So I made it through the first “hump day” of my winter schedule: Three ballet classes, prep for choir rehearsal and then rehearsal itself. I spent from 8:30 AM to 1 PM at the Dow where ballet classes are held. During my break from 10 AM to 11, I mostly practiced piano. I have been reading further through Scarlatti sonatas having purchased Longo’s eleven volume edition from my teacher, Craig Cramer. I am on volume seven. At this point, I am enjoying the music so much I am planning to just start over and read through them again when I finish. The only drawback to this edition is that it is heavily edited with superfluous articulations and dynamics which one must ignore. But I don’t see myself purchasing Kenneth Gilbert’s superior edition. A quick google seems to indicate it is also eleven volumes but is $130 a volume making it pricey.

Anyway, during my break yesterday I read some Scarlatti and then played Words with Friends (Facebooger’s Scrabble).

I don’t think I mentioned here that Sunday I had about twelve singers at Eucharist after only rehearsing with five the previous Wednesday. Last night, I had a full complement of singers again. It’s kind of relief, because with the exception of a couple people, singers were not indicating to me their intentions of whether they were going to continue with the choir. It may seem that I’m overreacting by wondering, but my experience is that people come and go in the choir at Grace without talking to me about their reasons or intentions. I look out on Sunday mornings and see numerous people who have sung in the choir and then just disappeared and never spoke to me. I think this is weird not to say rude, but try to factor it in when I plan.

So it looks like my list of choral anthems I have been putting together for this season will not need to be altered to fit a different group. That’s nice.

I skipped my treadmilling in order to preserve energy but did do some serious prep on the choir rehearsal, checking anthem tempos with mister metronome.

This all paid off with a solid rehearsal last night.

1. When There Was a Mock Plantation in Brooklyn – NYTimes.com

Okay this is really weird. This article is about a 1895 pretend Plantation set up in New York for people to wander like Greenfield Village in Dearborn. I only found the article because I was reading in the letters column where a writer had pointed out that New York did have a history of having slaves in the colonial period. I am always interested in the history of American slavery especially in areas where  it supposed was opposed like New York and my home state Michigan.

2. A Free Society Cannot Escape All Terrorism – Conor Friedersdorf – The Atlanti

This is one of many articles I have bookmarked to read lately. Its premise interests me: that the freedoms that are so dear to us also cost us in real terms about what can and cannot be prohibited.