Church in the basement

I’m writing on Sunday afternoon. We have now had our first Eucharist in the basement. I think things went pretty well. Unfortunately I messed up the gathering chant. I asked people to sing the last entire phrase over and over. This doesn’t work since the canon is at four beats.

Instead we need end by repeating on the two words “adoring bow.” Ah well. Best laid plans of mice and men.

The choir did great. The strings sounded good. However my violinist (who is volunteering her time) asked if there was any way she could skip next Sunday and attend a class she is interested in at her own church. What could I say? No, you must skip your church stuff to do ours for no pay? So next week I won’t have a violin. But I’m not worried about that right now. I will give it some thought tomorrow or the next day.

marimba and shelf

There are still things in the area where the workmen will begin tomorrow (the marimba, a shelf on wheels). Although Jen has told me that they probably won’t be in the way initially, I am thinking that they might be. The plan is to put up a temporary wall, sealing off the choir area from the church, to keep the dust and mess confined. It would seem to me that this would be one of the first things that needed to be done.

My plan is to continue practicing on the old organ as long as it’s there and I’m not in the way of workers. It’s possible that I won’t be able to do much more practicing on it. We’ll have to see.

in the mood for  frescobaldi

I have been playing a lot of Frescobaldi this week. My cellist and I have been working on pieces he wrote for a solo bass instrument. They are lovely. This inspired me to pull some of his stuff off the web. And I own a volume of his keyboard music. It’s a Kalmus edition. Hundreds of years ago when I was living in Oscoda, Kalmus was bought out by another sheet music company. They offered their entire catalog for sale and half off the list price. This volume of Frescobaldi is one I purchased along with a ton of other stuff. The editions are not great, but I have used the music in church all my working life.

He Helped Topple a Dictator. In New York, He’s Another Face in the Crowd. – The New York Times

This guy is just barely getting by in New York, but he takes time off to go receive medals for his brave work in Chad.

He Fixes the Cracked Spines of Books, Without an Understudy – The New York Times

Another feature telling the story of a person. It’s about a book mender.

I am very thankful for the Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting organization. At at time when journalism is under such strain and the environment is in such flux, I consistently find them clear and correct. I know they have a bit of a bias on the left, but all I can say is thank God for that. Case in point, Schrecker’s interview in today’s podcast.

I recommend that you listen to this if you haven’t yet. I found it helpful to hear from a historian of the McCarthy era talk about then and now. it turns out that McCarthy himself jumped on the end of a bandwagon that had been going against American Communists.  Schrecker compares it to the past forty years of the right demonizing mainstream liberal notions. While she can see some resistance happening now that did not happen before, the outlook is not good. The McCarthy movement did serious damage to the country, she points out.

NYT Makes the Case for Trump Via Racialized Rural Mythology | FAIR

I like it how Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting reads and critiques reports in NYT and Washington Post.  Here’s more:

WaPo Spreading Own Falsehoods Shows Real Power of Fake News | FAIR

 baked chickpeas with pita chips and yogurt – smitten kitchen

Eileen tagged me in a link to this recipe on Facebooger.

Vegetarian – smitten kitchen

More recipes from the same site.

I’m hoping today will be a sort of day off for me. I managed to get string parts together yesterday for my afternoon rehearsal. I also went to the dentist and mistakenly answered that my insurance hadn’t change.

I guess since my old insurance lapsed they charged me the full amount for the cleaning ($129). Eileen told me I was wrong. i should have told them I had new insurance (I guess I do… Eileen is handling all this stuff for us… I think we split our insurance into two policies, one for her and one for me to expedite it). Plus I should have shown them my medicare card. Sheesh.

I went back to the dentist office later in the day to rectify this. But I arrived minutes after they had closed for the day. Ah well.

I met with my boss for the first time in a couple of weeks, although we have been communicating via email. She was okay with the way I had the choir set up in the basement for Sunday so that’s good. She thanked me for all the work i did during the post holiday season. I shepherded the bulletin for Jan 1.

I was able to report to her that the choir was shaping up to be helpful in the basement. They reacted well to being asked to stand and sit in unison, something we haven’t done in the back of the church since most eyes are pointed away from us. They also seemed to react well to my plan for the next season which is to intersperse easier anthems with good solid 16th century choral pieces and Bach chorales.

As I mentioned here before the 16th century choral pieces are being suggested to me by a collection purchased by a chorister at the thrift store. Since I am planning on singing selections from this book throughout the rest of the season, this year has shaped up to be a thrift store season. We did Christmas from an Oxford Carol collection I managed to purchase at a reduced price of fifty cents a book (from about $20 new). And now I’m drawing on another thrift store collection to find cool 4 part anthems online.

Besides going through music for Sunday with my trio, I managed to do some lovely Mozart with Amy the violinist and some incredible Frescobaldi with Dawn the cellist. Unfortunately, our trio time together was completely taken up by the music for Sunday. Having a violinist and cellist with the skills these two have will certainly dress up praying in the basement.

