Eileen got up good and early and boarded a train for Chicago. From there she will get to O’Hare for a flight to Beijing. She is looking forward to seeing the Beijing branch of the fam. I will be on my own for the two weeks she is gone. She asked me what I would do while she was gone and I confessed that it would be what I usually do: read, practice and study. I will miss her but I do enjoy my solitude.

And of course I am daily monitoring the progress on getting the organ installed. Yesterday we had many visitors. It was fun to chat with people coming to look at the ongoing installation process.

Yesterday I gave some thought to what I would play this weekend for the prelude and postlude. It’s possible I will have one rank to use. Jen did promise the congregation the organ would not be silent this Sunday.  So I chose a couple of pieces I think I could do on one manual with one rank: The Irishe Ho Hoane (from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book)

This recording is lovely but a bit on the slow side for me. I will also play “Mit Ganczem Willen Wünsch Ich Dir” by Conrad Paumann (1410-1473).

I like this recording of this organ piece. The original tune comes form Fundamentum Organisandi (1452).

I  know I have performed the first one at Grace before and I probably have used the second some time because it is one I like quite a bit.

The choir is  singing “The Lord is my Shepherd” buy cheap valium from india by Dvo?ák (it’s Good Shepherd Sunday). Here’s a recording of it being sung in Czech. I like the accordion sounding accompaniment better than piano which is the way you often hear this sung as an art song.

I chose two eclogues for piano by Dvo?ák for possible use Sunday. I found two that I like and will enjoying learning. Both are two long but I have come up with clever ways to excerpt them.

Our first hymn is the folky tune: “Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord!”

 

I chose this eclogue for a possible piano prelude because it’s in the same key.

 

I especially like the C section of this rondo-like eclogue. I think it’s lovely and wanted to include it in my excerpt.

 

For a piano postlude I chose the B section of Eclogue 3 (B 103).

 

 

I won’t know which of these pieces I will need for this Sunday for a few days, but it’s all music I enjoy and look forward to spending time with all of it in preparation.

I talked music with Marcus and Grant, Martin Pasi’s co-workers yesterday. Marcus saw Zappa live in Zurich when he came out and “took a dump” on stage and that was the whole disappointing performance.

I asked Grant to recommend some music he liked. He mentioned Tyr and Devon Townsend. I listened to both and I think I like Devon Townsend. Here’s a video of a performance from last December at Royal Alpert Hall. If you’re impatient, the music begins around 5:12 but the goofy opening set up is growing on me.