I am busily preparing to get on a plane tomorrow.

On Monday, I began work on a setting of the new Roman Catholic English version of the Gloria.

My composer group that I meet with in Grand Rapids decided this would be our next assignment. Not necessarily the Gloria  but some new text.

The Catholic music group, The National Pastoral Musicians organization, is sponsoring a contest for new settings. One of our members is planning to enter this contest. We thought it might be fun for all of us if we all did some settings.

I am very disinterested in the Roman Catholic church right now. I think it’s been very good to me in providing me a livelihood for most of my kids’ childhoods. But now it has changed so much and I have changed. No longer a feasible match.

I decided it might be fun to do a Gloria setting in the style of Arvo Part. This I have completed. Since the silly text is copyrighted, I think I will follow the practice of MP3 blogs and post my setting temporarily. So for the curious here are links to my final rough draft: pdf link finale doc link. I think there will be some changes in it before I show it to my composer group, but nothing significant.

This setting is entirely not practical on many levels. It violates my usual goal of congregaional participation. And it is based entirely on the technique of another composer. It’s actually kind of an compositional study to see if I could work out a piece in Part’s style.

Composing this piece has made me want to dig a bit deeper into Part’s music. This I am doing.

I had a list of stuff to do yesterday which I accomplished. I have another list of stuff to do today which include get subaru fan belt fixed, straighten choir area in church, take Mom to lunch with Sarah, take Mom to Kohls, get more cash for Mom from her bank, email mp3s to choir, bring plants in from outside for Eileen, clean kitchen, do laundry….

I still can’t get the vacation vibe going. If you’ve read this far, I should tell you that  my daughter Elizabeth says I will have limited access to the internet, so I figure this blog will be static for about a week.

Yesterday I got up early and read in choral conducting technique books as I treadmilled preparing for my day at church. Having one-stop-shopping (choir rehearsal then service then rehearsal—all on Sunday morning) seems to be working. It has brought two new members and seems to be a time that most of the choristers can make.

It requires me to take a deep breath and plunge in for the day.

I also meet with instrumentalists for last-minute rehearsal of music (hymns) I have asked them to learn.

Yesterday I performed  a prelude and postlude by Krebs (mentioned in previous posts), so that was also on my mind.

Somehow all of this seems to push me farther away from feeling connected to this job. Not sure how it’s all working in my head, but I mentioned it to the boss in our meeting last Thursday. It’s probably just a mild case of burn out or old age.

Eileen and I get on a plane in Grand Rapids on Thursday to fly to New York to visit with daughter Eliz and quasi-son-in-law Jeremy.

I am hoping I can relax during this time and gain a tad more perspective.

Yesterday while I was slaving away at church, Eileen and Sarah went to the Frederick Meijers Garden Sculpture Park.

They got back in the late afternoon.

My Mom has invited Sarah to lunch today. I have a ton of work to do in preparation for being AWOL for a few days…  compose and submit information for the next two Sunday bulletins.

This evening I have one of two rehearsals this week with the Grand Haven High School pit orchestra. They are learning “Olkahoma.”

I have been escaping into James Joyce’s Ulysses. Yesterday I broke out a hard copy (I have been reading it on my netbook).

Upward! Onward! soon to be AWOL!

From the counter at the bottom of this page, it looks like a few people actually do look at this blog from time to time. I haven’t re-embedded google statistics on this version of my website, so I’m not sure about visits here. But no matter. I use this blog as sort of a public daily journal where I can throw out ideas and share music. I do love the tubes of the internets.

This morning I was reading an article on James Joyce (“James Joyce for Ordinary Folks? by Steven Kellman“) when I got the urge to peruse the pages of Ulysses. Unfortunately I was on my treadmill. But fortunately I was on the internet. So I went over to Ebooks and quickly downloaded the entire test to my MobiPocket reader. I spent the rest of my time treadmilling and re-reading the first chapter of Ulysses.

When I re-read a book these days I do often wonder about what in the world I could have made of it when I read it the first time. The beginning of Ulysses now seems pretty clear to me, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gotten half the references I seem to be getting this morning when I read it years ago. It’s hard not to think that reading is ebbing. I know so few people who read for edification or even deep pleasure. The article on James Joyce mentioned the fact that even rare copies like one recently sold in London or Hemingway’s copy of Ulysses show little evidence that they have been read.

I know that literacy has always had its share of sham and pretence.  Gore Vidal famously quipping that when he was caught out in reviewing his own book anonymously that by doing so he made sure at least one book reviewer had actually read the book he was reviewing.

Last night I read through several Schubert Impromptus on the piano. This morning I listened to a BBC 3 program which compared recordings of Mahler’s Das Lied von Erde followed by a rendition of Beethoven’s 26th piano sonata (the farewell one) on a fortepiano. All of this stuff is part of my world but I do wonder about being so disconnected from what others seem to be interested in.

My family of origin seemed to tell the story of me as reckless, unpredictable and a bit undependable.

(My late father expressing surprise that my bright wife Eileen did not handle our bills, but screwy Steve the musician did) I seem to see myself a bit more as outsider who is interested in useless but fascinating (at least to me) stuff.

The tubes of the internet do provide much connection for me. So I persist.

Yesterday I discovered the answers to questions I have been thinking about Arvo Part in a book about him I have owned for years. Althought this is ironic, I think I am on schedule with understanding because I have spent some time with his music performing and listening to it. Now is the time for me to dig a bit deeper into it.

