Handel’s Messiah and the Christmas Spirit

Handel’s Messiah has been deeply imbedded in my consciousness since I was very young.  On Sundays my parents would play recordings of the Mormon Tabernacle choir singing the Messiah through most of the years of growing up.  Its melodies and classical sound brought peace and serenity to our loud and rambunctious family.   

Naturally, after all this exposure to the Messiah, when a ward we were in announced there would be a stake Messiah sing-along, I jumped at the chance to go participate.  I figured that after all my years of hearing it, I should easily be able to sing along with the songs.  

Ha. Ha.  To my surprise, it was harder than I thought.  Much harder, in fact.  All the weaving in and out of melody motifs made it hard for me to pick out my part.  I was inclined to sing along with every part rather than stick with just one.  But I did learn one thing—that I loved trying to sing along for reals and I wanted to do it more.  The itch had taken hold.

Another few years and our next stake announced a stake choir practicing the Messiah, I jumped at the chance to participate in the choir.  The music was tricky, but it was such a rush to learn my part, to sing those phrases.

For unto us a child is born…

And the glory, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed..

Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God in the highest…

Worthy is the Lamb…

Hallelujah!

But even more than the pleasure of singing those songs in a choir was the blessing of having the music loop through my head outside of practices.  It really made the Christmas season more beautiful and meaningful in the middle of all the hurry and hustle of holiday preparations. 

The member of the church who organized those Messiah choirs must have gotten a lot of positive feedback from everyone because he continued to organize Messiah choir performances at Christmas a number of years afterward, until he passed away unexpectedly.  (Brother Marshall, we miss you!)  Each year I participated as long as we remained in that stake. 

When BYU put out a documentary about the story of Handel’s Messiah I very much enjoyed it.

For a few years, however, I haven’t had a Messiah choir to be in, so this year I decided to take up the challenge of learning to play the Messiah accompaniment on the piano.  And once again, I am reveling in the blessing of having the music loop through my mind, reminding me of the Savior and His birth and mission and ultimate triumph.  During Thanksgiving I played the Hallelujah chorus (fluidly, yet still rather badly) for some of my siblings to sing along.  I will probably take the music with me for Christmas to play for my whole family to see if they want to try bashing through it a bit.  Maybe I can make it a family tradition.

One of the Messiah's wonderful features is how it is composed entirely of quoted scripture. This means that I can be reading in the scriptures and run across words that were written into the Messiah and immediately have its sacred music come to mind. Super-awesome.

Another thing I love about it is that in so many instances, the music was written to compliment the message of its text. The music accompaniment that sharply punctuates "Surely he hath borne our griefs" feels as though it is the falling lash or the beating that Christ received in connection with his trial and condemnation. There is the distinct crash and tinkle of broken pottery in "Thou shalt break them," and when when we are told that "Every valley shall be exalted," the music soars up an octave on "exalted."  And let's not forget the way the melody motif wanders and scatters seemingly in all directions when "All we like sheep have gone astray." 

What about you? Do you have a personal connection to Handel’s Messiah?  If you don't, try playing it during this Christmas season and see if it doesn't bring more of the Christmas Spirit into your life.

The New Song Sung Before the Throne

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2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:

3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. (Revelation 14:2-3)

That metaphor of the new song is an intriguing one.  Just think, a song that no one could learn but a certain group of people—the redeemed.

What could the Lord be trying to teach John (and us) with that idea of a new song?

When I was primary chorister and I had to learn a new song to teach the kids, I had to listen to it over and over to learn it.  Because I have piano-playing skills, I would play it on the piano and sing along with it over and over to learn it.  I had to follow the notes and play it right.  It took a lot of practice to memorize it.

I think the idea of a song helps communicate that the redeemed had a message to share with everyone, and just like a song has both words and music, the message a redeemed person has to share has both content and profound spiritual power attached to it.   The spiritual power is compared to music, it’s something that can’t be expressed with just words.

Learning the new song absolutely requires obedience.  If a note is different, it is not the new song any more.  So we see that no one can learn the song except the redeemed who are determined to be obedient.  So the song could also be interpreted as the way of life of the redeemed.

