As a Music Theory and Composition major in the Warren M. Angell College of Fine Arts at Oklahoma Baptist University I was privileged to study composition with gifted  composers, Nancy Hill Cobb and Michael Cox. They significantly expanded my musical horizons along with professors: Kathryne Timberlake, Bill Horton, Andre Lash, Wiff Rudd, Dan Hodges, and Bob Wood, who taught courses in Music Theory, Music History, Counterpoint, Orchestration, 20th Century and Electronic Music. Piano professor, Charlotte Martin, also focused my private instruction on my interest in composition and composers. Once, when I asked her to tell me about composer, Camille Saint-Saëns, she replied: "Well...he was my Godfather!" (Martin lived a fascinating life, and at one time was the youngest student of famous French pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger.) I received a magnificent education in Music Theory and Composition from these exceptional educators. Though my undergraduate degree was unusual for my career goal of church music ministry, its coursework has been invaluable to my creative and ministerial work. 

In a 20th Century Music course I was introduced to "aleatoric" or "indeterminate" music. This music results from compositions structured to utilize chance, randomness, improvisation, choices made by the performers, and other interactive factors. The outcome is that every performance of an indeterminate composition is unique. Often the musical score uses non-traditional notation to communicate the composer's creative desires. An assignment in this class was the composing of a simple piece incorporating aleatoric techniques. For this composition I borrowed an idea from my young niece, Carrie, after witnessing her do an interesting thing at the piano. She would locate the manufacturer's name on the inside of a piano's keyboard cover and trace her finger from each letter of the name downward toward the keyboard, playing a consistent rhythmic pattern on whatever black or white key was directly below each letter or symbol. I envisioned how playing in this way on pianos of different manufacturers would create a different result each time. For example, "Yamaha" would produce a different set of pitches than "Steinway." I was grateful to Carrie whose imagination provided this idea that helped me meet the indeterminate requirements of my assignment. I called the resulting piece: "Nomenclature." 

Fascinated by indeterminate music, I wondered how I might one day make use of it in my work as a Minister of Music. When the 2020 pandemic silenced worshipers from singing and playing wind instruments in person, it was necessary to provide new and safe modes of music-making for congregational worship. During the pandemic, I led my gathered congregation to drum on the wood of pews, play body and rhythm instruments, hum in masks, and express worship through sign language. Remembering the indeterminate and electronic music I was exposed to in college, I created a congregational “Digital Gathering Song” with parts played by worshipers through their mobile phones. Offering the song in worship during the pandemic provided a safe way for worshipers to make music together. It also offers a means of congregational music-making for individuals reluctant to sing or who do not play an instrument.
 
Five different music files form the Digital Gathering Song and tonally complement each other. Fragments of the pentatonic tune, “HOLY MANNA,” associated with the text: “Brethren We Have Met to Worship,” are heard in a few of the files. As individual worshipers select specific files and play them simultaneously (pressing “play” at close yet random intervals), a unique indeterminate musical composition is heard resulting from various choices and chance as well as the particular acoustic environment. The digital music files can be placed on a page of the church or other website and accessed via Wi-Fi in the worship space. The webpage's URL and/or a QR code printed in a worship guide will provide worshipers easy connection to the files. A time of preparation is helpful to assist each congregant in pre-selecting a file with a title and mood that most closely represents how they are entering worship: with "joy," "concern," or a "mixture of feelings." 
 
Preceding the playing of the Digital Gathering Song, a Call to Worship exclaims that many different individuals from a variety of life-experiences gather to form one congregation. The Digital Gathering Song responds and musically expresses this reality as it combines the diverse sounds into one unique musical offering. As the digital song is played, individual worshipers hear how the music of others around them is either the same or different from their music, raising an important awareness that can provide an empathic and meaningful worship experience.   ​

Who Has Gathered? includes the Call to Worship and the five music files that create the Digital Gathering Song. It is available from LarryESchultz.com ​and may be effectively experienced in worship spaces, retreat settings, concert halls, and anywhere Wi-Fi is accessible.

On a late evening in 2022 when my cellphone’s caller ID displayed: “New Zealand,” I decided to answer, wondering if it could possibly be my new Facebook friend, William Livingstone Wallace. “’Hello, Larry?’  this is Bill Wallace" (It was!). I had recently written Bill a note expressing my appreciation for his prolific and progressive hymn writing, and he was calling to ask a favor.

