One tends to wonder, when confronted with the various gifts a human being has been given. The five organs of the sense, are the gateways, through which information enters the mind, and is processed and used for one's own development and growth. Certain individuals are said to be gifted in music, art, and wisdom. These are given to the chosen few, so that they blaze a trail in human life, to enrich it for the benefit of all. However, many use them for their aggrandizement and profit. The greatest contributors to the human fund have been those who were driven by the desire to express themselves and left behind for posterity their masterpieces. Even the less talented enrich local communities with their gifts, and are remembered with fondness. The driving force is within us all. Many of us use it without a conscious effort. I wish to thank my Creator for giving me some such gifts, and through this website, I have strived to share it with you all.
My first exposure to music, was at the age of six, when my elder sister took me to the Christmas Mass in 1945 and I happened to hear the best brass band in our town, trained by Italian Jesuit priests. These sounds continued haunting me, and led me to the portals of the Seminary where these priests trained others to be priests. I was a lad of 16 and here I got my first opportunity to learn music, and play the keyboard, which I mastered in three years. By the age of 23 having had a major eye defect I decided to leave as I could not read a blackboard, nor the music score but kept my love of music alive.
It lay dormant, or used less frequently until 1985 when in new circumstances, I was asked to teach others to play the keyboard, and not knowing where to get instruction materials, started writing my own text book for my students. This is the one you will find on this website. In 1993 I started a polyphonic choir in my parish, and by now all old music was irrelevant, and new pop style music was in vogue. I however felt, that the old style expressed the religious sentiments of the liturgical texts better, so I decided to train my own singers, 12 of them and taught them how to read music script and wrote masses, and scores for the parish hymns, and in one month, after they had managed to learn the rudiments of the script, we started to sing for every Sunday, and feasts, in four part harmony. This lasted for seven years, and ended with my having a stroke, in the year 2000. I was 66 then.
I could not venture out as often as I did in the past, so I began using my computer and developed programs which led me, in 2004, to start this website, at the age of 70. I had also developed the knowledge to score music with the help of a music software, and the technology had advanced by now, that I could upload these files to the internet, thus enabling wider audience participation. I had never realized, that all this time, God was preparing me from the age of 6, in 1945, through my early youth, gave me an extraordinary opportunity to learn music, which I could not bury within myself, and by the age of 23 took all away. Did He really do it ? He had wanted me to grow and become wiser, and at a ripe old age, used my talents
again.
All the music I had composed, or arranged during the past years, was now available to be uploaded. Today, the section of Catholic Church Music on my website, hosts not only my music, but of some of my friends too. We all have wanted to share what we were given freely, with you, and hope you too will make good use of it, not only for your personal enrichment, but also for public worship of the Lord who is the giver of all these gifts.
Some of the favorite hymns, which have received a lot of hits, is Laudate Dominum Omnes Gentes. This was the Latin hymn that was sung in wedding pandals, by all Mangaloreans, and some older ones, will remember this. The words used to mispronouced, and end up with funny results. One such confusion was in the words: "Quaniam confirmata est" ended as "Koniam, Conpir Mathias".
Recently, I have discovered how to record voice parts, and have added vocal parts to some of the Konkani songs, like "Abolim Hanv" and "Rosalyn" and some of the Harmonized Hymns. I am now 78 and not as agile, but my heart is still the same as it was in 1945, and keeps wondering of the mysterious ways in which God leads us. May be your experiences may not be much different from mine. Let us all be very thankful for what we have received, and share these gifts with others.
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