Work on the church begins next week. My boss told me my marimba could live in the choir room. The drums can go to the basement. And there is a shelf of music that I can wheel out of the area. She said i could wait until next week to move stuff as they wouldn’t actually be in the way at first. Thank goodness, I desperately need a day off. I’m hoping today will be that day.

This will be another short blog. I got up early to work making scores for the string players for this Sunday. We meet this afternoon. Before that I have a dentist appointment and a meeting with my boss. So I need this time this morning to work.

I have had a weird relationship to the New Yorker for most of my adult life. When I was in high school (that would be the late sixties), I had an English teacher named Mrs. Stormzand. She taught us Capote’s In Cold Blood. She told us that she had read it as a serial when it was first published in the New Yorker. She talked about waiting at the mailbox for each issue to arrive.

She also read one book a day in the summer. This is my first memory of learning about The New Yorker. Later as a young man, I sent many poems to the magazine in hopes of being published. I would write the prerequisite cover letter for these and dutifully enclose a stamped envelope. Like clockwork, the envelope would be returned with my manuscript and a charmingly designed rejection notice.

Once, in response to my pathetic pleas for comments, a reader penciled on the notice “We can’t comment, but we do read with care.”

Of course, I never was published by The New Yorker. I did get some other poems published most notably in the back pages of The Rolling Stone.

Over the years, I have had subscriptions to The New Yorker on and off. I hate their approach to online access. They use a graphic interface that is annoying and useless for jumping around in the magazine.

As I try to get myself to rest up on Wednesday afternoons for the evening choir rehearsal, I have resorted to saving the week’s New Yorker to read or should I say look at the cartoons.

I also listen to their podcasts regularly.

Last night, I listened to “Pardon Edward Snowden” by Joseph O’Neil. Here’s a link to the story. There’s also a recording of him reading it. I think it was last year that they began offering a recording of the weekly fiction piece by the author. I think this is a funny one about poets, email, Bob Dylan’s nobel prize, and professional silliness.

Yesterday I was tickled to see an article by a writer and admire and read and who writes music columns for the New Yorker: Alex Ross.

The Book of Bach

Ross writes about John Butt among other author/musicians about Bach. His description of the St. John Passion led me to fire up my Naxos subscription and listen to Butt’s fascinating recording while studying the score. It’s an amazing recording.

busy days

The week after New Year’s Day is not usually this busy. But having scheduled a choir rehearsal for this evening plus scheduling them to sing the Sunday after New Years (otherwise known as The First Sunday After Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord), I have been sneaking in extra moments to prepare over the break.

Eileen has been very helpful. Monday we went to church. She filed the old music from the past season. I scoured Taize books looking for an entrance chant for upcoming Sundays. I had sent off an email with recommendations for what we should do this Sunday, but I was still not convinced I had made the best recommendations.

I tried to access OneLicense.net to look at all the Taize compositions there, but our subscription had lapsed. I knew I had some Taize and Iona Community stuff laying around at church.

Of course doing this kind of thinking takes time. I did manage to come up with some ideas but by that time we had spent a good portion of our day at church. I suggested that we return on Tuesday to finish the job.

I just checked my email and Rev Jen decided to go with  my first recommendation. Here’s what I prepared yesterday before Jen had decided what she wanted to do.

The words are the third stanza of Hymn 133 in the Hymnal 1982. I have been using a lot of canons with the choir lately. It occurred to me that a repeating canon could work much like Taize type chant. When I was looking for stuff I was pleased to see that Berthier (the Taize composer) also has published canons for use in this way.

It will be interesting to see if this works.

On Tuesday, Eileen and I went over again to work. I legally made three sets of new anthems with the church’s photocopy machine. Eileen sorted and stuffed all the anthems from this Sunday until Ash Wednesday (March 1).

I have a little more work to do to prepare for this evening’s rehearsal and tomorrow’s trio rehearsal but I’m feeling more up to speed.

jupe’s tech troubles

I am now the proud owner of two tablets. And both of them are paid 4G subscriptions. The one on the left, the broken one, will no longer have a subscription in a few months. In order to replace it, I had to temporarily pay for both lines.

It doesn’t look too bad in the pic above, but here is a better shot.

Apparently you can’t bend these things if you’re pissed off at them.

I like this shot because you can see the photographer in the reflection.

While we had visitors, Eileen successfully stopped a loud hum by unplugging my good computer speakers. I had thought that the hum was coming from a humidifier upstairs. It was such a relief not to have a low buzz going on.

But unfortunately it looks like my good computer speakers are shot.

I have hooked up some smaller lousier ones so that we can watch TV on the computer, but they are not good enough for listening to music.

Ah well. When (if) our budget ever recovers, I’ll look at getting replacement listening speakers. In the meantime, I still have my record player and headphones.

hymns in the news

Hymns as they were meant to be sung, by aging politicians seated, wearing headphones, singing into mics, sitting on cushions and looking solemn.

Just getting around to blogging. It’s after 3 PM. Eileen and I had a late breakfast. Then we went over Mom’s finances so that we could reply to a query from my smarter younger brother. Things are looking good there.

Then to church. I made up the three anthems that completed the list for between now and Ash Wednesday. Eileen stuffed them in the slots.