Learning the song takes practice, just like living the life of a Saint takes practice.  You learn to put the notes in the right order and how long to stay on each one, just like living as a Saint requires you to live your life in order and to do the appropriate things at the right time for the appropriate length of time to get the spiritual benefit.

I like that these verses imply that all the redeemed are singing this new song together.  I get a sense of unity and joy, rather than monotony; a sense of community rather than loneliness.

I like that they sing the song before the throne and the four beasts and elders; it gives the impression that the redeemed are performing for God and for the pleasure of heaven’s inhabitants.  They know who their real audience is and they play to that audience, rather than to the world.

I’ll just leave you with Alma’s words that have a neat connection to this idea of a new song:

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? (Alma 5:26, emphasis added)

“I Often Go Walking”: the rest of the story

Many mothers in the church have been serenaded on Mother’s Day over the years by their cherubs lisping the words from “I Often Go Walking.”

I often go walking in meadows of clover,

And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue.

I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over;

Dear mother, all flowers remind me of you.

O mother, I give you my love with each flower

To give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through;

For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking,

I learn how to love them, dear mother, from you.

It might be easy to think that this song is antiquated and idealized almost to the point of saccharine; after all, how many children often go walking in meadows of clover these days? (You can tell I'm isolated from farmland these days, huh.)

It was when I discovered the back story to this song that I began to see how relevant it still is to us today, and how much of an inspiration it can be.

The song was written by Phyllis Luch. “Phyllis Luch says of her inspiration for the words: ‘My mother was mentally ill….Nearly the only time she was at peace was in the fields and meadows….She knew the names of wildflowers, which as a child I thought was amazing.’” (Our Children’s Songs: Teaching the Gospel with the Children’s Songbook, p98)

When I first read that, I thought there was some bitter irony that a song that sounds so idealized was written for a mother with such difficulties. Was Phylis trying to gloss over the hard times and make some sort of pretty picture to cling to and fantasize about?

No. When I read more carefully, I noticed that Phyllis was expressing how she had learned to love blossoms, meadows, and walking because her mother loved those things. It is a message that any mother, no matter what kind of difficulty they may labor under to nurture and train their children, still has the ability to pass on to her child an appreciation for the things that she loves.

It is comforting to know that Phyllis knew that her mother was mentally ill. I don’t know whether she knew it while as a child or whether she learned it as an adult, but she knew it. And she chose to give tribute to her mother for something good she learned from her, rather than dwelling on the difficulties and pain.

So, here’s to ALL MOTHERS! Here’s to the mothers that press on through feelings of inadequacy. Here’s to the sacrifice and selflessness and especially the inner struggle that leads to it. Here’s to the courage and the dignity in spite of the sneers of the world. Here’s to the hours of changing diapers and spooning baby food into little mouths. Here’s to the chauffeuring and the homework help. Here’s to putting your foot down and taking a stand. Here’s to the perseverance to repeat the same righteous teachings as many times as is needed before it finally sinks in. Here’s to the pleading prayers, the deferred me-time, the falling into bed exhausted at the end of the day.

Mothers, I salute you!

Focus on a Hymn: “In Our Lovely Deseret”

(I think I’m on some kind of music kick here..)

The hymn “In Our Lovely Deseret” is a great piece of music because of its vigor and energy, but its lyrics seem to leave something to be desired to make it of greater use to the church. As the lyrics are now, they alternate between a proud parent’s bragfest about their children (i.e., “They are generous and brave” and the entirety of verse 2) and an impersonal finger-wagging parental lecture (i.e., “They must not forget to pray” and verses 3 and 4).

What makes it seem impersonal is the phrasing “They should be instructed young” and “They must not forget to pray” and “They must listen and obey,” which makes it seem as if the children are not actually in the room and the speaker is moralizing in a detached way. Yet, changing it to “you should be instructed young” creates a very overbearing effect. As most teachers know, top-down teaching can’t hold a candle to bottom-up interest and desire to learn, which is why “Teach Me to Walk in the Light” and “I Am a Child of God” with its chorus of “Lead me, guide me, walk beside me…” are so much more effective as hymns in comparison.

In the current lyrics’ favor, it may be the only hymn that directly mentions the Word of Wisdom and the promised blessings that come of keeping it. It also directly mentions teaching children social skills and self-control.

