I sang in the (erstwhile) Valley Church Men’s Quartet, aka “The Brethren” / “Alpha Tau Pi” from 1987 to around 1999 (it turned out that I was the only original member to go the whole distance…). We had some great ministry opportunities during those years, and God blessed us wonderfully.
I also had the privilege of writing a number of songs for us, and have continued writing TTBB music occasionally.
Price: Short and simple: Doumer Liu, our bass, once commented that there wasn’t much men’s quartet music with solos for the lowest part. So I wrote him one. “Access” tells of the Old Testament times when the children of Israel were denied direct access (and Internet access…) to God; the only person allowed into the …
Price: Sometimes people ask about whether I can write an arrangement for them. Sometimes I’m even able to comply! I turned out that Ted Urbach (out there somewhere…) asked about whether I was planning to build some more arrangements of old standards. I changed my daily schedule a bit so that I’d have time reserved …
Price: Sometimes the pressure’s off, and sometimes it’s on… we were planning a Gospel Music Night at Valley Church, and two weeks before the date I was asked to assemble a men’s quartet. Then came the minor difficulty of choosing repertoire. We ended up singing Power In The Blood and this arrangement of the hymn …
Price: The Web is a wonderful way to meet people, chat rooms or not. This is how I met Vickie. She was surfing and searching for men’s quartet music (she accompanies “The Crosswards” from the First United Methodist Church in Rawlins, Wyoming), and happened upon the Choraegus site. Somewhere along the way through a few …
Price: I said temporary goodbyes to a lot of friends in 1991. Paul Steele, our pastor, died of a particularly virulent and manifestly inoperable cancer, and high school friend had a painful passing from the same. My grandmother passed away due to congestive heart failure. Although I dedicated this song to the other two friends …
Price: “In The Garden”, I’ve heard, is the all-time favorite hymn named when people are surveyed. It speaks of the precious togetherness which the Lord Jesus wants to have with us, and how He (indeed!) is a Friend who’s closer than a brother. Many thanks to David Freeman for inquiring as to where he might …
Price: In March 1988, Les Nederveld, our baritone, and I were talking about the upcoming Easter service at De Anza College’s Flint Center. Les thought it would be great to for the quartet to sing there, and decided to ask our music minister if he could fit us into the program. “But Les, we don’t …
Price: Sometimes I have the feeling that I was born fifty years too late. For some reason, God’s given me a strange (for my generation) aptitude for writing Big Band music. “Trusting In Jesus” is remarkable in this respect; it seems to sound just as if it came directly from that musical era. There even …