Can you hear it?

We're two months into 2012, and Agapella has been busy....we are pregnant with album and counting down the days, although the whole truth is, it's still in parts. But in the meantime, until we hear the pitter-patter of CD covers closing, here's a little teaser for you...enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G64LWIOtWNU

In other news, the Pocky Count currently stands at 143 flavours.

Christmus Agapellus

Agapella's apparent silence in 2011 must be deafening; barely a whisper nor whimper from us most year through. So on the first day of December 2011 and even as we countdown to Agapella's 9th Christmas season, it ought to be said that Agapella hasn't been all that silent.

You see...we've been spending some time in the studio. Need we tell you what comes out of those soundproof spaces. Yup, hang in there. We promise to make up for our relatively quieter year in the year ahead. More details in the coming months.

It'll be a low-key Christmas season this year because we've not had as much time to rehearse our Christmas repertoire due to rehearsals and recordings towards you-know-what. But we couldn't resist taking up a couple of intimate closed-door gigs with children as an audience. We know these kids are going to have a ball of a time and we're excited as well. We've also got plans to share our music with unsuspecting passersby and in places one least expects. Where we will be is anyone's guess.


Agapella's been privileged to have been invited by the Singapore Botanic Gardens to participate in decorating a tropical tree as part of the much-anticipated Trees of the World Light-Up. This event which will officially launched this Sat, 3 Dec 2011 will last till 1 Jan 2012. It's your chance to walk through the beautiful gardens and soak in a spectacle of tropical trees lining the footpaths. These trees are adorned with an array of ornaments decorated by various organisations and groups and will be lit up from this Saturday. If you're heading down, be sure to bring your camera and videocams!

Here's a sneak peek of the 'Christmus Agapellus' with the decor team comprising Brenda, Namiko, Uma, Dorcas, Dan, Ernest and Stanley with contributions and prayers by our other members.



More photos and updates on Agapella's Facebook page.

A fascinating blog: The Persistence of Song

http://thepersistenceofsong.wordpress.com

About this blog:

For every melody we encounter, worldview is singing alto. And too often, we ignore this accompaniment; instead, we prefer to demarcate our music morally, placing song x in the category “Christian” and song y in the category “secular.”

When we encounter music, we need to decipher and diagnose the worldview. What aspects of the worldview are helpful and edifying? What aspects of the worldview do we disagree with, and why do we find these aspects disagreeable?

The Persistence of Song is a venue for this inspection of worldviews. I aim to foster dialogue on (ir)religious music. You’ll find me writing often about explicitly religious music, very often critiquing “contemporary Christian music.” But I’m also very interested in how other musicians, not necessarily affiliated with this market, make religious expressions (sometimes quite unknowingly).

Our times call for careful Christian thinking and conversation on a host of issues. The Persistence of Song seeks to fulfill that niche for the art form of song.

- Jason Adkins

Learning to Sing Sea Water

Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, May 14, 2011 6:54 am
Posted on his blog http://www.dougwils.com/

One of the things we should notice in Scripture is the close association of the music of the people of God and the nations of men. There is a regular appeal, throughout Scripture, asking the nations to hear us when we sing.

The music of the saints, rightly done, is universal and evangelistic. The music of the saints, wrongly done, becomes “church music,” set off in a ghetto of its own—perhaps to be respected and perhaps despised, but always isolated. Many a country singer claims to have roots in “gospel,” over there, but There are musical similarities, to be sure, but we are careful to maintain genre walls.

If our music is not having an effect upon the nations, we cannot change it by tinkering with the notes, or finding better songs. Rather, we need to sing to God, with overflowing hearts, and with a true and living faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if we do, the music will do what only the Spirit of God can do with it. If we do not have faith in the gospel, and I mean of course vibrant faith, then the better the music gets, the more we will sound like trained professionals.

There is a difference between efficiency and blessing. One man with five talents blessed is going to be more potent than a man with one talent unblessed, or ten talents unblessed, for that matter. Our business, in the first instance, therefore, is to seek for the blessing. Talent is not enough. Training is not enough. Learning the songs is not enough. As we have undertaken the task of musical reformation in our church, all we have been doing is assembling materials on the altar, in the earnest expectation that God will cause the fire to come down. Some of the more difficult songs we have learned are the sea water that Elijah poured out on the altar. Without the fire, it doesn’t matter. And when the fire falls, in a completely different kind of way, it doesn’t matter either.

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AGAPELLA supports UNSHAKEABLE!

Singapore Red Cross for Japan tsunami relief

Love and prayers needed for the people of Japan

Just Sing

Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. They find out that the new baby is going to be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sings to his sister in Mommy's tummy.

