I had a phone call from my boss, Jennifer Adams, around noon yesterday. I was scheduled to come and play a Eucharist for the Diocesan Saint Nicholas workshop being held at our church. Jen said that turnout was very light and that most of the kids present were very young. She had planned a Eucharist with lots of singing of hymns. it would require more than the few adults present. So she canceled.

This actually made my day go better. After lunch Eileen and I visited Mom. Then we drove back to the house and I walked to church to practice and prepare for today. I ran into a choir member who had attended the Saint Nicholas workshop and was not very happy about the Eucharist being canceled. He and I chatted for quite a while. It turns out that he was still trying to reconcile himself emotionally to the election. We had a nice chat.

After that I prepared the choir room for today’s pregame. I also chose organ music for Advent IV. For the prelude, I am planning to repeat a setting of Veni Emmanual by Pamela Decker.

For the postlude, a happy little thing from Norman Dello Joio’s collection, Lyrical Pieces for the Young Organist.

Despite the title, it’s not a super easy piece. It’s called Caccia, but I’m think of simply titling it “Allegro Animato” (the tempo marking) for the bulletin.

It sounds a bit like a hunting song hence the title. But I think it will make an attractive postlude for the last Sunday before Christmas.

Speaking of Dello Joio, my violinist, Amy, gave me a signed photocopy of one of his choral pieces. it is inscribed to her Dad. Very cool.

Greg Lake, of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Dies at 69 – The New York Times

I didn’t realize the connection between King Crimson and ELP. Also, I didn’t understand the music as attempt to move away from “American influence.” Weird.

Harry Reid: Farewell, Fair Senate – The New York Times

Interesting farewell from Senator Reid.

My violinist and I read through a couple movements of Bach’s violin sonata BWV 1017 on Thursday. When we got to the Adagio, I noticed that she was playing the solo line as though it were a  triplet figure instead of a dotted eighth-sixteen. After we finished the movement I asked her about it. She said that though it was notated that way, it felt more natural to play along with accompaniment.

I have been thinking a lot about things like this lately. I finished the summary section in Stephen E. Hefling’s 1993 book, Rhythmic Alteration in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century Music: Notes Inegales and  Overdotting. This expensive little book that I interlibrary loaned is an extensive survey of sources about playing music differently than it is written.

Hefling is one of a number of scholars I have been reading in an effort to update myself on performance practices. I am finding that Hefling, along with John Butt and others have a much more practical approach to what Butt calls Historical informed Performance.

One of the main insights I am getting from Butt’s book, Playing with History, is the acknowledgement musicians are making that how we make music, even historical music, is more about now than then.

Which brings me back to my violinist’s instinctual change in the music. Amy (her name) is a highly trained musician with many years of experience in symphonic music as well as fiddle music. Her musical sensibilities are strong. Her changing of Bach represents to my mind a practical and beautiful response to the notes on the page. This is what it means that how we make music is more about now than then. We strive to inform ourselves, but ultimately what we do is informed by who we are at the moment and where we are playing and what instruments we are using.

Imagine That – On The Media – WNYC

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I am finding much of the hysteria on the left (my side) off putting. I am a fan of “On the Media,” however, the way they begin this week’s show had me flipping it off and moving to CounterSpin for my media fix this morning while cleaning the kitchen.

In an effort to overcome her and Bob’s own anxiety, Gladstone seems to be saying that the media (CounterSpin calls it the corporate media) failed the public with its own failure of imagination in regards to Trump. We need more imagination, she seems to be saying.

I think this is bunk. What we need is more clarity and better reporting and less transcribing of official statements and tweets of the president Elect. I will return to “On the Media” and finish listening to this episode.

In the meantime, I think that FAIR (Fair and Accuracy in Reporting) does a good job of critiquing the media, even though it’s obvious to me that they share my political point of view. But there’s no denying that they put their finger on things.

I see my readership has declined further. This assumes that Google Analytics “visits” have any significance. This corresponds to my own feelings of being invisible and eccentric. No matter. I continue to experience my daily life as a mixture of interesting engagement with ideas and beauty through reading and music and a sense of living in an exterior environment of hysteria, falsity, and crisis in American life.