I practiced a little organ.

I am thinking of coming up with several specific pieces to work on during the period I am not performing on organ in public. I mentioned to Eileen that I am probably the most skilled I have been at organ playing in my entire life. I hate to lose too much ground there.

My list right now is the 9/8 C major prelude and the G major trio sonata of Bach. I’d like to add at least one romantic piece to the list as well as one by a living composer. But we’ll see.

new book

My brother and his wife gave me Arlie Russell Hochschild’s book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Morning on the American Right, for Christmas. I’m on chapter 3.

For five years, sociologist, Hochschild, spends time rubbing shoulders with people who hate the government. She experienced them largely as Tea Party members but it’s a good bet if they voted in the last election they voted for Trump.

I like that she is trying to get inside the heads of people with whom she disagrees. She is concentrating on understanding people by examining not only their points of view but their emotional life about these points of view.

It looks like she’s going to spend a lot of time talking to people in Louisiana about environmental problems and their support for deregulation. She describes the environmental problem as a possible “keyhole” into understanding how the American right has come to its ideas about its positions on other issues.

So far, it’s an easy read and is definitely intriguing to this libtard.

church report

I got up yesterday morning with the idea I could prepare something for breakfast for everyone to eat. We were out of eggs. Unfortunately blueberry muffins required eggs and it took me forever to find the muffin pan. Eventually I realized that we have tons of food and that people could figure out something to eat.

It wasn’t too long before I walked to church. Eileen decided not to attend with me. We had  about fifty people including my colleague, Rhonda, and her entire fam (husband, two kids). Rhonda and fam had apparently just returned from an extended family Christmas in Florida. She had arranged for a substitute organist before she realized that she would be back in Holland for Sunday. She and her husband decided to attend Grace. It was nice to see them.

Yesterday was the last time our present old organ was scheduled to perform in public. It will soon be disassembled and removed. If we can’t get someone to take the remains after we cannibalize (recycle?) some pipes to interested parishioners (including yours truly) most of it will probably find its way into a dumpster somewhere.

I anthropomorphize stuff in my life.  The crappy organ at church is no exception. Although I’ve never been attracted to it for its sounds, I have enjoyed playing organ at Grace quite a bit. Sometimes I imagine that the old organ also enjoys the chance to  play the excellent music I practice, learn and perform.

All my life, I have, for the most part, performed on inferior organs. I haven’t chaffed against this too much. I needed to make a living and the Roman Catholic church offered the most possibilities of a living wage for me. It is a rare Roman Catholic church with a fine pipe organ. Hell, it’s a relatively rare church with one in the USA. But hopefully our little Episcopal church in Holland will become one this year.

piano trio postlude and relationship to closing hymn

Since my piano trio has agreed to help out with Sunday Eucharists in the basement, I had the idea that maybe I could find a piece for this Sunday that would be in the same key as the closing hymn and share some motivic material with the hymn.

You may or may not recall that I had already chosen a Scarlatti sonata that fit the bill. By googling for Bb major baroque violin sonatas, I was able to find something. A baroque violin sonata would also include cello on the bass. We routinely play these as a trio for fun.

“O love, how deep, how broad” is our closing hymn. It wasn’t too difficult to find a relatively easy Vivaldi corrente that began in a very similar way to the hymn.

You can see here how the two relate. First the hymn tune.

Then Vivaldi.

And you can hear it, I think. And as you would expect, like most Baroque composers Vivaldi spins this little motive out through the entire dance movement, including logically using the exact same little melody in the logical different key of F major in the second section of the piece.

I emailed Dawn the cellist and Amy the violinist with pdfs of this music. I haven’t heard back from them, but I am hopeful that Amy won’t be too averse to working this up for Sunday.

Ganymede – Harping On

This is a blog post that I found comforting. The author is Parker Ramsey, a grad student at Julliard who is also a working church musician. He is also madly planning the next semester of choral music. I haven’t finished the article but plan to peruse it for stuff to steal for my semester.

Propaganda With a Millennial Twist Pops Up in China – The New York Times

Surreal. Cartoons of the great leader plus well groomed Hip hop propangda.

Facing the music: Joshua Bell | Music | The Guardian

Bell likes Genesis. Who knew?

I think I’m going to quit using GoodReads. I try to report what I’m reading there when I finish a book. It seems like it would be simple for this service to report back what I read in 2016. However when I went to their little Books-You-Have-Read-in-2016 section, there were tons of books missing that I reported. Sheesh.

I can’t quit figure out why when I count the books I have read in 2016 I come up with at least 30 books. This is fifteen more than they have in their section. They seem to arbitrarily omit graphic novels and maybe even some poetry books.

More importantly for me, I have been thinking about trying to keep better track of books I would like to read. I am constantly running across books and promising myself I will look more closely at them, maybe read them when I get a chance.

I have a habit of starting too many books. I do like to read several simultaneously. I often choose to read more assiduously the books that have to back to the library. But books often fall off my radar even before I get a chance to look at them in person.