The pregnancy progresses normally for Karen, an active member of the Panther Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee. Then the labor pains come. Every five minutes... every minute. But complications arise during delivery. After hours of labor a C-section is required. Finally, Michael's little sister is born. But she is in serious condition. With siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushes the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee.

The days inch by. The little girl gets worse. The pediatric specialist tells the parents, "There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst." Karen and her husband contact a local cemetery about a burial plot. They have fixed up a special room in their home for the new baby -- now they plan a funeral.

Michael, keeps begging his parents to let him see his sister, "I want to sing to her," he says.

Week two: Still in intensive care. It looks as if a funeral will come before the week is over. Michael keeps nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in Intensive Care. But Karen makes up her mind. She will take Michael whether they like it or not. If he doesn't see his sister now, he may never see her alive.

She dresses him in an oversized scrub suit and marches him into ICU. He looks like a walking laundry basket, but the head nurse recognizes him as a child and bellows, "Get that kid out of here now! No children are allowed in ICU." The mother rises up strong in Karen, and the usually mild-mannered lady glares steel-eyed into the head nurse's face, her lips a firm line. "He is not leaving until he sings to his sister!"

Karen tows Michael to his sister's bedside. He gazes at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. And he begins to sing. In the pure hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sings:

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray..."

Instantly the baby girl responds. The pulse rate becomes calm and steady. Keep on singing, Michael.

"You never know, dear, how much I love you, Please don't take my sunshine away..."

The ragged, strained breathing becomes as smooth as a kitten's purr. Keep on singing, Michael.

"The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms..."

Michael's little sister relaxes as rest, healing rest, seems to sweep over her. Keep on singing, Michael.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don't, take my sunshine away."

Tears conquer the face of the bossy head nurse. Karen glows. Funeral plans are scrapped. The next, day - the very next day - the little girl is well enough to go home! Woman's Day magazine called it "the miracle of a brother's song." The medical staff just called it a miracle. Karen called it a miracle of God's love.

A few weeks later, Michael's little sister was baptized at the Panther Creek Church. If you were planning that service, what song would you select? Who would you have sing it? Would you ask the congregation to sing along?

I talked to Tennessee Pastor G. Steve Sallee, who first shared the story with Leonard Sweet, who published an abbreviated version of it in Homiletics. Pastor Sallee said that when Sweet told the story at the Lake Junaluska conference center, a woman jumped up from the congregation, ran to the podium, and interrupted the sermon. "It's true," the woman cried out. "And those were my grandchildren. And I want to praise God for the miracle of love." The shekinah (the presence of God in the world) of heaven fell. The order of service was destroyed. The whole congregation was hugging, weeping, and praising God as they sang together "You Are My Sunshine."

The Holy Spirit turned that old love song from the Charleston flappers era into a hymn of praise too deep for words.

In this sad world, people all around us lie dying from depression, from criticism, from failure, from sin. If you have a song, won't you please sing it.

In your community there are people who are in despair, people who just can't find the wherewithal to try again. If you have a song won't you please sing it?

In your church, in your family, there are people for whom hope is as dim as a flashlight left on all night. Don't you know someone who hasn't been serenaded with a love song in 20 years? If all you have is an old love song from the '20s, if that's all in the world you have, won't you please sing it?

The Bible says, "The tongue has the power of life and death" (Proverbs 18:21,NIV). So, if you have a song, won't you sing it? The Bible says, "The tongue of the just is as choice silver" (Proverbs 10:20). So if you have a song, won't you please sing, it? "But I don't have much of a voice," you say. Well, I don't mean that you have to literally, blurt out an old love song like "You Are My Sunshine" or "Love Me Tender." Your God-given song may be a yard mowed, showing up at the nursing home with a bunch of wildflowers, baking a batch of brownies, or sending a check so a college student can come home for Christmas. Your best tune, the best life-giving music you will ever make, may sound like a long overdue apology, a generous helping of forgiveness, a $100 bill given to a stranger, volunteer work at the Salvation Army, or a Christmas card to one who was sure you had forgotten him or her long ago.

If you have a song, won't you please sing it? If all you can do is hum, whistle, or belt out an, old love song from the flappers generation, maybe, just maybe, God can transform it into a hymn clothed in the shekinah of His love.

Sacred Harp singing

Sacred Harp singing is much more than an interesting repertoire of early American three and four part a cappella folk music. It is a living tradition that treads an unbroken path prior to the Civil War and whose music can be directly traced as a distinct musical thread back beyond the American Revolution, through to rural England, back to Reformation psalmody and beyond to Renaissance polyphony.

Read more at the Sacred Harp website.