I think I resisted Paul Hillier’s system of thinking because it seemed so sterile and possibly not relevant. I quit reading it too soon. He keeps bringing in Part’s own understanding of his work and apologizes for developing nomenclature that is shorthand for Part’s deep feelings about his own music. And when he comes up with a phrase like “What we hear might be described as a single moment spread out in time,” I have to admire the depth of his understanding and use of language to describe something so ineffable as Part’s beautiful music.

Skipped a couple of days of blogging. I guess I’ve been busy.

I spoke with my boss the priest yesterday about giving up my predilection to match choral anthems with the readings. (that’s me on the couch) This seems like a whole lot of effort when in fact my higher goal right now is to keep the choir sounding good via attention to vocal coaching.

The reason this is on my mind is that we are experimenting with one-stop-shopping for choir members: all rehearsals and performances on Sunday morning.

I say we are experimenting but I’m pretty sure there will be no turning back from this adaptation to where people put their choir commitment in their lives.

I had two new members Sunday and one very pissed old member. This is not a bad average.

My boss forgot to underline the bulletin announcement about seasonal choirs. There was so much going that day.  I don’t like adding announcements when there are already so many anyway. I think people quit listening.

Anyway, she is thinking of mentioning it this Sunday.  I don’t think the congregation is at all aware of this option. But communicating to church members is pretty complicated these days because people drift in and out so often. People who think of themselves as members often are not present.

This means rethinking communications strategies and getting more sophisticated about web sites and such.

Which my group doesn’t seem to be into…. so fuck it.

I’m feeling goofy because I am getting sucked into church stuff via trying to do liturgical music well again. Oy. I need less church and more music. Which is my strategy. But I hate to give up cleverly chosen anthems that connect to the readings of the day. But so be it. In the meantime I am working hard on organ music. This Sunday I’m doing two pieces by Krebs.

He was a student of Bach. The silly saying is that Krebs (which is German for “crab”) was the best “crab” in the “brook” (Bach means “brook” in German).

It’s interesting to me that Krebs lived until 1780, which means he was composing at the same time as Mozart and Haydn. And where as his compositions do show the “gallant” influence of the classical period, one can easily see Bach’s influence in his writing. I find Krebs compositions quite lovely and interesting.  I played his oboe/organ fantasy (I think it’s a fantasy) on one of my Master’s recitals.

I’m also working on William Bolcom’s chorale prelude on “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” This little composition is cool but is sort of a motherfucker to learn. I have been working on it most of the summer. The difficulty is two-fold: a pedal part that emulates a good solid Motown bass line (the piece is dedicated to Marvin Gaye) and a bewildering array of complex chords in Eb minor. But it’s coming along.

Also learning Arvo Part’s Mein Weg hat Gipfel und Wellentäler for organ. The title means “My way has its peaks and valleys.”  Here’s a good description from Answers.com:

Composed on commission for the 1989 Organ Festival in Parainen, Finland, Mein Weg hat Gipfel und Wellentäler is one of only a handful of compositions for organ by Arvo Pärt. It takes its inspiration from a poem fromEdmond Jabès Livre des Questions, particularly a line that provides the title: “My path has its peaks and its valleys…” The poem compares the ups and downs of living with the rise and fall of the ocean’s waves, a topic that no doubt resonated closely with the composers deep religious convictions.

I realized I am reading three novels all of which have a female hero. The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson,

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

and The Child Garden by Geoff Ryan.

All three seem to be good reads and right up my alley.

I received the Winterson in the snail mail from the Eastern branch of my family as a birthday gift.

Along with Gluck’s new book of poetry, “A Village Life,” and Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle’s “graphic adaptation” of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of American Empire.”

So lots of good reading ahead of me.

In the meantime I have been doing quite a bit of reading online.  The Wall Street JournalBook Review: ‘Reflections on the Revolution in Europe’ – by Paul Marshal, although reflecting Marshall’s specific understanding of Christianity as a moral system rooted in Christ’s teachings (which is a rather narrow understanding in my opinion), did point me to an excerpt of the book he was reviewing by the same title by Christopher Caldwell which I also read and then interlibrary loaned this morning.

This article and excerpt interest me because they give some background on the current discussion of immigration in Europe. I was especially interested to learn about the Brit Enoch Powell’s early predictions about what would happen if the influx he correctly foresaw would happen.

I found Marshall more narrow than Caldwell but both seem to be speaking from an essentially Western economic chauvinistic point of view.

“The Doers Club” by William KamKwamba and Bryan Mealer is a first person account of using personal ingenuity to upgrade life in Malawi. The article linked is an introduction.

This is his book:

And there was the Guardian article from last Friday about the clash between a Jediist and the Britsh grocery store chain, Tesco. Tesco asked the Jediist to remove his hood but he claimed religious persecution. Very funny. .

Yesterday was interesting. I woke up early and treadmilled and strategized about working with my one-stop-shopping choir.

I had four anthems picked out as possible for yesterday’s service. I had only planned to use two of them at the most. I began working on my SAB version of “Humbly I adore thee” but abandoned it. I also worked a bit on the SATB anthem for the day, “Song of the Shepherd Boy” (link to pdf) by J.F. Brown 1989. This was a lovely anthem and I spent quite a bit of personal prep time on it, but abandoned it because I didn’t have enough men to do it. Instead I switched to a charming little version of “If thou but suffer God to guide thee” which I had adapted and transposed from Zipp’s version of this piece in the SAB Chorale Book. I changed the words to the words that were in the Hymnal 1982 and added two stanzas found in the Lutheran Book of Worship but not in the Hymnal 1982.

I think it was  a bit confusing to the choir that I switched strategies in mid-stream. I tried to explain but it’s a lot coming at choristers for them to get everything I am saying.

We spent the rest of the pre-game learning this anthem as thoroughly and musically as possible.

