Yesterday afternoon I realized that I love this recording with the same part of my brain that loves Frank Zappa.

I bought the vinyl many years ago.

It influenced my understanding of this repertoire. While I love a good choral blend, I also value other timbres, even singing ones.

These kinds of thoughts have been rattling around in my brain as I ponder how my colleagues must perceive my eclecticism.

Once again I conducted my choir in the presence of not only a very appreciative congregation but three or four reticent trained choral directors who rarely speak to me.

I was particularly proud of our final anthem of the season yesterday, “O Come and Dwell in Me,” an Irish melody arranged by Arlen Clarke.

I like this version of the original melody though we did it a bit quicker and more rhythmic.

We used viola on Clarke’s C instrument part and added hammered dulcimer at the beginning, middle and end.

My hammered dulcimer player is a nursing prof who sings in the alto section. She mentioned a while back that she had learned the Irish melody of the anthem on her instrument for fun. She indicated she would be willing to perform it with the choir.

A bit tricky, since she had zero recent experience performing music alone in front of people.

My solution was to let her play her melody alone three times. I asked the viola to play an open fifth very quietly to begin, I tinkered on the piano and the hammered dulcimer gently played the melody. This is how we began.

About a third of the way through the anthem I asked the choir to do a ritard (slow down) and dimenuendo (get softer) on the words “and echoes to the sky” then close to a very very quiet hum on a unison note. The hammered dulcimer player then played the melody once again at her own pace over their hummed note.

I also ended with her doing the melody.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Overall, the final choral service of the season on the Feast of Pentecost was exemplary in my view. Nailed it, if you will.

I felt that I played better at Pentecost than I did a the two hour Confirmation service the day before. I did some of the same tunes including the Buxtehude prelude and postlude as well as “There’s a Sweet Sweet Spirit” by Doris Akers.

I felt that my gospel piano was a bit better on Sunday.

I had the insight yesterday that other organist/choral director types who come in contact with my work and playing represent a small part of the spectrum of music I like. Their presence as specialists is important no doubt, but I see myself as more interested in how the average (?) person might perceive and appreciate music which in truth is more the way I love  music myself.

Maybe I can think of myself as more of an of ambassador of music than highly skilled specialist.

This is another vinyl I own. I certainly don’t put myself in Armstrong’s category. But I do admire him.

Today is the last choir Sunday at church. I am very weary this morning. Yesterday’s two hour confirmation service was very tiring. I came home and attempted to rest. My brain seemed tired as well as my body.

I received many compliments yesterday after the service. The confirmation/reception section of the service did take quite a long time. I led the congregation through several hymns and also improvised to fill up this time.

I had a couple of weird moments. One of which was when someone came up from behind me and put his hands over my eyes saying he wouldn’t ask me to guess who he was. He hugged me and then realized he didn’t know me. Silly priest. He must know someone else  who puts their hair in a fuzzy bun like me.

Another odd thing was that a colleague who introduced himself to me before the service disappeared without a word afterwards. Maybe I’m thin skinned but it would seem to me that unless he was called away early it would have been polite to say hello after such a long service.

It is probable that he joined the list of organists I have been horrifying lately. I don’t suspect my organ playing horrified him, although that’s possible especially my unorthodox treatment of hymns and their interludes (it took forever to get through the processional hymn – 89 people plus sponsors). More likely my gospel piano playing would have struck him as rough or unrefined.  Probably the same playing which I suspect inspired many of my compliments.

Who knows?

I was so exhausted that I had little reaction to the rejection letter I received from Augsburg for an organ piece I had submitted for them to consider. It’s not a piece I share on the web site because Augsburg’s people contacted me about using their copyrighted hymn tune without permission in it so I took it down.

I admit that I am looking forward to the choral season ending. I have been too long without vacation, grabbing little bits of time off here and there but then plunging back in to work and burn out without proper time off.

Surely after today I can find some time to truly recuperate from this last exhausting year.

1.Fund Manager Sets Goats Grazing in Blighted Detroit – NYTimes.com

My old stomping grounds now inhabited by goats?

