I found myself feeling a little sad and a lot unmotivated yesterday. I think some of it might have been connected to thinking about my old acquaintance, Robert Hobby, whom I mentioned yesterday. Bob is one of several oddball friends I have had over the years that have subsequently wandered out of my life. I miss them and ponder on how much responsibility I have for losing touch with them. Usually I decide that “life” has happened to us and our orbits have changed. This is when I’m feeling grown up. But sometimes I think about my attempts to keep connected to them and how they have been unsuccessful.

Besides Bob, there’s a flute player who stomped out of my kitchen angrily and never looked back, someone whose second marriage I failed to attend and never responded to attempts to contact him, another person who wandered back in my life after a solid friendship in the past but was too wounded to reconnect, a young guitar player/recordist who got married and started having a lot of babies, a man who was unhappy and brilliant with whom I shared a basement when we were both high school students who growled at me the last time I saw him at a book sale, and some others. Eileen tells me that they are all odd balls and she is right. I am definitely part of the oddball crowd myself.

I had a dream last night that seems related. I was working as a waiter at a convention. Most of the people I was waiting on were Hispanic. I remember making fancy coffees for people as I waited on them even though I wasn’t supposed to. The other waitstaff seemed surprised and impressed. Finally for some reason I removed a toilet from a bathroom and installed a shower. A Hispanic woman wanted to use the toilet to wash some clothes (!). I had to tell her that it was gone. Maybe she could use the shower stall instead. She was not happy. I apologized to her and to an elderly Hispanic dude. He accepted my apology.

Along about this time in the dream I noticed Bob Hobby was giving a speech at the convention. He was finishing up and it was time for him to leave. I tried to talk to him (get it?) but he had to catch his bus. I called after him that I had been talking to some of the Hispanics and things were going better than he might have expected. He didn’t answer but he seem to understand. His bus left. I walked back to catch my bus which I was concerned had already left.

Of course all of this sad mood might have more to do with the fact that I have been skipping my martini and wine the last few nights. My goal is to snack less. So far it’s working. However I do know my drinking is a weird mixture of habit, self medication, mistaking hunger for wanting a drink and the simple pleasure of having an evening cocktail. And that’s probably not all.  I can’t wait to hear what a therapist says about it (sarcasm).

Okay, this is a bit random, but here are a few things I have ran across this morning and last night that are sticking in my brain this morning.

First, after Greek, I picked up my Collected Poems of Auden and read “In Praise of Limestone”

My first response was “Jesus! What a poem!” My second response was to realize how this poem ties together many things I think about: Ancient culture, the ephemeral nature of being alive, and other stuff. I love the way Auden partitions humanity into the “best and worst of us” and the lukewarm ‘band of rivals” in the middle. Auden is, as usual, bitingly ironic and bitter and at the same time weirdly redemptive. What a poem!

I then turned from erudite Auden to eloquent Kenyon and found a poem that shatteringly relates to today’s holiday.

I always think that war is truly an unspeakable horror for those who go through it. Of course, I am guessing,  but so was Mark Twain when he wrote his “War Prayer.”  And so was, I suspect, Jane Kenyon when she penned “Gettysburg: July 1 1863.”

If you don’t want to read it, I’ll save you the trouble. It’s about getting killed in battle. I don’t know if I will be able to resist posting it on social media this Memorial Day.

Author Nathanial Philbrick was the NYT’s “By the Book” reader in yesterday paper. He mentioned John D. MacDonald. It made me wonder about doing some lighter reading this summer. MacDonald is a decent writer. So on my way to bed last night I perused my shelves and found I only had one little pamphlet by him in my alphabetized books, Reading for Survival. I plucked it from the shelf and lay down to read.

This was an essay published in 1987 by the Library of Congress. MacDonald died the year before. This was one of his last works. He had been asked by Jean Trebbi, then the executive editor of Florida Center for the Book to write an essay on reading. This Center still exists (link to their website).

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MacDonald struggled with writing an abstract essay until Trebbi suggested using his infamous characters to expound his ideas. This worked and the result is fun quick read.

Here’s a link to a .doc download of it

And here are the passages that have struck me through two readings, one last night and one years ago.

“The man who doesn’t read books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

“the climate of an educated mind … [is] characterized by skepticism, irony, doubt, hope, and a passion to learn more and remember more.”

“The life unexamined is the life unlived.”

“the nonreader in our culture, Travis, wants to believe. He is the one born every minute. The world is so vastly confusing and baffling to him that he feels there has to be come simple answer to everything that troubles him. And so, out of pure emptiness, he will eagerly embrace spiritualism, yoga, a bana diet, or some callous frippery like Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard’s personal path to infinite riches, a strange amalgam of sociological truisms and psychological truths masquerading under invented semiscientific terms, and sold to the beginner at a nice profit.”

referring to Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer, “the best fanatics are people who have nothing i their heads but wind, smoke, and emptiness. Then if any idea manages to slip in there, it does not matter how insipid or grotesque that idea might be, it will expand to fill all the available emptiness and it takes over the individual and all his actions. He cannot har any voice but his own. He is beyond reason, beyond argumentation. He is right and everyone who does not believe exactly the same as he is wrong.”

This last is an apt description of how some people behave online and in social media.

I recommend reading the entire MacDonald book. Read it to survive.

I’m sitting in the backyard blogging on a Sunday morning listening to Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass. For some reason after studying Greek I pulled out my copy of Music by Philip Glass by Philip Glass.

I have read in it before. It was published in 1987 and edited by Robert T. Jones. It is largely about his operas. After reading a bit in it, I played through a couple piano transcriptions, one from Einstein on the Beach, the other from Satayagraha.

This music is working for me these days. It draws me in like his piano Etudes.

I continue to read chapters in books from Rhonda’s carton mentioned yesterday.

The Responsibility of the Christian Musician: Giving All to the One Who Gives Freely the Gift of Creativity by Glenn Kaiser is a weird book. I read the Preface. It seems to me to be a book rooted in late the 20th century “Contemporary Christian Music/Praise” scene. The author is described in the blurb on the book as “a twenty three-year veteran of the popular rock band Resurrection Band (REZ)…”

I’ve of course never heard of this band. Also he is described as “an inner-city pastor.” Ah. I’m on more familiar ground.

The book seems to be an attempt to remind CCM (Contemporary Christians Music) musicians and other people who are making popular music style music that they still have a responsibility to live out an authentic personal relationship with Jesus (what ever the fuck that means).