It would seem like Goodreads would be a good way to keep track of what I would like to read. Unfortunately, when I looked at their section of books one wants to read, it was full of weird titles. I guess I haven’t been that consistent in how I classify books on their site.

So screw it. This morning I started a few docs on Google docs: “Books finished in 2016,” “possible reads,” plus an entire folder called “Book lists” under a folder called “Reading Notes” which I have kept up for a while. This is probably the best way for me to keep track of my reading.

I used to keep written journals. In the back of them I would record what books I had finished and when. I stopped doing this when I stopped journaling on paper and began using online things like Google Docs and this blog.

I do love to read.

And I like to keep different kinds of books going at the same time: fiction, poetry, non-fiction in different areas. So many books, so little time.

Our house is full of people who seem to be having a good time! Ben and Tony got up before I did this morning. Eileen made a big breakfast for the carnivores. Now she’s doing up some of the dishes and getting ready for round two: Prime Rib.

We brought home a ton of excellent pizza from Crust 54 last night. I had some for breakfast.

I worked on a Bach chorale setting I am preparing for the next choir season this morning. At any given moment there are several people on their devices. So unless Eileen notices I’m working I’m not doing anything too rude (I hope).

I have to get over to church to prep for tomorrow sometime today. My daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter Alex are flying back to Beijing today. They are already in the air. We failed to get the combined Christmas package to Elizabeth and Sarah while Elizabeth was in England. Oh well. We did the best we could.

Blogging later in the day again today. Eileen and I hit the ground running this morning. I got up did dishes and began moving my stuff out of the master bedroom on the main floor where we plan to have Mark and Leigh stay during their impending visit.

My daughter, Sarah, skyped us from England. That was nice. I had a shrink appointment and needed to get some practice in as well. Blogging had to wait. I still have some tasks I need to get done. I need to transpose down hymn 250 so that it won’t be very high on the day after New Year’s Eve.

It’s after 2 PM local time and no guests have arrived. We are now prepared for them.

I have been messing with my new tablet. It’s easier the second time round despite the fact that I didn’t get another Samsung.

Well, that’s all I have time for right now. More tomorrow.

I killed my tablet last night. I was handling it roughly feeling frustrated that it wasn’t doing what I wanted it do and the front panel cracked. I mean really cracked. I managed to get it to do what I wanted (which was listen to an audio book so I could fall asleep), however, I was worried that small pieces of glass were possibly coming off it. This morning when I looked at it in the light I decided it was not safe to use and that very small pieces of glass might actually be coming from it. Dang.

AND I left my phone at church last night and was too tired to go fetch it. So I have one device left: my computer.

Eileen got up and took it well that I had destroyed my tablet. We’re getting ready to go to the phone store. Her phone has a cracked screen as well. So we need two new devices. I feel very dumb about breaking my tablet.

We’re hoping they can transfer some data from my old tablet to a new one. It’s still functioning. It’s just that webbing of cracks all over  the touch screen make it difficult to use. Plus it’s not safe. Sheesh.

Another short blog today. I have stuff to do.

I’m feeling a little less tired each day since Christmas. However, my energy reserves seem low. I tire easily. Yesterday I was exhausted by the time I got around to practicing. I spent a few hours working out what to submit for Sunday, January 8 for the bulletin. My boss wants to use a gathering chant while we’re in the basement and probably throughout Epiphany. I scoured our resources and couldn’t come up with much. Finally I had the idea that a four part canon could work a bit like a Taize chant. So I recommended singing one of those. We’ll see if she (my boss, Rev Jen) goes for it.

Eileen just got up. We are planning a day trip to Grand Rapids today beginning with going out for breakfast. I think I will blog on and off today as we will be hitting bookstores with wifi. Now to get ready to roll.

Now I’m in Grand Rapids at the cafe at Schuler  books.

The words to the canon are the third stanza of Hymn 133 in the Hymnal 1982.

May all who seek to praise aright

through purer lives show forth your light.

To you, the King of glory,  now

all faithful hearts adoring bow.

In today’s Writers Almanac, Sarah Vowell is quoted as defining a nerd as “going too far and caring too much about a subject.” I think that might be me.  However, Vowell is quoted also as saying it’s a good way to make friends. So maybe not me.

I have been thinking about my blogging as letters to people in the past. People who are not now who they were then. These are letters to their former selves. I think about this when I know my kids are busy and probably not checking the blog very much.

I’ve also been pondering Thoreau’s phrase, “civil disobedience,” as in On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.

Many people with whose political position I strongly agree are reacting hysterically to the election of Donald Trump, calling for an abandonment of civility. It’s probably a good time for me to read (reread?) Thoreau.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines “civil” many ways. The first meaning refers to warfare within a community as in “Civil war.”

It’s not until the 7th definition that courtesy enters.

I like to fantasize that Thoreau would have wanted both meanings.

Despite it being the day after Christmas yesterday, I not only practiced organ I also worked on planning. I continued tracing the Sixteenth Century Anthem Book: Twenty Anthems for Four Voices online. Here’s a link to my working document which has links to these anthems online as well as telling how their texts fit into the church year.

