by Eric Flint
I never before realized how difficult it is to describe someone else so that you can see them. I persevere.
Her mouth is wide, her eyes are brown, and she has the most engaging laughter, which sounds often. Indeed, her sense of humor is lively.
As with many of the Grantvillers, she is a well-educated woman, at a level that would equal a university degree in our time. She has been teaching, but her muse is the theatre.
She is a mature woman-indeed, some years older than myself-and a most gracious woman as well, yet one who is also filled with the wisdom of having lived over fifty years. You need not worry as to her ability to withstand my stubbornness. She is capable of making even me see reason.
We will be married in December here in Magdeburg. I would that you and the girls come to be a part of it, and to stay during the holidays. Afterward, Frau Amber and I are in agreement that Anna Justina and Euphrosine should come to live with us, to make a family. I have been without my daughters for too long. They have grown up without a mother, and with little evidence of a father as well. It is time that they join me, or I should say, us.
Lest you be concerned about the girls, mother, let me assure you that this is as much Frau Amber's desire as it is mine. And they will be well provided for here. There is a school for girls here in Magdeburg, the Duchess Elisabeth Sofie Secondary School for Girls. I will enroll them there, where they will be taught by some of the finest of both the Grantvillers and the Magdeburg teachers, among whom is Frau Marla Linder, who, although she is a woman, is also one of the very finest singers I have ever known.
We do not want to take the girls away from you, mother. Come with them, stay with us. We will provide you with your own rooms, where you can rest as you desire, yet still be involved with Anna Justina and Euphrosine.
It would gladden my heart if you will come.
With all love and respect,
Your humble son.
Heinrich
8 day of October, 1634
Magdeburg
***
To Frau Amber Higham
In Grantville
Dearheart
To know that you are once more safe in Grantville gives me the greatest of reliefs. I thought that my sleep had been broken the previous time you traveled. It was nothing compared to what I felt this time, night after night, until your letter came.
I wake up each morning afeared that it was all a dream, that your agreeing to marry me was but the delusion of a fevered mind. For that reason I keep your letters by my bed, and each morning read them anew until I reach your most recent page, wherein you talk of the wedding plans. My heart is so full, it is as if I were an old wineskin overfilled and about to burst. How can one man's life contain so much joy? How can God have seen his way to bless me so much?
Each day is begrudged its span, that its cycle of light and dark will occupy so much time and thus only slowly draw me nearer to December. Even when my life was in darkest shadow, never did time seem to proceed so slowly.
I know that you must fulfill your commitments in Grantville. I would not want it said that you had broken your agreements. But my rebellious heart is aboil, bubbling, until I sometimes feel that I must shout or scream.
My reputation as a sober, staid man I fear is somewhat tattered. I smile, and whistle, and hum the day long. Frequently I catch Lucas looking at me with the oddest of expressions. The dear boy knows what is happening, but he does perceive that I am not the Schutz he has served for these past years, which does surprise him, and others as well, I must admit.
As we had discussed, the quarters I was allotted in the palace will not suffice for our entire family, so I have undertaken to find others. The palace rooms will remain my work rooms, my studio, where Lucas can reside as well. By the time it is needed, a home will be provided.
Come as soon as you can, my dear.
With all my love.
Heinrich
12 day of October, 1634
Magdeburg
***
To Frau Euphrosine Biegerin verw. Schutz
In Weissenfels
Dearest Mother
Yes, plans for the wedding are proceeding apace. We will say the vows on the fifteenth of December, with the banns posted at the appropriate times before then.
Neither of us desires some grand and elaborate event. At our ages, it would be but foolish. So it will be done in one of the chapels of the Dom, with only a few family and friends in attendance; perhaps thirty or forty in all.
Set your protestations aside, Mother. It is the desire of our hearts that you come to us and live with us. Please do not disappoint us. I have found a townhouse to rent for all of us, in which I think you will be most comfortable.
It pleases me that Anna Justina and Euphrosine are excited about coming. Do not let them become so excited that they neglect their studies or their other responsibilities.
I have made arrangements for you to travel with a group of merchants. They expect to be at your door around the fifth day of December. It is only about one hundred miles from Weissenfels to Magdeburg, so that should allow adequate time to travel and still arrive before the wedding.
It is the prayer of my heart that you will come to love my Amber as much as you did my Magdalena. Although she cannot be the same person, Amber is as much in love with life and with me as Magdalena ever was.
I look forward to your arrival.
With all love,
Your son.
Heinrich
5 day of November, 1634
Magdeburg
***
To Frau Amber Higham
In Grantville
Dearest
The time fast approaches when you will begin your travels here to Magdeburg, to stand at my side. Lucas despairs of holding my attention for any task, as within moments my thoughts return to you. He says that he will be beyond glad when the wedding is concluded and I will once again be able to focus my thoughts on my responsibilities.
I will not say that I am doing nothing. I have begun sketches for new works: a fantasia, in the manner of Vaughan Williams; a passion, which I will base on the Gospel of St. Luke, I believe; and two or three other works. They are but the merest hint of what is to come, yet I find that in all of them is some thread of you, some essence of your light, that makes me smile, and laugh, and at times almost weep. In the future that will now be, rather than the one from which you came, I believe that scholars will look at the corpus of my work and will place their fingers on December, 1634, with the note that here the inspiration of the man Schutz elevated to another plane. I hope that they will note our wedding's date, and realize that the best of me came from you.
Make what haste you can. I await you with singing heart
With all my love.
Heinrich
1 day of December, 1634
Magdeburg
***
Grantville News
Wedding Announcements
Tuesday, December 19, 1634
Higham – Schutz Wedding
Amber Dunn Higham, late of Grantville, was joined in wedlock with Heinrich Schutz, the noted composer, on Friday, December 15, 1634, in Magdeburg. The couple will make their home in Magdeburg, where the groom is employed by the emperor as Kappellmeister of Magdeburg and the bride intends to become active in theatre.
***
A T amp; L TELEGRAPH BEGIN: GVL TO MBRG TO: FRAU EUPHROSINE BIEGERIN VERW SCHUTZ ADDR: SCHUTZHAUS MAGDEBURG FROM: HEINRICH SCHUTZ DATE: 26 DEC 1634 MESSAGE: MOTHER AM IN HEAVEN BUT MUST COME DOWN TO EARTH WE WILL BEGIN RETURN TOMORROW, ARRIVE HOME 30 DEC LOVE TO ALL HEINRICH AND AMBER PS: TELL GIRLS BEHAVE OR NO TREATS FROM GVILLE END
***
To Maestro Girolamo Frescobaldi,
City of Rome
Maestro
I see from your most recent letter that you have removed yourself from Florence and resumed your post as organist at Saint Peter's in Rome. I trust that the relocation was harmonious and the travels were easy.
&n
bsp; I am sorry to appear so delinquent in responding to your letter, but it appears that it spent a great deal of time on the road. You signed the letter on the third of September, yet it was not placed into my hands until the twenty-seventh of November. I have no explanations as to why, of course, only to note that it did.
Unfortunately, I was at that time very occupied by plans for my wedding, which occurred on the fifteenth of December, as well as my involvement in a great musical performance produced for the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus and his daughter, Princess Kristina. With that event having occurred, I can now take the time to respond to your writings in an appropriately respectful manner.
It dismays me, maestro, I must admit, that you so vehemently reject the music to be found in Grantville. I cannot deny your charge that much of the music is dissonant and discordant. Yet note that the world around us is filled with dissonance and discord. It is those qualities that make the moments of consonance and concord to be so prized and appreciated. Certainly, even prior to the appearance of Grantville, my own works had received the occasional accusation of being dissonant. But how else are we, as composers, to create and release tension in our works, to create more than musical pap, if the tools of dissonance and discord are not available to us? Certainly, the giants of the music in Grantville, wherever and whoever they truly were, have much to teach us of this aspect of our art. I think in particular of an Englishman named Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose string music is enough to wring the heart of a statue. God Above knows that he has wrung mine.
I caution you, maestro, to take care of how you express your displeasure with Grantville's music. To accuse it of being the work of the devil treads perilously close to the Manichaean heresy. The Adversary has no creative ability-all the church fathers agree on that. He can only twist and pervert that which is already created. In this one thing we mortals shine above even the angels; in this one thing some spark of the Divine Godhead still seems to linger in us; that we can create music that upon rare occasion would not be out of place before the very throne of God. I have found such in Grantville.
It grieves me, Maestro Girolamo, that my judgment of Grantville and its music is so at odds with yours. But I can trace your hand, and my hand, and the hands of Gabrieli, Monteverdi, and even your student Pachelbel, throughout that music. It was formed from the tools we made, from the seeds that we planted, from the works that we shaped. We have an opportunity to take from it, to learn from it, to stand on the shoulders of the giants who at once came after us and also before us, to write such music as will harmonize with the music of the spheres and even resound before the throne of Heaven; but only if we do not turn our backs on it.
Maestro Carissimi stands with me. We have entered into correspondence with Monteverdi, Melchior Frank, Johann Cruger, Samuel Scheidt, and others. It is our endeavor to bring the music of Grantville to the world.
This is the future of music. On this I take my stand. God help me, I can do no other.
With respect,
Heinrich Schutz
Kappellmeister of Magdeburg
4 day of January, 1635
Magdeburg
Turn Your Radio On, Episode Three
Wood Hughes
Chapter Seven
December 1633, Grantville,
State of Thuringia,
United States of Europe
It never got easier, Dr. Nichols thought as he welcomed John Chalker and his helper Georg Fleitner into his private office. The best way was just to go ahead and give the patient his diagnosis. "Reverend Chalker, it appears you have early stages of a left ventricular myocardial infarction. It's a form of heart failure."