Old church musicians sitting in their backyard on Sunday morning don’t seem to fit into the audience. Although Mr. Kaiser does look like a younger Jupe (pictured above).

I’ve had an odd relationship to the evolution of popular music styles in church. I remember watching Gene Cotton sing “Blowin in the wind” by Bob Dylan at a national Youth convention of my Dad’s denomination, The Church of God.

I remember a conversation with Dad where he was disgusted at Cotton’s changing the ending to Dylan’s song: “The answer my friend is not blowin in the wind… the answer is in God and our trust in him” or some such nonsense.

I for my part was excited that music I liked was being played at a church convention, no matter how mangled. It seems to me now that Dad had the clearer perspective. For years thereafter when I heard Christians attempting popular music styles in church, it was usually pretty embarrassing.

We’ve come a long way since then. CCM has it’s own Billboard list these days. And the music is  much much better, although I don’t find myself that interested in it.

Recently when I was talking to the soloist at the funeral who seemed to be involved in local (GR) Christian music, she didn’t recognize “CCM.” But she did recognize the Gaithers.

I also read in Rhonda’s old copy of The Church Musician, revised edition by Paul Westermeyer.

Martin Marty wrote the introduction to this 1997 book. I briefly considered studying Liturgy under him about this time (actually a bit later… probably more like 2000). Westermeyer studied with him and Marty was his doctoral adviser. I have followed Westermeyer over the years largely agreeing with his church music philosophy.

We had a brief correspondence when I wrote a letter to the Hymn Society Magazine and he was the editor. Nice guy.

He has an article in the June issue of the AGO mag: “Sorting Out Hymn Text and Tune Names.”

He mentioned Robert Hobby in it. Reading through AGO mags can be sort of weird experience for me. I see lots of people I have met over the years and have a wide array of memories about. I miss Bob that’s for sure.

There was another article in the June Issue about summer reading. It made me think about the fact that I have been bogging down into these evangelical Christian music books. I know I’m trying to ease out of burn out. Does it help to read books thinking about the field in which you are burned out? It doesn’t stand to reason. But there I am. Thank goodness for Philip Glass, Beethoven and Bach which help ease the burnout.

Eileen and I watched this video on Netflix last night. I was disappointed. I have read Chomsky for years. But after reading McChesney and Nichols, this portrayal of him seems narrow, much less helpful than his writings. The ideas come across in an unhelpful way….. very dramatic. I especially dislike the undertone of conspiracy of the “masters of society.”

Better stuff can be found. Like the next link.

Bank of America’s Winning Excuse: We Didn’t Mean To – ProPublica

This article is addressing some of the same issues as the Chomsky Netflix pic. A bit stronger on information.

One of the World’s Greatest Art Collections Hides Behind This Fence – The New York Times

One idea struck me in this article. Someone is quoted as saying art is not a public good. Weird. I guess it’s true. But it seems to me like great art and music in addition to being privately owned are also the property of the human story. Or some such nonsense.

Digital music: Stuck in the middle with Spotify | The Economist

The perspective of this article seems to be one of the industry, not people.

I  finished reading People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols. I found their observations fascinating. They are scholars who are advocating a renewal of our country as a democracy. They see this movement as a critical step to dealing with the current abhorrent conditions in our country: control of the government by corporations, the steady erosion of jobs that people can do instead of robots, and of course the lost of incomes, the poverty, the poor health care, the crumbling infrastructure. All of these are seen by these two scholars as evidence that something is happening right now in the USA and the world. They are not sure what the future will look like only that it is here.

They speak in the voice of historians outlining some of the history of the attempts by the USA to be a more perfect union and democracy. They speak in the voice of visionaries that have the conviction that the future can be one where the people of our country have more of a say (and thus interest) in our government. They talk about getting topics and issues back on the table where they have been forbidden and ignored. Media reform is also at the heart of their ideas. They advocate for an “American BBC,” that is media that is funded directly by the public for the public. McChesney as a historian of journalism says that the time has past for journalism to be market driven, entertaining and to somehow make a profit. Information is essential to making good decisions. The people making decisions now for our country, the 1%, the bosses, the financial wizards, and so on, do not think that information is entertainment. They ignore the media they have created and get good information. We, the people, need this information.

End of sermon. Sorry. Great book.

Speaking of books, Rhonda showed up to play duets with me this week with a crate of books on their way to Bibles for Mexico. She left them with me. I have been looking them over and pretty much deciding to keep all of them.

Many of them are books on church music from a different  perspective than my own, which I think of as a liturgical church musician. Of course the story of much of the late 20th and early 21st century has been a healthy convergence of some of the ideas surrounding people singing in prayer.

A few books in particular have caught my eye and I have been reading in them.

Jubilate! Church Music in the Evangelical Tradition by Don Hustad is a 1981 book which speaks of church music from Hustad’s understanding and perspective. Hustad has affected how I think about some of the music of my youth that I now lead in an Episcopalian context. I head him speak some years ago at a Hymn Society Convention. What he said struck me and has stayed with me, namely that when performing and leading much of the white gospel music, it is stylistic to play literally what is on the page.

This was a revelation for me. I was raised in a white gospel situation and it was the rare occasion to hear a keyboard player play something exactly as written. Arpeggios, octaves, even chord changes were routinely added. Then I had my first taste of black gospel music and have been pursuing those skills as well ever since.

Take for example, Fanny Crosby’s hymn, “Blessed Assurance.”

A music leader could hear this mission hymn in black gospel ways, slow it down, change rhythms, add licks and it would sound right to me. However, literally playing it on the page evokes a different atmosphere, closer to Charles Ives than Andre Crouch. It’s helpful to have both in one’s repertoire when serving an American congregation.

Well , enough. I must be tired. I’m getting carried away. I might write more about these evangelical books later. But I want to add that I was very surprised to read about Hustad’s own musical schizophrenia (his words), being both a highly trained classical musician and one who served in the Billy Graham crusade. I can’t help but wonder how I would have reacted to his ideas as a young preacher’s kid who instead met Bill Gaither and Doug Oldham and was put off by their narrowness. They didn’t like rock music. They didn’t like classical music. Only, “Jesus, Jesus, There’s something about that name.” By the way, this is in the Episcopal hymnals and I’m pretty sure we have used it at Grace.

Bohemian Trio: Music without boundaries – Post and Courier

Google news thought I might be interested in this. It was right.