I also worked diligently on choosing my first piano postlude for Eucharists in the basement. Our closing hymn a week from Sunday (our first Sunday in the Basement) is “O Love, How Deep, How High.

I thought it might be clever if I could find a piano piece that is in Bb and reminiscent of the hymn melody. I looked through Mozart Bb piano sonatas, Bach Bb preludes and fugues. Finally I started working my way through Scarlatti Bb sonatas. I have narrowed down to three.

I’m leaning toward the first one, even though the meter is duple. The other two have triple meter and the right key. I’m going to show them to Eileen when she gets up and see what she thinks. [Post script: She liked the first one best as well.]

Wielding Claims of ‘Fake News,’ Conservatives Take Aim at Mainstream Media – The New York Times

This is insane. Trope after trope is reframed and meaning diluted.

What’s the Best Book, New or Old, You Read This Year? – The New York Times

 The Year in Reading – The New York Times

I love lists. And more books in some comments. Cool beans. This inspires me to figure out what books I read this year. Of course the year isn’t over and I’m still reading.

So I survived. We had more parishioners than we were expecting for our Christmas Day Sunday Eucharist. Eileen got up and went with me. We were both tired from the night before.

These two pics of me were taken by a parishioner, Eddie Bullinger. I find the second one a bit flattering. Or at least goofy.

I made the first one my profile pic on Facelessbooger because I think it looks more like me or at least me in action.

I toyed with changing the theme on this blog this morning but couldn’t decide on a change. It’s probably one of those post stress times illusions where you think it’s time for a change.

The service went well yesterday morning. I handed out all of the copies I had made of Adam Tice’s new hymn so that some of the congregation had the music. With only about thirty people, it’s sometimes tricky to know how to lead with the organ. Usually this amount of people spread over the room need a fair amount of organ so that people feel comfortable singing. Sometimes with more, I pull back until I can hear that the group has found its own voice and is listening to itself sing.

The trickiest thing yesterday was the psalm. I promised Jen that I would sing along on this. In our meeting, Wednesday, she surprised me with having it in the draft bulletin. She had previously emailed me that it would be better to say it on such a sparsely attended Sunday. She had failed to tell Mary Miller to take it out. She decided to leave it in. So I wanted to be solid on it.

I don’t enjoy singing and playing in church, especially when I’m trying to project so that I can be heard in the room. It feels a little out of control. But I did it and I didn’t miss a beat.So that happened.

The prelude and postlude went well. I did manage to keep my interest by scheduling some charming music. However, I was tired and could feel the effort it took to maintain concentration. Or maybe more accurately, I noticed when my concentration was waning a bit and had to bring my two brain cells back into focus.

After the service, we drove over to say Merry Christmas to Mom and deliver some gifts from Sarah and Matthew.

Then we drove to Whitehall. Eileen drove. I promised to drive home.

It’s always good to see Eileen with her fam these days.

It’s a lot less tense than it used to be.

I was exhausted, but try to keep up my end of conversations and hugged most everybody hello and good-by. Three of the cousins (great nieces) received coloring books for their present from Great Grandma Hatch.

Then I drove us home. We watched a video from the library last night.

It wasn’t bad. Surprisingly I stayed awake until the end this time. I know one reason I don’t like movies. I invariably weep at the ending no matter what. This ending wasn’t particularly touching, but I was true to form.

My chorister who is also a movie buff gave me pause recently when he said he had never watched “Scrooged.” This makes me wonder how many of my zillions of readers out there recognize my movie references which are admittedly paltry.

Well that about wraps it up for St. Stephen’s day or Boxing Day.

Energy is a important consideration for me in my mid sixties. I find it important to get some rest during the day if i call on myself to do something strenuous in the evening. So yesterday, in the afternoon I managed to lay down and read for an hour or so.

In the morning, I received a call from my Mom’s nursing home. She had fallen and was complaining of back pain. I think they were reluctant to move her. At any rate they called an Emergency team to come and evaluate and possibly take her to the local ER. A half hour later the nursing home called and said Mom was on her way to the ER.

When I finally got moving it was around 11 AM. I needed to go to church to prep for the evening services, but decided to drop by and see what Mom’s status was. If I seem cavalier about my Mom being in the ER, it might have something to do with the fact that we are no strangers to the ER. It’s the nursing home’s policy to hand off residents when they are ill or injured. Mom has been both at one time or another during her stay there.

Even before the nursing home, I ended up with Mom (and Dad)  in the ER from time to time.

It turns out that we timed it perfectly (Eileen came with me). They had just finished evaluating her and deciding she was okay. A nurse told me she was just preparing to call the Emergency team to return her to the nursing home. So we took her back.

While I was resting in the afternoon yesterday I finished the graphic novel my daughter Elizabeth recently gave me. The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf.

It’s a memoir of sorts about his childhood in France and Syria.

What’s striking about it is how the reader gets a chance to see life in these countries from the point of view of a bright young man with a ruthless sense of clarity and honesty about what he is experiencing. The narrator, the young boy, notices smells and sights that are convincing in their brutal honesty.