The hysteria I experience is largely political. I suppose one could think of people who support our president-elect and ones who view his election with alarm. Although i am clearly in the latter camp, I find both kinds of hysteria off putting. Supporters of Trump seem to have a cavalier attitude about facts and coherence. The anti-Trump camp has created confusion in my mind with its adopting the political language of activism in the absence of actual political activity or even new governmental actions.

Thus hysteria on right and left social media (mainly Facelessbooger)  blurs with daily anxiety I experience in people.

Falsity is a parameter of church work I have experienced all my life. From my point of view, it is fortunate that I have as yet to entirely adapt to it. I am grateful at this time in my life to be associated with church work that is the least objectionable I can imagine and at the same time remunerates me so that Eileen and I can live.

But then there are moments.

Moments like yesterday. My intellectual, emotional, and physical fatigue asserts itself on the days after church work. Mondays and Thursdays are usually days I remind myself that the reason I am grumpy or tired or out of sorts is that I am still in recovery mode. When I am called on to do church work on these days like committee meetings and funerals (yesterday), the recovery takes longer.

As I’m sure you are aware, dear reader (whose numbers are dwindling), funerals in America are fakey. There is always a disconnect between the moment and the events that have led to it. I am reminded of Ed Friedman’s observation that “There is never, you should pardon the expression, a shit suicide” by that he meant we don’t assume that someone who has killed themselves wasn’t a “shit.”

Similarly when ritual is reduced to elegy and numb disregard and misunderstanding of religious rituals not normally part of one’s life, it’s pretty pathetic. As I help lead these moments, I am reminded that living, breathing people are always a mixture of good and bad. We are none of us the ideal person we see in our mind’s eye. And at the same time we are all of us more worthy than we probably think we are. God help those who try to put a label on us especially when mourning.

What’s the Best Music to Listen to While Working? – The Atlantic

Silence for thinking but what about cooking?

live music

At the organ committee meeting Monday, I heard two people describe what happened in churches that got rid of organs as “taking out the organ and putting in live music.”

When I mentioned this to both my wife and my boss (who was there and heard at least one person say it), they were surprised. I guess I wasn’t. Too many bars, street corners and churches where I was part of “live music” that seem like a commodity, I guess.

avoiding crowds

Today I have invited my trio to come to my home to practice instead of the church. Today is what we call “Feeding America” day at Grace. Due to the hardships in people’s lives and the season, they are expecting record numbers. It can be difficult to get in and out of the parking lot along about the time my trio is finishing up.

I continue to watch Donald Trump eviscerate our country. I noticed that his supporters on Facebooger (who still hate liberals, Obama, and me, I guess) linked up the fact that Time has made Trump, man of the year. Of course the article in the magazine is anything but complimentary about this.

I read part of this morning. I continue to observe that our corporate media is not really changing at all. Reality has shifted underneath them, but they continue to try to straddle popular culture and clarity. These two are really incompatible. The conversation has changed. The only antidote that I can see is to side step the old “horse race/popular culture” approach which empties public journalism of content and replaces it with entertainment and movie clips in the service of trying to the bring the “news.”

Some brains would be nice. But in the meantime, trying to find accurate, incisive essays and information online or on the boob toob takes some intrepid effort. One thing is, this search isn’t very crowded.

dream report

I was staying in a chalet with several other college kids. We had all returned to college after a brief hiatus and classes were about to begin again. I couldn’t remember my schedule. I knew that I had an 11 AM class that was a technical class of some sort and also that I was taking a language class later in the day.

I was ransacking my brains and the chalet trying to figure this out. All the other students left. There were still some people milling about. Then I remembered that I had graduated. i had a degree and was no longer enrolled. Huge relief.

unmotivated Tuesday

I don’t really have too much to say today. Yesterday, I had to force myself to go to church and practice. I made myself write a bulletin article first. I wonder if I’m a bit of a sap about my job. I enjoy it, sure. But I can’t help but wonder if after all these years since St. John’s in Oscoda I’m still essentially making a full time gig out of a part time one. At least it pays well even for a part time job.