I’m sitting in the back yard blogging. It’s already a beautiful day. There are squirrels chasing each other around my huge old tree. I have been reading People Get Ready. It’s due soon and I would like to finish it before Sunday. I’m now down to my last 26 pages, so it seems like a realistic goal.

This has used up a good portion of my morning time (I did do Greek, however). Yesterday I had fun playing duets with Rhonda. We did a Mozart piano concerto, me on organ, her on piano. The piece we played was one Mozart adapted as a kid from sonatas by J. C. Bach. (link to the pdf of it online). There were only three string parts which could theoretically be played as a trio on the organ.

I faked it and Rhonda did a superb job reading the solo piano (which gets more interesting than the above excerpt!).

Rhonda brought an organ duet which was fun. Later in the afternoon I met with Amy and we practiced the goofy music (Hallelujah by Cohen) for the upcoming wedding. I stayed and practiced organ although my motivation was low.

Eileen called Lowes and arranged for them to come out this afternoon and give us an estimate on replacing our backyard fence which is falling down. That tax refund is coming in handy.

Today I think we will go buy a printer. That’s all I have time for now. More tomorrow.

I am beginning to ease into a summer rhythm. Yesterday, Eileen and I had breakfast in the backyard. That was very relaxing. I also realized that Wednesday is basically my work week now. The rest of the week is pretty free with the exception of Sunday of course.

So yesterday I had a staff luncheon followed by a meeting with my boss. As I have mentioned here before meeting with Rev Jen is a very positive experience for me. She reported to me on what people were saying about worship at the after church meeting we call Strategic Doing meetings. They were asking about creating a slightly different atmosphere before worship than we currently have. Jen said it was a healthy conversation and actually it parallels some of her own ideas about the way the pendulum is swinging at Grace. In some ways, Jen thinks we have moved too far away from a bit more formal or at least calm style of worship.

I suggested a couple of ideas to her. One was to encourage leaders in the assembly to pray. I know this seems self evident (and maybe even a tad hypocritical for me a weak believer), but people are constantly moving around during worship. I noticed this Sunday that the acolytes were not following the service in a bulletin and were not making responses. I often notice adult servers and acolytes not singing the hymns. I suggested to Jen that people think about praying with their bodies during our time together.

Secondly, I said some education might be in order. We might want to address the time just before worship. We could encourage people to greet each other and then settle down and think a bit about the upcoming communal prayer. We’re not looking to put back the “me and jesus” buy diazepam online from pakistan moment that sometimes is encouraged. I suggested that we encourage people to think about the gospel, look at the picture on the bulletin. Remind them that leaflets are provided with the readings for the day in case they wanted to refresh their memories about the stories and readings we are about to hear in our prayer.

As is her wont Jen was madly writing down some of my brainstorm ideas to think about later.  You can see why I like meeting with her. She lets me talk.

Later I  practiced organ and piano. It was a good day.

Today I meet with my friend Rhonda to play piano duets together. That should be fun. In the afternoon, I am meeting with Amy the violinist. Dawn the cellist loaned her car to her sister so she doesn’t have a ride to our weekly piano trio rehearsal so it will just be Amy and me today. She and I are doing a wedding a week from Saturday. I’m hoping to get all the music together for our meeting today.

I am beginning to feel the pinch of not having a working printer. I keep thinking I will drive up to Best Buy and buy one. That will be the easiest thing to do. Our present printer has stopped working. I have figured out that it needs to be disassembled and certain parts need to be cleaned. I thought maybe that would be a task Eileen might want to do, but I’m starting to miss having it.

A week from Sunday I want to play a couple of cool pieces.

Marilyn Biery has written a Carillon type piece on the tune Azmon which I want to learn.

And I’m going to revive a very cool piece by Walcha based on Lobe den Herren.

I finished typing out my reading notes from stickies for Antigones by George Steiner this morning. The book is a few days overdue but I have kept it out in order to do this. This book has had an immense impact on me and not just about Greek Drama.

I had email exchanges with one of the ballet teachers at Hope yesterday. She asked me for recommendations for other pianists to play in the fall. For the umpteenth time I engaged with one of these people about how little they pay.

I am finding this very tiring. They want to discuss professional engagement and neglect to mention fees. When I asked if they were still paying the same amount, the teacher did not answer me (!) only asked what would be a good amount.

I told her that I thought if they could match the Music Department at Hope they might be able to attract some of those players. I thought they were paying around $40 an hour  (Last time I had information, Hope Ballet Department was paying its pianists $25 an hour).I said that in my opinion, $50 an hour was more fair.

I also skipped the AGO meeting last night. The organ teacher at Hope was giving the AGO chapter a look at the new organ. I found the prospect of facing people more than I could muster energy for.

I also am not terribly interested in electro pneumatic organs hidden behind a wall. I’m actually not all that interested in fine tracker organs. I just like them.

It has probably already occurred to any regular readers of this blog that I am burned out these days. It only occurred to me recently. It’s good information for me because it changes my self expectations. Dreaming about rehearsing the church choir a week and a half after it has disbanded for the year is a sign. As is dreaming of holding a guitar (did I mention that?) and performing when I haven’t done so for several years. I would like to find a mental space where I could begin composing again. It’s coming. it’s coming.

In the meantime, I finished reading through the Glass etudes on piano yesterday. After having played all 20 carefully, some up to tempo, I noticed that my cross rhythms have significantly improved. How about that? It might not help my Brahms piano music but it definitely is working in the Glass piano etudes. Cool.

Philip Glass’s Etudes: the sound of a lifetime | Music | The Guardian

I found this 2014 review interesting. The reviewer is an enthusiastic Glassophile which is mildly annoying. But the event seems very interesting. 10 pianists performed the entire Etudes together including Glass himself on nos. 1 and 2. In 2014, Glass was apparently approaching the age of 78. I find his interest in this form at this point in his life fascinating.

More good news on the Jenkins front: we received an automatic deposit of our tax refund which was more substantial than I ever remember it being.

Eileen is quite worried about to how to sustain world travel to see our children and grandchildren in the face of retirement. She has been talking to her CPA brother, Dave, about when we should apply for social security. For my part, I am grateful that she is addressing these issues. I’m only interested in being able to continue to live with her and make music as long as I can.

Leaked Questions Rekindle Debate Over Common Core Tests – The New York Times

I didn’t click to see if they had linked in the questions. I find it interesting to think about mixing up copyright concerns with educational ones. Weird stuff.

