It’s midday and I’m very hopeful for a second relaxing day off. Two in a row! I made banana pancakes for our breakfast this morning.  I have been making a batch of them and then freezing most of them. It makes an easy breakfast for Eileen to whip up for herself by sticking a couple frozen pancakes in the toaster.

For lunch, I’m planning on roasting up a slab of salmon I bought at the grocery store. It’s easy and another thing that both of us eat. Eileen picked out some frozen uncooked jumbo shrimp on that trip as well. I have been taking out eight of them at a time, thawing and using in stir fry and salad. I avoid pasta by using zoodles (zucchini noodles).

Nothing wrong with pasta but I keep trying to eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and to help Eileen do that as well if she wants to.

I have been keeping to my resolve to do more classical Greek and composing on my days off. This entails getting up early which seems to take a bit more effort for me lately. It’s so nice to lay in the dark and do online scrabble games with friends and work crossword puzzles.

I have found that talking too much about compositions I’m working on tends to somehow short circuit the process. I have talked to my shrink about it, pointing out that although it tends to short circuit the process to talk about it, it should do so with him since  he is my confidante.

I’m planning to stay away from church today. But tomorrow is a week from Ash Wednesday and Jen and I haven’t had a Lenten planning meeting yet. I will work on that tomorrow before our meeting and present some ideas for her to think about.

Time to throw the salmon in the oven.

Life is good.

Well, martini time is approaching and today has more or less been a successful attempt at taking a day off. This is harder than it sounds when you love what you do.  Yesterday I ended up at church in the afternoon and spent two hours with Bach on the organ. Satisfying. Today I thought maybe I would stay away from church. This is usually a good idea for me and helps me keep more balanced.

Last night I ordered multiple copies of a choral arrangement of  Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday.

I think it would be good number for us to learn and do at Eucharist and our June recital. I spent some time today at the keyboard studying  Jazz progressions and trying to improve my knowledge of them while at the same time doing some experimenting with chord progressions.

I worked hard on Greek today and practiced a lot of Beethoven and of course scrolled Facebooger. I seem to have been blocked by one very reactionary conservative family member. Either that or this person has dropped out of Facebooger which I don’t think is the case. This is too bad because watching what people who basically approve of Trump and hate liberals put up is helpful. I’m down to three or four reactionaries on FB now.

I have decided to try to quickly read Charles R. Jones bio of Francis Johnson since it retails at about 85 bucks and is going for more than I want to pay used. Johnson is a fascinating to read about. When I compare the history I have learned (and am learning), reading about Johnson groundbreaking American career in the early to mid 19th century lines up in ways that help me understand it better.

After reading about Johnson, at this stage I am planning on then reading about Blind Tom Wiggins who seems to have been our first American musical genius. Jones says that Francis Johnson was not a genius but that he was one of our early American music masters. Their lives do not over lap (as I think I have said here recently). And their bios are both so expensive that I’m thinking of reading library copies and putting low bids on Abebooks.com.

Public Domain Day 2019 | Duke University School of Law

Hey. Cool. My Sunday New York Times finally showed up this morning. This is the fourth week since I subscribed and I pretty much had given up on ever getting a Sunday paper. I have been using the Replica edition which is pretty good. But there’s nothing like sitting and sipping a cup of coffee and reading the paper.

And then there’s the New York Times Book review.

In fact, the article above caught my attention and now I’m very interested in the two books in the review.

I have just ordered copies of these two books from Amazon.  Gal Beckerman’s review sucked me in. I was thinking about his ideas about the power of quiet today when I decided to not improvise my boss back to the pulpit after she read the gospel. It was silence that was drawing me in.

I think it would be good for me to ponder the plus side of being invisible and on the outside. It’s where I am for the most part. And I do feel the value in solitude and quiet. I often retreat to being alone and quiet, although I do read my poetry out loud.

In fact, I have a sense that maybe it’s a bit too easy for me to withdraw and live the life of a hermit (with my lovely wife, of course). It’s interesting that Beckerman brought up Thomas Merton. Merton has had a huge influence on my life. I haven’t read much of him in the last decade or so, but many of his ideas are sort of stuck in my brain.

Today I got up determined to do some Greek and composing. I have spent an hour or two on an irregular verb: φασκω. After lunch I plan to go to church and compose and prep for tomorrow’s service.

Yesterday Eileen and I stopped by our local library. I had some books on hold and she wanted to do some browsing.

When I put  books on hold I don’t pay much attention to where they are coming from. I was delighted that James Briscoe’s New Historical Anthology of Music by Women is actually owned by Herrick, my local library. How cool is that?

Even more exciting for me was the inclusion of the first movement of Clara Schumann’s piano trio that I have been working on with my trio. Each entry in the anthology has a corresponding section of information by different scholars. The Clara Schumann section has an introduction by the late Clara Schumann expert, Nancy Reich. From it, I learned that husband, Robert, was so proud of this piece that he submitted to Breitkopf and Härtel and arranged to have it published on her birthday in September 1847.