The hymn’s chorus amounts to an ecstatic exclamation of how nice it is to hear children singing “in innocence and love.” I must note that about the only time this phenomenon actually occurs is at church when walking past the primary room during singing time or sitting through the primary presentation program, or Mother’s Day Sunday, or Father’s Day Sunday primary musical numbers. This narrows down to a sliver the applicable and fitting situations when the chorus can be sung and feel right.

It could be argued that “In Our Lovely Deseret” is highly applicable in Relief Society lessons and priesthood lessons when the theme is “teaching families,” but the chorus implies that the singers can hear the children singing somewhere. Yet singers really can’t hear primary children singing elsewhere when they are singing themselves. Moreover, Relief Societies and priesthood quorums can’t see the children’s “cheerful faces” when the children are elsewhere, so there would be a fundamental logical contradiction between the verses and the chorus in this type of situation.

Perhaps these are all minor quibbles, but when these kinds of problems add up, they add unwanted absurdity to the hymn’s effect. This is why I felt that the lyrics needed to be redone.

But how?

In studying the hymn, I felt that the first line “In our lovely Deseret, Where the Saints of God have met” seemed to suggest the beginning of a broad picture of the established kingdom of God and its workings, like a whirlwind tour of the church for visitors. Church leaders give visiting dignitaries tours of church facilities and explain the doctrine behind church programs. I felt “In Our Lovely Deseret” could function the same way for those who don’t get the privilege of such a personal tour. I felt that the song could then effectively invite all to come unto Christ to become part of God’s kingdom.

After a two-day obsessive stretch of composition and revision, the following is my attempt at writing alternate lyrics:

In our lovely Deseret
Where the Saints of God have met
Here the prophets and apostles truly guide.
All the Saints have callings too;
Service isn’t for the few.
We are diligently lengthening our stride.

Chorus:
Up, up, upward we are striving,
Building Zion in our day!
We invite you: come to Christ,
Gain the pearl of great price,
And with us win exaltation in His way.

We give freely to the poor
As the Lord gave us before
We know God would want all human needs supplied.
We accept each godly gift,
For each Saint provides a lift,
As on eagle wings through thund’ring clouds we fly.

All the weak hands are upheld
And anointed sick are healed
As the Lord Himself would do if He were here.
And the ignorant are taught:
Look to God in every thought
For the Holy Ghost will make direction clear.

We invite all to repent
To escape from hell’s torment,
And be born again; in water be baptized.
Then receive the Holy Ghost
And with faith stand at your post
To endure with courage, though the world despise.

In the temple God unites
Man and woman dressed in white
In eternal marriage, ne’er to separate.
For it’s true that only then
Can they gain the highest heav’n
And become like God with power to create.

Every member thus will teach
Everyone within their reach
So that every ear may hear the gospel sound.
Then will Justice have its day
While sweet Mercy holds its sway
Once all meek and humble sheep are gathered ‘round.

Advantages of this version:

• It can quickly acquaint visitors with the church and also remind members of their responsibility.
• The variety of topics covered in the lyrics makes it highly flexible for use in church meetings. The lyrics cover the following: guidance through prophets and apostles, the charitable duty of the saints, spiritual gifts, the need for every person, personal revelation, the first principles of the gospel, eternal marriage and the hope of becoming like God, missionary work, final judgment, and the gathering of Israel.
• The chorus contains a direct appeal to come to Christ and a direct invitation to join the church by obeying the gospel’s first ordinances. (This combination is found in very few other hymns.) Repetition of the chorus will allow the Spirit to work on the singer and listeners multiple times throughout the song to follow the principles laid out in the verses. Also, its meaning is augmented by the different topics treated in each verse.
• The verses communicate the church’s ideals, which give us goals to aim for and which inspire us.
• It is directed at all ages, not just children as in the previous version.

I am not blind to the possible weaknesses of this alternate version. I can think of three right off:

• The wide-ranging subjects in the verses might make it seem fragmented. (This is also what makes it flexible.) In particular, verse five about marriage feels like it doesn’t belong, yet it gives an overview of what happens in temples and why marriage is so important. (What do you think? Should it stay or should it go? And why? Give your best literary reasoning to support your answer.)
• The above version has six verses, which could be excessive. (However, this may help directors choose verses applicable to the theme of the meeting.)
• Its diction is much more pedestrian than the Eliza R. Snow’s. (However, sometimes simplicity is more effective than complexity.)