My brain seems to be struggling to let go of stuff. Last night I spent a good amount of dreaming about rehearsing choirs and performing songs on guitar. The choir seemed to be made up of people from my past and present including musicians from Hope (not the usual suspects). Although there were people present who could accompany my rehearsal no one went to the piano so I was forced to be my own accompanist (as I am at Grace). I spent the rest of this dream trying to help singers make a better sound.

In a later dream I was somehow responsible for writing and teaching a song for a group of people (a class?) to begin their sessions with. I remember the song was in C major and in triple meter. I wasn’t the only guitar player. I seem to have handed out the lyrics so that everyone could sing this song to kick off the session. This seems to have happened repeatedly in the dream or I had a memory in the dream of it happening. In fact it happened so much that I decided we should quit using this song. I was developing a new song and talking to another composer about it. This guy looked like a young Paul Simon. Apparently the second song was something about a zoo. I asked the guy if he knew Paul Simon’s song “It’s all happening at the zoo.” I strummed and sang a bit a bit for him.

He quietly said that he had played on the original recording. He wasn’t claiming to be Paul Simon only a session player. I was impressed. Later I was in a basement showing my new song to a local guitar player and telling him that they had decided not to use it.

What’s up with all this?

A non music dream involved trying to gain entry to a kitchen where people I knew were cooking. I could not find a way in.

I attempted to do some goofing off yesterday. In light of my dreaming this might have been a bit desperate of me. I did sit in the backyard and read. I practiced piano. I avoided church. Eileen went and saw Mom and visited our friend Barb Vincensi who had outpatient surgery last week and ended back up in the hospital with abdominal pains (!). I did the grocery shopping. Sheesh. Will I ever get my groove back?

I found church pretty satisfying yesterday. The congregation sang lustily on most things. The psalm was a little shaky but I sang along myself from the bench. It was a single chant and Rev Jen had okayed it as looking easy enough. That it was, but it took the cong a while to catch on. I especially enjoyed accompanying “I bind myself unto myself this day.” Good clear singing. We also sang “Now the silence” which I think is particularly excellent example of 20th century hymnody and a good marriage of melody and words. The closing hymn was “All glory be to God on high” sung to the tune, “Allein Gott in der Höh.” the Praetorious accompaniment in Hymnal 1982 is a good one. I have been thinking about this tune. I played a good variation by Walther as the postlude. I also recently rehearsed the BWV 711 and pulled it out of my hat on Saturday for the funeral communion music. Nice piece.

Yesterday afternoon, while Eileen was visiting her aunt Mickey I returned to the Bach English suites. I have played these for years. It was interesting to return to them and find that how I approach the music is so different from the way I did the last time I practiced or performed these pieces. By omitting ornaments and thinking about the melodic and motivic things going on while I play, I believe I had new insights into them yesterday. Cool beans. I do love this music.

I also continued reading Glass’s Etudes for piano. I discovered that while I found #11 difficult, I read easily (under tempo) 12 and 13. It was only about a third of the way into 14 that I discovered another technical difficulty which gave me pause (4s against 3s in a devilish little figure). This is where I will pick up when I return to them today.

There were numerous errors in the bulletin yesterday. It’s discouraging because I pointed them out to Rev Jen, Eileen emailed Mary Miller and still there were some embarrassing mistakes like putting the stanza numbers in the margins of a text only hymn instead of at the beginning of each stanza. I further noticed during service that Mary had crammed lines together destroying the poetic integrity of the text. Ah well. When this sort of things happens, when my observations go unheeded, I try to let go of it since I don’t have responsibility for it nor for helping Mary continue to learn (and remember) how to do a fucking bulletin. Not my monkey, not my circus. Still it grates on me to see it on Sunday morning.

I am madly typing my reading notes for George Steiner’s Antingones into a google doc. I think the book is overdue but I plan to just keep it out and pay the fine since I’m so close to being done with it. I keep checking to see if I can a cheap used copy online. Nope. Cheapest is $20 or so. Our money right now is very tight and I can’t rationalize it.

Who Will Debunk The Debunkers? | FiveThirtyEight

Debunking Popeye and Darwin. Who knew?

How Facebook Warps Our Worlds – The New York Times

Worth thinking about, I know I do.

What My Mother Sees in Hillary – The New York Times

Some reminders about Hillary’s journey.

I finished reading Antigones by George Steiner. This was an amazing, rich read not only about its topic of how Greek drama has been a constitutive element in Western Civilization.  But also about what it means to keep ideas in your head while watching a play or reading a text. At the end of the book, Steiner talks about the many Antigones that have existed in some of the best minds of the west (Frued, Hegel, Jean Anouilh to name a random few) and how the story continues to blossom in our culture and arts. This may be one of the reasons he has pluralized the title of his book. The play and the main character are Antigone not Antigones.

the funeral

So the funeral went off fine. The singer was accompanied by her husband.  They seemed to be connected to the evangelical tradition. She quickly calmed down when she perceived how easily I followed her and enhanced her Gaither like singing. It was a large crowd. The participation was good. The military honors always strike me as a society struggling to ritualize at a time when ritual is emptied by our empty lives.

After the unfolding of the flag and firing of blank rifles and the playing of taps (on an actual instrument!), the men in uniform (veterans) carefully folded the flag and presented the daughter of the dead man with it. As they were leaving, I was wondering where the Michigan State Troopers were. A man in uniform stood up from where he had been sitting in the pew for the entire service. He stood up and took a Michigan State Flag and presented it to the daughter.

After the service he returned and fetched his bulletin. He complimented me on the music and observed that his mother always taught him to pick up after himself. Talking to the priests about the dead man, my boss was surprised to learn that he had been a Michigan State Trooper. I pointed out to her that in order to be an effective officer of the law one needed to have people skills and be able to stay calm. I told her that the stereotype of the out of control policeman with a loaded gun was no more true than the current stereotype of the violent Bernie Sanders supporter. It appears that the deceased was a good police officer.

democracy

I was startled to read in People Get Ready by McChesney and Nichols this morning about how the business community set out in the seventies to circumvent the socialist policies that were then quickly becoming popular with Americans.

First there was actually a secret memo written by Lewis Powell which outlined the necessity of addressing the “assault on the enterprise system.” Written in 1971 when Powell was a corporate lawyer, it was not mentioned when later that year Powell was nominated and confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice.

