuned!