Little Is Much

Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

-          Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915.

   I started playing gospel piano in 1974 ... at the ripe old age of twenty-seven.  Those early days (and some of the later days too) were still full of errors and embarrassing mistakes, not necessarily for me alone but also for those I tried to minister to; would you believe it if I told you that the first song I ever played in Church was the familiar secular piece, The Impossible Dream? Today the song is frowned upon and dismissed as ‘New Age’ and ‘secular humanism’.  Why do I somehow get the feeling that, when an idea or concept does not fit into some peoples' particular theological, doctrinal mould, it gets unceremoniously dismissed as ‘New Age’? 

   There was a time when Church organs (not to speak of guitars, drums, saxophones etc.!) and even the very act of singing in Church, were frowned upon as unscriptural and evil ... it’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.  I was sold on gospel piano and playing piano in a Church band thanks to a lady called Emmerentia C., a gifted, accomplished pianist who, when I was a young convert at fourteen, used to charm us with her rendering of Hoffman’s Barcarole from Tales from The Vienna Woods.  Other people in our congregation who inspired me as a teenager were gospel pianists Tollie S. and Dirkie vS., all people from my youth whom I admired and tried to emulate over the years.  The late Lerie Malan from Vanderbijlpark (South Africa), who today has a facsimilee of a ‘Hammond’ organ mounted in stone on his grave, also played a part. 

   As a teenager and young adult very few aspiring pianists of my era were not aware of such popular artists as Floyd Kramer of Last Date fame, Frankie Carlé, George Feyer, Russ Conway (the honky-tonk specialist), Roger Williams, Liberace and Pepe Jaramillo, the famous Mediterranean entertainer.  During the seventies, we went to see Liberace in Johannesburg (South Africa) twice, and, regardless of his so-called ‘orientation’, I nevertheless enjoyed his playing immensely, I think he was a great artist.  During the fifties, in South Africa, the immensely popular piano player Jim Muller (famous for some missing fingers) then was in vogue as the ambitious 'popular piano' pupil’s mentor of choice. 

   The single most influential pianist in my life was the award-winning South African ‘virtuoso’, Ken Higgins. His early training was in classical music but he later branched out to the more popular field.  Gospel pianists who were beginning to become world-renowned were Whitey Gleason and singer-musicians Jimmy Swaggart and Bill Gaither, who, in the meantime, had become a prolific songwriter in his own right, in fact, ‘Songwriter of the Century’ (ASCAP). Dino Kartsonakis by then had long since made his debut as Kathryn Kullman’s official campaign pianist, later to develop a music ministry of his own.

   Nevertheless, if it weren’t for the patience, longsuffering and kind interest of our leadership and my pastor, I would never have made it in this field.  George Beverly Shea, who (incidentally) could play the piano well, echoes this sentiment when he writes of his own growth as a singer: “When I think back to the kindnesses of people who tolerated my early fumblings, I realize how important it is for adults to temper criticism with understanding and patience; otherwise I would have been washed out of the musical field at an early age.” (Shea:31).   This song, Little Is Much, teaches us to never despise small beginnings:

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Little Is Much

(Kittie L.J. Suffield, 1884-1972/Dwight M. Brock)

In the harvest fields now ripened

There’s a work for all to do,

Hark! The voice of God is calling

“To the harvest,” calling you.

Does the place we’re called to labor

Seems so small and little known?

It is great when God is in it

And He’ll not forget His own.

CHORUS:  Little is much when God is in it

Labor not for wealth or fame’

There’s a crown and you can win it

When you go in Jesus’ name.

Piet Stassen

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1. Scribd Publishing Site:  www.scribd.com/PietStassen (ENGLISH & AFRIKAANS)
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Bibliography 

1.  Shea, George Beverly, with Bauer, Fred (1972) Songs That Lift The Heart. Lakeland. 
 2.  SongSelect. Accessed At <https://uk.songselect.com/songs/68216/little-is-much-when-god-is-in-it> [online] 2013.