SURSUM CORDA

If you have a talent, 

use it in every which way possible. 

Don't hoard it. 

Don't dole it out like a miser. 

Spend it lavishly 

like a millionaire intent on going broke. 

Brendan Francis Behan (1923-1964)

A quick Google search produces a lot of well-known, 
memorable or interesting lines about using one's talent:

Hide not your talents,
they for use were made.
What's a sundial in the shade?

                          Benjamin Franklin


Use what talent you possess:
the woods would be very silent
if no birds sang
except those that sang best.

                   Henry Van Dyke


The principle mark of a genius
is not perfection but originality --
the opening of frontiers.

                   Arthur Koestler


When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me."

                   Erma Bombeck


A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.

                  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.                   Stephen King

Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.                    H. Jackson Brown, Jr. I do not want to die...until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.                    Kathe Kollwitz Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent.                  Sophia Loren Talent is always conscious of its own abundance and does not object to sharing.                   Alexander Solzhenitsyn One wonders if all those who said these things reached their full potential, if their words and their lives were congruent to the end. Sadly, the writer of the first quote at the top, Behan, had a penchant for strong drink that was as big a force in his life as his writing ability. He died at age 41 of complications from excessive alcohol consumption. How many pages of history have a similar tale scribbled in the margins, the story of a great genuis or talent that let their Achilles' Heel eclipse their output. Here are two statements about talents from the New Testament, one encouraging and the other sobering . . .

To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
                  Matthew 25:15

For everyone to whom much is given, from him much shall be required.

                 Luke 12:48

What does this train of thought about talent have to do with SURSUM CORDA?  I think that is the key, keeping one's heart lifted up to God is the foundation we need to pursue in order to use our God-given talents to their true potential.

One of the pieces on my spring and summer recital program is Franz Liszt's SURSUM CORDA. This weekend I will play that piece at a recital here in Raleigh, so it's on my mind.

Liszt is one of those superstars whose fame is sometimes marred by their lesser virtues. If you are one who knows of Liszt in that light, click here to consider another view of Liszt's life and works in an essay by Dr. Paul Barnes.

Liszt was one who was given great talent as a musician, as legendary pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. In his teens he was very intent on going into the ministry of the church as a career. His father, who understood the magnitude of his budding musical talent, told him "The path of a true artist does not lead away from religion--it is possible to have on path for both. Love God, be good and upright, so that you will reach ever higher in your art. "

In his 50's after a legendary concert career, Liszt became heavily involved in the church. His compositions from this period reflect this deepening of spiritual focus. The SURSUM CORDA is from this period.

Sursum corda/Erhebet eure Herzen/Lift up Your Hearts (1867).
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
From Années de Pèlerinage, Troisième année: nr. 7
(Years of Pilgrimage, Third Year)

BARTOK's INTERPRETATION:  Here Béla Bartók (1881-1945) interprets this work in a recording from 1936. 

MY INTERPRETATION:   Here is a recent live performance from a recital I gave in Indiana, with a some notes about the piece as well. 


Interesting article on Liszt by Dr. Paul Barnes, "Franz Liszt and the Sacramental Bridge: Music as Theology of Presence