I also learned that this fine piece was the direct result of her studies of Classical masters, specifically studying and performing piano trios of Beethoven and Schubert. This is very interesting to me because this week at trio rehearsal we were all thinking about the Beethoven piano trio we had done some reading in the week before and we read through the entire piece.

We all agreed that Beethoven’s Trio in G major, Op. 1 #2 is a happy little thing, uncharacteristically bouncy and happy for Beethoven. We speculated that since it’s an early opus he may have been studying with Haydn when he wrote it. I can’t understand Haydn’s reservations on Beethoven compositional abilities (which are a matter of record) when I look at this trio. I think it’s excellent.

Of course Haydn had very high standards with his own compositional purview which is vastly different from what Beethoven ended up doing.

Other books I brought home from the library include the following.

I dipped into both Southall’s Blind Tom and Jones’ Francis Johnson. Johnson lived from 1792-1844 and Blind Tom Wiggins 1849-1908 so there is a gap between their life spans. It is startling to me to learn that these two musicians were both omitted from the earliest histories of American music and basically went from world renown to obscurity via the bigotry of white American music historians. And learning about them informs my understanding of American music in general. It is a gap in my knowledge that I am looking forward to filling.

Alun Lewis is a likely influence on early Anthony Burgess attempts at poetry. I find it kind of funny that Graves wrote the introduction since Burgess tangled with him more than once and not in a flattering way. As Biswell writes in his bio of Burgess, “As a student book reviewer, Burgess’s most notable achievement was that of offending the poets Laura Riding and Robert Graves who were at this time living and writing together.” p. 66 in the bio. I have never heard of Alun Lewis and wanted to see what his poems were about, hence the request. This book came to me via my interlibrary request from my alma mater Wayne State U. I learned of it in the Burgess bio.

Le Guin has been a huge influence on my life. I found this last collection if her poems sitting on the new shelf along with the second volume of Plath’s letters.

I do love the library.

Thursdays find me weary and today is no exception. Choir rehearsal went very well last night. I mentioned to Eileen the other day that the warm ups that I begin even before time to convene have the advantage that I don’t have to say anything to the choir. This may help people to not react to me (something leaders have to deal with). Just plunging in with memorized vocalise exercises means that we begin by singing (usually “oo”ing together. This allows people to join in and not have to deal with me.

Anyway choir morale is high these days and no wonder we sound great. I am thinking of scheduling several hoary old anglican style choir and organ anthems for the Easter season. I think it would be fun for the choir and would fit our sound and show off our organ a bit.

This morning I had the first of my “body checks” by the dermatologist. I will have these every three months for several years as a follow up to my skin cancer. The doctor remarked that my rash saved my life because it was in the course of attempting to treat it that he discovered  my carcinoma. For him to use language like that makes me think that it may be that Eileen and I were not overreacting to be so worried before the surgery.

At any rate, he found a few things on my skin but nothing serious.

Then piano trio and now sitting at home trying to build up energy to return to church and practice organ.

My friend Rhonda loaned me her editions of Sweelinck and Scheideman’s organ music. Yesterday I ordered my own copies and spent over three hundred dollars on music. My church gives me an annual music allowances of five hundred so that doesn’t even drain that account.

Eileen and I have been watching this interview on and off. I admire Kalb and am slightly interested in his 2018 book that he plugs in this video.

Then today I was reading the NYT and ran across this article.

Trump Attacks The Times, in a Week of Unease for the American Press – The New York Times

Sheesh. This morning I was listening to the news on NPR. When they insisted on talking about the news and always including Trump nonsense I turned it off and listened to the BBC world news service. BBC was covering some of the same stuff but didn’t always have to report how Trump felt about it.

IN BRIEF: Huttar delivers lectures in Europe – Entertainment & Life – Holland Sentinel – Holland, MI

I have had difficulty getting any sort of coverage  or even recital announcement into the local paper. The little article above is about Charles Huttar who is a long time member of my church and sings in my choir. He mentioned that the College PR people had given the local paper extensive info about his European trip. You can see that they give it short shrift. If they don’t cover the retired Hope prof, they never will cover the renegade gay church where I so happily work. Fuck em.

YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained? – The New York Times

I am still reading LikeWars. The social media is having an unbelievable effect globally right now. There are many people skilled in getting it to respond not the least of which is the US president. God help us.

I’m trying to relax for this evening’s rehearsal.

I had a very weird dream last night. I dreamed that I was in a war and that all of the shooting was in rhythm and musical pitches. The fighting was in planes overheard in the dream.

Then I heard someone speaking like in a play. “Teach us to pray and not to pray. Teach us to sit still,” it said. I told the person next to me that was a quote from T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral.

When i woke up I realized it was a misquote from T. S. Eliot’s Ash Wednesday.