And I am drawn into continuing to improve my skills as an organist. I methodically practiced the first movement of the G major trio of Bach.  I took a page or two at a time beginning at the ending and working backwards to the beginning. Hands alone, RH and pedal, LH and pedal, then four times through with hands and pedal. This took some time.

Then I turned to the Guilmant pieces I am playing Sunday for the prelude and postlude. Four times through each, dammit. Then the psalm. Again four times through. I notice that my organ student who has just recently taken up study with me again has not moved her music since last Friday. I’m not sure I want to keep taking money from her for lessons if she’s not going to practice. But I’ll wait a bit before making her quit. In all likelihood she’ll lose interest before I do.

This Sunday’s bulletin article

Music note Our Advent “Kyrie” and “Holy, Holy” were composed by Frank Boles in 2003 for use during  Advent. They are based on a melody taken from a ninth century chant which is found in the Hymnal 1982, “Creator of the Stars of Night,” # 60. The same melody is also used for the hymn for the lighting of lamps in transition from daylight to evening,   Hymnal 1982 #26, “O Gracious Light.” (also found in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. at pp. 64 and 118). We will sing the first three stanzas of Hymn 60 next week in our annual celebration of Advent Lessons and Carols.

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911) composed today’s prelude and postlude for use on the Third Sunday of Advent. They are taken from his ten volume  L’Organiste Liturgiste pour Orgue ou Harmonium. He conceived of this lengthy work as a tribute to Bach’s organ chorale settings, especially as organized in the Orgelbüchlein (“Little Organ Book”) BWV 599−644. Both Bach and Guilmant wrote pieces based on chants and chorales which evoke various season of the church year.  Guilmant was writing before the Roman Catholic Church standardized its modern use of chant in the Liber Usalis (1923), the work of the Benedictine monks at The Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes in France.

Once again our Sunday morning Eucharist draws on a long span of Christian musical masterpieces from the ninth century to the present. submitted by Steve Jenkins, Music Director

I was planning to practice yesterday after the organ committee meeting. Rev Jen, two parishioners, and I met with our architect. We went over plans to prepare the back of the church for the installation of the new organ next year.

This includes some radical changes. The air conditioning units are to be boxed in over the chapel. This is where they now sit. But in the summer one cannot hear anything but air conditioner in the music area and back of the church when it is on.

In addition the wall of the chapel will be reinforced and made harder by the addition of layers of plywood under the present type of veneer. This is expedited by the fact that much of this wall will need to be altered anyway. To the far right facing the chapel there will need to be a small closet protruding from the wall to house the sound system. This will be accessible from the chapel but the hum of this unit will not longer be able to be heard in the room.

The present door in the middle of the wall is to be moved to the far left. All of this entails changing the wall anyway so it will be a good time to reinforce it to be a reflective surface as well.

The front of the choir area is to be converted to three small steps all the way across presented in a slightly curved manner.

There was much discussion about the piano in the room. One parishioner was particularly resistant to moving some pews to accommodate a larger area for a decent baby grand. She couched her objections in language about it not being a concert hall. Rather quickly there after the architect pointed out that the design would actually be more like a concert hall.

I also had to present my case for a baby grand versus an upright.

It looks like I pretty much lost this in this meeting. They decided to house the piano (an upright) directly behind the organ bench in the front of the choir area. It would actually be inset in the stairs. There are also plans to create a collapsible section of stairs that would be housed behind the piano. This would enable the piano to be moved out and the stairs pulled out to create an unbroken three steps across the choir area. Presumably this would be another step in which we would consider purchasing and finding a place for a baby grand.

During the discussion of the sound system, the committee considered putting a sound proof door over the sound system in the chapel. This created the problem of not having ventilation for the amplifiers. Instead of a sound proof door there, why not turn off the system when the chapel is being used. Can it be turned off? wondered some of the committee. The rest of us pointed out that loss of power would certainly cause it be turned off.

