Church in the basement

I’m writing on Sunday afternoon. We have now had our first Eucharist in the basement. I think things went pretty well. Unfortunately I messed up the gathering chant. I asked people to sing the last entire phrase over and over. This doesn’t work since the canon is at four beats.

Instead we need end by repeating on the two words “adoring bow.” Ah well. Best laid plans of mice and men.

The choir did great. The strings sounded good. However my violinist (who is volunteering her time) asked if there was any way she could skip next Sunday and attend a class she is interested in at her own church. What could I say? No, you must skip your church stuff to do ours for no pay? So next week I won’t have a violin. But I’m not worried about that right now. I will give it some thought tomorrow or the next day.

marimba and shelf

There are still things in the area where the workmen will begin tomorrow (the marimba, a shelf on wheels). Although Jen has told me that they probably won’t be in the way initially, I am thinking that they might be. The plan is to put up a temporary wall, sealing off the choir area from the church, to keep the dust and mess confined. It would seem to me that this would be one of the first things that needed to be done.

My plan is to continue practicing on the old organ as long as it’s there and I’m not in the way of workers. It’s possible that I won’t be able to do much more practicing on it. We’ll have to see.

in the mood for  frescobaldi

I have been playing a lot of Frescobaldi this week. My cellist and I have been working on pieces he wrote for a solo bass instrument. They are lovely. This inspired me to pull some of his stuff off the web. And I own a volume of his keyboard music. It’s a Kalmus edition. Hundreds of years ago when I was living in Oscoda, Kalmus was bought out by another sheet music company. They offered their entire catalog for sale and half off the list price. This volume of Frescobaldi is one I purchased along with a ton of other stuff. The editions are not great, but I have used the music in church all my working life.

He Helped Topple a Dictator. In New York, He’s Another Face in the Crowd. – The New York Times

This guy is just barely getting by in New York, but he takes time off to go receive medals for his brave work in Chad.

He Fixes the Cracked Spines of Books, Without an Understudy – The New York Times

Another feature telling the story of a person. It’s about a book mender.