How would YOU rewrite the hymn lyrics of “In Our Lovely Deseret”?

25 things I’ve learned about playing the organ

Margot at Mormon Mommy Blogs had a great post titled “Confessions of a Ward Organist,” which I totally loved, since that is also one of my callings. So, I’ve decided to expand on her post with my own list.

25 things I’ve learned about playing the organ in church

1. I’ve learned that when sitting at the organ, I have to be careful how I unfold my arms after the prayers.

2. I can only handle so many sudden fly-away pages or minute adjustments to paperweighting hymnals. A personal hymnbook with a spiral binding is the only way to go.

3. Setting the volume pedal takes practice to get it right, so my embarrassment quotient has decreased for hearing “Onward Christian Soldiers” tiptoe like a ballerina and then stomp through the floor with a devastating blitzkrieg before I can arrive at a suitable volume level.

4. Marking the introduction brackets in my hymnbook with highlighter prevents frantic searches for the intro's second half. Most of the time. It also prevents awkward pauses when jumping between introduction sections. Mmmmmost of the time.

5. Introductions can be the roughest part of the hymn with the most missed notes. The last verse is the most smooth. (Yes, I DO practice. Before church.)

6. It’s wise to keep “All Creatures of Our God and King” and “Oh Savior Thou Who Wearest a Crown” in perpetual practice because one week’s practice is usually not enough for such active pedal parts.

7. I’ve learned that congregations love hymns to be played fast, particularly when it is all seven verses of “A Poor Wayfaring Man” or all four verses (which really are the equivalent of eight verses) of “I Believe in Christ.” It’s helpful to learn to play all hymns at least 25% faster than they are rated in the hymnbook.

8. I’ve learned I’d better start “A Poor Wayfaring Man” and “I Believe in Christ” at a pretty good clip because inevitably… it slows down during the last few verses.

9. “The Time is Far Spent” played 200% faster would make a great song for a cartoon.

10. Having a knob that automatically transposes everything up a half-step is TOTALLY AWESOME. Its location on the extreme outside edge of the organ console beyond convenient reach is TOTALLY OBNOXIOUS. Epic design fail, if you ask me.

11. Choir hymn arrangements provide some of the best ideas for neat alternate chord progressions.

12. I’ve learned I can write alternate chord progressions right into my hymnbook, and then when I use them, everyone thinks I’m improvising beautifully. (Shhhh! Don’t tell my ward members about this!)

But..

13. The stake music chairman is not in favor of (and does not sustain) my use of alternate chord progressions during congregational singing, even if I am playing “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”

14. I’ve learned that I don’t read ward chorister’s lips very well when they are trying to communicate what verses they’ve decided to stop at.

15. Similarly, I don’t read the bishop’s lips very well when he is trying to communicate spontaneous hymn changes in the program. (Thankfully, in my current ward, the organ is positioned right behind the bishopric.)

16. I’ve learned that I love 32 foot bass stops.

17. I’ve discovered that some old people will complain to the bishop about the bass levels if their internal organs vibrate too much from the 32 foot bass stop. (“I caused someone heart palpitations?! No way!!”)

18. I’ve learned I really love the bell stop, which sounds like the chapel has suddenly experienced a divine visitation by a massive angelic bell tower.

19. I’ve also learned that the bishop only thinks the bell stop is appropriate for “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” and “Ring Out, Wild Bells.”

20. When I’m trying to learn something new about playing the organ, such as setting the stops manually instead of with pre-sets, the skills I consider already cemented tend to fly out the window in unexpected ways.

21. I’ve also learned that if I make a terrible mistake in setting stops manually, if I then take my hands from the keyboard in dramatically visible shock and then press an appropriate pre-set button, the congregation thinks the mistake was the organ’s fault instead of mine. (Shhhh! Don’t tell my ward!)

22. After playing a hymn, I must immediately set the stops for the next hymn, especially if the next hymn is the sacrament hymn. (Yeah, those trumpets don't work very well with "There is a Green Hill Far Away.")

