It’s a beautiful day in Holland Michigan. As I took the garbage to the curb this morning a gentle breeze was blowing. Birds singing. Life is good.

I played my first Gwyneth Walker organ piece at church yesterday. I have mixed feelings about this composer. I find myself only attracted to her instrumental music not her choral work. Also many of her instrumental pieces seem a bit glib in their use of sentimentality. It feels like she is working on being accessible.

I couldn’t find my score to the piano trio I purchased by her. But yesterday after church rummaging around for the umpteenth time I FOUND it in a folder I had marked “PIano trio.”

I came home and started practicing it. On the inside cover was a pretty unfriendly notice.

Something like “Purchasing this music does not give you permission to perform it in public. To do so one must contact ASCAP.”

I went on ASCAP’s web site but there was nothing obvious about getting permission to perform music only solicitations to join the dang thing (ASCAP = American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).

So I went on Gwyneth Walker’s web site and found an email from the subsidiary publisher who publishes this piece and emailed them.

I just checked my email and there was no reply yet. This makes sense since I emailed them on Sunday and it’s early Monday morning.

If there is a charge to perform this fucking piece of music, I am seriously considering NOT doing so and emailing the publisher’s rep and Gwyneth Walker herself complaining.

On the other hand, I might just give up and pay the stupid fee.

I received one comment yesterday about her organ piece. Mostly I noticed while I was playing my heart out on it (I quite like it) that people were in conversation both to  my left in the choir and to my right on the floor in front of the organ. Sigh.

Only one more Sunday of choir. Thank God. I am two clicks past burn out. Poor me.

And it’s a beautiful day.

Episcopal Church Fonts – Progressive Solemnity

Geeky article on fonts.

Migrants in Rome Try to Recover After Ponte Mammolo Camp Is Destroyed – NY

I’m probably just naive but this sort of thing always depresses me.

A Conversation with Victoria Polevá — Music & Literature

Ran across this composer yesterday. Found a pretty cool piece by her on YouTube.

Sent her a “friend” request on Facebooger. She had responded by this morning. I love the interwebs.

With This Many Buskers in Asheville, a Discordant Note Was Inevitable – NYT

I found some of the attitudes in this article off putting. The bit about “less talented buskers” being “little more than panhandlers with musical props” and the one shop owner commenting on whether the smell of performers shouldn’t go further than the sound of the music. She hastily added  she wasn’t speaking of the more professional performers.

that bugs me