CAROLE OBRECHT : THE BACKSTORY
In the middle of the night…that’s where I first heard a melody singing in my mind…
In February 2011, it was there night after night. I would hear it and then go back to sleep, but when I awoke in the morning, I could not remember how it went. That’s when I decided somehow to retain the lovely hymn I had heard.
This was very new to me at age 75. I had a computer and somewhere in a box was a microphone that had come with it. It had a feature that allowed someone to record my voice and save it. I decided that the next time I heard the melody, I would get out of bed and go to the computer and try singing it into the microphone. That way, I’d have it when I arose in the morning.
That’s how it began. I am a pretty fast typist, and I would listen to what I sang in the middle of the night and, at the same time, I typed what I heard. A message was with rhyme and beat, and I would begin putting what I heard in stanzas and chorus to create a song of praise for God. After working on this, I’d give it a title, so I began saving melodies that came to me with words with my microphone. I had no idea at all what to do with these.
I had only a limited education with music as a child. I had about five years of piano lessons and was encouraged by my mother who would play scales for me, guiding me through practicing singing the higher and higher keys on the piano (she had 9 years of piano and 3 years of organ plus voice lessons as a young girl). So music wasn’t exactly foreign to my mind.
But I’d find myself, as I began my daily breakfast, etc., hearing different melodies with words that came to me. It was a blessing to capture these with my microphone and rearrange the words in praise and honor to the Most High God and His Son Jesus Christ.
After singing several hymns into my computer, I went the next step. I experimented with making CDs of these hymns. I shared these with a few of my friends at church and received positive comments when they played them at home.
After my daughter found what I had been doing with music, she told me I should copyright them because they belonged to me, and that would be a wise thing to do. That seemed like the right thing to do, so I sent a group of hymns to Washington, D.C.
After my daughter found what I had been doing with music, she told me I should copyright them because they belonged to me, and that would be a wise thing to do. That seemed the right thing to do, and I would send a group of hymns to Washington, D.C. to do that.
I was curious to find information on what steps to take next, so I went to the internet to find other people who have written religious hymns.
Through my searches I found the well-known writer, Dr. Jack Boyd. He is a retired
Professor Emeritus of Abilene Christian University. I decided to contact him and I sent him a few of my hymns, asking him to give me his evaluation. To my surprise, he responded with a two-page letter. With high praises he encouraged me to seek out a professional composer and arranger. I was grateful to receive his letter of recommendation.
So as I continued to write, my good friend from church, Sandra Holland, who had attended Harding College in Searcy Arkansas, had friends who were quite knowledgeable in the music field. She offered to send inquiries out to see if anyone might be interested in helping me with these hymns.
The result was that Dr. Brian Casey began working with my inspirational melodies by way of me emailing my singing and I included copies of the lyrics that went with them. It felt like I would send him my pieces of clay, and he would form them, bringing life to them for me. It was a wonderful blessing that brought me great joy.
Dr Casey has been interpreting and advising me with possible changes. Since 2013, he has been doing a fantastic job of hearing my singing from emails I’ve sent and smoothing out some of my errors in beat and emphasis, etc. He first sent me a draft and that’s where I decided if I liked the wording I used, or whether It needed improving the message for the singer to enjoy. He is a very patient man, and knows I lack a lot of music factors, but he has now brought over 400 hymns to life, and at this writing there are 100+ more to come.
My goal throughout these past years is to glorify the Holy Savior, the Christ who gave His life for all men. I have not been able to find the words to thank God for these melodies, but I try by sharing with others.
Then suddenly, in November 2010 I was taken to the Emergency Room for pain in my back. When I was asked how I would describe my pain on a scale of 1-10, I told the doctor the pain was a 15! The last thing I remember was calling on Jesus over and over to help me. They put on morphine for several days to control the pain.
It turned out that I had a staph infection in my neck and upper back. It was so bad that I learned later that my children were told I was not going to beat that illness and I had about two weeks to live. They were preparing to put me in a hospice setting immediately, but with prayers lifted up for me by my loved ones in the Bellevue Church of Christ (Nebraska) and many others around the world, I surprisingly became known as a miracle patient. I was tested again to be sure that the first-hand diagnoses had been correct (which they were), but I began to improve. I was in the hospital 43 days and came home to continue on antibiotics for a few more weeks.
Carole Obrecht