23. I should never EVER change stops in between verses unless I’m absolutely sure I know what sound is going to result. (I learned this when an impulsive change suddenly made the tenor and bass parts twice as loud as the soprano and alto parts..)

24. I’m still unconvinced that organ shoes are necessary, but I‘ve learned that my feet slide better over the pedals when my nylons don’t have major holes in the toes.

25. And finally, I’ve learned that the Holy Ghost can teach me how improve my organ playing with line-upon-line impressions and ideas of things to try during diligent practice. (I didn’t have to learn everything through painful mistakes.)

Pianos and Repentence

I am a piano player who is fairly proficient. I like to play to entertain myself every so often. It is also an emotional outlet when I’m frustrated or sad or feeling down.

I have a piano that seems to get out of tune about every six months when the seasons change. The temperature change causes the piano innards to expand or contract and a few pins in the pin block start slipping, causing the tension on the strings to loosen. Soon there are a few notes with strings that have slipped down a half step. The musical result is a discordant mush, especially when the notes that have slipped are around the middle registers. Those notes are always being used and they are very important.

In the past I have tried to get by with having the piano tuned every year, but as I said, strings start sliding out of tune right around the six month point and soon I can’t stand to play because it sounds so terrible.

This happened again today. I sat down to play a particular song that particularly required certain notes, two of which had sunk out of tune, and I found it sounded wretched. I tried to compensate by using a different octave, but that didn’t work. I needed those notes. I had to stop. It hurt to listen to the sound being made.

As I sat there looking at the keys with a fair amount of resentment, the Spirit pointed out to me that Heavenly Father feels the same way about us when we have things that are out of tune in our lives and He tries to do something important with us that especially requires those particular characteristics that we have allowed to slip. Other righteous characteristics can’t compensate for the ones that are out of tune, so that particular “song” goes unplayed until we get ourselves back in tune using repentance.

I thought my piano could get by with a tune-up every year, but it looks like I’ll have to tune it up more often, perhaps every six months. In our lives, how often do we get a repentance tune-up? Annually? Semi-annually? Weekly? Wouldn’t it be best if it were daily?

Tomorrow I’m substitute-teaching the CTR 8 class on the lesson of forgiving one another. I realized that I had a lot of forgiving to do, even though I did a fabulous job of hiding the resentment from myself. I control my anger pretty well (would those qualify as famous last words?) and it is usually on the level of irritation which I can squelch without too much hoo-ha, so I thought I was okay, but today I realized that even though I might not even say anything, and even though I try to forget about it, I still have to forgive. The wounds have to be healed.

What in your life is out of tune? I’m not asking you to tell me about it. Just think about it and do some praying about it. What are you allowing to slide in your life that you need to work on?

Image: Piano Tuning in Clay West Virgina, http://gregsgoodsandservices.com/piano%20tuning.htm

Oh, What Songs of the Heart?

Today I was reading a familiar verse and I saw it a different way.

For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads. (Doctrine & Covenants 25:12)

One of the things that hit me differently was that phrase “song of the heart”. Often I have had a vague idea that this means something about a song going through the mind. But in singing hymns, this interpretation doesn’t help us much; rather, it is almost like permission not to sing. (“I don’t have to sing; the Lord knows I have a song in my heart.”)

This time when I read “song of the heart”, my mind somehow turned it into “hearty song”, which gives it a much more helpful meaning for hymn singing in church. The Lord delights in hearty songs and hearty singing, singing with gusto and enthusiasm. None of this half-mouthed, lily-livered whispering business.

The next thing that struck me is that phrase “the song of the righteous is a prayer”. I’ve known some good people to sing some songs that haven’t been very…um… righteous. (And would the Lord consider it a prayer if I sang the song “I’m a Juvenile Delinquent” that goes to the tune of “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy”? I don’t think so.) Something more is needed to understand this.

This time the phrase “song of the righteous” seemed to transform itself in my mind into “righteous song”. This makes perfect sense in the context of the sentence. The righteous song is certainly a prayer to God, expressing sentiments of faith, a bright hope for the future, praise of God’s holy character and power, desires for repentance, appreciation for Christ’s redemptive sufferings, teaching correct principles, conveying histories of faithful Saints, and so on. Surely these are the kinds of songs that a righteous person would be disposed to sing.