Unfortunately it’s volume one and ends in a “to be continued” moment. I will have to read the next volume. Riad himself worked for Charlie Hebdo in Paris for a while. This was the sight of an atrocious and murderous attack in 2015 on a satirical magazine where many people died.

The evening services went pretty smoothly last night. The choir sounded good at the later service. People sang lustily at both. Two down, one to go. I have a 10 AM service today. This community hasn’t had a service on Christmas day for quite a while. But since today is Sunday we decided to have a Eucharist. It will be interesting to see who shows up.

In Cancer Trials, Minorities Face Extra Hurdles – The New York Times

Despite the negative aspect of this story, the report is encouraging as it describes the success of one man in managing his health care despite obstacles.

President Gorbachev’s Last Phone Call – The New York Times

Remember back when leaders acted responsible. Good times.

Why It’s Not Wrong to Wish Muslims Merry Christmas – The New York Times

I learned some stuff from this article. I knew that Jesus was recognized by Islam, but hadn’t thought about the fact that his story was in the Koran.

Populism, Real and Phony – The New York Times

Comparing Trump-style “populism” (white supremacy?) to some movements in Europe.

mr & mrs jupe in the kitchen

Eileen made flan yesterday while I was at work. We are planning to take it with us tomorrow to the Hatch Christmas. I got up this morning, cleaned the kitchen and then baked apples.

Yum!

planning 2017 church stuff

Last week I chose a postlude for Sunday, Jan 1, 2017. It’s a setting of “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” by John Rutter. It will require prep but again it will keep me interested.

I think I’m going to miss my organ. The organ music is something that keeps me engaged at work. I do love piano as well, but I will have to find ways to continue practicing after the old organ is gone in a couple of weeks.

I also chose anthems for January 2017. It’s a working list. We will definitely sing the first choice, “At the Name of Jesus,” cleverly arranged by James Kirby to the tune of Noël nouvelet. We sang it on this Sunday of the year three years ago. In fact, all of the anthems I ended up using were the same ones we sang three years ago at this point in the lectionary. It’s kind of a cop out, but the material works. I can always amend these choices later.

One of choir members gave me a copy of the Oxford collection of 16th century anthems. She bought it at a thrift store. It occurs to me that most, if not all, of these anthems are available free online. I am planning to go through the book and see what fits in the upcoming weeks of Epiphany and Lent.

We will be coming back from Christmas and worshiping in the church basement while the church space is prepared for the incoming organ. I have decided it would be good to find as many SATB anthems as I can for the choir. I want to rely on the sound of them singing in parts in the dead acoustic of the basement. I think this will be the ticket, but I guess we’ll see.

plato

I finished translating the last section of Aristophanes’ “The Clouds” that is in my Greek text recently. Now I have to work through the “Revision Exercises.” I heard this term (Revision) last time I was in England as they talked about the schooling of Matthew’s nieces and nephews. I asked about it. Here’s the meaning as defined by the OED.

Notice the small print (not sure if you can see it without making the screen enlarged): “Not in N. Amer. use: cf. Review n. 8.”

It will be a while before I go to the next chapter because I have quite a few “revision” exercises to work through as well as daily practice of reading Aristophanes aloud.

But I peeked at the next section. It is an excerpt from the “Apology” of Socrates by Plato.

I can see why they put it next. Aristophanes is merciless in his depiction of Socrates. Plato gives another, probably better known, version of the philosopher.

I look forward to reading Plato in Greek.

I am still reading Niki Kazantzakis’s Odyssey: A Modern Sequel. In English.

After Decades Out of View, Navy Deserter Hopes to Rally a New Antiwar Generation – The New York Times

A story of brave service men who walked away in Vietnam. Antiwar. That’s me.

Conservatism turned toxic: Donald Trump’s fanbase has no actual ideology, just a nihilistic hatred of liberals – Salon.com

Okay, Salon is my echo chamber. I know that. But the idea that it is hatred not ideology driving Trump supporters, helps me understand why people are so vitriolic and hysterical. It rings true.

 Books for the Trump Years – BillMoyers.com

I love lists of what people recommend to read. Also some cool stuff in the comments. I will be checking out some of the authors I don’t recongize.

Species Oddity: New Species Discovery | WWF

I like this report because it has so many pictures of the new species.

How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail – Scientific American

Micheal Shermer, the author writes: ” If corrective facts only make matters worse, what can we do to convince people of the error of their beliefs? From my experience,

1. keep emotions out of the exchange,

2. discuss, don’t attack (no ad hominem and no ad Hitlerum),

3. listen carefully and try to articulate the other position accurately,

4. show respect,

5. acknowledge that you understand why someone might hold that opinion, and

6. try to show how changing facts does not necessarily mean changing worldviews.

These strategies may not always work to change people’s minds, but now that the nation has just been put through a political fact-check wringer, they may help reduce unnecessary divisiveness.”

The Long-Term Jobs Killer Is Not China. It’s Automation. – The New York Times

I keep waiting for this to be discussed more in public. One of the commenters points out the omission of mentioning the Universal Basic Income. This is being tried in places in a few places in the world and relates to Nichol’s and  McChesney’s book, People Get Ready! The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy. 

graphic novels

I finished reading Alan Moore’s Nemo: Heart of Ice last night. I checked out a bag of graphic novels/comic books the other day.

