of Rosedale Presbyterian Church, Toronto
Big Reveal: the initials “I-A-M” in my occasional blog, podcast and website were never actually JUST about abbreviating “Ideas About Music.”
In the famous “Burning Bush” conversation, God answers Moses’ request for His name with a seemingly-evasive or even dismissive phrase usually translated to English “I AM that I AM.” Though I make much of my music in the secular world, I have made no secret that music holds a sacred-calibre place in my life. I don’t preach or prosletise, but I see music as God’s gift, which like most others can bear fruit for all people, regardless of faith story, lack thereof – or potential for one. It has always struck me that in this singular act of self-identification, God instead asserts not so much identity as existence – and not any simple, rational form existence like that of a mountain or a chair (as people sometimes try to claim or demand), but rather an entirely different kind that defies proof or disproof, resting instead in possibility – perhaps infinite in nature. Music, despite its unquestioned power and perhaps more mundane existence, also represents possibility: when we make it, when we encounter and hear it we might like or dislike; we might attend or dismiss, we might learn or simply experience.
Following my latest battle with the familiar bloggers’ bane of “too-little-time-and-energy-to-keep-producing-regular-content” I’m excited to shift things to incorporate the new emerging media ministry of Rosedale Presbyterian Church in Toronto, where I am beginning my fourth year as Director of Music.
The IAM blog, which you can find at ideasaboutmusic.ca will now feature weekly notes on RPC’s service music, themes and ideas that I and my colleagues craft weekly into our 10:30 service, along with occasional recorded content captured in those services.
SO – subscribe to the Ideas About Music blog, or return anytime to ideasaboutmusic.ca for a weekly look into what the music of the week – its history, its quirks and contrasts – it’s power and poignancy – is suggesting to one mind inclined to wonder. You may also bump into random snapshots from my ongoing musical travels, which continue to take me to new and interesting places. And always feel free and welcome to check-in in person any Sunday at 10:30am at Rosedale Presbyterian Church, 129 Mount Pleasant Road in Toronto, just minutes from the Rosedale, Bloor/Yonge and Sherbourne subway stations.
– CD
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” ― Plato
Ideas About Music 