The performance in the service sounded pretty good to me.  I had left space in the worship at communion for a second choral anthem (The SATB choice would have been O Taste and See by Vaughan Williams, the SAB choice was my version of “Humbly I adore thee” mentioned above).  But we only really had time to prepare the offertory anthem (If Thou but suffer God to guide thee), so instead I stuck in a Bach ornamented chorale prelude that most organists can play at the drop of a hat: “O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sunde gross” BWV 622.

I momentarily considered playing a third Buxtehude organ piece (the prelude and postlude were by him) but since I have had some parishioners complaining that I don’t use enough “traditional/heritage” music (whatever that is) I thought I would do something more recognizable like the Bach.

Besides it is beautiful music and I love playing ornamented chorales like this.

I played this while the choristers took communion and then had my talented volunteer guitar player lead the congregation in “Do Lord, do remember me” while I went up for communion.

At the post game rehearsal I had enough men to rehearse SATB anthems. I began both pre and post game with vocal production exercises and emphasized that beautiful choral sound was my biggest concern.

I managed to help the choir make a decent choral sound both in service and in the rehearsals. I am thinking of abandoning my previous insistence on having the anthem closely related to the readings (like the Brown linked above was) and look for more generally related pieces that contribute art to the service.

After the post game rehearsal I snuck into the last hour of the mission statement/planning meeting. By the end, I had had enough church for one day but felt like I had managed myself pretty well on my first one stop shopping Sunday.  It does make a long day and of course some singers are not happy about that. I made an extra effort to cheer lead and support people emotionally.

That’s just about all I can do.

Still processing the fact that a publisher actually looked at my web site and noticed I was using a copyrighted tune in a composition and took action.

Being a “worm’s eye view” musician means persisting with what you love despite tons of discouragement and more usually being ignored.

Last Saturday after exhausting myself playing 21st century cocktail music, I had to hang around until I could catch the MCs eye, introduce myself and ask if she had a check for me. Of course she didn’t. She promised she would get one for me and went away. I was stuck in the hall with the bridal party and the o so smooth looking dj and felt entirely out of place. I snuck back down to where the piano had been hoping she would find me. When she did, she confessed that no one knew how much to make a check out for and how much was it again?

I have been battling with my choir over the notion that I would prefer people not to skip rehearsals and then come and sing at the performance. I keep pointing out that it’s just my opinion, but people hear it like I’m insisting on having my way.  Plus now all bets are off because we have abandoned the week night rehearsal. This Sunday is our first Sunday morning one stop shopping pregame, service and postgame rehearsal.

I have been struggling to come up with material for this interim time. I have chosen SATB anthems for about six weeks. But it looks like I don’t really have a quorum for SATB so I have been trying to find music that will both motivate and satisfy my dwindling crew.

I spent several hours yesterday working an SAB harmonization of “Humbly I adore thee.” I’m pretty satisfied with it now. I have a meeting with some other composers today in Grand Rapids and am trying to build up my courage to take it with me to show them.

They are all Catholics and will probably find the Episcopalian version of Adoro Te a bit strange.

Haven’t really had much response to the letter I wrote and posted a few blogs back about church music. I suspect that my brother and my brother’s musician probably read it all the way through. My brother’s musician, (Hi Davd!) emailed me a response which was refreshing.

I also copied it to my staff and have had no substantive response. My boss noticed I had emailed it and said so.

From the  worm’s-eye-view, it’s kind of odd to perceive yourself as content oriented and at the same time suspect that you are missing the boat with how people see life: more if something seems a certain way, it is…. Like if you look like a street person (ahem), you are completely ignorant of what real musicians (who look nice) know and do with music. Poor me, eh?

I find it confusing when people (radio announcers, tv people, newspaper writers) use odd movie metaphors when discussing real life.

I keep thinking of the story of someone’s gramma when tv was new who kept thinking that what was happening on tv was real no matter what. Sort of ducking when trains come at her on the screen kind of thing.

We laugh about that, but it seems to have been more true than we knew. Our reptilian brain responds to image at a gut level and god help the rest of your reasoning in balancing it off.

I know that my life is good and I enjoy making music and being with the people I love. It seems so disconnected from how others experience life.

I’m counting the ways
the ways we went wrong
troubles today
can’t be healed by a song
for some reaons I
sing
anyway

from my song, “So Many People” no copyright, no trademark, just a worm’s eye view

Micheal Moore (not the movie maker, but the Customer Care Permissions Adminstrator at Augsburg Fortress) just emailed me and pointed out that I was distributing an organ piece based on a hymn tune for which they own the copyright. He politely asked if I had permission or  if I wanted to obtain permission to use it.

He said it was okay if I wrote a piece and even performed it assuming I was doing it not-for-profit. I wonder, is it not for profit if I perform it at the church where I get paid to play? Anyway, fuck the duck. I just removed it. It wasn’t that good a piece. Nor is that great a tune. Whippy skippy. I can make another piece if I need one. One not based on a hymn tune that someone “owns.”

It’s ironic that this tunes begins exactly like (it probably was a compositional reference) the first five notes of  the German chorale “Aus Tiefer Not” scattered throughout this entry.  I wonder if good old Marty Luther sold his birthright, I mean copyright to some publisher as well.

I find the whole for-profit copyright thing pretty depressing.

I spent the morning arranging Hymn 314 “Humbly I adore thee” for SAB choir.

I’m probably in violation of copyright on the translation on that. In fact, as I understand it, I figure copyright laws are so strict it’s pretty impossible not to violate them sometime. It was never my intention to “steal” anything but apparently that’s how it seems to the people who “own” this series of notes called a hymn tune. As I understand it, photocopying music for page turns is also against the law.  God help me on that one.

