Tried to relax a bit more yesterday. Did bills, cleaned house, organized cupboards, did some laundry, practiced, read. I am finding what few days I get off lately are critical. I need time to recuperate so that I can cope with my schedule. This is all about to change (I hope). Sunday is the choir’s last Sunday. It has been an unusually long season due to the lateness of Easter and subsequently the lateness of Pentecost. It makes sense to run a liturgical choir at least through Pentecost.
Today I have only one scheduled event: a wedding at 2:30 at the chapel at Hope (Dimnent). It’s a bit more challenging than usual as the couple has requested some real piano music in the prelude: Arabesque (No. 1) and Clair de Lune by Debussy. There is a soloist singing the psalm and the Alleluia. Also my friend Amy is playing violin. We decided to add some Loeillet and Telemann to the prelude. It should be nice.
Planning to mosey on over to the Farmers Market in a bit. Then grocery shop. I think that would make a good routine for the summer: market first then grocery store. Considering cooking out for Eileen and me after the wedding. We’ll see.
I gave myself the day off composing yesterday. I may do so again today. I can’t really convene the instrumentalists next week, since Jordan has indicated he’s not available. Not sure how this is going to work, but at least I know I have a few extra days to keep working on the composing of “Ebb and Flow.” I haven’t had to work with too many last minute deadlines in my life. I prefer to plan ahead. Maybe today I can get a few more measures finished on this piece.
Tomorrow I am playing music by a friend of mine from the past, Robert Hobby. This is him:
We had a pretty decent friendship in grad school. But after that we gradually spoke to each other less and less. He, like 99 % of America, has continued to drift to the right politically and even religiously. He married a woman from a the very conservative Lutheran Missouri Synod. (Bob was raised in and continues to work for the ELCA which is the liberal branch of the Lutherans, but he is definitely on the conservative side. Still, he is a very bright and articulate dude. I miss him.) They have kids and a good life. Bob has continued to publish and lecture. I used to call him about once a year to say hi. But I haven’t done so recently. I do continue to buy his music and perform it occasionally. It is always well constructed if somewhat restrained.
Anyway his organ piece on the Pentecost hymntune DOWN AMPNEY is just the ticket for this Sunday’s prelude. I’m doing the postlude by another Lutheran composer I admire, Jan Bender. It’s also based on this tune. It’s a bit more challenging than Bob’s tune, but I have been rehearsing both of them every day this week.