Secondly, I learned this morning that the very influential right wing think tanks, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise institute, were created to further a pro-corporate agenda.

Bryce N. Harlow was a corporate lobbyist in the 70s. Back then, lobbyists were rare. However, he was instrumental in rallying the business community to bring its influence to bear on the government. Harlow died in 1987, but his ideas live on at the website of the his foundation apparently dedicated to the art of lobbying.

It’s difficult for me me not to suspect that this movement among business leaders bears some of the responsibility of the disintegration of democracy in America.

Trying to get a quick blog post in before leaving for my funeral this morning. Not my funeral, but one that I am playing and have been blogging  about here.

The CIA and the 1962 Arrest of Nelson Mandela

Did you know that the CIA turned Mandela in to the South African government because the thought he was a communist?

To Err (URRR) or to Err (air)

On today’s Writer’s Almanac, Garrison Keillor quotes Alexander Pope (it’s his birthday): “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” I’ve linked the website above but the link will only be good for today.

I recently learned that the more correct pronunciation of “err” is “urrrr,” not “air.” I think it’s logical that if you learn the word, “error,” then you see the word, “err,” you would pronounce as Keillor did and I as used to.

It was just fun to hear him pronounce the way I used to and to think there is a certain retired English prof I know who would delight in correcting Keillor as he did me.

For some frustrating reason, my computer decided to upgrade to Windows 10 overnight. I managed to do a reset back to Windows 8.1. I’m not sure why it upgraded. I hope it wasn’t the church’s tech people deciding I should upgrade and not talk to me about it first.

I neglected to mention that when the retired English prof in my choir found out that I drink a martini most every evening, he responded “No wonder you are the way you are!”

Not sure what that means exactly but it seemed an appropriate response from this dude.

I received my copy of Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Revised Edition by Raymond Williams in the mail yesterday. It was a book footnoted by McChesney and Nichols in People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy. They footnoted it in a discussion of the meaning of the word capitalism.

Williams writes about returning from WWII to Cambridge in 1945. He and another colleague noticed a “strange new world” where people seemed to be speaking a different language. This kicked off his academic career thinking about words and cultue. This book was actually started as an appendix to his main work, Culture and Society.

Williams died in 1988 according to his Wikipedia article.

He writes about thinking about the word culture. He pointed out several meanings that he was able to assign to the word: the “teashop” meaning: a kind of social superiority; the meaning about writing poems, plays, films; and a “way of life” meaning as in the Japanese culture.

What I especially liked is how he describes looking at the word in the OED: the “shock of recognition” at the complexity of layers of meaning represented there.

This is the kind of stuff I like. I am intrigued by any discussion of the resonance in words especially at this time when we hollow them out and replace them big stupid simple concepts that do not connect easily to the subtleties of being human.

Grace is the first church where people do not give me the usual choir director/organist presents. This has changed ever since the retired law professor joined the choir. She gave me a book for Christmas “from the choir.” She also hosted our recent choir party and then presented me with the box above. I think they’re kind of fun in an awful way. I’m drinking coffee from one of the cups right now.

Eileen is going to drive a friend to surgery today and then spend the evening with her.  She is still resting as I write. After resetting my computer back to Windows 8.1 I dealt with a bunch of silly emails and texts this morning. I replied to the soloist for tomorrows funeral (copying in the priests and the sons of the deceased) that we could meet at 10 AM and that she was only going to be singing 2 of the 3 songs she expected. I also emailed the Ballet department at Hope that I would be too busy to accompany classes this fall since the department secretary emailed me asking me if I was interested in certain classes. I also emailed my Mom’s cousin Pat Baker updating her on Mom’s condition. I also reached out to my own cousin Pam asking about Mom’s sister since Pat inquired about that as well. Pam immediately responded so I will have to update the rest of the family with her contact info. I also emailed my one student who is back in town from wintering in Washington DC and wants to start lessons again. 

I also did some Greek this morning. I was laying in bed earlier wondering how I got so busy again after quitting my Roman Catholic full time gig. I need to goof off much more.

Last night was the choir party. I took the mixings for my martini with me and discovered to my delight that there were choir members who also wanted a martini. Who knew? I made a martini for an alto, a soprano, a Methodist Minister (Bass), and a retired English prof (Tenor).

If you’ve been reading my blog you know this has been a rough spring for Jupe the choir director. It’s embarrassing how relieved I am this morning that all that is over for a while. I had a nice chat with my boss. We have a tricky memorial service coming up Saturday and she has intervened to calm things down. That’s nice.

This morning, Eileen walked downtown to have breakfast with the rest of the alto section from the choir. I am listening to Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and sipping coffee.

Life is good.

I have decided to perform a Sweelinck toccata as a postlude on May 29th. The prelude is Passacaglia, Fughetta and Finale on Abbott’s Leigh by  Austin C. Lovelace.

This will be the tune to the opening hymn that Sunday. Lovelace’s piece is well written and will take a bit of study to learn. All good.

For some reason I have been drawn in to playing piano variations by Beethoven. So far I’m on page 40 of Ruthardt’s edition, volume 2. I’m on my sixth set of variations. I can remember learning one of these when I was studying with Mrs. Newhardt, my first piano teacher. Our lessons were pretty much a failure, mostly due to my own immaturity. I nagged her into letting me study the Bach inventions too soon. They (the inventions) took a while to recover. She did give me Hanon, but I didn’t practice it correctly. Now in my sixties, I do. Progress for sure, but it seems kind of slow.

Just joshing.

You can probably tell my brains are jelly this morning. I have cleaned the kitchen, packaged up store bought white rolls for the freezer, did several loads of laundry and other little tasks this morning. It may be that kind of a day.

I just had a call from my cellist. She is not feeling well and is begging off trio today. I had her tell the violinist that I would not be there unless she called me. It IS that kind of day.

Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk of Killing Criminals Raises Fears in Philippines – The New York Times

Wholesale killing of people and children suspected of being criminals is a plank in this dude’s platform for President of the Philippines. He get’s installed next month. Surreal.

A Supreme Court Not So Much Deadlocked as Diminished – The New York Times

Like so much in law, it’s counter intuitive to me that the lack of a 9th justice will have as many positive outcomes as this article outlines.

Indigo Girl on Reforming Religion, Why Trump Must Be Stopped | Rolling Stone

A misleading headline. It’s more like Father of Indigo Girl talks about church. Still kind of interesting. I am a bit appalled at the lack of language skills in the comments of both Dad and Daughter.