John Lewis and the other creators of March: Book One recently won the National Book Award for the third volume of these memoirs: March: Book Three. I’m about half way through the first volume. If you clicked on the link, you may have noticed that the Washington Post refers to these books as “graphic novels.” However, it’s not a novel. It’s Lewis’s autobiography. It seems like calling a “graphic novel” is not accurate, but what do I know?

I started reading Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits: My Parents A Memoir yesterday. There was blurb from R Crumb on it that caught my eye. Weirdly enough, it seems to be fiction. Farmer thanks her parents in the acknowledgements. Her characters have different names than her mom and dad. It’s a “graphic novel.” Based on the lives of her parents. Sheesh.

Finally, my daughter, Elizabeth, gave me a graphic novel for Christmas. She told Eileen that Zadie Smith (one of my favorite writers) had recommended it. Alison “Fun Home” Bechdel blurbs on the back. I look forward to digging into it.

2 hymns

I ended up recommending two new hymns to my boss for us to sing in the upcoming Sundays. The first one was written on Dec 7, 2016 by Adam M. Tice. It’s called “The morning after Jesus’ birth.” Here’s a link to his website where the hymn is offered for use for free until Jan 7, 2017. He seems to be a Mennonite Seminary Student. Somehow I ran across his work and “friended” him on BaceFook. He posted his hymn there. It does seem to be a sliver of hope in a time of turmoil. I didn’t think his tune choice was the best one for my community. It’s a LMD text  (Long Meter Double which means Long Meter, 8.8.8.8. twice, the 8 stands for syllables per line). I chose a Long Meter tune that my group knows and fits the season: Puer Nobis. Here’s Big Daddy Mark Ferguson playing it (chosen randomly on YouTube).

I made a doc with the words and put the melody down a step.

Here’s a link to the pdf I made of it: the-morning-after-jesus-birth. Tice asks users to report use via one-license,net. I did this. I also reported to him of BaseFuck that we were going to use it on Christmas Day. He “liked” my comment.

For Sunday on January 1, Charles Huttar suggested we sing Vadja’s text, “Now greet the swiftly changing year,” written for use on this day. It combines the feast of the The Holy Name with references to a new year.

It can be found at Hymn 250 in The Hymnal 1982. There it is set to a tune by a former music director of my church, Al Fedak. In addition the last word in each stanza is the word, “grace.” How cool is that? Fedak’s tune can be found in 9 major hymnals, Vadja’s text in 15.

Concordia holds the copyright to Vadja’s texts so I’m not putting it here. But here is the bulletin note I prepared:

Music Note Our offertory hymn today “skillfully weaves together the themes of New Year and the Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord.” (Hymnal Companion). Since this feast falls on a Sunday this year, it takes precedence as a feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ (BCP p. 16). This gives us a rare opportunity to use this hymn. The tune was written by a former Music Director of Grace, Al Fedak The Hymnal Companion describes this tune as “as sprightly carollike” one “that captures the buoyant qualities” of the text written by “one of the finest contemporary hymn writers,” Jaroslav J. Vadja.  I will be playing it several times before the service during the prelude. The tune name, SIXTH NIGHT refers to its position in the cycle of the twelve days of Christmas.  Note that each stanza of the text ends with the word, “grace,” an added bonus for us in this community as we seek to live out our name: “Grace church.” Many thanks to Dr. Charles Huttar for suggesting this hymn for today and pointing out its meaning for us. submitted by Steve Jenkins, Music Director

a box of music

A box of music came in the mail for me. I found it yesterday on the counter at church late in the day. I was preparing to practice organ. It was fun to open it and see what I had ordered. I buy used music from my previous instructor, Craig Cramer. He sends out an email with a lengthy list of  music, books, CDs, and records he offers for sale. I picture him hiring a grad student to do all the grunt work for him. Since his wife died, I also picture him rattling around in their home in South Bend with occasional student boarders. Maybe they help with the music orders.

Anyway, there were many treasures in the box, too many to enumerate here. When I send in an order, invariably something I want has already been snatched up by another person on Craig’s email list. This can be disappointing. But, it also means that i can’t quite remember which pieces of music are actually coming. This adds to the fun.

One piece I knew was in the box was Helmut Walcha’s verion of Bach’s Art of Fugue. The Art of Fugue holds a life long fascination for me. I am grateful to be at a stage of competence that I can play it. For years I listened to it, especially the Swinger Singers doing Counterpunctus IX.

I have learned and performed this one on piano. I use Czerny’s version because it’s cheap and on two staffs. The original was written with a line for each voice, like choral music without words.

Last night over a martini I perused Walcha and was amused to see that his version of number 9 was for manuals only, that is, with no pedal part. This makes sense. But here is how Cameron Carpenter plays it.

He opts for using the pedal. He’s sort of the Virgil Fox of the early 21st century. Classical organists tend to hate him, like they did Fox.