After discovering my similar creative work, he asked if I would be interested in harmonizing “a hymn tune or two” for some of his texts. Bill quickly revealed: “I have Stage 4 Cancer, and along with finishing a book, I am trying to complete my body of hymns.” He was a gifted poet and tune writer but needed a composer to harmonize and typeset his work. With gratitude for what his thought-provoking words offered the world, I was honored to assist. When his first hymn arrived by email, the time constraint of our project was evident as I emotionally read his hymn text: “As Life Approaches Ending.”  In the months that followed, other late-night phone calls arrived from “New Zealand,” with the familiar “Hello, Larry?,” and my initial assistance with “one or two” hymns turned into ten.

The hymns poems of William Livingstone Wallace are cutting-edge, exploring themes of justice and peace, science and the cosmos, art and spirituality, the ecosystem, human society and more. A Methodist Pastor, charged with the responsibility of weekly sermons, Bill felt that hymns were the best way to present his radical thoughts as they allowed new ideas to “slide into the mind on the back of music!”

Bill joins other hymn writers who embrace the wonders and reality of science. At a time when science is revealing the significance of dark matter/energy, Bill’s hymn below expresses darkness as the place where truth, wisdom and the oneness of all reside. In a society whose metaphors harmfully inform our psyche that darkness is “bad” and light is “good,” Bill’s words instruct otherwise:

In the darkness lies the whole
For the parts all disappear.
In the darkness dwells the truth
Of the wisdom all can share.
 
All the lines merge into one,
All the colours quickly fade,
All the sounds to silence change,
All the dreams can be remade.
 
When the light and darkness join
We find all the parts belong
In the fullness myst’ry holds
Till our hearts are filled with song.
 
If in darkness we abide
With a heart devoid of fear
Each of us discovers then
God is present everywhere.
 
-Words © 2022 William Livingstone Wallace. Used by permission. Permission is granted by the author to freely reproduce and use (citing copyright information).

The calls from Bill eventually ended and, exploring the internet, I read of his death on February 26, 2024. His lifetime of work will continue to inspire, engage, and expand the minds of worshipers for years to come.

A Theological Statement

​And Jesus says:
"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
so, wherever you will go, I will be;
and, whatever you look like, 
​I will look like, too;
I will speak in your words 
and in everything you do.
Whenever – my advent is whenever –
my advent is whenever
you discover I am in you;
when you discover I AM in you!"

In response to the news that my influential high school music teacher. Jerry Burdick, passed on May 8, 2023, I offer these memories in tribute.

First Meeting...
I first met Mr. Burdick in seventh grade when he came to Tulsa’s Clinton Junior High School and sat down beside me at the electric piano I was to play as a new member of the school’s jazz band. Never having played in a rhythm section before, I listened as Mr. Burdick patiently explained to me what it was to “comp” at the piano keyboard. The seeds of creativity he planted in that initial lesson would provide me with a love of playing in jazz bands through college and would later blossom to influence my work as a composer.

Learning from a Skilled Educator...
I entered Mr. Burdick’s marching band at Daniel Webster High School with several of my friends in ninth grade. Though our freshmen class was still housed at Clinton Junior High, we’d walk over to Webster on beautiful fall or cold winter mornings to learn from this master teacher. Throughout my high school experience in his marching, concert and jazz bands, Mr. Burdick exemplified the best in education and musicianship. It was his clear conducting technique I mimicked in my teenage church music jobs and upon entering Oklahoma Baptist University as a music major.

Many Valuable Lessons...
Not only did I learn to comp at the piano, effectively play my trumpet, and conduct from Mr. Burdick, but by example he taught unparalleled organizational skills, and what it meant to be an upstanding and caring citizen in the community. As an active and long-time church musician, his life of faith and concern for all people was evident. I also learned to value “quality over quantity” from Mr. Burdick. Though our high school marching band was the smallest in the city of Tulsa, it didn’t keep us from winning a city-wide marching band competition in spite of the twelve other bands that were two and three times our size. We won because Mr. Burdick inspired us individually and collectively to give our best, and we also won because of his forward-thinking creativity. Our show wowed the judges with rotating square formations and other new marching techniques of drum and bugle corps that had not yet spread throughout high school bands. This win was especially meaningful that year as, due to low enrollment, the possible closing of our high school was threatened. After the win a billboard proudly proclaimed our success to the entire city and in my estimation helped to keep our school open. Quality over quantity had prevailed and provided a valuable lesson for my work in church ministry.