The original was “teach us to care and not care… Teach us to sit still”

Weird stuff in my head.

Church went well yesterday. Jen was still off somewhere on a warm beach vacationing. After church Eileen and I walked home in falling fresh snow. It was quite lovely. The choir did a splendid job . I improvised a three part jazzy piano waltz on the opening hymn, “If thou but suffer God to guide thee,” for the prelude and a full blown organ chorale prelude on “Deck, thyself, my soul with gladness.” My cellist (who also sings in the choir) remarked that she thought I was playing a composed piece until she looked over and saw me working with the only hymnal in front of me. During the service I was thinking about doing a non-hymn based fanfare for the postlude, but changed my mind during the singing of “Deck, thyself,” as the second communion hymn. It is such a beautiful hymn.

After resting up a bit I returned to church to do more practicing and composing.

I still did not receive my first Sunday New  York Times. Yesterday was the third Sunday in row that I was expecting it and it did not come. When I reported it I asked for a redelivery of the paper today. Maybe that will help. I hope they don’t end up telling me that delivery is not available here In Holland, Michigan, anymore. The main reason  I have signed up this way is so that I can view the paper on what they call the Replica version. As far as I can tell the Replica version is only available as a free service to people who are actually getting the paper.  It would be just my luck to lose this access due to not being able to receive the Sunday paper. We’ll see.

I am expecting a couple of my valued colleagues (Jordan and Rhonda) for tea today. I hope that works out for them.

I submitted two weeks worth of Sundays this morning. Mary the parish administrator requested an extra week of info so that she can work ahead since she is taking some time off.

Last night, Eileen and I went out to eat and then to see Minita Ghandi do her one woman show, “Minita Ghandi and the Muthaland.” She was quite good. But I made the discovery that I need to get better seats since my eyesight is not what it used to be. We were in the balcony and I had trouble hearing and seeing.

The hearing resolved itself after a while but watching one person on a stage that far away was not easy for me. I could see that she was talented. But Eileen said when we got home that she enjoyed the musical performances in this series better than the play last night.

I especially liked the way the playwright/actress moved easily back and forth between portraying characters like her Mom and Dad and her rapist. She was actually quite good.

During the day yesterday I decided on the prelude and postlude for a week from Sunday. I’m going to do two pieces by Sweelinck. I have been thinking about this composer and realizing how little I know about him. So today I interlibrary loaned a bunch of stuff by and about him. I am thinking I could probably use more information about playing his works. They sound very cool on the organ.

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Reading online I discovered that in the familiar painting you see of Sweelinck he is actully holding his hands in two rhetorical gestures which communicate a ‘demand for silence’ and ‘to procure audience.’ Musicologists seem to love to delve into the relationship between rhetorical practices and composers like Sweelinck and Buxtehude.

Our night out last night left me exhausted today. We stayed up late afterward. As you can see, I don’t have all that much to talk about today. I think it’s because I’m so tired.

I went a little crazy on Tuesday and made bread, cooked squash, and roasted peppers. I guess we’re basically living on home made bread since trying to follow Lustig’s ideas about only eating real food and drastically cutting down on foods with additives in them.

Yesterday at the end of the day Eileen pointed out that I had been my own worse enemy all day.

She was right of course. In the afternoon I went to church to work and told her she didn’t need to come and help me. This was mostly because I wasn’t fit to be with man nor beast as they say.

I’m not sure where my bad mood came from if it came from anywhere.  I tried to do some planning for upcoming anthems for the choir while I was at church. In the middle of this my computer died (needed charging).

I do think my new tack with my student worked.

I told him we would try to have more fun and had him play through some easier Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

And rehearsal went well in the evening.

My piano trio rehearsal today was lots of fun. In addition to working on our Clara Schumann piece, we played Oblivion on Piazolla.

Here’s a nice rendition of the same arrangement.

And about five or so minutes of this lovely Beethoven piano trio.

I came home and played through the entire movement. Nice stuff.

I know it’s pathetic but I was happy to see an email in my inbox from Linda Strouf asking me to contribute an organ piece to the AGO convention publication of local yokel composers. I figured I had been overlooked or intentionally passed over. Creative types can be overly sensitive. I know that I am.

I could submit a previously composed unpublished piece such as Mental Floss pdf  but I have been thinking of firing up the old composing skills anyway. It was inspiring to hear Nick’s organ piece last Sunday played by Jane.

Jane was very flattering about me in her comments about my piece. Maybe I’m not as far under  the local radar as I sometimes feel.

I decided that if Holland Public Schools were closed today I would cancel rehearsal this evening. As it is, they are open and it looks like as the day progresses it will become easier and easier to get around locally. I’m lazy enough that canceling rehearsal has a certain appeal, but I enjoy doing the rehearsal so either way is fine.

I got up yesterday morning thinking about Tchaikovsky.  Dawn, my cellist, mentioned Sunday that she had heard a good rendition of his Andante Cantabile from his Quartet, Op. 11.