The whole thing makes me realize that I’m just living in a different world from so many people.  For me, music is something you do, not something you own. And if you want to sell something, the last thing in the world you should do is shut down people publicizing and using your stuff.  But of course there’s always the possibility they will make 50 P from your product and not report it to you. I’ll probably think twice before I even use this hymn legally in worship again. Also, you can bet your bippy I’ll won’t be buying music or recommending music from Augsburg Fortress real soon.

There’s so much wonderful music out there. And what’s missing can easily be composed.  At least that how it seems to me.  Admittedly I seem to be in a different universe. The one where beauty’s not for sale but for listening, looking, reading, thinking, loving and making.

It’s been a bit of a marathon since Sunday.

Drove to Chicago Monday evening to pick up Sarah the daughter at O’Hare International. Tuesday I had to get my Mom to two doctor appointments. In the evening I had a rehearsal with church instrumentalists. Yesterday we ended up in Grand Rapids so my Mom could pick out new glasses at Pearl Vision (Google was wrong. There is no Pearl Vision at the mall in Holland.) I took along work for church and found myself sitting outside Pearl Vision in the mall with anthems spread all over the floor. Also somewhere in there I put an anthem into Finale so I could transpose it down for easier singing.

This morning I got up and worked on the bulletin article for this Sunday. I got stuck on the origin of the African American Spiritual “Do Lord, Remember Me.”

Researching this, I found out that there seems to have been a multi-generational family of black musicians named John Work.

It intrigued me and distracted me from my task. At least two of the men taught at the reknowned Fisk University and were associated with the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

One of them was dismissed at Fisk because he was too interested in “Negro Folk Music.” I would be fascinated to find out more about this musical family.

So yesterday was an interesting day. My violist showed up to play the service and I quickly adapted the Ferguson setting of “We’re Marching to Zion” I had planned for the organ prelude to include her. It improved it I think. I almost always like to add an instrument to the organ if I can in that kind of a piece. It breathes life into it.

The congregational singing was strong yesterday. My boss did a last minute switch on the opening hymn to “Earth and All Stars.” I think the familiarity of this great tune matched with that text really worked. Good call. I kept doing the repeated sections of the verses (“sing to the Lo-ho-ho-ho-ord a new song!”) in octaves without harmony, prepping the group psychologically for dropping out entirely on them on the next to the last stanza. I like to do that sort of thing. It feels like an antiphonal moment between the accompaniment and assembly. Improvised a fancy last stanza accompaniment.

The sequence hymn was “Will you come and follow me?” John Bell’s text is matched with a tune that outshines its purported Barry Manilow (shudder) model and moves through the words much more quickly than the Scottish folk tune (Kelvingrove) I have seen paired with it. The violist joined me on this hymn and was very musical with my stretching of the ends of phrases. This stretching made the congregational singing seem more natural to me.

I got a little wicked on the offertory. I had scheduled “I have decided to follow Jesus.” I had a guitar player and a violist and decided to do this tune more country. So my viola was a fiddle for a song. I let them do the intro without piano. Then when the cong started singing I did my best Charley Pride licks and we had a hootenany moment. Admittedly those are rare in the Anglican worship, heh. I told the other musicians if I nodded my head on the second stanza we would stop and let the cong sing alone. I did and they did. It worked okay. I was disappointed that no one started clapping in rhythm as they sang. I suppose they need to prompted to such outbursts. Heh.

Both of the communion hymns were from the Hymnal 1982. I have had a couple comments that some parishioners are missing traditional/heritage hymns. I’m not sure exactly what this means. It could be they glance up at the hymn board and count the hymns from the “real” hymnal (1982). In which case we came in with three hymns out of six from the Hymnal 1982. I don’t think that’s too bad.

But actually all of the hymnody was far from traditional and heritage based. “Earth and All Stars” is a 20th century tune and text. It originates in the Lutheran practice. “Will you come and follow me?” is from the Scottish Iona community text wise with a tune by a collaboration between an Episcopalian priest and musician (Roger Douglas, rector of St. Philip’s in the Hills, Tucson and his musician John L. Hooker).  “I have decided to follow Jesus” was purportedly penned by a Christian from Northern India named Sadhu Sundar. It is taken from the dreaded (by the traditional/heritage camp) African American Hymnal of the Episcopal Church: Lift Every Voice and Sing II. And to top it off we did it in a quasi country/blue grass style. The other two communion hymns from the 1982 were “Let us break bread together” and “Now the Silence.” The first entered American mainline Christian churchs’ hymnals in the 60s (believe it or not). The second comes from the pen of the talented hymnwriter Jaroslav Vajda and matched to the  tune written for it by Carl Schalk. Both of these men are also Lutherans.

Oddly enough, our closing hymn could have been the most traditional/heritage/historical because it used part of the Cornish melody for “Tomorrow will be my dancing day.” The words come from a Hymnal for Children. I wonder if these words qualify for the adjective both my brother the priest and my parishioner the retired English prof use for some hymns: “Thin theology.”

Anyway. The setting only uses the first half of the carol. I perversely added the rest of it in an interlude on violin and organ. This worked nicely since it only has two stanzas:

1.The church is wherever God’s people are praising,
singing in thanks for joy on this day.
The church is wherever disciples of Jesus
rember his story and walk in his way.

2. The church is wherever God’s people are helping,
caring for neighbors in sickness and need.
The church is wherever God’s people are sharing
the words of the Bible in gift and in deed.

Theologically thin? Certainly simple.