Expanding Musical Horizons...
Mr. Burdick expanded my musical horizons in many ways, contributing to my work as a Minister of Music, composer, hymn writer and teacher. In the churches of my childhood, I mostly experienced the music of American gospel hymns, but in high school concert band, Mr. Burdick exposed my mind and ears to gifted composers from around the world including England’s Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. In high school I was so enthused by playing the band transcription of Holst’s The Planets, that I engaged in an individual study on Holst in college. This study was important to my theory and composition degree at Oklahoma Baptist University, and I was deeply honored when Mr. and Mrs. Burdick drove miles to attend my senior composition recital at OBU.

A Grateful Opportunity...
One often loses touch with high school teachers after graduation, but after graduating seminary and entering full-time music ministry, I was commissioned by my friends, the Burdick children, to write a composition for their father as a surprise to celebrate his 60th birthday and 30 years as Director of Music for Epworth United Methodist Church, Tulsa. I tried to “pull out all of the stops” for Mr. Burdick, demonstrating in the composition both the joy and skills of music-making he had instilled in me. I think of him each time I conduct a choir in singing the resulting psalm setting, Play Skillfully and Shout with Joy!

An Amazing Story...
Though I would hear about Mr. and Mrs. Burdick through the years from their children or other West Tulsans, I did eventually lose touch with their whereabouts. And my life’s work had taken me and my family to Raleigh, North Carolina. But eventually, I experienced an unbelievable reconnection…

My mother and father-in-law were exploring assisted living communities in the Charlotte, NC, area. One weekend my wife and I traveled to Charlotte to help with their search. While taking a tour of a facility, I noticed a piano, and commented that my mother-in-law was a fine pianist and would enjoy playing. The employee giving us the tour then said to me: “We also have a wonderful gentleman who comes once-a-week to play for the residents…His name is Jerry Burdick.” At that instant I let out the loudest “WHAT!!!” one can imagine! I then said: “Jerry Burdick is my beloved high school music teacher from Oklahoma!” The employee did not have to give his name, but I’m glad she did (along with his phone number)! The Burdicks were now in North Carolina! Immediately upon arriving back home I called the Burdicks to catch up and tell them this amazing story.

And there’s more… In 2018 I had the opportunity to compose We Are a People on a Journey for the 75th Anniversary of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte. In January of that year, I would get to attend worship there for the premiere of the hymn. This provided the wonderful opportunity to see my influential high school teacher and his wife, as I spent time that weekend with Jerry and Phyllis in their beautiful home. But the best part was that the Burdicks accepted my invitation to join me at Myers Park for the premiere! This was truly a full-circle moment. As the church’s pianist improvised on my tune for the prelude that morning, I was transported back to seventh grade when Mr. Burdick taught me to improvise. As the brass quintet, timpani and pipe organ played the introduction to my hymn, I remembered how my musical horizons were expanded in Mr. Burdick’s band to be able to envision and compose such sounds. And as the choir and congregation sang, I gave gratitude for the influence and presence of the Burdicks on this special day.

Deep Gratitude...
I am not the only student shaped and inspired by Jerry Burdick. I join countless others in giving thanks for his life and meaningful work that continues to thrive in us all.

Years after being influenced and inspired by the work of hymn poet, Brian Wren (see previous blog post), I met Jann Aldredge-Clanton with whom I enjoyed a 23-year collaboration. Jann was a minister, author, English professor, lyricist, hymn poet, hospital chaplain and feminist theologian (quite qualified to write effective and prophetic words for the church!). In the spring of 2001, I heard Jann offer the Covenant Address for the Alliance of Baptists Convocation. She powerfully encouraged congregations to discover and reclaim images of the Divine Feminine – and to sing them in worship. She underscored the biblical foundations and the many reasons to sing of God as “She” and “Her” – not the least of which was to liberate all from oppressive patriarchy and to exclaim the truth that females are in the Divine Image.

