the organist muses on his work as he sits in the backyard

I’m sitting in my backyard. The weather is beautiful this morning. There’s a nice breeze and it’s in the seventies.

Busy day yesterday, at least before noon. I set myself tasks to do before we leave. Some were weekly tasks anyway like balance Eileen’s and my checkbook and my Mom’s checkbook, pay bills for both households, grocery shop, bank, stuff like that. I also had to prepare bulletin-ready versions of my Emmaus Fraction Anthem and Holy, Holy. I didn’t revise the Holy, Holy. I just changed the font to match.

I turned in the music for the Sunday after I get back from California. I realized this morning that I had needlessly chosen a prelude. My original plan was to do an instrumental version of my Fraction Anthem so that people in the congregation could hear it a few times before the service. So I won’t need the prelude I chose. Hmmm. It was also a composition of mine based on the tune, Sharpethorne by Erik Routley (link to pdf of this piece). I hope I’m not falling into the trap of doing too much of my own work at my church.

Anyway, I will change this when I get back.

Since the closing hymn on July 15th will be the hoary old Anglican hymn, “O day of peace, sung to Parry’s popular tune, Jerusalem, I thought I would schedule a postlude in that English style.

Not in the mood to learn one of Parry’s pieces I own, I went over to the IMSLP Stanford page and found some fine organ pieces. Two opuses of short organ preludes and postludes (Op. 101 & 102) are collections I will return to. I know I’m a broken record but I am constantly amazed by what is available online.

I also put in for the check for my sub.

Today I have a double funeral for a husband and wife who died within days of each other. There were distressingly young by today’s standards. The husband was 61 I believe and the wife in her late 50s.

I spent some time choosing some soothing and appropriate organ music for the prelude and postlude. This is unusual. Usually I just grab something at the last minute, play what I have ready for the upcoming Sunday or improvise something. Typically I rely on a little classical piano music for the prelude. Today I’m planning to do organ music exclusively. I chose chorale preludes on tunes and other stuff that will hopefully comfort or not distract people in what I’m expecting to be an unusually grief filled ceremony.

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The Nation Summer Reading List | The Nation

Book suggestions from crazy liberals. I bought one as a Kindle book, The Water-man’s Daughter by Emma Ruby-Sachs. Another I put in my cart on Amazon to download on vacation if I think I need another book: So Much Pretty: A Novel by Cara Hoffman.

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Terje Rypdal at Le Poisson Rouge – NYTimes.com

This musician sounded interesting to me. I bookmarked the article to remind myself to Spotify him.

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San Antonio’s Mayor Asks for 1/8¢ Tax to Finance Prekindergartens – NYTimes.com

Radical notion. Taxing to raise money for education.

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Phoenix Area Rattled by Booby-Trapped Flashlights – NYTimes.com

Great. IEDs in the USA.

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Flavor Is the Price of Tomatoes’ Scarlet Hue, Geneticists Say – NYTimes.com

This whole news story is somehow not surprising.

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States Face a Challenge to Meet Health Law’s Deadline – NYTimes.com

It is interesting to watch this battle unfold. Governors who are deliberately not preparing for implementation of the Health Care Bill are taking a huge risk.

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CNN and Fox’s Supreme Court Mistake – NYTimes.com

Fox did not issue an apology. Sooprise sooprise. Fair and Balanced.

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