Sorry to regale readers with blow by blow, but this is what I’m thinking about this morning, trying to clear my head for this evening’s drive to O’Hare International to pick up my youngest daughter, Sarah.

After church was our annual kick-off picnic. I worked the crowd after eating a bit (of food not the crowd. Ahem.). Had some good conversations.

Later Eileen and I drove to Muskegon and did a birthday party for her Mom. yesterday was her 85th. Eileen’s Dad died not too long ago and her Mom is still working on getting her equilibrium back. She looked good yesterday and seem to enjoy herself. Her only regret seemed to be not being able to have a beer with her meal in the restaurant due to the meds she is taking.

Mark and David,

My recent conversations with Mark have caused me to seek the roots of my own philosophies and understandings of Church Music as a Pastoral Art. Here are some:

“In the recitative of the cantata (No. 51) for soprano and orchestra, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, Johann Sebastian Bach sings: ‘We praise what God has done for us, Though our feeble lips must mumble of his wonders, Yet simple praise may nonetheless please Him.’ We agree with Bach that our lips are much too feeble to sing to God the praises due Him and that, therefore, even the most artistic music will, before God, never rise above the level of a ‘simple’ song of praise. Heinrich Schutz’s motto from Ecclesiasticus (43:30-32) expresses this idea most appropriately: ‘When ye glorify the Lord, exalt him as much as ye can; for even yet will he far exceed; and when ye exalt him, put forth all your strength and be not weary; for ye can never go far enough.’ Here, too, these words of Holy Writ apply: ‘When you have done all that is commanded you, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” ‘ (Luke 17:10). Unfortunately there are also many people who are of the opinion that these words of the Savior do not apply to artists within the church; they need not exert themselves, and indeed it is even hazardous if they do. God is satisfied with ‘simple’ praise–simple not only in the ears of God but also of man. And then ‘simple’ is taken to be synonymous with ‘modest’ or even ‘mediocre.’ That the tones always ring true is not so important as that the heart is pure through its song of praise. Indeed, the church patriarch, Jerome, even feels impelled to invalidate all artistic standards: in his commentary on Ephesians 5:19, he extols one whom others dub a kakophonos—a miserable singer—as a good singer before God so long as his conduct is good; the servant of Christ should sing in such a manner that not the voice but the words bring forth pleasure (Patrologia Latina, edidit Migne, XXVI, 528). But even if one does not go this far, the opinon is nevertheless widely prevalent that the performance of music in church is principally a matter of the heart, of inward participation, and it is asserted that this inner participation is brought into question if the singer or instrumentalist concentrates on an artistic result.

“Now it cannot be denied that there is a type of virtuoso for whom the worship service or musical vespers is merely a coveted opportunity to display his voice and to whom it is completely immaterial what he sings. Not only is such a virtuoso an abomination to our ears in a place of worship, but he is also unworthy being considered an artist. For only he is an artist who subjects himself completely to his art with mind, body and soul. Therefore one should be cautious of setting the heart against art.”

Oskar Sohngen, “Church Music as Art” (I have a photocopy of the whole essay)

“It is a fundamental goal of the church musician to approach music as an act of theology. It is better to use theological categories than musical ones. To be a liturgical musician is to be a practical theologian. In practical or pastoral theology, we often find power issues permeating our considerations. It is tempting to frame these considerations in terms of leveraging what we think is good and we think isn’t good. But when creating theology it’s better to be aware of what kind of theology we are creating. So I propose a method to do so. One can think of it as a participant-observer approach. Social sciences teach us something here even as we realize we are not doing science. In order to achieve the data we need we can wed performance with anthropology. The ethno musiciologist gathers data and then attempts to make good judgments on it. The current thinking is that the best evaluations and understandings occur from within community.”

Ed Foley, my lecture notes from a 1997 lecture. Foley goes on to mention the idea of lex orandi, lex credendi (the idea that the law of prayer is the law of belief) and quotes the Eucharistic theology Louie Bouyer: “It’s not because we believe that we sacrifice, it’s because we sacrifice we believe in God.” This is a fundamental notion of my understanding of my own belief and how liturgical prayer can work. Foley continues to publish work about liturgical musicology.

I have also been highly influenced by the writer Paul Hoon in his excellent book, “The Integrity of Worship,” which I read right out of grad school. In it, he writes, “In these essays, then, it will become evident that i take the professional theologians with a degree of realism even as I liberally draw from them. I think that some of them—and certain historical theologians and devotees of the liturgical movement in particular—have bypassed some important matters the pastor understands better than they do. In fact if I were to tip the scales one way or another in making a judgement on how we best enter into liturgical truth, it would be in favor of the parish minister.” I think that we (you, Mark, and you, David, and I) are parish ministers.

Hoon actually puts forth some liturgical principles worth considering. It would probably be best if you read him, but here’s a quick synopsis. Under the second in his book called, “The Contribution of Art,” he divides the principles into two groups. Unity and Vitality.

I. Principle of Unity:
includes principles of style
principles of proportion

II. principles of vitality
include principles of truthfulness, movement, rhythm and concreteness.

He takes twenty pages to flesh these out.

In his introduction to the book, “Leading the Church’s Song,” Paul Westermeyer puts forth seven basic suggestions for seeing the forest of church music,not the trees (hey it’s his metaphor). Again it would be better to read his words but here’s the reader’s digest version:

1. Leaders should know as many liturgical and musical styles as possible
2. You and your community can sing far more than any of you individually can imagine
3. We are called to be stewards of the musical resources and idioms God has graced creation with
4. we learn to lead by leading and sing by singing
5. the song of the church is for the long haul
6. the goal is not complexity
7. it is tempting to reduce our choices to stereotypic menus,but we need to resist inaccurate and discriminatory bifurcation

Anyway, there’s an attempt to provoke some thought and maybe start a bit of a conversation around these ideas. Let me know if you are interested in pursuing any of this.