Several months after hearing Jann’s address, I became Minister of Music for Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC. With her words still ringing in my ears and a congregation eager to sing of the Divine Feminine, I reached out to introduce myself to Jann. Revealing I was a composer, I asked if she had any texts I could set to music. On September 11, 2001 (a morning that was met with unspeakable tragedy), I discovered an email from Jann that included a hymn text for me to set. The text she sent, “Are You Good and Are You Strong?” was a theodicy (questioning the presence of goodness in midst of evil). The words were unbelievably timely and cathartic for the particular day on which I received them.

Our 23-year creative partnership resulted in a musical, curriculum, anthems, 6 song collections, and 450 hymns. Though I have provided new tunes and arrangements for many of Jann’s hymns, I have typeset all of them for our collections, and in doing so, have been a student of her ministry.  

On September 20, 2024, days after completing our sixth song collection, Jann died of ovarian cancer. Healing Streams: Inclusive Songs, Prayers, and Readings for All Ages, is now published and available to the world. Because Jann's prolific work has left a treasury of lyrics yet to be musically set, our creative work will continue. Jann will continue to speak through the vibrant voices of congregations and choirs.

In 1989, renown hymn poet, Brian Wren, led a conference at Southern Seminary. The weekend event turned out to be an educational and experiential milestone for me that included an unexpected celebration. At the conference’s opening event we sang from Wren’s brand-new collection, Bring Many Names,[1] .and my experience with the metaphorical language of worship was forever changed. For the first time I joined my voice with a gathered congregation to sing of the Divine Feminine. I was deeply moved when singing Wren’s hymn texts that imaged God as “Mother” and “Sister.” This was most likely due to my being the only son in my family raised by a strong mother and three older sisters, along with my caring father. Until that time, the hymns of my church experience were dominated by patriarchal language. That evening I realized with conviction that the words we sing either oppress or uplift humanity. With eagerness to learn more, at a reception that followed the hymn-sing I excitedly purchased Wren’s new book, What Language Shall I Borrow? God-Talk in Worship: A Male Response to Feminist Theology.[2] The understanding and inspiration gained from this book would prove to be incalculable in my life and work.

Dr. Wren inscribed the book’s flyleaf for me and my wife: “Signed on a night of good news! Cindy & Larry Schultz, Shalom! Brian Wren 22/9/89.” His inscription details memorable things about that night. The date commemorates that my wife and I had been married for just over 3 months, and this was the first professional event we eagerly attended as a married couple. An added joy for us was that the conference was held in the school’s music building connected to the seminary chapel where we had met three years earlier and where our wedding service had recently taken place. Wren’s “night of good news” inscription refers to the fact that when walking into the reception, my hymnology professor, Dr. Hugh McElrath, came to me to shake my hand and say: “Congratulations on your hymn making it into The Baptist Hymnal (1991)!” "What!" I joyfully exclaimed. (Dr. McElrath, who was on the hymnal’s committee, did not realize I had not yet heard that a hymn text I had written for his class[3] was going to be included.) Still on an emotional high from singing the hymns of Brian Wren, I was overjoyed to hear that my first hymn would be published. As news of this surprise spread around the room, the congratulations of many friends grew to become a large group hug that moved around the room reminding us of the last scene of The Mary Tyler Moore Show! With his congratulations, Dr. Wren also asked me to send him a copy of the hymn for review. As he traveled home following the conference, he kindly composed a letter of suggestions and encouragement regarding the hymn and my writing.

Everything about that evening was exciting and memorable. It was indeed a “night of good news” in many respects, including my awakening to the good news of feminist and intersecting theologies in my own ministry. This experience was foundational to my creative work that would follow, including my connection and collaboration with feminist theologian, Dr. Jann Aldredge-Clanton, which I celebrate in the next blog post.

Epilogue:
After my initial introduction to Brian Wren at the Southern Seminary conference, I was fortunate to learn from him at two other conferences during my early years in church music ministry.

In 2003 it was a dream-come-true to have the opportunity to compose music for one of Brian Wren's hymn poems, "The Name We Have Begun to Know." My congregation, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC, hosted Dr. Wren for a weekend conference and commissioned from him this interfaith text for which I provided the tune, LOVE-SONG. It is published by Hope Publishing in Wren's hymnal, Christ Our Hope, and was included in a recording of selected hymns from the collection.[4]

Welcome to LarryESchultz.com and Resonate! – a site offering downloadable and published music for church, school and community groups, and a blog that offers notes on the music and other items of interest related to communal music and music-making.