Later when we were in the church visualizing changes, the power went off. The sound system started beeping frantically in the dark. A young man in a yellow electrician’s helmet and uniform came in and asked us to move our cars because “we had a situation.”

So much for practicing organ.

Trump’s Threat to the Constitution – The New York Times

This guy’s a Republican who seems appalled at Trump’s appalling ignorance.

100 Notable Books of 2016 – The New York Times

Always an interesting list.

talking to the dead

I spend my days in the company of my beloved wife but also in the company of great minds of composers and writers.

I see this existence as one of conversation. To the realist, I must appear delusional. And this is understandable. One person said to me regarding this that while I can listen to the dead in their music, poetry and other writings, they cannot hear me, thus it is not a conversation.

I am comfortable with my delusion. I was also comforted that the narrator of Browning’s poem, “Sordello,” has a similar delusion.

 but few
Friends fate accords me? Here they are: now view
The host I muster! Many a lighted face
Foul with no vestige of the grave’s disgrace;
What else should tempt them back to taste our air
Except to see how their successors fare?
My audience! and they sit, each ghostly man
Striving to look as living as he can,
Brother by breathing brother; thou art set,
Clear-witted critic, by . . . but I ‘ll not fret
A wondrous soul of them, nor move death’s spleen
Who loves not to unlock them.

playing bach’s english suites in a french style

I’ve always wondered about names of the two groups of keyboard suites by Bach called “English suites” and “French suites.” I see few stylistic indications which would cause them to be called these names. So when I read recently in Hefling’s book on Rhythmic Alteration that when thinking about French practice in the 17th and 18th century, he writes

though “Telemann and J.S. Bach …. were well acquainted with the French style from early their careers… many passages of intricate harmony in Bach’s so-called “French” Suites (BWV 812-17) for keyboard could hardly have been written in Paris, and several movements do not resemble French models….” [Stephen J. Hefling, Rhythmic Alterations in Seventeenth- and Eighteen-Century Music: Notes Inégales and Overdotting, 1993, p. 144

Two pages earlier in this text Hefling s summarizes contemporary sources ideas on tempos:

“According to writers such as L’Affilard, Pajot [Count D’Onzembray], Choquel, and Quantz, a courante, for example, should move in the vicinity of M.M. 80-90 to the beat, a gavotte should be taken somewhere between 97 and 152 to the half note; and the beat of a gigue should be about 100 to 120, perhaps even as fast as 160.”

This is a handy place to start when trying to figure out the tempos to suites both French and German.

cat report

Edison is gobbling up baby food and kitten versions of cat food. The cortisone shot seems to have made a difference although it took 24 hours to kick in. I don’t know if we are extending his life in the face some sort of dire disease but at least he is much like his old self and seems pretty regular. I’m supposed to report to the vet this week. If he begins to lose appetite or show other symptoms of lethargy, I think they will give him another cortisone shot.

couple more birky observations

When we discussing performance anxiety and taking musical risks last Friday, Dr. Birky told me a colleague of his defines mental health with three concepts:

1. owning one’s own feelings

2. accepting consequences of one’s actions

3. being willing to take risks

I told him this seemed like a definition of living to me.

He also mentioned brain studies that show certain parts of the brain lighting up in men and women. A female brain is a bit more likely to show evidence of expression and talking to process situations. A male brain more likely to have its problem solving areas light up a bit.

The “Aha” in this for me is that while Eileen and I tend to have reverse stereotypes in these areas (she’s the problem solver, I’m the blabber), it may be that we could benefit from paying attention to these attributes in more typical gender ways. Again this means for my part I need to keep trying to  learn to be able to keep my damn trap shut when needed.

Kobach, Brownback and post-truth Kansas | The Wichita Eagle

Peng Chang-kuei, Chef Behind General Tso’s Chicken, Dies at 98 – The New York Times

 

Andrew Sachs, Hapless Waiter on the BBC Sitcom ‘Fawlty Towers,’ Dies at 86 – The New York Times

Que?