As sometimes happens to me in  my solitary morning studies, my head is buzzing with ideas this morning. After reading a particularly eloquent section in George Steiner’s Antigones I find myself thinking anew about choral music.

The Greek Chorus in Sophocles and other Greek dramatists has always puzzled me a bit. The shifting identity and comments of a group of people (men) chanting together, commenting on what is happening in the play and furthering ideas in it, has come to resemble in my mind the power of choral music today. Steiner points out that they were most likely moving in dance and singing the words.

The idea that the group is the original actor in drama is a startling one in a time of such emphasis on individual personality. But when I think of the power of choral music that is well written and executed I think I get a glimmer of what is going on in the Greek Chorus.

I’ll spare you the pithy quotes from Steiner I have noted that eloquently illustrate this. If one thinks of the fragile and flawed experience of live music, sung or otherwise. The cough, the small noises that music is painted on. The sound of breathing, the player bending to his task and moving past his/her own imperfection to a “lucidity” (Steiner’s word here) that defies its own imperfection. If one remembers all this in the experience of music performed and heard, it’s easy to imagine how powerful the chorus must have struck its audience in the hot sun in the open arena of Greek performance.

Steiner also mentioned a poem by Auden on Freud. Freud died in 1939 exiled in Great Britain from his home in Germany. The war is raging. Auden writes his memorial to Freud with the background of many dying,  “… those who were doing good,/ who knew it was never enough but/ hoped to improve a little by living./ such was this doctor….”

Freud keeps impinging on my thinking. I have been dipping into his essay, “Civilization and its Discontents.” Steiner alluded to this essay in my reading this morning. Plus, since I’m facing actually sitting down with a therapist next month it’s hard not to wonder how well people (therapists) understand Freud. Have they even read him? Surely, no shrink could avoid Freud’s shadow.

Anyway, I love Auden and he does not disappoint in this beautiful poem.

Steiner quotes the ending couplet which mentions Eros and Aphrodite. Steiner sees Eros especially as a life force that dominates Antigone and the struggle in the play between ideas of solitude and community, old and young, masculine and feminine…. it’s all there in Antigone.

Well, enough jokes.

Eileen and i found ourselves exhausted yesterday. It was a combination of end of season for me and the intensity of Sarah’s visit and Eileen’s extended family’s circumstances. Eileen’s Mom is going to the doctor today. Last week, she (Eileen’s Mom) was short of breath, feeling extreme fatigue and slurring her words more than usual. By last Saturday she was feeling better and called Eileen to let her know. Nevertheless we are all glad that she is seeing her doctor today. Plus Eileen’s Aunt Micky entered hospice at around this same time. She is looking in to visiting her tomorrow with other family members.

I had a bit of a morning myself yesterday in the midst of my fatigue.

Last Saturday I picked up some music for a funeral/memorial coming up this Saturday. One glance told me it wasn’t going to be easy. The piece was Pastorale (arranged for two trombones and piano) by Eric Ewazen.

Before describing the piece, I want to point out that anxiety was/is a bit out of control in this funeral. There are two sons of the man who died and they seem to be on different pages if not hostile to each other.

The next generation (these men’s adult children?) are music teachers. It appears that the dads decided the adult kids should perform at their grandfather’s memorial service. Talking to one of the dad’s on the phone yesterday, he said he thought it would “be therapeutic” for at least one of the musicians.

I immediately began preparing this accompaniment. Although the piano part is not important in it, it is quite involved. I had difficulty understanding this piece of music until I heard the original work which was for flute, french horn and piano. Here’s a video of it.

After listening to this recording, I understood the piece much more clearly. I even started to like it a bit. I am impressed by this pianist’s ability not only to play the accompaniment but to do her own page turns. By the time I saw this video, I had asked Eileen to try turning pages for me to help me with this difficult accompaniment.

Then I received a direct email from one of the sons of the deceased asking me to call him immediately. I did so. We had a discussion. At first I told him it would be so much better if he could connect me directly to the musicians involved. He, in turn, informed me that he (and presumably his brother or some other family members) felt that it was probably asking too much to try to pull this piece together for the memorial service.

I told him it was risky but possible, that I had already put in several hours working on it and would have to dedicate a lot of time in order to pull it off Saturday.

In short, he wanted to let me off the hook. I agreed that this was the better choice under the circumstances. Whew. In the meantime there were a flurry of emails going back and forth between Rev Jen (who is not officiating at this service), Rev Jodi (who is), family members and Mary, the office administrator at church. I emailed Jen, Jodi and Mary that I had talked to one of the sons on the phone and that he had canceled this difficult piece.

I also stopped by the church to talk to someone in person. The only person around was Mary the office administrator. I tried to explain to her what had happened. She filled me in on description of how the family was acting, phoning numerous times last week (during our annual Tulip Time fund raiser) with mounting anxiety. Nice.

I don’t necessarily think this confusion is quite resolved. All I know is that I’m not practicing that piece now and that’s a relief. Hopefully they won’t change their mind.

These four freedoms were promulgated by FDR in his State of the Union speech, January 1941. Ironically, since these were used to rationalize the USA’s fight in WWII, they became quite important. The conservative Saturday Evening Post reversed its opposition to them (they were anti-New Deal and saw them as supporting it). Norman Rockwell then painted these four covers for The Saturday Evening Post.

Mystery in Sochi Doping Case Lies With Tamper-Proof Bottle – The New York Times

Some of today’s links are a bit old. I haven’t been putting them in the posts lately. I have been following this case with interest.

States Prove That Voter Registration at the D.M.V. Works – The New York Times

It’s an interesting time in the USA. Will we strive to be a democracy or not? Ideas like this will help us.

For Obama, an Unexpected Legacy of Two Full Terms at War – The New York Times

Obama the war president. Yikes.

Dying Infants and No Medicine: Inside Venezuela’s Failing Hospitals – The New York Times

Some tragic and difficult stuff well reported.

Sarah has arrived safely in England. She texted that she was home and preparing to sit on her new sofa. Her departure yesterday was slightly unusual in that she did not seem as upset as she left. Not sure why this was, but it was a bit easier on Eileen and me and maybe that was part of her motivation. At any rate, I’m glad she’s home safe.