Steve

I finished re-reading Anthony Burgess’s two volume autobiography last night. It was with a small sadness that this brilliant articulate man is no longer around. His widow died recently.

But we do have the books and I’m forty pages into his first work: Time for a Tiger.  I hope someday to get access to his compositions. I’m afraid I won’t like them quite as much as his fiction and essays, but what the heck.

The session with John Canfield the consultant yesterday went okay.

We basically reviewed the working draft of the mission statement and strategic plan the parish team has been working on. I continue to find myself shut down in my relationships with other workers. Probably not that bad a thing but a bit depressing.

Night before last, I dreamt of guitar playing.

I haven’t been playing my guitar so much in the last year or so. In one of the dreams, my wife, Eileen, was the lead singer (this is totally out of character for her) and I was backing her up. First on banjo. But then a string was unraveled and there was no time to put on a new one. We were about to perform my song, “Candle.” So I grabbed my Martin. The upper three strings were badly out of tune. I managed to quickly tune them (this was a dream, remember?). Then I noticed that the lower string was tuned to an open D instead of E. I began tuning it up. That’s the last I remember.

Last night’s dream was unusual because it found me re-assuring my dream daemons instead of them helping me (more the usual case).

The first person was a drummer I was playing with. He wasn’t a very friendly person particularly. He was a bit stout and had grey hair and a fake smile. I began telling him why I enjoyed playing with him, giving him support I knew he needed but was unable to ask for.

The other person was a dance instructor. Someone had been found dead in the small pool that somehow figured into her classes. She was traumatized. She was also oddly hanging upside down.

I was talking with her. I asked her if there was anything I could do for her. She thought for a minute (upside down remember) and then said she needed a hug. So I awkwardly hugged her upside down. Then she said that it didn’t take to do it again. I did. Then I began telling her how much I liked her and respected her work and personal strength. She asked me why I was doing this (i.e. suddenly telling her how I felt about her)? I replied I didn’t know but that it just occurred to me say it to her.

Today is once again filled with church business. I have a 10 Am with a woman who has asked to meet with me to teach me how to address my shortcomings of dealing with people.

I am hoping that my skepticism will be dampened as it was yesteday in the staff meeting. (But I don’t think so).

A worship commission meeting this afternoon. These are often a source of ambush for the music guy. All done with the nicest  smile. Good old church work.

Yesterday I picked out music for the organ for the choir’s first Sunday (at least I think it might be their first Sunday….. we’ll be revisiting all of this on Thursday at their first meeting).  I am planning to play two chorale preludes by Buxtehude. One on Vater unser in its entirety and excerpting his extremely long piece on the Te Deum.  Nice stuff.

I have been working hard on church stuff. This morning my brother called and we had a long conversation about his new musician. I ended up emailing him an article called “Looking at Hymn-tunes: The Objective Factors”  by John Wilson.

Yesterday I bit the bullet and started preparing anthems for my church choir even though it’s not clear what form this group will actually take this year. Several members disagree strongly with my request that they skip services if they miss rehearsals. I am considering dropping the weekly rehearsal. It doesn’t seem fair to me that people opt out of it so much. There’s the little problem of the quorum in a small group. In a group of about ten singers, there is much more impact when one or two people are missing than in a group of twenty or more singers. Not mention silly things like developing a blend.

Anyway I have a two-track strategy ready (three counting dropping the choir altogether for a while…): One track is the usual series of SATB anthems. The second would be instant anthems. These would be clever unison 2-part settings or even hymns.

I have a staff meeting today at which we meet and talk to the consultant our church has hired to help with strategic planning. I am dreading this. My boss is happy with this guy, so I feel like as a team player I should dampen my own misgivings about business theology and stay quiet.

In the meantime, if you are (god forbid) curious about what I’ve been doing, here’s some links and stuff.

FINAL VERSION OF THE ORGAN PIECE I WROTE AND THEN PERFORMED THIS SUNDAY: pdf

FALL CHOIR Schedule of stuff at Grace Episcopal Church, Holland Michigan

week of 9/10 1st choir rehearsal
9/20 – Song of the Shepherd Boy SATB pdf by J.F. Brown 1989
*10/4 Youth Choir only Anthem TBA
10/11 O Vos Omnes SATB Croce pdf or De Victoria setting pdf
*10/18 Youth Choir only Anthem TBA
10/25 I have longed for Thy saving Health by William Byrd pdf
11/1 And Lo, A Great Multitude SATB and organ by Stanford
11/8 Give Alms of Thy Goods by Christopher Tye pdf
11/15 *Ah how weary, ah how fleeting (Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig) BWV 26 pdf J.S.Bach Jenkins arr pdf

Wierd. Suddenly my software would not let me cut and paste a paragraph, so I had to construct the stuff at the top a line at a time. Time to quit.

Ahhhhh. I’ve treadmilled and showered and am feeling relaxed, sipping coffee. Listening to “Play this at my funeral” by “Hello Citizen” CD released yesterday. Click below on their logo to download their free MP3s yourself. I’m only minutes into the first cut, but like it fine so far.

I’m trying not to think too much about what looks like a sub-theme for next week: the theology of business.

Reading twitters is pretty fascinating. I tend to follow people in the music business. I prefer the people themselves but many of them have developed elaborate constructs that don’t even pretend to be people.