2. Auden expresses himself on (then experimental) changes to the Book of Common Prayer

A copy of the letter Auden wrote to his rector upset at the debasement of language. Ultimately the conservatives were a bit wrong about this stuff. For example, the “thees and thous” they wanted retained had weirdly shifted their original meaning from intimacy to formality. Incidentally this letter  appears on the tumbler/blog of the author of The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography, Alan Jacobs.

3. Leaning Tower of Pisa, Pisa

This link explains why the original tower was built. Also this explanation goes some way toward explaining why it’s hollow.

4. Read at Whim

A refutation to a recent article in which the author attempts to shame those adults who read Young Adult books.

5.  A List Of Fallacious Arguments.

Another excellent list. Amazing how these sort of arguments are the basic language of so much public and social media. Stupid stupid stupid.

6. Got $20,000? Then You Too Can Die in a Game of Thrones Book 

A kind of product placement, no?

7.Ghosts in the Stacks: Finding the Forgotten Books

Extreme Reading

8. Bergdahl reveals the impossible choices faced by hostages’ families

This guy was also kidnapped by the same people.

9. Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters’ by Michael S. Roth

A book review with some answers to this question.

10.The Sultan of Sewers: William Burroughs’ anti-authoritarian vision.

Read Burroughs for years. Never thought about his politics.

11. Ives Wins! by Jeremy Denk

A gifted performer of Ives shares insights and history.

12. Bright Stroll, Big City By Mark Kingwell

Another book review, this one about famous people who walked a lot.

So it turns out that the penciled-in notes in my  ten volume Longo version of Scarlatti’s sonatas were not penciled in by the venerable Craigly Cramer my teacher of yore. He wrote me recently in an email that he “brokered them for a guy in Maryland.” The penciled notes in it are still very interesting and actually helpful. I guess if I had given it much thought I would have realized that my aesthetic around Scarlatti is probably not Craig’s.

In fact, my aesthetic differs from most organists I have met. I used the term, “renegade,” when meeting some recently. “Renegade”is probably a good word for me.

I know that one respectable member of the international liturgical jet set (as he himself put it) helped me understand myself when he said to me that I confuse people because I’m one of a kind.

One of a kind, not easily categorized… Hey! I’m Different I Don’t Care Who Knows It! (I do love this song by Newman. When Newman thanks the bluebirds singing in it I can only see him strutting through a disney cartoon.)

Playing the Widor Toccata recently in the same room with Craig Cramer and other organists, I realized that they probably were all horrified to hear me play such fluff on fine and inappropriate instruments.

However I did play it on all three instruments for my organ committee to hear. 

I also played some Buxtehude and led the committee through a couple hymns of their choosing at each instrument. Helpful for them to hear the same music on different instruments. I will be performing some of this music this weekend (the Buxtehude pieces) for the Confirmation service Saturday and the Eucharist on Sunday.

Recently there was a discussion (disparaging of course) about the Widor Toccata  on Facebook. One of my old colleagues who was not primarily an organist when I knew her was confessing to finally learning it. The organists and others of course piled on about what a  piece of “fluff” it is.

I defended using music that listeners might recognize and appreciate and ended up being Steve “Fluff”Jenkins in that conversation.

I am at peace with that and also the horror of other organists (if indeed it exists). I find that being one of a kind often means that I lose credibility with people.

Could it be that I try to lead with content and not address perceptions of others? And/or I look goofy and don’t remind people constantly of my expertise and instead try to play well as I can and think as clearly as I can?

Nah.

I would love to have a common language with colleagues but if it is not to be I am still very happy to connect to the world of the arts via playing and reading alone.

This has been my mood for the last few days. I know it’s an odd one.

I think my reflective mood was intensified by the odd experience of seeing a plaque commemorating someone I knew at Notre Dame.

I met Gail around 1985 at my audition for the grad department at ND. She was a formidable musician and a gracious presence. I remember fretting in Craig’s office (she was his wife) about how poorly I thought my audition had went. Gail reassured Eileen and me that I would get the TA.(TA = Teaching Assistantship. This meant free tuition and a generous stipend).She was right.

The then director of the the chapel choir was kind of a creep. Craig was furious with him for mistreating Gail. The guy would do things like give Gail accompaniments at the last minute. Difficult ones. He just generally bad mouthed fucked over colleagues and Gail was his accompanist.