The service yesterday, the choir’s last for the season. was a flurry of activity. Eileen and I arrived early. We spotted my violinist walking to church and offered her a ride. Amy was especially impressed with Eileen’s Mini. I had a half hour to work with my violinist and cellist before the choir arrived. We spent a good deal of time on the postlude which was my own composition. The cello and the violin were playing an obbligato in octaves for most of this piece. This melodic line was actually my only composing, since I played the hymn melody myself on the piano while the strings had the fun part. I was glad that Eileen got a chance to hear this piece in the choir room because, of course, when we performed it the church was buzzing with people leaving the room.

I had toyed with inviting my two sopranos to come early as well. I did so because both of them have a tendency to arrive late or sometimes just not show up. I resisted. One of them came early. This felt a bit healthier mentally to me than me asking them to come early. The other came late and was in tears for most of the morning.

Eileen said earlier that she didn’t think this ending to the season was unusual for its zaniness. This puts the onus on me since it has felt a bit weirder than usual to me. Maybe it’s age, but with my priest out of commission for all of the Easter Season (which ended yesterday with Pentecost) and with a majority of choir members doing some acting out during this period, it’s hard for me not to see it as a tough ending to the season.

I kept my promise to myself to be the person in the room in the best mood. Mostly I just think, “fuck it,” and keep moving.

In such a small choir, it’s very noticeable when people misbehave. Yesterday I had about 12 choristers for the service. I can think of 3 who arrived late for the pregame. 2 of these managed not to find the music for the day that I put on each chorister’s chair and slowed down the rehearsal further as I made sure they had a copy of the psalm or whatever.

The music itself went pretty well. The piano trio performed well. The two pieces by CPE Bach we performed for the prelude and the beginning of communion are two that I particularly like. The choir sounded pretty good especially considering we were missing half of the sopranos and one bass. The sopranos did a good job despite one of them weeping throughout.

So now I recuperate. I have lots of new music to study and catalog since my package of used music came in the mail. After we got home from taking Sarah to the airport I made a play list of the Masses by Dufy, Obrecht and Ockeghem based on the Caput excerpt I mentioned yesterday.

Bukofzer has an extensive study of these pieces and their historical significance which is considerable. I dipped into it yesterday while listening to the Dufay. Nice stuff and a good way to begin my break from the choir.

Eileen, Sarah, and I goofed off and played marathon Boggle yesterday between breakfast and lunch. I went to the church in the afternoon while Eileen and Sarah made strawberry jam and did one last (?) trip to purchase Amurikan stuff for Sarah to take home with her on the plane today. Then we went over to see Mary and Sarah had pictures taken of her with Mary and me (Eileen took the pics. Sarah decided she had enough pics of Eileen.) It has been good to have Sarah around. I hope her trip home is as comfortable as possible.

A box of used music arrived in the mail yesterday. I purchased about $100 of old music from Craig Cramer. I began looking through it yesterday. There is some cool stuff  in this order.

At these prices I sometimes order things out of curiosity. I have never looked the music of Sharon Elery Rogers, so I ordered a couple books of her compositions (Hymn Settings for All Seasons and Solera Toccata). I read through bits of the hymn settings yesterday and found them attractive.

There is a beautiful book of Sweelinck’s work, Worken voor Orgel en Clavecimbel. It was published in Amsterdam in 1943 and edited by Max Seiffert. It’s in good condition. I already own the Dover Sweelinck so I plan to keep this beautiful book at home.

There is a performance edition published by Yale Press of three Masses by Dufay, Ockeghem, and Obrecht. They are called “Caput” masses because they all three base their mass on a snippet of an antiphon from Maundy Thursday. The text of this antiphon is Peter and Jesus talking about whether Jesus will wash Peter’s feet. You may recall that at first, Peter refuses to allow it. Jesus says that if he refuses, Peter will have “no part of me.” Then Peter says that Jesus should not only wash his feet but his hands and his head (caput). There is a long series of notes on the last syllable of “caput” (a melisma). It is part of this little section that the composers draw on to make their mass.

This music is near and dear to my heart and I am very happy to have this edition to peruse and study. The scholarship is, of course, a bit dated since this volume was published in 1964. But it was fun to see another of my treasured books, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music by Bukofzer mentioned in the critical notes of this edition.

I seem to have finally got hold of some decent Krebs editions by purchasing two volumes from Craig. Krebs is someone I like a lot. I have purchased editions in the past and been unhappy with them. Compositions spread over too many pages with awkward page turns and laid out kind of weird on the page. I’m glad to get some better ones.

George Steiner has some beautiful insights in his book on Sophocles’ play, Antigone.

“Great art, music above all, can set off within each of us those oscillations between self-consciousness on the one hand and subterranean intimations of a negation or a transcendence of the “I” on the other.”

George Steiner, Antigones, p. 214

I take this to mean, in part, that music and art can engender awareness both on a level of our personal identify and on a much larger level of self-eradication or transcendence.

And that we can move back and forth (oscillate) between the two.

Mundanely, for me this echoes my own ideas of having conversations with music and authors and eaves dropping on their conversations with each other via experiencing and performing their compositions and reading and comparing notes between writers and their ideas.

“Drama is born and reborn in performance.”

George Steiner, Antigones, p. 198

The idea that a performance is both a creation and a re-creation is inherent in the notion of live renderings whether thinking about drama or music. I see  it like a dance.

I make my music for itself, but music is communication. Who is communicating and to whom is something being communicated? The listener or the audience is part of the dance. But what if it’s not apparent if anyone is listening (as in so much of my work)?

I love reading plays and imagining the performance. In doing so, I create my own sense of performers and audience. In the case of music, it seems there is an ideal listener. When I am performing wonderful music at church, whether this is a regularly appointed service or a wedding or a funeral, I have developed  the practice that when people standing near me begin talking loudly, I play softer.

When I do this I picture myself drawing closer to the music and the composer. It’s as though the beauty of the music were a lit candle that is threatening to be extinguished by the sounds nearby. I cover the flame to keep it from going out.

Well if you have labored through all this bullshit I am spinning, I thank you.

Today is Sarah’s last full day in Holland. Her typical pattern is to begin grieving about leaving. Some of this began yesterday. It’s hard for her and for those of us that love her. But it’s something we’re used to by now.

It brings to my mind the many times my family of origin left its West Virginia branch in South Charleston.

I can see my grandmother, my mother’s mother, Thelma, standing on the porch trying not to weep at our leaving.