Like http://twitter.com/funmusicco which is actually an Australian music Teacher…. or http://twitter.com/ClassicalFocus whose url to their website seems broken.

Twitter seems to highlight the problems of self-promotion versus connecting and sharing stuff. It’s pretty easy to determine when a twitterer is basically only trying to sell you something.

But the other stabs at self-promotion can be sad to read. Only trying to point you to their web site without being clear what it is they are sharing. In fact they are probably not sharing  but selling.

Which brings me back to my quandry of theology of business. This week, my church staff meets with a business consultant. I’m only glad that my boss didn’t hire a church consultant because my experience is that they are even worse than business consultants.

In my decades of church work I have watched how business metaphors have replaced community metaphors inherent in coherent human communities. What I mean by this high falutin’ language is that everyone assumes it’s our goal to raise money and numbers of people in the pew. When in fact, that’s not exactly the goal.

What is the goal? Well that’s where I usually try to get people to start. What goal are implicitly espousing? Is it the goal of the community? Is it the accurate goal? Ah well. Fuck the duck.

This brings me to another troubling email I read this morning. A parishioner has emailed me that my approach to the music program is all wrong (this is something I’m willing to admit for sure) and that with just an hour of my time she will help me with my leadership skills, something she does for a living.

I will meet with this person of course. But I can’t dampen my skeptism. She sounds very much like she’s selling me something before she understands my leadership goals and background.

Praise the lord and pass the stock options. Oh well. This balances off the morale boosting conversation I described in yesterday’s blog with the local violin teacher guy.

Finally I’m most of the way through Krugman’s article in yesterdays NYT Sunday mag: “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” It’s a lay person guide to the theories behind some economic thinking of the last hundred years and of course how it has totally fucked everything up.

What struck me was the division of U.S. economists in Saltwater and Freshwater schools. This seems to economic talk. The Saltwater group are new-Keyesnians. I take this to mean that they are not totally free market believers which is the other group, the Freshwater school. The Freshwater school has dominated public policy for quite a while.

What struck me is Krugman underlying thesis that both of these schools are more related to each other than Keyes’ ideas. It hit me like the Democrats and Republicans. Both parties seem very similar to me and far from doing any coherent problem solving (pace Obama-ites). It’s seemed this way to me for quite a while.  Since I realized Bill Clinton usurped the Republican agenda for Welfare Reform and continued the travesties around the world of U.S. military agression and intervention.

Anyway, I recommend Krugman’s article. I especially like his invocation of Dr. Pangloss from Voltaire’s Candide….. “We live in the best of all possible worlds.”

While I am very proud of Eileen’s recent accomplishments with her new loom, this picture Eileen took of me yesterday modeling her first finished product sums up my recent take on this.

fuck the duck

Instead of blogging this morning, I cleaned the kitchen. Last night I made some good food: BBQ chicken for my carnivore, homemade potato salad, roasted veggies and Jasmine Rice. But I was too lazy to clean up afterwards.

At church this morning, the local college violin teacher chatted me up quite a bit. I admit that this raised my sagging morale a notch. He and I seem to have quite a bit in common in how we look at music even though he has to be ten or more years younger than me.

The closing hymn was the gospel tune, “Sweet Sweet Spirit.” This is one of those tunes where I play gospel piano on and it’s quite showy.

He began by complimenting me on that. I told it was a relief to hear that he wasn’t offended. He looked surprised. I didn’t tell him that some of his colleagues had expressed the idea that sometimes my piano playing is more about itself than the music whatever that means.

Actually I figure that means they think I’m overplaying it when my intention is to play within a certain style. One that I’m not sure my critics know that much about.

Anyway, Mihai (that’s the violin teacher’s name) is apparently not one of them.

After we chatted for twenty minutes or so about Debussy (he’s researching whether Debussy ever put paint to canvas) and Beethoven (Mihai is sure that his last piano sonata op. 111 is full of jazz), he invited me to give a lecture in a cross discpline class at the local college.

As he described the series, I thought it sounded interesting and before he invited me to lead a session, I thought he was going to suggest that I come and sit in on it.

Go figure.

Another parishioner handed me a clipping of this article “Beleagured Bookseller Knows Who’s at Fault” by Michael Kimmelman. It appeared in Thursday’s NYT. It mentions Cecil Court which is where I found an excellent used music shop in the U.K. when I was there this year. Cool beans.

I also went to a bunch of Oxfam used book stores. Oxfam is a U.K. thrift shop organization that gets money from the government. This article is about a bitter used book seller who is sure that Oxfam is driving him out of business.

I went into several of these Oxfam used book stores and enjoyed them as well as more traditional used book stores in England.

Like the Oxfam guy in the article says if they are driving used book stores out of business with their more pedestrian type books then the used book stores are quite precarious business-wise anyway.

I’m up early as usual, but am not treadmilling. Just not in the mood quite yet. I made terrible coffee. When we emptied out my Mom’s apartment, I took her leftover coffee and used it to make coffee. My daughter, Sarah, sent me a link that connected unfiltered coffee with high cholesterol so I thought I would try unfiltered.

I just used up Mom’s old coffee and like a person stuck in a rut, I bought a new can of coffee for the first time in years. I usually buy whole bean and grind it. Sigh. This shit is terrible.

Pulling together tunes for an upcoming wedding reception. The bride and groom were weird about this from the beginning. They wanted to “hear my work.” But they chose not to come to hear me at church or in the coffee shop.

Then I got an impossible list of music they wanted me to play on the piano.. Everything from Frank Sinatra (Frank Sinatra? How do you do that on the piano and make it Sinatra?) to Alicia Keys.