US Poet Laureate – “you pray and pray mama says you gotta sing”

I recently heard Juan Felipe Herrera’s name mentioned, I think it was on the Writer’s Almanac. He is the current US Poet Laureate. I didn’t even know we had such a thing. I checked out a book of his poetry yesterday.

I like this poem.

Almost Livin’ Almost Dyin’

for all the dead

& hear my streets
with ragged beats & the beats
are too beat to live so the graves push out w/
hands that cannot touch the makers of light & the
sun flames down through the roofs & the roots that slide to
one side & the whistlin’ fires of the cops & the cops
in the shops do what they gotta do & your body’s
on the fence & your ID’s in the air & the shots
get fired & the gas in the face & the tanks
on your blood & the innocence all around & the
spillin’ & the grillin’ & the grinnin’ & the game of Race
no one wanted & the same every day so U fire &
eat the smoke thru your long bones & the short mace
& the day? This last sweet Swisher day that turns to love
& no one knows how it came or what it is or what is says
or what it was or what for or from what gate
is it open is it locked can U pull it back to your life filled
with bitter juice & demon angel eyes even though
you pray & pray mama says you gotta sing she says
you got wings but from what skies from where could
they rise what are the things the no-things called love
how can its power be delivered or grasped so the beats
keep on blowin’ keep on flyin’’ & the moon tracks your bed
where you are alone or maybe dead & the truth
carves you carves you & calls you back still alive
kiss the candles by the last four trees still soaked
in Michael Brown red and Officer Liu red and
Officer Ramos Red and Eric Garner whose
last words were not words they were just breath
askin’ for breath they were just burnin’ like me like
we are all still burnin’ can you hear me
can you feel me swaggin’ tall & driving low &

shootin’ fine & hollarin’ from my corner crime & fryin’
against the wall

almost livin’ almost dyin’
almost livin’ almost dyin’

Baroque Music edited by Peter Walls

I returned Baroque Music edited by Peter Walls yesterday. I read several essays in it. Yesterday I sat down and typed up my notes. As I did so, I googled some of the articles footnoted. I was glad to find a few easily on line. Some were behind firewalls, but Chapter 16 was Philip Brett’s article below.

Text, Context,and the Early Music Editor by Philip Brett 1988 pdf

Peter Wells has pointed me to several resources as has John Butt. I continue reading in Butt’s Playing with History. I am reading the library copy even though my brother gave me an e-copy (Thanks again, Mark!) . I will eventually switch to it, no doubt, with the library copy is due. But in the meantime, I prefer to read real copies of scholarly books when possible.

Here’s a couple review of Ross Duffin’s book, “How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony and Why You Should Care.”

Rasch review of “How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony” by Duffin pdf link

Ezra Pound by Peter Ackroyd

I picked up my interlibrary loaned copy of Ezra Pound by Peter Ackroyd yesterday.

It’s a slim volume and is one of the “Thames and Hudson Literary Lives.” It boasts of “111 illustrations” and there are quite a few. I read some in it yesterday. It’s fun and I’m learning stuff about Pound.

 David Lee, violist

I received a huge compliment in a comment to yesterday’s blog from David Lee. He is the resource manager for Community Action House and also Music Director/Conductor of Holland  Area Junior Strings. At our Community Action House gig, he gave Amy a break and played several tunes with me. As I mentioned before, it was hard to hear, but I could tell he was playing well. I love it that classical musicians also improv these days.

Apple Crisp

I got up this morning and made Apple Crisp. It always makes the house smell good. Eileen is still asleep.

Greek in the morning

When my shrink asked me what I was going to do for myself for the holidays, I replied that my daily routine is already very very rewarding. Getting up each morning and translating a few lines of Aristophanes as I have been doing for quite a while now is interesting and even fun.

Yesterday I learned the Greek word for “penis.” In the play, The Clouds, Aristophanes mercilessly satirizes the Sophist and Socrates. He even lumps them together something that most certainly pissed off Plato if not Socrates himself.

Anyway the intrepid Strespiades seeks out the “thinkery” (a Greek word) to learn unjust arguments so that he may defeat his creditors in court. He finally gets to meet Socrates who bids him lay down on a bug infested couch to think (hmmm a bit like a shrink).

At one point, Socrates asks him if he is has anything. Strepsiades replies, “Only my penis in my right hand.” It’s a play on the verb for “having” which can also mean “have you an idea or suggestion?” The key suggests the literal translation because of the ensuing “vulgarity which follows.”

I like Greek.

Trump private security force ‘playing with fire’ – POLITICO

Politico is hardly an objective source, leaning obviously leftward (my way), however, this article was on my google news feed this morning. I read it, bookmarked it, and (as I did with Obama’s presidency) started a new tag, “Trump Presidency” to help me follow the next four or eight years.

I think if Trump continues to use his private security forces in his presidency it could be problematic. This article explains why.

Donald Trump, This Is Not Normal! – The New York Times

Charles Blow will be required reading during the Trump Presidency.

How Republics End – The New York Times

As will Krugmann, here giving some historical prespective.