Bethlehem and Santa Claus Are Busy!

This is the second blog post that highlights music for school & community, though it also includes pieces for the church.

If you knew J. Paul Williams you are already smiling upon reading his name! You are remembering his unrelenting teasing and his signature Hawaiian shirts made by his wife, Donna. A constant jokester, I once saw Paul ride in a friend's car to a restaurant, then, giving silent commentary to her driving skills, quickly exited the car, got down on the ground and kissed the pavement! I have an array of envelopes from him addressed to me in various disparaging ways ("Horse Lips" was one of his favorites). The problem was that when most of these letters and packages were delivered, I lived in the small town of Walterboro, South Carolina. Paul's "creative" labels attached to my name were embarrassingly well-known among the staff in the town's only post office! His letters also always concluded with: "Hello to Cindy, who I like." I'm sure I am not the only "Horse Lips" out there, and I'm sure many other spouses were greeted in the same way at the end of letters. Paul brought much laughter into many lives!

In the 1970's I was introduced to the composing duo of "Paul and Donna Williams." I sang their choral pieces in my church's youth choir and was enthused by their music. During my freshman year at Oklahoma Baptist University I was excited to unexpectedly meet them in person during the university's 1982 homecoming. I quickly discovered that Paul and I shared much in common. Along with his being an OBU alumni and composer, we were both members of the university's Bison Glee Club, and were similarly influenced by Warren M. Angell, the club's founder and dean emeritus of the fine arts college. (Warren Angell is the subject of another blog post: In Gratitude for Warren M. Angell.)

After our first meeting, Paul and I kept in touch. In the early 1990's we both attended the Composer's Symposium at the Baptist Sunday School Board in Nashville, Tennessee. By this time, he had begun to focus more on lyric writing than composing. On the final day of that week-long event, Paul and I were asked by one of the editors from the Baptist publishing house to collaborate on a children's Christmas musical. Paul and I enjoyed creating Immanuel Will Come, for the Sunday School Board's "Children's Choir" curriculum (Van Ness Press, Inc., 1994). The musical includes seven pieces for unison/opt. two-part voices, accompanied by piano, Orff instruments, misc. percussion, and recorder.

Because he was also a composer, Paul wrote lyrics with solid structure that would easily assist the compositional process. This made my creative work enjoyable, and I remember the publisher's editor commenting that she "did not have to change one note" (a rare comment for composers to hear). Paul's humorous personality came through in the words to one of the Christmas musical's pieces: Busy Bethlehem. Paul ingeniously penned lyrics that imagined a hectic Bethlehem, full of hurried people who had come for the census. The resulting chaotic music of the piece mirrored Paul's ideas and included "chant" (rap) parts for soloists and choir.

Following our first publication, Paul sent me other texts to set musically. One day I received a call from him asking me to write music for a piece to be included in the Houston Children's Choir Series published by Fred Bock Music. Paul was writing all of the texts for this series, asking a variety of composers to collaborate. I was thrilled to be a part, and I understood completely why Paul thought of me when he sent his text: ​​Santa Claus Is Busy! With the success of "Busy Bethlehem," Paul decided to replicate the experience with his new lyrics about Santa Claus. We decided the new piece could also contain a choral chant/rap in the middle of the vocal sections. I included various percussion instruments to mimic the sounds of Santa's workshop as the children simultaneously chant two ostinato lines: 

​"Busy, busy, Santa Claus is
busy, busy, Santa Claus..."
​
"Santa Claus is busy!
Tell me, just how busy is he?"

Above the ostinati, soloists exclaim: 
"He's got to feed the reindeer
and hitch them to his sleigh.
He's got to get the map out
so he will know the way. 
He's got to file a flight plan
with the F.A.A.! 
Santa Claus is busy!
Busy night and day!"
​
 -Words by J. Paul Williams
© 1997 Fred Bock Music Company

Inspired by Paul's humor, my comical contribution to the piece was the suggestion that an audience member interrupts the seemingly endless cacophony by standing, raising their hand, clearing their throat, and asking: "Excuse me, just how busy is he?" -- to which the entire puzzled choir shouts back loudly: "He's BUSY!" 

Paul's fun lyrics and my music for two-part (or unison) voices with sleigh bells, misc. percussion, choral chant/rap, and audience member part, is published by Fred Bock Music. Santa Claus Is Busy! was recorded by the Houston Children's Chorus on it's live album: ​Christmas Is Here. I treasure a letter from Fred Bock himself who wrote: "I really like the piece!" ​

School or community children's choirs who wish to sing Santa Claus is Busy! this Christmas may find it through the Fred Bock Music Company or other music distributor. 

Though Paul passed in 2010, his inspirational and joyful life continues through  school, community, and church choirs that sing his words.​

---

A choral piece for churches 
​by J. Paul Williams & Larry E. Schultz:
The Sea of Galilee
(available on this site)

This church choir anthem for SATB voices and piano is a choral narrative of Mark 4:35-41. The introductory “soundscape” heard in the piano and voices aurally sets the scene for the dramatic story of Jesus and his disciples on the sea. ​