It has always boggled my mind the way my Mom fits into her own family of origin. Her brother, Richard, and sister, Ella, and their families lived literally across the street and a few houses down from their own parents, Jim and Thelma, for much of their life.  Mary, my Mom, left the city as a young woman to go to Bible college  in Anderson, Indiana, a distant world away. What must that have been like?

I admire the courage and fortitude it must have taken for my Mom to do this, just as I admire these attributes in my daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth.

Plus we are lucky at this time that the global communications technology allows us to stay more connected than ever despite being separated a world away.

New President of Brazil, Michel Temer, Signals More Conservative Shift – The New York Times

Yesterday the headline on this article was “New Leader in Brazil Hints at a Tilt to the Right.”  “Signals” is a bit more accurate, I think, than “tilt to the right.”Reading through it, I was appalled at how the corrupt conservatives have won this particular battle so far. Temer has appointed reactionary no-nothings to governmental positions. The NYT has troubling seeing what is happening in Brazil: corrupt governmental officials are seizing power and covering their asses. The deposed president, Rousseff, has, in fact, broken no laws. This article seems to have changed more than the headline. Originally the language around Rousseff’s accusations were more legalistic than the way they read now: ” She is accused of manipulating the federal budget to hide yawning deficits, a budgetary sleight of hand that her critics say helped her get re-elected in 2014.”

Plus the story is buried in the last few paragraphs that woman were chaining themselves to barriers around the presidential palace and shouting slogans in support of Rousseff.

Jes sayin.

Yesterday I tossed another day of life into my past. I had nothing scheduled and my brain went on hold for most of the day. I stared at books, Facebooger, chatted with my daughter and wife, generally did little eschewing even my passion of practicing for the most part. I did spend a bit of time with Philip Glass’s Etude 11 that I keep regularly murdering…. I mean practicing.

Eileen and Sarah set off in the drizzle to watch a parade. I remained behind. Eventually I summoned meager ambition and ambled over to Mom’s nursing home and back. On my return I began listening to Brahms. It seemed to fit with my and the day’s mood. I was pleased to find the recording that I know best of Brahms Fourth Symphony on YouTube.

But it wasn’t until after the return of wife and daughter that I discovered that I was looking for this movement.

I only figured this out quietly examining my piano transcriptions of the Brahms symphonies.

I feel slightly more sane this morning. I think I needed a day off or something. Here’s another recording of Mov III from Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, slightly slower.

I was fantasizing about taking a notebook to take notes to my therapy session scheduled next month. I guess I’m slightly anxious about doing therapy, but mostly I’m curious in what feels like an uncomfortably self obsessed way.

I apologized to my friend Peter in an email for recently allowing my mask of serenity to slip and bit and going all intense all over him. He replied that he knew me and expected intensity. Nice.

I’m listening to the second recording above through headphones. The bedroom where my daughter, Sarah, is staying is on the first floor and I don’t want to disturb her more than is necessary with my morning noises and routine.

I was happy to find several lines of the original Greek of Sophocles’ Antigone this morning in a collection of Greek Verse.

George Steiner’s book on Antigones is engrossing. This morning I read a small chapter entirely on the first line of this play, examining the words carefully. I feel a bit goofy about this, but I am fascinated by this kind of thing.

Besides my usual studying and reading this morning, I found myself puling out this book and reading in it.

Karen Gordon has written an engaging little book about the subject of English grammar. Part of her cleverness is her demonstration sentences which seem to be talking about some interesting evolving situations involving vampires, werewolves, and debutantes.

Well, enough.

Although I am better today I suspect I am in the throes of winding down this choral season at church. Soon I will be able to relax in the back yard and read. I think I need it.

I arrived at church for the funeral yesterday earlier than usual. I needed to straighten the choir area in the church from the rehearsals the day before. I also used this time to pick organ music for a week from Sunday. This will be Trinity and I found a nice setting of ST. PATRICK’S BREASTPLATE which we have made a standard hymn for Trinity at Grace. The composer is one I don’t know: John Hebden Schafner. A quick google reveals that his dates were 1945 to 1995 and that he was self taught in organ and piano. This composition is very well constructed and is basically a little contrapuntal treatment of the melody.

For the postlude, I chose one of the 8 variations Walther left us of the melody “Allein gott in der höh sei ehr.”

This the tune of the closing hymn for Trinity.

The funeral was uneventful. Rev Jen presided. This was her second Eucharist since her surgery. Her first was the 9:30 AM that preceded the funeral.

After the funeral, Jen, Mary Miller the office administrator, and I had lunch together. Then Jen and I met. It’s such an odd thing to have a boss like Jen. After I meet with her almost every time I feel encouraged and understood. Not sure how she does this, but she does.

I walked back home to an empty house. Eileen and Sarah were actively pursuing enjoying Tulip Time. I sat in the backyard and read.

McChesney sent me scurrying to my multi volume set of Woodrow Wilson’s A History of the American People. McChesney and Nichols referred to this President as a scholar and quoted him. I remembered that my grandfather Jenkins had given me a five volume set by Wilson.

You’ll notice there are only four volumes in the picture above. That’s because I seem to have lost the first volume. Damn.

I took volume 2 outside to read in the lovely weather we are having. Each volume is inscribed from my Grandfather to me.

You’ll notice that the year Pop Ben gave these books to me was the year that Kennedy was assassinated (1963) but earlier in the year. This is also the year my family moved from Greeneville, Tennessee to Flint, Michigan.

McChesney and Nichols quoted Wilson about the creation of the Constitution, so I wasn’t actually interested in starting reading the first volume which subtitled “The Swarming of the English.” Even the second volume which I began reading in yesterday begins before the Revolutionary War.  Wilson’s prose is clear and engaging. He rehearses history I am interested in and is probably basically accurate as far as it goes. If I get curious, I see that volume one is actually available in a Kindle edition as well as a paperback edition.

I returned to church for a rehearsal with my violinist and cellist for Sunday. This was fun. Both of these fine musicians are more comfortable reading music off the page than playing in the style I wrote the postlude. The style is more like a fakey jazz line over the melody, “It’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit.” We zipped through difficult music by CPE Bach easily but spent a lot of time helping them play these popular music style licks.

It always amuses me when literacy stands in the way of something like this. That doesn’t happen often these days. And classical musicians are more experienced and have more ease with this sort of transition from “straight” to “popular” style than they used to. But it can still be a bit of odd challenge for them. It should be fun on Sunday.

Putting Grit in Its Place – The New York Times

I think we keep dancing around the need for clarity and discipline in learning. Jes sayin.