So I have been raiding the local library. The gig is next Saturday. Yesterday I went on MusicNotes.com and downloaded four tunes. Now I have to put all this stuff into sheet protectors in a notebook. I am dreading what kind of piano the country club will have sitting there and am seriously considering taking along my EP just in case it’s not usable.

Next Thursday I’m meeting with my choir for the first time.

We (my boss and I) are announcing that this will be a discussion about the future of this organization. It’s very discouraging how more and more people are planning to miss rehearsals regularly even as the number of singers in this group shrinks.

I had grand dreams again. I even ordered multiple copies of expensive Arvo Part choral music. Out of my own pocket.

Yesterday I ordered two St. James Press emergency anthem books.

Out of pique.

Also out of my own pocket. The church can probably reasonably reimburse me for this one. However there is supposed to be a moratorium on spending due to the obvious financial difficulties of the times.

I think I am finally going to do a “Y’all come” choir restricted to Sunday morning rehearsals. Sigh.

I got on Paperback Swap yesterday and cashed in some of my points. I ordered two volumes of poetry by Louise Gluck and a novel by Chang-Rae Lee (“Aloft”).

It’s past seven AM and I need to be treadmilling.

The last couple of days have been very busy for me.

I re-organized six cabinets of choral music at church. The organization of my church choir is different from the way I have been taught. They keep their anthems in manila folders and arrange them in subjects like general (the biggest), Advent, Xmas,  and so on. I have been meaning to reshuffle them into one big file organized by composer. And that’s what I did.

I have chosen to do this right now because my efforts to get the choir off the ground this fall are not going so good.

Several people have quit. Others have to do other things this year on rehearsal night.

My boss and I are quit flummoxed by the idea that we serve a church community full of skilled musicians few of which choose to contribute to the musical life of the church.

This summer I utilized some of this skill. But I was turned down over and over before I could gather a group of musicians to perform one piece on one Sunday morning.

I am beginning to think that I am part of the problem. I suspect  I’m too eccentric and different from these musicians’ idea of what a good musician is.

Actually this isn’t totally a suspicion. It has been partially confirmed by direct comments and behavior of the local college musicians who are in our chuch community. Oh well.

Instead I have been emphasizing areas where I think I am effective.

Like organizing the choral music, choosing and arranging music, doing good hymnody well and performing literature on the organ, harpsichord and piano.  (Haven’t done so much piano lately but I have in the past). Blah blah blah. Life goes on.

I sat in the garden yesterday waiting for Eileen.

I was sipping a martini and read Louis Glück’s little book of poetry, Ararat.

Poem after poem seemed to hit me. I was in the mood I guess.

Here’s an example:

The Untrustworthy Speaker

Don’t listen to me; my heart’s been broken.
I don’t see anything objectively.

I know myself; I’ve learned to hear like a psychiatrist.
When I speak passionately,
That’s when I’m least to be trusted.

It’s very sad, really: all my life I’ve been praised
For my intelligence, my powers of language, of insight-
In the end they’re wasted-

I never see myself.
Standing on the front steps. Holding my sisters hand.
That’s why I can’t account
For the bruises on her arm where the sleeve ends . . .

In my own mind, I’m invisible: that’s why I’m dangerous.
People like me, who seem selfless.
We’re the cripples, the liars:
We’re the ones who should be factored out
In the interest of truth.

When I’m quiet, that’s when the truth emerges.
A clear sky, the clouds like white fibers.
Underneath, a little gray house. The azaleas
Red and bright pink.

If you want the truth, you have to close yourself
To the older sister, block her out:
When a living thing is hurt like that
In its deepest workings,
All function is altered.

That’s why I’m not to be trusted.
Because a wound to the heart
Is also a wound to the mind.

by Louis Glück

And aptly for this time of year:

Labor Day

It’s a year exactly since my father died.
Last year was hot. At the funeral, people talked about the weather.
How hot it was for September. How unseasonable.

This year, it’s cold.
There’s just us now, the immediate family,
in the flower beds,
shreeds of bronze, of copper.

Out front, my sister’s daughter rides her bicycle
the way she did last year,
up and down the sidewalk. What she wants is
to make time pass.

While to the rest of us
a whole lifetime is nothing.
One day you’re a blond boy with a tooth missing;
the next, an old man gasping for air.
It comes to nothing, really, hardly
a moment on earth.
Not a sentence, but a breath, a caesura.

by Louis Glück

I thought of her because she’s just published a new book of poetry which was reviewed in Sunday’s NYT Book Review (link).

I didn’t blog yesterday. I got up and worked on my Bach cantata arrangement. Eileen was sleeping in. I began moving stuff around in the kitchen to prepare for thoroughly cleaning the floor. Boy did it need it. It took me two hours. Of course I’m not that efficient.

Recent online readings include “Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices” by Sheri Fink (link). This lengthy story is meticulously fleshed out by Fink who is a doctor and journalist. Quite a read.

Also listened to Elliot Carter’s Oboe Concerto (videos: Part I, Part II, Part III). I continue to enjoy his music although I’ve never studied it.

Tried not to think about church and choir stuff. Sunday went pretty well. I didn’t murder the Mendelssohn too badly. Had some interesting conversations with people about music at the coffee hour.

Yesterday,  I made a peach pie and a peach pie filling in the afternoon. The second was for freezing. Took up food for Eileen and also brought along my own weird food so we could sup together.

Last night, I queued up some beautiful slow Mozart music including “Et Incarnatus Est” from the Great C Minor Mass. It seemed to fit my mood. I ended up playing through some Mozart on the piano and then turning to Gertrude Stein’s Making of Americans for some comfort reading.