Automatic Voter Registration a ‘Success’ in Oregon – The New York Times

some good news in a dark time

The Seven Habits of Highly Depolarizing People – Better Angels

“Hang it all, Robert Browning,

..the .. there can be but one “Sordello.”
But Sordello and my Sordello?”

This is beginning of Pound’s second canto in Cantos. I have read these lines for years and love the way they sound. I also like Robert Browning quite a bit and picked up twelve volumes of his works at a library sale. years ago So when I was reading about the poem “Sordello” by Browning and a critic said something about it being a masterpiece, this morning instead of turning to Pound I began reading “Sordello.” I was delighted to find that my ancient creaky edition of his works has an essay and notes on this lengthy poem in the back. Cool.

Bach organ trios

A post or two back I mentioned that Peter Williams said that playing the organ trios can give a keyboard player a unique sort of feeling between the voices he is playing distinct from instruments playing the independent lines. I promised that I might put up the quote which inspired me to think about this. Here it is.

“The Sonatas make a world of their own, as distinctive and accomplished as the first movements of Leipzig cantatas or the preludes and fugues of WTCI. The two hands are not merely imitative but so planned as to give a curious satisfaction to the player, with phrases answering each other and syncopations dancing from hand to hand, palpable in a way not quite known even to two violinists.” Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J.S. Bach: Second edition, p. 9

Yesterday I worked over the first movement of the sixth trio. I discovered that the articulation marks in it, the slurs mostly, make an interesting argument for some separation in non-marked sections. There is a logic to the slurs. Bach put some slurs over repeated notes. It’s logical, then, to assume that this means repeated notes in this piece without slurs should be played more separately.

Here’s an screen shot from Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, Band 15

or in Bach’s manuscript (don’t you love the interwebs?)

Although yesterday organ practice seemed to be a difficult one for me (had trouble concentrating), I learned a lot about this movement by thinking more carefully about the marked slurs. Cool.

Annotations for Pound’s Cantos

It took me some time this morning, but I found annotations for Pound’s Cantos online. It would seem like Joyce texts, the Cantos would be a natural for hyperlinks or annotations online.

Cat report

Edison is still out of sorts. I managed to give him a pill on Friday morning. I thought I had given it to him the night before, but it turns out what I gave him was an empty “pill pocket.” When I called yesterday  morning to ask about it, I learned that I was supposed to put the appetite stimulant pill in the second of the two “pill pockets” and give it to Edison. The first one was to see if he would eat them. He gobbled down the first one (empty) on Thursday evening and the second one on Friday morning.

But he is being very picky about what cat food he eats. He refused everything but baby food during the day. I purchased some kitty style canned food and he ate that. This morning (while I was TRYING to sleep) he acted hungry, but I couldn’t figure out what I did with the leftover kitty canned food (I put it back in the cupboard! Damn! Can’t feed that to him.) so I offered him some more baby food. He picked at it eventually eating it.

I think I should probably take him in for a cortisone shot today. It seems to be the consensus of the concerned humans that this is the route to go with Edison’s care. The other choice is to kick everything up a notch and get a referral to a Cat oncologist in Grand Rapids. The idea is that Edison may have some sort of cancer that doesn’t show up on the vet’s x-ray. However, pursuing this approach could easily make Edison’s quality of life lousy for a good long time with no guarantee of extending his life very long beyond aggressive treatment.

Edison update

After writing the above, I called Eileen and we decided I should take the cat in for a cortisone shot which I just did. His weight is about the same. The vet said the cortisone has multiple effects including making the cat more comfortable and stimulating his appetite. I’m supposed to get back to them next week with a report on how Edison is doing.

It surprises me how tired I feel this morning. Some of this might be the way Edison interrupted my sleep last night but who knows?

Dr. Birky report

I enjoyed my session with my therapist, Dr. Birky, yesterday. It’s hard not to wonder if I am just paying this man to talk wviith and listen to me. How pathetic is that?

I shared with him the insight I had recently talking to Eileen. In a relationship, one can’t really help the other person, one can only help oneself. But It IS possible to unhelpful to each other. My goal is to not be unhelpful to Eileen. It’s not as easy as it sounds and involves shutting my goddam mouth more.

