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Yesterday was indeed a long day for an old guy.

But it all went pretty well including the rehearsals last night at the end of the day.

I’m seriously thinking of cutting down the Bach cantata movement. I woke at 4 AM this morning and was laying in bed realizing that it’s a bit long winded and that I could easily cut down the orchestral ritornello that I am learning on the organ and still have an excellent little choral version.

One of the sopranos (who did NOT show up last night) has said repeatedly that the piece is an organ piece with choral back up since the voices keep coming in to do little fugal sections on each phrase of the chorale.

The choral sections are really the part I’m interested in having performed that Sunday. And even if I had a little orchestra or some other instruments available to play the orchestra part with me, at this point I think I would trim it to help modern listeners and increase its effectiveness for use in liturgy.

I have landed on two Couperin pieces from the Mass for the Convents to play a week from this Sunday.

For the prelude the rather lengthy Offertoire.

couperinoffertoire

Link to PDF of entire piece.

I will be using much gentler stops than this excellent player (on what sounds like a good organ…. out of tune in places?) especially on the Postiv sections. More like what this player chose for the “white note” or slower section in the middle. I think this is a charming piece and sounds very Louie XIV to me.

For the postlude I am planning the short but elegant “Deo Gratias” from the same Mass.

couperindeogratias

I love this music.

That’s about all I have time for this morning. I don’t want to miss my rescheduled Urologist appointment (ahem…. like I did Monday).

P.S. Comcast called yesterday and knocked 15 bucks off my monthly bill for me. When the courteous operator asked me if that made me happier, I said it made me 15 dollars a month happier.

I guess Mark Casem or some other Comcast minion gets paid to google Comcast daily (Hi Mark!) because whenever I have mentioned my dissatisfaction with their service he has commented (see yesterday’s blog comments and probably today’s).

I emailed him my complaints (or whoever gets the email at We_can_help@cable.comcast.com address). Not hopeful much will change until I get off my butt and switch services. Mostly I am upset that somehow they changed their service (different corporate owner?) and about that time my bill skyrocketed (my original discount offer ended and apparently they weren’t offering anything else when I called. I ended up using less services. It’s still higher than the original bill. By a lot. Plus the internet goes down intermittently. Often at inconvenient times.)

Anyway.

I finished the string quartet transcription yesterday shortly before my ballet class. So that’s done.

Still haven’t landed on some Couperin for a week from Sunday’s organ music.

I forgot to put my piano lesson on my google calendar.

Subsequently, when my boss emailed me about a meeting I was supposed to attend at the time the lesson was scheduled, I just went to the meeting.

When I got home there was a message and an email from my student asking me about it. Oops.

He was pretty gracious and we rescheduled for next week. This time I put it on the google calendar.

My ballet instructor has asked for some Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff.

This is so tricky, because first I have to make sure any piece I offer has regular phrases (often music doesn’t have the regimented phrases needed for ballet class combinations), secondly she is probably not thinking of piano literature per se, but more popular symphonic and ballet themes in the style.

Tomorrow I am playing a mini concert at my Mom’s nursing home. I have been too busy to learn much for it. I am thinking of playing the very first prelude (in C major) in Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. This is sort of a famous piece. Lots of piano students learn it. There’s the “Ave Maria” that Gounod put to it.

To make it interesting, I thought I would also play the fugue with it and put it into a bit of context to the audience.

Besides that, I’m thinking light classics (as well as the usual WWII pop music and hymns). I checked out some books yesterday from the library because I couldn’t find my own collections of this sort of stuff.

I’m going to check them for Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff themes as well.

This is my third Wednesday where I have an 8:30 AM class and an evening of church and rehearsals that ends around 9 PM. Long day for an old guy.

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The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America 1940 – Hymnary.org

Found a handy online index this morning when I couldn’t find my Hymnal 1940.

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Clarence Thomas Discusses His Life and the Court – NYTimes.com

I couldn’t find mention of this public interview of this prominent conservative on a conservative news web site yesterday. Maybe I’m out of the loop, eh?

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Louis Simpson, a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet, Dies at 89 – NYTimes.com

Once again an obit inspires me to read someone who just died.

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Speaking the Truth to the Vatican – NYTimes.com

Positive Roman Catholic stuff in the news! Hey! It could happen!

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Thurston Howell Romney – NYTimes.com

Right of Center David Brooks takes apart Romney. Interesting.

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‘Balanced’ News Reports May Only Inflame – NYTimes.com

Fascinating insights into how we form and reform our opinions.