I describe my work as “communal,” because both my ministry and compositions seek to assist groups (choirs, congregations, orchestras, bands) whose individual participants make music together. I also use the word “communal” to communicate that all persons are musicians and are welcomed into the experience of music-making. It is a part of what makes us human, and is not an exclusive opportunity for the “trained.”

A seminary course on “The Philosophy of Music Ministry,” taught by gifted educator, Milburn Price, instilled within me the importance of developing and communicating a philosophy that supports and meaningfully directs my work. Though my initial philosophy of music ministry was bound to church history, church tradition and the Hebrew/Christian scriptures, it has evolved through the years to include more.

Ever since reading John Shelby Spong’s book, “A New Christianity for a New World,” I have been on a quest to provide a music ministry and creative works that break down religious and social barriers. Spong encourages all to walk so deeply through their own tradition and into their humanity that the tribalistic boundaries fall away. We then discover our connections with other people, and the oneness of all.

Like the efforts of present-day scientists who are seeking a “theory of everything,” I’ve been seeking such a theory related to communal music-making, and have borrowed three words that I hope for now succinctly state my ideas: Resonance, Transcendence and Relevance.  So far, I find that these three words encompass the goals and outcomes of communal music-making, whether it be in church, other faith groups, school or community settings. (Though sometimes needed for clarity, I hesitate to use the words “sacred” or “secular” as I find them to be inadequate descriptions that can bring further division.) I’ll speak to Transcendence and Relevance in future posts, but want to briefly express my thinking on Resonance (and therefore, the name of this blog: Resonate!). 

Though science cannot yet empirically prove it, “String Theory” as posited by quantum physicists is a beautiful description that I think can pertain to a philosophy of music-making and music ministry. String Theory suggests that the smallest elements of literally everything are tiny vibrating “strings.” Smaller than other sub-atomic particles, these vibrations make up all that is – from the computer keyboard on which I am typing to my own human cells. These vibrating strings may indeed turn out to be the common denominator of all things.

Not only are the smallest elements of life thought to be vibrations, but in 2003, astronomers discovered that a supermassive black hole in space was producing sound waves that created the deepest note yet detected from any object in the known universe!

Human biology and anthropology come in next. We humans have evolved with lungs to fill with air and a larynx through which to pass that air causing vibrations of sound. As humanity grew, we developed language out of that sound – words that convey meaning.

After considering all of this, I then am in awe, and wonder as I think: “If the tiniest quantum element as well as one of the largest known objects both vibrate with sound (music), and if humans ‘in the middle,’ also have the capacity to resonate sound…then there must be something very formational and primal to the experience of music-making. It must be foundational to our humanity, it must connect us with ‘everything,’ and there must then be benefits to music therapy, music ministry and communal music-making of any kind!”

I'm not alone in these scientific ponderings. I know of at least two other hymn writers, Brian Wren and Jann Aldredge-Clanton, who have included the specific idea of String Theory in hymns, and others like Shirley Erena Murray, William L. Wallace, and Thomas Troeger express ideas from science in their hymn poetry. I have connected scientific reality with faith-language metaphor in my hymn, Spirit of God, Spark of Creation.  

When groups gather to make music, sound waves from one individual are produced and carried through the air until they are detected in the ear cells of other individuals. There is then an instant and physical connection! Music-making literally unifies and connects individuals into one community – a good foundation on which to build a more peaceful world. (For choral expressions that connect to this idea, see my compositions: Where Two or Three, May a Song Remain, Gathered Here to Share Our Music, Tear Down the Walls and others.)

And so, the name of this blog, Resonate!, refers to our human capacity to make music with all that is, and the exclamation point reminds us to do so with joy and energy. The name also reminds us that when we add words to our music, we can give emphasis and meaning to important ideas and philosophies with which we “resonate.” (Several congregational hymns I hope assist progressive communities in resonating their ideas are: We Are a People on a Journey, From Wisdom Emerging, and A Stranger, Starving on the Street).

Not all of the words to every composition I’ve written are as progressive as I’d desire them to be, but even these creations represent a part of my journey and can reveal an ever-evolving progression – one that continues and is life-long. I hope on this site you find a choral anthem, congregational hymn or instrumental selection that is useful in your community, and I look forward to offering additional works in the days to come.