Nichols let the words soak in for a moment, then continued, "I'll try not to go into lecture mode but give you some basic information and tell you how we need to manage it.
"The heart is a pump. That's it. Left-sided heart failure backs up fluid in the lungs. Some of the classic signs are shortness of breath, fatigue, and coughing bouts. The cough may have pinkish tinged fluid in it. So far, yours doesn't, but that's caused by high blood pressure pushing not only fluid but some red blood cells into the air sacks in the lungs. That's what I learned by listening to your lungs and heart, a distinct set of crackles and a murmur.
"We can expect future symptoms to include pooling of fluids in your lower extremities. Lower legs and ankles will start to swell like balloons. This, along with shortness of breath and weight gain due to water retention can come on slowly over an extended period."
Nichols opened the patient folder. "Now, here's what we can do to make sure you're around for a good long time to come. First of all, low salt is essential. Limit your intake of meat. Keep your feet elevated whenever possible and stay off them as much as possible. The heart has to do a lot less work when you're reclining than when you're standing up."
"But what about my sermons?" Chalker asked.
"Reverend Chalker, I've seen you conduct a service," Nichols replied. "You just have to ask yourself is it more important to conduct the sermon or to minister to your congregation? The fewer sermons you give, especially the way you give them, the longer you'll be able to be the head pastor of your flock."
No, it never got easier. But it helped to know that the choice remained in the hands of the patient.
***
"Reverend Fischer! Reverend Fischer!"
Fischer turned to see Phyllis Dobbs hurrying up the trolley aisle toward him. After she sat next to him and caught her breath, she burst out, "It's so wonderful what you and the church are going to do with all that money! When Slater came home last night and told me about it, I remembered this.
Phyllis fumbled through her large canvas grocery bag until she found and pulled out a large, gray paperback book with a black and white photograph of a woman on the front. "I bought this at a high school fund raiser a few years ago. That was back when I was working at the school cafeteria, you know. It's the story of a Pentecostal female preacher who starts her own evangelical ministry. I never did get around to reading it myself. Back up-time I was going to give it to one of my friends in Fairmont who went to the Four Square Church, but I just never did.
"Maybe it might help you." Phyllis thrust the book into Fischer's hands.
The title of his new book was Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson by Daniel Mark Epstein. There was a quote on the back out of a review that said, "With her radio ministry and her theatrical sermons, Sister Aimee ushered in the modern religious age."
Fischer pulled off one mitten and started to thumb through the book. Some pictures of a tall woman and her children, then of what looked to be a great round sanctuary, finally of the same woman on a crowded stage with a microphone.
A female minister? Fischer decided that this was a book he was going to have to find time to read. "Thank you very much, Sister Dobbs. I'll be sure to read this and return it as soon as possible."
"No need in that, Reverend," Phyllis replied, rejecting his offer with a motion of her free hand. "I feel like I owe you for helping Slater find the Lord and saving his hand. I just don't know what we would have done if it weren't for you. He's like a new man!"
"Trust me, Sister, it wasn't me. It was the Holy Spirit who touched your husband's hand and, evidently, his heart."
***
Fischer came back to the book after his talk with Chalker and a considerable amount or prayerful study. It seemed that at every opportunity, the Protestant faith of the future had rewritten the understanding of the present day Church.
"Dieter," Chalker grinned. "You've got to understand that when Martin Luther nailed that poster to the church door, that was just the start!
"All Christians are just men and men make mistakes. Look at Peter. In Matthew 26:74:75, it says, 'Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.'
; "Since God's purpose concerning man is to seek and to save that which is lost, to be worshiped by man, and to build a body of believers in the image of His Son, the priority reason-for-being of the Church is to be a channel of God's purpose to build a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son as laid out in Ephesians 4:11-16 and First Corinthians 12:28 and 14:12."
Chalker paused as he recalled a lesson learned early in his life.
"There's something else you're going to struggle with, Dieter. Sister Aimee's three husbands. But, as you'll see, each one of them was sent to her to help her fulfill God's mission.
"Even in leaving her second husband, she followed God's plan as Jesus said in Luke 12: 51:53, 'Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
Seeing the troubled look on Fischer's face, Chalker smiled. "There's been a lot smarter men that you and me hash out these issues in the next three hundred plus years. Even the Catholics of our time have allowed more women into their church leadership and have found a work around that allows their church members to annul their marriages a lot easier than in this era.
"Anytime you have a hard time reconciling what you've been taught, remember what Jesus said in Mathew 7:20, 'Wherefore by their fruits, ye shall know them.'
"You think of it that way, and you won't go far wrong."
***
What a book it was! The adventures of this woman of faith from that other future read like an up-time adventure novel.