I have always loved this piece since stumbling on a string quartet at Interlochen playing it in the woods.

I pulled out the piano transcription and played through it.

I’ve also been playing a shit load of Handel on the keyboard since being inspired by the performance Sunday of three of his arias at the recital.

My Tchaikovsky is in a very old anthology I have had since I was a kid. It used to look this:

Now it has no cover and is dog-eared. I was looking at the pieces in it thinking maybe I could pick one for my student to read today at the lesson. My piano student never practices. I have tried to get him to quit several times. But I have a soft spot in my heart for the dude having known him for so long. So his pieces just keep getting worse since he doesn’t pick them up between lessons. He has reasonable skills at the keyboard but likes to play things way too hard for himself. Since he is about twenty or so years my senior I have chosen to let him pick his own repertoire. But I think there’s some pieces in my old anthology that he would enjoy that are much easier than the Chopin and Liszt he is currently supposedly studying.

A.I. Shows Promise as a Physician Assistant – The New York Times

Everywhere in the Animal Kingdom, Followers of the Milky Way

Ancient European Stone Monuments Said to Originate in Northwest France

Regular readers know that I struggle with getting access to the New York Times since I don’t want to waste all that paper on it’s daily subscription. Recently I subscribed to the Sunday paper (which has yet to actually arrive). This includes the Replica edition of the daily which is the best way  I have found to access the paper online.

Using the Replica reminded me that Tuesdays NYT always has a Science section. I used to love checking it out but fell out of the habit since it was so clunky to access online. But now I’m back in the groove and the above are a few links from that section that looked interesting to me.

Nancy B. Reich, Scholarly Champion of Clara Schumann, Dies at 94 – The New York Times

Eugene V. Debs and the Endurance of Socialism | The New Yorker

Jill Lepore writes inthe current issue about Debs. I liked this quote from her article. Being a Pullman Porter was one job that was safe for African American men to have and not get too hassled.

“In 1894, one Pullman worker stated the nature of the problem: “We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell.” We live in Amazon houses and eat Amazon groceries and read Amazon newspapers and when we die we shall go to an Amazon Hell. In the meantime, you can buy your Bernie 2020 hats and A.O.C. T-shirts on . . . Amazon.”

Trump offers socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else

It’s odd. I have been feeling disenfranchised from so much lately. Even though my dreams are often if not usually set in strange universities and churches, I am drawn away from these institutions in a whirl of continuing circumstances. My memories and dreams of them are better than the way they seem now.

In many ways this disenfranchising is freeing. This little town I moved to in the late 80s (Holland, Michigan) was a good place to work and raise children, but like so much of the USA it has turned into a foreign and cold place for humans like me.

The little college in this city factored into our decision to locate here after grad school. Now I am thankful for the internet which provides for me most of the things I was thinking a little college could: reference books, a good college library, new ideas, and intelligent conversation. I now am also grateful that the local library is so good. If I add in the possibility of interlibrary loans and the incredible bookstore that I find online, I know that I continue to be lucky.

So it’s not a sense of deprivation that colors my thinking lately. It is a sense of disconnectedness.

For example, in the February issue of the The American Organist mag, Don Cook put together an article entitled, “What Makes Up ‘The Full Spectrum of Organists’.

James Thomashower, the executive director of the American Guild of Organists, describes it as a “valentine to all Guild Members,” it is not one for me even though I am a guild member. Although Cook says that his compilation of the variety of who we are contains no “value judgments,” I found the list of musical styles disenfranchising,

Here’s his list:

Pre-Romantic
Romantic
Post-Romantic Tonal
Atonal.

What the fuck? This list barely describes what  I did yesterday at church. His list of Technology was just as narrow.

No matter. At the end of yesterday’s recital i was musing at how good my life is. The morning service contained many moments of musical beauty not the least of which was the gathered assembly singing. The choir gave its all to the beautiful little piece we did based on the first reading, “Twas in the year that King Uzziah died” by George Bayley. Bayley writes for St. James Press and I keep thinking if I knew any of the composers or the people behind the press we would have something in common. I played some very cool variations by Scheidt for the prelude and postlude. Unsurprisingly a parishioner came up and began talking about how Scheidt reminds him of Sweelinck. I think these two men knew each other. One of my collections of Sweelinck has a set of variations some of which are attributed to Scheidt.

Yes, I am lucky. I still can’t quite believe that I’m working at a little church with such a fine organ and excellent priest and good community.

In the afternoon we had one of the dwindling number of Grace Notes recitals. Jane Bosko, a local musician, provided some beautifully played and well chosen music. No surprise there. Jane doesn’t quite fit the AGO mold either. In a good way. I was especially pleased to listen to the singing of a three fine Handel arias that I did not know by Carola Dettmar. Two of them involved an excellent flute player on obbligatos..