My TA was to replace Gail in this function. I’m not sure what she did then besides teaching a bit at at ND. But I experienced the same thing she did. It was not a nice thing, really. Craig later rewarded me with a cushy second year TA.

Gail used to stick her head in the practice room during my lesson with Craig and ask why she didn’t hear any playing. Craig and I constantly bullshat at lessons. Eventually she got the creepy guy’s position and became the music director for the chapel at Notre Dame. This is kind of a prestigious position. She converted to Catholicism (surprising to me). She died from some horrible disease. Her funeral was a high blown mass at the chapel there. Eileen and I drove down for it.

All this is to say that seeing Gail in a bronze plaque reinforced my own feelings of isolation in the future.

There are still some overlaps in my aesthetics with other musicians. But I still feel more in conversation with musicians ,composers and writers that I read, play, play with and listen to. I do keep attempting to connect with living musicians. But my own interests are so broad that I’m certain to offend other’s sensibility (Widor horrifies some, Buxtehude confuses or bores my pop colleagues or lay listeners…. I have zillions of these kinds of examples).

But toujours gai, Archy, toujours gai!

Yesterday the organ committee at my church did a road trip to hear a few organs. Although spouses were invited, I was the only one to bring mine. Also my friend, Rhonda Edgington, came along.  I’m posting a few pics here for those who don’t facebooger since these were all on Facebook. The pic above actually was taken by Kevin Vaughan the teacher at Goshen. I noticed that he has limited his privacy settings and I suspect this pic is not available to many even though I shared it on the Grace Music Ministry page. The organ is by Taylor and Boody and is my favorite of the instruments we heard and played yesterday.

Before going to Goshen we stopped at Notre Dame and listened to a Paul Fritts instrument. Above is the committee sitting below and enjoying the sound of the instrument.

This is my boss on the left (Jen Adams) and Rhonda on the bench of the Fritts. Rhonda and I both played the instruments we visited. I also encouraged committee members to press a few notes and feel the difference in touch from an electro pneumatic.

After hearing three instruments, my boss treated us all to supper at the South Side Soda Shop in Goshen, a very fun place to eat with solid American cuisine.

One of its claims to fame is that it was featured on “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” on the Food Network.

It was also featured in a Steve Buscemi film, “Lonesome Jim.”

It’s famous.

It was a nice ride back and forth on a beautiful day. We took two cars down. In our car, we had good conversations on the way down and on  the way back I read Flannery O’Connor and George Orwell on my Kindle.

I am still struggling with a bit of burn out. Yesterday I set myself several tasks for work: Plan Trinity Sunday, choose organ music for same, point the psalm, request again the format and hymns for this Saturday’s confirmation service I am playing, put together a reimbursement request for a bunch of  money I have spent on music and wining/dining the Taylor and Boody guys when they were here, get a sub for July 6, find online pictures of organs by the four builders we have contacted and send them to the boss so she can make posters of them.

In between I had lunch scheduled with two colleagues from the AGO and a meeting with a parishioner who is going to play a little hammered dulcimer on Sunday’s Pentecost Anthem.

I bogged down in trying to get the stuff together for Trinity. Spent the rest of the day feeling behind. It was pleasant to meet with colleagues and the hammered dulcimer player, but I felt off balance most of the day. I did finish several of the tasks, but I am planning to do the reimbursement list this morning and possibly the online pics.

I meet with the boss at 1PM  and then the organ committee and friends is meeting at 2 PM to leave on a field trip to South Bend and Goshen to hear some organs.

I desperately need some time off.

I did manage to get a sub for July 6. Eileen has asked me to take off three weekends this summer. One to travel to Calif to see my son and his fam, one to spend at the Grayling cabin with my brother and his fam, one to fly away to Beijing to see our new grandkid who will be born by then.

We both noticed that this isn’t quite the same as taking some time off together.  We should be able to do some of that during the week as soon as my schedule clears up.

*************************************************************************

1. Teaching the Ancient buy diazepam uk 2mg Greek Optative and Subjunctive by Staging Cultural Practice by Timothy Pepper, Classics

I called my doctor’s office yesterday to schedule my pre-checkup blood work. I found out that the doctor needed to reschedule my semi annual check up.  So instead of seeing her in a couple of weeks, I will be seeing her in August.

