Spring break at Hope College has begun.
I am weirdly ready for some time off. It is odd to me that I am so busy after having made a resolution some years ago to spend more time on the things I love to do and less time on structured commitments like work.
Anyhoo, I am hoping I will be able to find some ways to recuperate.
My two ballet classes yesterday were actually yoga classes. I spend most of the two and half hours improvising in one meter (3/4) and one tempo (a bit slow). By the end of the time I felt like I was channeling George Winston,
even though I prefer to channel Keith Jarrett.
I composed a new setting of the opening rite of Palm Sunday.
My boss was enthusiastic about it. I had gone back to the rite in the Prayer Book and attempted to use the materials there. I wrote the Hosanna we had been using years ago to use at a Roman Catholic Parish in Trenton. This was a bit of a corrective and uses the texts suggested for the Episcopalian rite.
The idea is that it encapsulates the acclamations in the rite and then uses the little refrain to process by (since the rite begins outside and processes to the church). I wrote several verses based on Psalm 118: 19-29, the suggested text. Wednesday the Kids Choir began learning the tone chime accompaniment (four chords on the refrain). The Chamber Choir learned the singing part. It should work.
I am facing a list of tasks I need to get done for upcoming Holy Week Bulletins. They are mostly busy work like submitting anthem texts and psalm settings. I will probably allocate some time on Monday for this stuff.
In the meantime, I plan to do some vegging.
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The Impact of the Bradley Manning Case – NYTimes.com
“The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security for our Republic.”
Justice Hugo L. Black
And what could be more destructive to an informed citizenry than the threat of the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole for whistle-blowers?
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Domestic Politics, Pyongyang-Style – NYTimes.com
Some interesting history of Korea and China.
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