I was musing during the recital that it was mostly the PR that I had found beyond the reach of the energies I am willing to spare to church work these days. Nevertheless I am ready for this series to end. While rewarding, it needs more time and energy than my little part time job should entail.

It was flattering to hear Jane play my little organ piece based on the hymn tune, Nettleton  pdf. It was better than I remembered it being. Jane played three pieces by West Michigan composers.

This morning I only wanted to hear rock and roll from my past while I did the dishes. I made a playlist of The James Gang, Grand Funk Railroad, and others. It was a pleasure to listen to. I chose songs that I enjoyed performing in bars.  This music has not left me and I enjoy it as much as Scheidt and Handel (which I also greatly enjoy).

Like I say, I’m lucky.

I have been reading Leonard Cohen’s posthumous book, The Flame. This morning I arrived at a section entitled “New Songs.” Cool. I immediately searched online to see what I could find. The interwebs tells me that Anjani, the woman who wrote the music for these Leonard Cohen lyrics, was his long time girl friend.

The album came out in 2006. That’s thirteen years old, but I guess in Leonard Cohen’s long career these were new songs. I’m listening to the album right now on Spotify. It’s not bad.

The Washington Post: John Dingell: My last words for America

Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper by Martín Espada

I read this poem this morning. I noticed in a blurb on Alananza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002 by Espada that his name means “sword.” Appropriate.

It is cold and nasty here in Western Michigan. East and north of us many schools and even entire sections of the freeway are closed. I had my bi weekly therapist appointment today. I called and left him a message to say that I was still planning to come. I set out fifteen minutes early. The roads south of Holland on the way to Glen where Dr. Birky my therapist lives were pretty good. I didn’t go over 55 on the way down. There were white outs with blowing wind but as far as i could see the pavement was not icy.

I had a good session with Birky. It does help to chew over stuff with a good listener.

I had emailed Mary at the office to ask her if she could do the program for this weekend’s recital. She ended up getting locked out of the office for half a day due to frozen locks. She emailed me back and said that she would be too busy to get to this for me. This is not a problem. I’m just trying to ask for help where I can get it. So now I have that little task to do tomorrow. It’s very easy.

I had a good piano trio rehearsal yesterday. I limited it to 45 minutes so I could accompany Eileen and Edison on the monthly visit to the vet. We are working on a movement of Clara Schumann’s piano trio in G minor. She has based it on a motive that is identical to the beginning of the Lutheran chorale Aus tiefer not (the first five notes of this:)

I have schedule the choir to sing a four part Bach chorale harmonization of this melody on March 24th. I proposed to the piano trio that they come to church that Sunday and we will play the Clara Schumann as a prelude. It would be cool. They are considering it.

Our rehearsal went well yesterday. We are digging deeper into Clara Schumann’s lovely piece.  Here’s an embed. If you just listen to the first little bit of the piece you can clearly hear the motive.

Eileen and I went to the library yesterday. I checked out some interesting stuff.

Every once in a while I will attempt to read a Manga graphic novel. The Ghost in the Shell by Shirow Masamune looked interesting to me yesterday.  These books are set up to read from right to left sort of mimicking the Japanese layout. So far I’m enjoying this. There’s a blurb on my copy about it now being a major motion picture.

It came out in 2017.

In her January 24th NYT interview, Elizabeth McCracken mentioned that her favorite villain was the Stupid Wolf in the Clever Polly series. Eileen and I were both a bit intrigued and each of us interlibary loaned some of the books. They came in yesterday and I have read a couple of the stories. Eileen doesn’t like the “stupid” in “Stupid Wolf.” She noted that the books were originally written in the 50s and British. As she was looking over subsequent titles in the series she was satisfied to note that they dropped the “stupid” and made him the “Hungry Wolf.”

I have been noticing collections of stories in other languages sitting on the new shelf at the library. Yesterday after glancing at some of the prose and satisfying myself that it didn’t look completely undoable I checked Short Stories in French by Olly Richards and Richard Simcott. I like the attitude of this series. The authors encourage high-beginner or low intermediate level French learners to dive in. There is an interesting section about “how to read.” Readers are encouraged to not look up words they don’t know at first but to keep reading for the sense of the story. Apparently when we learn a second language we are aprt to abandon some of our reading “microskills” (as the text calls them) like scanning and skimming and getting meaning from context. Instead when we are in an less  familiar language we tend to get very literal and not move on from a word we don’t recognize.  This is how I do Greek. But I like the idea of having texts designed as they are in this book to be read through quickly for sense and then double back and read again and then finally start to use the glossary.

I read the first story last night. Wow! I made it through and understand most of the meaning of the story (the goal). At the end of each of story is a synopsis for the reader to check his understanding. It is in FRENCH. How cool is that? I was able to use it to do this checking. This is fun for me.

Chabon is an author I admire and read. This is a little book he has written about books. What’s not to like?

Finally, the Moosewood people whose vegetarian cookbooks I have used for decades have published their 14th cookbook. Great recipes and some beautiful food porn.