The Seven Habits of Highly Depolarizing People – Better Angels

This article came across my Vicebook (Facebook) feed recently. Good stuff.

team teaching at work

I met with my boss, Jen Adams, yesterday. As usual it was a good meeting. I had several things I wanted to talk to her about. One of them was the worship commission meeting on Monday evening. At that meeting, I talked more than usual. We met in the basement to discuss how to do Sunday Eucharist there while the church was being refurbished to accommodate the new organ.

Jen had arranged the chairs and set up a table so that we could think about how to do Eucharist there. She stood in front for the most part. I kept brainstorming ideas and talking about meaning much the way I do in our private meetings. I was allowing the rest of the committee to see how intentional and thoughtful Jen can be.

In our weekly meeting yesterday, she agreed with me that it was a kind of team teaching. My liturgical understandings come to the fore in this kind of a conversation. Usually I don’t do that much talking at Worship Commission. But it was good to hear that it had been effective.

performing bach trio sonatas on the organ

Yesterday I counted. I have performed over half of the 18 movements of Bach’s 6 trios for organ. This surprises me. But I’m also glad. It helps me understand that my technique on the organ is not as bad as I often think of it as being.

I played through trio 5 yesterday. I will probably work carefully through trio 6 today. These pieces make excellent etudes this way. I am regaining an appreciation of their musical value as well. Peter Williams remarks (I believe) that in these piece Bach establishes a relationship between the lines in the left and right hand that is uniquely keyboard in its design and meaning. This is in contrast to emulating instrumental writing slavishly.

I often think of the independent lines in Bach’s keyboard music as transcriptions of instrumental lines. I love hearing these piece actually performed in instrumental ensembles. Regaining an appreciation for their uniquely keyboard attributes is fun as well. I’ll have to look up that quote in which Williams makes this observation.

No time, now, though. I have to have breakfast and drive away to see Dr. Birky my shrink this morning.

Here’s what I’m listening to this morning. I love this music and the movie, Tous les matins du monde Soundtrack:

sooprise! sooprise!

It’s Thursday and I amuse myself by noticing that I woke up feeling desperately inadequate and exhausted. Oh, that’s right. Choir rehearsal was last night.

Eileen’s Mom is ill. Eileen’s sister, Nancy, accepted Eileen’s offer to come up and spend a couple nights with her Mom to relieve Nancy. Eileen got up early and just left so that she will be at her Mom’s when the people coming to fix the phones arrive.

pronouncing “bade”

We are learning William Walton’s beautiful choral anthem, “What Cheer?”

It’s a bit tricky but doable I think. Last night as I was working on it with the choir, a chorister asked another how to pronounce the word “bade.” Instantly (in the middle of working with these choristers on learning the notes and rhythms), there was a discussion of how to do this  with one chorister being particularly emphatic (dare I say angry?) in his insistence that the word was pronounced to rhyme with “mad.”

He was right.

However, I misunderstood his reasoning. He was trying to say that in any situation this is the correct pronunciation. I thought he was trying to make the anthem rhyme properly due to the way he explained himself.

I pointed out that I was under the delusion that I was the choir director and that for now we would pronounce it “bayed” so that we could concentrate on learning notes. I probably did say it that clearly or even that diplomatically.

I promised the choir a couple of links to pieces we are learning including the Walton, so I came home after rehearsal and sent them off, pointing out that the chorister was insisted the word was pronounced to rhyme with “mad” was correct as could be clearly heard in the recording.

I was still smart a bit this morning after last evening’s rehearsal so I got up and researched it. This is how I proceed. I rarely make decisions just on the advice of choristers no matter how learned they are.

There was an entry in Garner’s Modern English Usage which was helpful. I also checked it out in the OED.

I have to meet my boss today. She was too busy yesterday. So that’s all for today. Here’s a play list I made this morning of another wonderful Bach piece I played through several times this morning to restore a semblance of sanity to the old Jupe brain.