Inspirations are music to her ears

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November 5, 2007

Steve Landwehr The Salem News Mon Nov 05, 2007, 07:50 AM EST

IPSWICH | It's no surprise Johann Sebastian Bach is Julie Tennent's favorite composer.

Not that she would presume to be in the same stratosphere as the maestro, but there is at least one area of common ground between them | the church cantata. Tennent will just need to write about 199 more of them to match Bach's output.

Tennent's work, "All The Glory: A Cantata of the Creation-Redemption Story," will be performed in the chapel at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton Nov. 10. It's part of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Gordon-Conwell Women’s Council.

The cantata is a very old form of music with a relatively young name. Cantatas are meant to be sung, with instruments simply providing the introduction to each recitative or aria. The term was not coined until the 16th century | before that, all music held in high esteem was vocal.

Tennent, 49, has been writing songs since she was in high school, but her interest in longer, more meaningful pieces didn't germinate until about seven years ago. The cantata began taking shape last year.

"I had a vision of the story of the creation and redemption," she said. "I wanted it to be full of theology and depth."

She began taking piano lessons in the second grade and took up the organ as a high-school junior because she intended to major in organ after she graduated. She has a bachelor's degree from Westminster College and a master's degree from Gordon-Conwell.

She has taught piano off and on since then and has 20 students presently. She also plays the organ at her church, North Shore Community Baptist in Beverly. She and her husband, Timothy, a professor at Gordon-Conwell, have lived in Ipswich since 1989.

The couple met at the seminary when they were both students.

"It was kind of fun to come back to where we started," Tennent said.

She said the inspiration for her music usually starts with an idea, "a phrase that wants to be fleshed out," as she put it.

"A lot of times they come to me when I'm driving, and I have to pull over and write them down, things are coming so fast."

She said she has never had any desire to write secular music.

"The things that come to me that I want to express come from God," she said. "It's a fulfilling thing to have an idea and hear it in music."

Baritone Brian Ocock, tenor David Shorey and alto Janet McKay are the soloists performing the cantata.

"They're such a gift," Tennent said. "I can write music, but I need someone to give it life."

Tennent used to compose her work by hand, but today has a computer program and a special piano keyboard that she plays. The software annotates the music for her. She has to go back and make some corrections, but said the computer has made her work much easier.

"It's a long way from having to enter it note by note," she said.

Tennent can explain how the music gets from her head to the printed page, but she can't tell you how it gets in her head in the first place.

"It's a mysterious process," she said. "It's not mechanical at all."

If you go

What: Performance of "All The Glory: A Cantata of the Creation-Redemption Story," written by Ipswich resident Julie Tennent.

Where: Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary chapel, 130 Essex St., Hamilton.

When: Saturday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m.

Cost: Free. A freewill offering will be taken to benefit the Gordon-Conwell Women’s Council’s scholarships.

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