NYTimes: They Really Don’t Make Music Like They Used To

James Comey: Take down the Confederate statues now – The Washington Post

“It is an age of exhaustive whoredom groping for its god.” James Joyce, Ulysses (Random House, 1946) p. 204

I ran across this sentence this morning randomly reading James Joyce. It felt like an apt description of our times now. “Exhaustive whoredom” particularly reminds me of the online  commodification of everything and the mad hate speech.

I love when my reading becomes serendipitous.  The section that I was planning to read in The Black History of the White House turned to be about very early African American composers I had never heard of. Cool.

I immediately pulled out the old laptop and tried to find out more about Francis Johnson. The silly Groves Music Dictionary has him under “Frank Johnson,” but his biographers all refer to hims as “Francis Johnson.”

Johnson lived from 1792 to 1844. Groves says he was an “American violinist, Kent-bugle player, bandmaster, and composer.” In another entry, Groves tells us that the “Kent bugle [was] One of several alternate names for the Keyed bugle , patented in 1810 . The first method book for keyed bugle was dedicated to the Duke of Kent, and early versions of the instrument were labeled “Royal Kent Bugle.”

I am interested how an African American managed to have the kind of prominent career Johnson seems to have had when slavery was thriving in the USA.  So far, the information I can get online only hints at what must have been huge obstacles.

I have interlibrary loaned one book about him and have found a collection of his cotillons (cotilions) on IMSLP.

The word, “cotillon” or “cottillion” means “under -petticoat.” Groves says it’s a “…] Social dance of 18th-century French origin, popular in Europe and America throughout the 19th century . Its name was derived from the words of one of the earliest tunes to which it was danced (‘Ma commère, quand je danse/Mon cotillon va-t-il bien?’); the anglicized name of the dance later became the most common form. It was danced in squares, like the quadrille and country dances, involving geometric patterns and figures, and the tempo was similar to that of the Quadrille , a dance often described as a ‘cotillion’”

This looks like my kind of music. If you look closely, you can see dance instruction at the bottom of the page above.

Groves also says this about this dude: “A summary of Johnson’s musical achievements as America’s premier bandsman was such that he is easily labeled the Sousa of the period. His publications resulted in other black musicians finding music publishers. Johnson’s novelty was to turn a current melody into a danceable form. He often used tunes from current operas.”

A man who likes dance music. I relate.

Dear Diary,

I’m feeling glum these days. I’m looking forward to chatting with my therapist this Friday. I had a good talk with Rev Jen today. We are both at our wits end what with the stuff that’s been happening at Hope College to our friends and loved ones (see the linked article below). Jen, wise woman, is leaving with her partner for a beach far, far away on Friday and will be gone the next two Sundays. This past Sunday she was nursing a dying cat and had Jim Steen, her assistant, take the service. I think it is excellent that she gets away and can take off time like that when she needs to.

I’m not leaving soon, but Jen just emailed me that she has confirmed that I have the entire month of July off this year. We have also talked about adding a few weeks in late June and early August to this. That sounds good right now.

It looks like I’m not going to have to cancel choir rehearsal this evening. Much of Western Michigan is suffering from freezing rain, but here in Holland it’s only damp and cool.  On
Wednesday afternoons I try to lie down for an hour or two and rest up for the evening rehearsal.  I always read through the New Yorker if it has come in the mail yet (this means mostly look at the cartoons).

Division, investigations, faculty departures… What is going on in Hope College’s music department?

I made pancakes this morning. The last batch I made, I froze the left overs. This makes a very easy breakfast for Eileen who doesn’t like to mess around with cooking for herself the way I do.  Above is a picture of the left overs cooling so I can put them in the freezer.

It’s halfway through my Tuesday and I’m telling myself that today needs to be a day off for me. Yesterday was productive. We got the passport apps in the mail. I spent several hours at the organ and attended a Worship Commission meeting. All important stuff (Hi Barb!). Barb gave me a ride home since Eileen was at a Weaving guild meeting. In the middle of the day Eileen’s sister Nancy and her husband stopped by to hand off some stuff to Eileen like her Mom’s old paper shredder, a blanket, and some other stuff. They brought me another blood pressure machine.

It took me quite a while to figure out what to play Sunday. I have been thinking a lot about the German chorale, Vater unser Himmelreich (the Lutheran metrical Our Father).

I wanted to play something by Sweelinck

and/or Scheidt.

Going through my books of their music I discovered that both men have set the Vater unser Himmelreich melody that Luther used.

I found their settings attractive, however, I’m not sure this melody has much meaning for my audience. If the “Our Father” was part of the readings at Eucharist (as it is, once in awhile), it might make sense to play a setting based on this tune. As it is, for some odd reason I’m working on learning Bach’s complex setting of it in the Klavierubung III. It is beautiful music, that’s for sure.