This is a kind of a reprieve for me because I have vainly been trying to shed the four or five pounds I have gained since my last appointment. Cool.

In order to do this, I have to cut back on my drinking (which is also healthy for me, no doubt), since I have a habit of having several glass of wine every evening and then snacking as I do so.

Of course I illogically celebrated this reprieve with a backyard martini with my lovely wife last night.

Oy vey.

Reading in Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by Gardiner yesterday I discovered a fun fact.

I was aware that Bach made his famous visit to Marienkirche in Lübeck,  where Buxtehude presided over a fascinating music program. I also knew that Bach had decided not to accept the offer of being Buxtehude’s successor at his gig. This is largely attributed to the fact that one of the stipulations was that the successor was to marry Buxtehude’s daughter.

I did not know that Handel and Johann Mattheson (a composer who was more well known then than now) had also considered and rejected the post.

“‘Handel came to Hamburg in the summer of 1703 rich only in ability and good intentions,’ Mattheson characteristically wrote later. ‘I was almost the first with whom he made acquaintance. I took him round to all the choirs and organs here, and introduced him to operas and concerts.’ [Mattheson, Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte 1740] In August they travelled together to Lübeck — full of camaraderie and bravado, and trying to outsmart each other composing ‘numerous double fugues in the carriage’ — ostensibly to audition for Buxtehude’s post as organist of the Marienkirche. But there was a snag: marriage to the outgoing organist’s mature daughter was apparently part of the deal, and they both shied away, neither feeling ‘the smallest inclination’ in that department.”

This is from Gardiner’s cleverly entitled chapter: “The Class of ’85.”

In this chapter, he remarks not only on the three composers born in the same year of 1685: Bach, Handel and Scarlatti, but also points to other of their contemporaries who also were born at about the same time: Telemann,

Mattheson,

and Rameau.

Gardiner is making a point that of this promising generation, Bach was the longest shot to gain posterity’s imprimatur.

I discovered another Google tool this morning: the Google NGram.

It will apparently search a database of 5.2 million books for a word or phrase and then graph it’s appearance.

It was footnoted in The Biography of the Book of Common Prayer by Alan Jacobs.

It amuses me that I keep stumbling across stuff reading this arcane little book.

My reading habits are changing. I take this as another good sign of ebbing burnout. When living through the stress of my work year (ballet, choir), I tend to begin the day with mental challenge. This means reading non-fiction and lately working on my Greek skills.

Then I read fiction later in the day and even in the evening.  I guess I do this to distract myself. My emotional speed has slowed and intensified as I’ve aged. Being with people increases my lack of equilibrium for whatever reason. When i’m burned out, this is even more the case.

So dipping into fiction whether escape reading or just solid writing helps me.

I have noticed that lately I am returning to non-fiction as the day wears on.

Part of this is a thirst for some good solid music history reading in addition to my weird attachment to liturgy and religious history.

I say weird because it is practically involuntary. It sort of sneaks up on me that I am reading both a bio of Thomas Cramner (the dude primarily responsibly for the original Anglican Book of Common Prayer)

and a “bio” of the Prayer Book itself.

I also have pulled out my copy of The First and Second Prayer Book of Edward VI

and Marian Hatchett’s wonderful Commentary on the American Prayer Book.

After all this religious reading, I find myself returning to a couple of music history books: Domenico Scarlatti by Ralph Kirkpatrick and Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner.

I have also ordered a bio of Buxtehude by Kerala Snyder.

I’m also reading some fiction titles. The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson which seems to be sort of a lesbian  robot romance sci fi romp.

Also I noticed a title by Anthony Burgess whose plot I couldn’t readily recall, One Hand Clapping.

Excellent. I’m on page 119 of 216.

All of this brings me to a quote I read this morning in the Chilton Powell intro to Hatchett: “Anamnesis is the antithesis of amnesia.” Powell is actually quoting Hatchett himself.

The word, anamnesis, has a special meaning in liturgy. But the OED gives its original meaning first: “The recalling of things past; recollection, reminiscence.”

Living in the present cacophony of incoherence, polemic and fuzzy thinking,it is useful to recall that history is our memory. Remembering is the opposite of permanent forgetfulness. These ideas become very real when one is facing aging, but they are still important to any society that wishes to function.