And we’re promised that those prayers in righteous songs will be answered with blessings. Of course they would be!

This is the reason that we always sing hymns in our church meetings. Sing out!

Some impressions from general conference (Oct 2008)

One thing I very much love about watching general conference is the singing of the choir. Their delivery is extraordinarily different from many choirs I hear that sing sacred music, and because it is different I find myself listening in a different way.

One way their delivery is different is that it is slower. In general I dislike slowness in sacred music because it can make it take forever, but for some reason when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings slowly I find myself becoming more and more quiet and calm. I notice that I sit completely still, almost not daring to breathe and my body seems to become one big ear, listening and feeling the music and the message of the words. It is at this time that I realize how hymns, the song of the heart, have become a prayer to the Lord, because the thoughtfulness and sheer reverence are the same required for sincere prayer.

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The first talk about food, clothing, shelter, and fuel was very good. I think the bit about keeping the Word of Wisdom is probably very much needed as there are so many people that are having troubles with their health. I am sure that living the law of what is best to eat would go a long way toward lightening the burden of sickness in the church. I have tried it myself and I have found it to keep me more healthy than just avoiding the things that it says to avoid. I challenge everyone to review the Word of Wisdom in Doctrine and Covenants 89 and to test it.

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I appreciated Dallen H. Oaks’ talk about sacrament meeting, especially when he mentioned the function of music at church. I am the organist for our ward and one of the things I have experimented with is making different arrangements of chord progressions for the hymns. I like to play them for preludes and postludes…and sometimes if I feel inspired, I use them for congregational hymns’ last verses to give particular emphasis. It was good to be reminded that the music is for worship, not performance. This gives me a good measuring stick for my motives for whatever I do. Am I trying to add to atmosphere of worship, or am I trying to show off my meager talents?

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Gerald Causee brought up these good points about studying the scriptures:

• What would a child understand from reading the story of Christ being
• baptized?
• Don’t reject the principle of simplicity and clarity
• Don’t seek for things we can’t understand, because then God will give it and we will make mistakes.

This idea of reading the scriptures as a child would is fascinating to me. This was a lovely wakeup call for me, because I have been reading the scriptures too much lately with the sole intent of finding things I don’t understand, in order to study them. On one hand, it is good to apply myself to understanding, but when my study is completely given up to searching out the puzzling and incongruous and unclear, that is when my study has gone awry.

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I was struck by Elder Quentin L. Cook’s story of how President Monson asked people to celebrate his birthday. “Do something good to help someone who is having a hard time.” What could be more Christ-like than that request? It shows what he really wants—people to help others in need.

If everyone in the church did one good deed each day, that would be more than 13 million good deeds! (For that matter, what if everyone in the world made sure to do something kind each day? 6 billion kindnesses!)

What if everyone in the church shared something about the gospel each day? That would be more than 13 million people taught!

What if everyone in the church above the age of 12 became worthy of a temple recommend and then went to the temple at least once a month? How many new temples would we need?

In 2006 I once calculated in the roundest of numbers that it would take 35 youth and 5200 adults to fill the Mesa Temple if that amount were to go every day. Our stake has over 6000 people in it. I can’t quite remember the assumptions I used for my calculations, so it may need to be recalculated, but the thing I learned from the exercise was that each temple has a finite volume that can be filled and if we do the math we will see what it takes to fill the nearest temple’s capacity. It may be easier than we think and take fewer people than we think. When we fill the temple, the Lord gives us more of them and puts them closer so that we can go more often.

(Image credit - Andrew Ainsworth, Mormon Matters blog, http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mormonmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/conference-organ.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mormonmatters.org/2008/04/06/general-conference-open-thread-sunday-sessions/&h=375&w=500&sz=135&hl=en&start=3&sig2=I4FkhAnKyel2piABIj6jnw&usg=__ParL_oGHiFlgWhCBzdorMyVID-0=&tbnid=X7z8snLuiIlYaM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&ei=YErpSO21HZ3MggKL9JirCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgeneral%2Bconference%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DG)