The piece I have scheduled for this Sunday is Niederlandisch Liedgen. Cantio Belgica “Ach du feiner Reuter” Theme and Variations SSWV 111 by Samuel Scheidt. I’m playing the theme and three variations for the prelude and three more for the postlude. This is a charming piece. I fell in love with it last year. When no kids showed up to play at the early service on Christmas eve, I played all the variations. I can’t find what the original song is about, but it sounds cool to me.

I’m feeling stressed lately. I guess that’s not a news flash for people who read this blog.

Eileen is out trying to break up the ice on our driveway. I am wondering if we will get an ice storm tomorrow just in time for me to have to cancel Choir rehearsal for the second week in a row. I think we could pull together this Sunday’s anthem anyway. It’s pretty easy and I emailed the choir a pdf and mp3 of it a while ago. But I have scheduled a new psalm tone and will want to change that if I cancel.

Even though I’m a bit stressed, I know that my life is good.

Eileen and I filled out our forms for our passports renewal today. Then we went and had pics taken and mailed the whole shebang.

It’s a rainy day in Holland Michigan. Eileen’s sister, Nancy, is dropping by and bringing canning supplies (at least I think that’s what’s going on). Eileen has a guild meeting tonight and I have a worship commission meeting.

Good obits from recent papers:

Susan Hiller, 78, Maker of Dreamlike Conceptual Art, Dies 

Erik Olin Wright, 71, Dies; Marxist Sociologist With a Pragmatic Approach

Rena Karefa-Smart, 97, Leader in Ecumenical Movement, is Dead

Plus this interesting article on digital journalism.

Digital Media: What Went Wrong – The New York Times

It’s in the 40s here in Holland. This is quite the change from this week when we had temps below zero. Eileen and I sloshed to church on foot.

We had some good hymnody this morning. I had reset James Quin’s text “Word of God, come down on earth” to the mdeloy Liebster Jesu.  I had Mary leave the prelude blank for this morning. I have been asking her to put in “Improvisation” when I am planning to do that. But by leaving it blank I could play a composition is I decided to do so. Which is what I did this morning. I love Bach’s setting of the melody for the opening hymn so that was this morning’s prelude.

The choir’s anthem was a lovely little think in our library by Mozart. They sounded good on it.

My boss’s cat was dieing this morning so she had Jim Steen her assistant take the service by himself. He was scheduled to celebrate and she to preach. I like Jim quite a bit. He is a gentle soul and smart too. I think it’s excellent that my boss has such a good resource in him that she can skip services without worrying about it.

I came up with a decent improvisation for this morning’s postlude based on the last hymn, “Spread, O spread, thou mighty word.”

My Sunday New York Times was supposed to be on my doorstep this morning. I have begun having the Sunday paper delivered. At least that’s the plan, but it wasn’t there this morning. The web site said they would credit $5 for it on my account. I’m on a special 25 week subscription which gives me the Sunday for $5 a week. After that it goes back up to $10.

Eileen and I went out for lunch today after church. It’s been a heckova week what with my colonoscopy on Tuesday and the big snow storm.

Deadline Detroit – 100 Years Later, Dearborn Confronts the Hate of Hometown Hero

Apparently the author of this article was fired for writing it and the mayor of Dearborn attempted to censor the entire issue of the little paper where it was presented. Bad plan. It was reported in the Sunday New York Times. I bet the mayor is sorry he brought to national attention.

By the way, I do like using the Replica edition of the New York Times. I still think it’s a backward looking format. But it’s probably the best digital organization I have seen yet.

I had a text on my phone from Jane  Bosco our next Grace Notes recitalist today. She said that she noticed that there was a “rather loud rumble in the blower” of the organ at church. I contacted Ron Brown who is the go-to parishioner for the Pasi having worked closely with Martin when he was installing the instrument. Ron offered to come by and have a look. I had previously let him know that we had a cipher in the lowest note on the organ. It would only cipher if played so I haven’ been using that note if I can help it. Ron said he could check that out as well.

I met Ron at church and it turned out that both problems were the same thing: a stuck low note on the organ that Jane was assuming was a blower sound. Ron had the thing fixed in minutes. So now the instrument is in working condition. Woo hoo!

Grace Notes Recital Series is winding down. I had originally asked Jane and Linda to play in the winter months with the idea that they wouldn’t have to travel as far to get to the recital since they live here in town. That has worked out well,  but it’s time to let this series go. Nick has consented to repeat his “Suffering Servant” piece in March.  We decided to skip April. That leaves two recitals, one in May and one in June. I am leaning toward just doing these myself. Maybe something interesting in May and a choir recital in June. We’ll see.

I have been working on the D minor Toccata and Fugue (the Phantom of the Opera one).

More than one parishioner has mentioned that I should play this. I have never learned the thing but am beginning to do so now.

I need to lose weight but I don’t think I’m gong to skip the martini and Friday night pizza this evening. Eileen and I decided not to order pizza to be delivered tonight. The driving conditions while improved are still not terribly good. We have a “do-it-yourself” pizza kit that Eileen bought from a family at church for a school fund raiser. It has twelve little pizza crusts in it and stuff to make pizzas like sauce and cheese. We have only used it once so we have 10 crusts left. I think that’s what we’re going to do tonight so that we don’t endanger anyone just so we can have our Friday night pizza.

Despite the snow, Eileen is off taking a friend to a doctor’s appointment. I’m sitting here at home. It’s kind of cool because Eileen read somewhere that it would help to keep our thermostat lower to preserve natural gas. I guess there was a bad fire in the east of the state and was causing shortages at a bad time (now). then she found out that our part of the state wasn’t affected but we thought it couldn’t hurt to keep a bit cooler and use less fuel.

Snow days are again like vacation days for me like they were when I was kid and got off school. I have been reading and playing piano today. I finished Laurie Moore’s collection of short stories, Bark, today.

I gave this to my daughter, Elizabeth, and nephew, Ben, for Christmas this year. I love Moore’s writing style. As far as I can tell the title of her collection refers to two stories in it, “Debarking” and “Thank you for having me.” the first and last story in the collection. In the first, a man named Ira is trying to lose his “bark,” i.e. his lack of socialization or least lack of getting along with women. In the second, two characters are discussing what color the brain actually is. One of them says they say a special on PBS where the brain was described as the color of bark. Nice.

I read one of the stories twice. The title of the story was “Wings” and after I finished it the first time I was caught up in the disturbing nature of the story. There was  a slight disjunct aspect too the plot and I had to think a bit until it made sense. Then I wondered what the title was all about since it was obvious. This reminds me of her novel,  A Gate at the Stairs, which I also recently read. But in each case, a careful reexamination proves satisfying. I’ll say no more, except get stuff by this woman and read it!

We’re not exactly snowed in,  but  most things locally have been canceled today including my own choir rehearsal this evening. I had a text from Jane Bosco who is our next Grace Notes recitalist. She let me know that Mary at the church office gave her a key. Woo hoo! This means I don’t have to meet her to let her in today.

So we’re snug in our little home in Western Michigan. Bread is baking in the oven. Eileen is messing around with her looms.

I have been thinking about settings of Vater Unser Himmelreich (Our Fahter who art in heaven) by Bach. A while back I became entranced with his difficult setting of the hymn tune in the Klavierubung III. It reminds me very much of a cantata movement. It is in five voice texture. Initially I found it difficult to keep hearing the long notes of the chorale which are presented in canon in the right and left hand. Both hands add ornate obbligatos so that each has quite a handful of stuff to keep going (so to speak). Then the feet keep a bass line going.

The canons in the hands seem to alternate which voice goes first. Very elegant stuff. But I need to get to know this chorale better. My understanding of baroque chorale preludes on the organ is that when they were written both the composer and the listener could hear the melodies of the chorales very clearly because they were so familiar to them. To get to that mindset, it is helpful to drench oneself with the melody until it is second nature.

Thinking about doing this I stumbled across Bach’s Cantata BWV 101. Each movement of this wonderful cantata has the melody of Vater Unser very prominently rendered either in the voices of the orchestra.

The text of this cantata has nothing to do with the Our Father text of Vater Unser. The Bach Cantata site which I use provides this info:

“Cantata BWV 101 ‘Nimm von uns Herr, du treuer Gott’ (Take from us, you faithful God) for the 10^th Sunday after Trinity. Although Dürr dates this cantata as far back as 1724 and Whittaker; following Terry, gives the date as late as 1745, when Frederick the Great’s second invasion of Saxony occurred, the libretto does stress the scourge of war as well as the time of plague in 1584, when Martin Moller wrote the hymn.”

You can hear plague and war in the music and the texts. last night I lay in bed and listened to the entire cantata following the online vocal score (pdf to it).

Bach’s beautiful music provides an antidote to the inanity of every day life and Christianity in Trump Amerika.

We are planning on basically staying in today. However, I am tempted to go over to the church (via the library which is open despite the weather) and play through the great organ chorale based on this hymn.

NYTimes: ‘I’m Cold and I’m Afraid’: Across Midwest, Homeless Await Deep Freeze

As I sit snug in my house with my beautiful wife, beautiful music, and fresh bread, I wonder about people on the streets in urban America where the conditions are so dire. There’s a guy in the article above who explains clearly why he’s standing on the streets of Chicago with wet feet and hand warmers in each hand instead of going to one of the shelters.

“You don’t understand,” Mr. Neeley said. “A lot of us don’t go to the shelters because of bedbugs, we don’t go because people steal from you, we don’t go because you can’t even really sleep in the shelter. But my feet are cold, and these clothes are all I’ve got.”

I’m reminded of my Dad’s description of living on the street when he was attending the Urban Training Center in Chicago years ago.  It is unbelievable and tragic the way we handle the homeless in the USA today.