So figuring out the past via some historical books  makes sense to me as a continuing task before all my brain cells forget everything. Heh.

1. Errors in Reasoning List of Definitions

Couldn’t resist posting this link on Facebooger. I have been noticing the superficiality combined with weird anger that peppers most partisan posting I read on Facebook. I attempt to follow people I disagree with it, so it’s a bit of mix. Few people are using their brains. But maybe that’s the definition of social media, eh?

2. Sam Greenlee, Writer, Producer, Government Agent, Dies at 83 

This guy seems really interesting. Might have to read his book(s).

3. Mr. Shinseki Takes the Fall – NYTimes.com

I was surprised to read that both Boehner and Pelosi regarded this as a mistake. I agree with them. However our learned leaders through him under the bus.

4.X-Men, Not All Fiction – NYTimes.com

When this article mentions that the “integration” of the armed forces was actually linited to allowing complete separate sections of either white or black it reminded me of the church of my childhood. The denomination of the Church of God was then about half and half black and white, but there were few integrated congregations. This is probably still the case.

5. How Book Publishers Can Beat Amazon – NYTimes.com

Interesting article. I often read comments. I found this one helpful:

“as an avid reader of books who was also once a well-paid, well-trained, International Typographical Union member and typesetter of books I can tell you from experience that the idea of maximizing profits at the expense of the consumer is nothing new in the publishing business. With the advent and marriage of phototypography to computerized digital typesetting the actual cost of typesetting a book went to zero, because the authors themselves did the actual typesetting while they typed their final draft and saved it to disk. Editing and other alterations to the text were likewise done “in-house” which eliminated further cost to the book production process. The happy result for publishers: Book prices skyrocketed and so did profits. Publishers never passed the savings onto their customers”

6. In Expansion of No. 7 Line, One Problem: An Elevator 

I love this: “A spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said that an incline elevator had been at its Metro rail station in Huntington, Va., since 1983, but that the agency was now unsure why it had been installed.” The author of the article uses this in his conclusion as a possible result of the No. 7 elevator installation. Heh.

Working out retirement finances when one’s life income has been modest can be challenging. Yesterday over breakfast at the Civic Center (a fund raiser for DeGraaf Nature Center), Eileen and I pored over our records for the month of May and and the first four months of this year.

We have been helped by a phone app which allows me to enter all expenditures and then complies handy statistics and graphs.

Surprisingly, if we tighten our belt a bit, we will have all  debt paid off by December (except for some travel expenditures this year which we then can repay with freed up income).

It’s all very grown-up.

The circumstances of my well being have never been a problem for me. Part of this I know is my own privileged circumstances. I am white, male, and brought up in the middle class. But also I have been content with less than what many might feel is necessary in the area of having a place to sleep, eat, read and practice.

The challenge was providing for my kids. That seems to have come off pretty good. I received a great deal of help in this area from the generosity of individuals to the churches which have provided (and are still providing me) a modest livelihood.

The truth is that I have to try to be grown up in my concerns and actions because my impulses are centered more on what I have found meaningful in life: loving family and friends, the arts and creating.

For example yesterday also included several hours practicing and reading. I finished off playing through the ninth volume of Scarlatti’s Essercizi (So called “exercises’ but really two sectioned sonata type pieces).

I purchased the ten volume set from my former teacher, Craig Cramer. I love used music. In this case, Craig (or someone else) made clear extensive and helpful notes in the music.

The drawback to this edition is that is very early. It was done by Longo (whose name also graces the first numbering system of Scarlatti’s 500 or so extant Essercizi).

As was the practice of his time, Longo added many accretions: dynamics, articulations, and even changes of notes. To use his edition with the knowledge of how these pieces were originally notated is to ignore a lot of information in front of you.

Craig has penciled in the Kirkpatrick numbers, the page in the Kenneth Gilbert edition (which is probably the currently definitive one) and cross references to Kirpatrick’s monumental bio of Scarlatti and his works.

Cool beans.

When I finish playing through volume ten my plan at this point is to turn around and play through all the volumes again. The music is wonderful.

After Scarlatti, I pulled out my Brahms and played several pieces. Again wonderful music.

My life is good.