Chamber Music Leader Relishes Gregorian Chant
No Rodgers and Hammerstein for Rick Wheeler. Forget Woody Guthrie and don’t even mention Paula Abdul. But Pope Gregory I - now there’s a tunemeister for Rick.
“The simplicity is so unbelievable,” he says with admiration.
A lifelong choral singer, Rick, who’s 28, always has chosen the pure over the muddled, the simple over the complicated. No music is simpler or more pure than the mono-melodic Gregorian chants, he says.
So when Rick created a community choir in Post Falls this year, he immediately steered his singers into the liturgical chants of the Catholic church.
“I want to foster a love of purity of music here,” he says, leafing through his finger-worn black book, “Liber Usualis,” or Book of the Common Chant. “People are so inundated with pop Christmas, they’re ready.”
Rick’s eyes burn with intensity behind his glasses when he speaks of the chant. It’s not just the music this tenor loves; it’s how Catholic it is.
It was Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls that wooed Rick from Connecticut 14 months ago. He left everything he loved: his family, a good career as a piano technician, jobs in several professional singing groups.
His faith was most important, but he moved knowing music belongs everywhere. Within three weeks of his arrival, Rick secured a position with the Spokane Chorale. A few months later, the River City Chamber Singers was born.
“At first it was frustrating, the lack of commitment,” says Rick, a demanding perfectionist. “I’m not afraid to tell people, ‘This stinks.”’
Eighteen singers stuck it out and will perform for the first time Dec. 17 at Templin’s Resort. The program will include Gregorian chants in Latin as well as familiar choral pieces.
“We’ll educate the audience a little at a time,” Rick says. “They’ll get attached. I know they will.”
Northwoods Christmas
Workaholics: Priest River’s Northwoods Performing Arts has the Christmas story for you. There’s singing, Christmas history, even an angel named Bart (not Simpson), and it’s all to help an overzealous worker enjoy Christmas.
You can catch “A Christmas Eve Spirit” at The Met in Spokane at 2 p.m. Sunday, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Priest River Junior High or Dec. 15 and 16 at The Inn at Priest Lake in Coolin. For tickets, call 448-2430.
Some get it right
Coeur d’Alene’s Edna Johnson buried her mother last week. Arceil Gage was 82 when she died, a victim of dementia and a failing liver.
Edna worried about leaving her mother in a nursing home. But she took Arceil to The Gardens in Spokane when she needed round-the-clock care last spring. Arceil was treated there with kindness and respect right up to her death, Edna says.
“You hear so many bad things about nursing homes, but they were full of hugs and loving care for my mother,” she says.
Just the way they should be.
He’s still got it
Remember Ernest Allsop, the 103-year-old gent who moved from England to Coeur d’Alene at age 97? That grin he wore in his picture in this column two weeks ago attracted some female attention.
Most just want to give him company and friendly conversation, which is good. I’d forgotten to mention he already has a girlfriend.
Gift goofs
It’s easy to tell the moment someone opens a gift that something is wrong. Ever give a friend a travel diary only to learn her trip was canceled? Or an anniversary bouquet the day after his wife left him?
What was the most uncomfortable gift moment in your life and how did you handle it? Scribble it out of your system and send it to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; send a fax to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo