We Preach Christ Crucified

This year's theme passage in the Winnebago Lutheran Academy Association is 1 Corinthians 1:23a: "We preach Christ crucified." Each year I challenge myself to compose a song based on the theme passage as a way of embedding the passage in the hearts and memories of our students.

Downloads:
Sheet Music: We Preach Christ Crucified (Dale A. Witte) –  To be published by NPH in Oct. 2018!
Bulletin Inserts: Letter half sheet (5.5" x 8.5") | Legal half sheet (7" x 8.5")


Some years, I use the passages before and after the theme passage as lyrics for either the verse or refrain. This year, I decided to center in on developing the meaning of "We preach Christ crucified." For the person who doesn't know what that passage means, I explain that the cross isn't supposed to be a frightening tool of torture and execution.  When the believer looks at the cross of Christ, they see hope, salvation, and a victory won, both for Jesus–the Son of God and Son of Man–and for the believer in Jesus.

I pray that this year's theme song, like all the others that I've written, serves to help explain God's Word and to firmly fix it in our minds and hearts.  In the coming weeks, I hope to make a recording of the WLA student body singing the theme song and post it on this blog.

Jerusalem the Golden | THAXTED

The 7th triennial WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts was just held this past week, July 22-25, 2014, at Carthage College, Kenosha, WI.  What a full week of worship, recitals, and workshops on every topic related to current worship in the WELS! I wish there was a way to experience all of the offerings (maybe the WELS Commission on Worship will post not only handouts but videos of the presentations).  I was responsible for two things at this conference: the piano music for worship reading session (42 pieces in 75 minutes) and I was given the commission to arrange the closing hymn of the closing service, the hymn that has closed every WELS Worship Conference since 1996: Jerusalem the Golden, set to the Gustav Holst tune, THAXTED.

While I've been blessed to be asked to compose a number of orchestral settings for the WELS Worship Conference over the years (The Tree of Life, 2002–soon to be published by CPH, Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds, 2011), Jerusalem the Golden was well known by every attendee to be the final hymn of the conference: it was the one you waited to sing with a thousand other voices, it was the one during which you knew you were going to have a hard time singing through the tears of joy and longing for heaven.  I still remember exactly where I was sitting in the Carthage College chapel in the summer of 1996, sitting next to my brother for the closing service of the first WELS Worship Conference, balling my eyes out while trying to sing along to Richard Proulx's arrangement.  I remember that feeling of never wanting to leave the conference and desperately longing for the joys heaven.  So when the commission came to me last summer to make a new setting of Jerusalem, I was very humbled and honored, and more than a little nervous knowing that Jerusalem was so loved and so anticipated by so many conference goers.

Professor James Tiefel, Professor of Worship and Preaching at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and spokesman for the WELS Commission on Worship and the planning committee, shared with me in the commissioning email one of the reasons for wanting a new setting of THAXTED:

Over the years we have used several settings of the tune THAXTED, none of which was actually composed with the Jerusalem text in mind!  Our planning committee feels it’s time that the text and tune were featured in an original composition.

How was this new commission received in worship? I'll take what Pastor Caleb Bassett wrote as a very positive review.  Other reviews came in quickly over Twitter:

To @dalewitte: the tears flowed freely as I thought of glory which awaits us. Glorious and heavenly arr. of THAXTED. Thank you. #WELSWorship
— Rachel J. Pierson (@aleixa) July 25, 2014

Heart-stopping arrangement of “Jerusalem the Golden“ to close the conference. #welsworship
— Caleb Bassett (@crbassett) July 25, 2014

THAXTED + Dale = Awesome #WELSworship
— Mike Marquardt (@MikeMarquardt) July 25, 2014

My prayer is that this setting helps people to pray

"Jesus in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest
Where sings the host of heaven
Your glorious name to bless." (Christian Worship Supplement 728, st. 2)

and that this setting serves the Church at large to be

"The shout of them that triumph,
The song of them that feast.
To God enthroned in glory
The Church’s voices blend."  (CWS 728, st. 3)

Soli Deo Gloria 

A Free Piece of My Piano Music (and a link to buy my book!)

For all those who were at one of my piano music reading sessions at the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts, thank you for coming! To those who bought my first book of piano improvisations based on hymn tunes, here is the link to the "corrected" version of "Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus".  The NPH publication has a wrong note in the right hand in the opening pattern (an A where there should be an E–it's the melody!).

Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus - arr. Dale A. Witte (free PDF)

So here's my request: please go to NPH and buy a copy of my piano book so that the first printing sells out and we can fix the mistake in the 2nd printing.  Deal? ;)

WLA Spring Concert 2014 - Live Stream

Looking for the live stream of tonight's WLA Spring Concert?  Head over to WLA TV and watch the stream starting at 7 PM CDT (GMT-5).  But first, click here for the program!

WLA's State Solo Ensemble 2014 - RESULTS

UPDATED Mon., Apr 28, 2014 – What an outstanding weekend! WLA's music students brought home 17 firsts (with 3 perfect scores), 5 seconds, and 2 Exemplary Soloist Awards! Congratulations to Senors Naomi Haag (An die Musik, Schubert) and Andi Franklin (O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion, Handel) for being awarded Exemplary Soloist Awards!

Click here for a PDF of WLA's schedule for Saturday, April 26, 2014 at UW-Oshkosh

Click here to go to WSMA's page for more information (maps, general info, other schedules, etc.) about the UW-Oshkosh festival

Here are the results from this weekend.  Congratulations to all of these students for their hard work and using their musical gifts to God's glory!  I'm proud of all of you!

WLA Traveling Choir 2014-2015 Auditions

Students of Winnebago Lutheran Academy who desire to sing with WLA Traveling Choir in the 2014-2015 school year must audition between April 22–May 2, 2014.  To be eligible for WLA's Traveling Choir, students must have sung in a WLA choir for one year or have the consent of Mr. Witte.

1. Click to sign up for a 15-minute audition time slot on Google Calendar.

• Choose any available time slot which works for your schedule.
• Type your name into the "What" field, replacing what I have typed there.

• If you need to change or delete your appointment time, go to your own Google calendar (click on the Rubic's cube button on the top right corner of the www.google.com page and choose "Calendar"). Go to the day and date that you reserved and click on your appointment on your calendar. Look for "Going?" on the bottom of the popup and click on "Delete".  Then go back to the appointment link in #1 above and choose a different time slot.

2. Click to download the 2014-2015 audition requirements.

3. Click to download America the Beautiful: Soprano 1, Soprano 2, Alto 1, Alto 2, Tenor 1, Tenor 2, Bass 1, Bass 2

4. Click to download "God So Loved the World" from The Crucifixion by John Stainer.

5. Fill out the following form before your audition:

WLA Hymnfest "On Christ, The Solid Rock, I Stand"

Tune in at 2 PM Central for the WLA Hymn Festival 2014 live stream from St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Fond du Lac, WI. Click here for the program. This stream is also hosted at wlavikings.org.


Live streaming video by Ustream