You remember the legend of Sisyphus, don’t you?Sisyphus was a bad king whose punishment for his deceitfulness was to push a huge boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back to the bottom again. I had recalled this Greek myth in a prior post about playing Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary over and over and over again for my high school baccalaureate.

Well, I’ve just finished another Sisyphean task — you probably guessed it — I’ve just finished the layout of yet another program! First of all, you must understand that every week, I type and layout a 20-page service bulletin at my job as the Parish Administrator of St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church. Yup! the bulletin has 20 pages every week, and not only has the order of service, but all the scripture lessons, the liturgy, the music, the prayers, the participants and the announcements! The only thing not written out is the rector’s sermon.

(Psst!) To tell you the truth, however, it takes longer just to have the copy machine print out, collate, fold and staple 150 booklets than for me to actually type and layout the darn thing! Don’t get me wrong — I’m grateful that the machine does all this for me!

Anyway, my latest layout project was the program booklet for the next Early Music Hawaii concert, called “Bridging the Centuries.” It will be this coming Friday, November 14 at 7:30 pm at Parke Chapel on the grounds of St. Andrew’s Cathedral. This actually was one of the last concerts which my husband, Carl Crosier, planned with Karol Nowicki while in the hospital.

Long ago, it was Carl’s idea to present an all-choral program of music for the church year, taking a seasonal text and singing a Renaissance version of it, followed by a contemporary setting of the same text. For example, the beautiful Transfiguration text on O nata lux. 

O nata lux de lumine, Iesu redemptor saeculi, dignare clemens supplicum laudes precesque sumere. Qui carne quondam contegi dignatus es pro perditis. nos membra confer effici tui beati corporis.

The choir will first sing the setting by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) followed by the version by Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943).  Here are two performances I found on YouTube; the first by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the second by the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Similarly the Early Music Hawaii Choir will sing texts for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Passion, Easter and Pentecost from such early composers as Francisco Guerrero, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Orlande de Lassus, Thomas Tallis, and William Byrd — contrasting with works on the same texts by Hermann Schroeder, Francis Poulenc, Morten Lauridsen, Randall Giles, Olivier Messiaen, Peter Maxwell Davies and even Karol Nowicki (b. 1988) himself!

Singers (hand-picked by Carl!) include Emily Haswell, Mihoko Ito, Georgine Stark, Allen Bauchle, Naomi Castro, Karyn Castro, Jeannette Johnson, Stan Baptista, Ian Capps, Karol Nowicki, Simon Crookall, David Del Rocco and Keane Ishii.

According to the program, “The outpouring of support in honor of the late Carl Crosier has been an extraordinary affirmation of his stature in the spiritual and musical community of Hawai’i. We thank his many, many friends and admirers who responded to his wish that Early Music Hawaii be one of the institutions named as a recipient of their generosity. We assure you that your generous donations will be dedicated to projects, including this one, that Carl wished to pursue but could not. Aware of his fragility, Carl had already delegated the direction of tonight’s concert, one of his favorite themes, to Karol Nowicki, a Choral Scholar in the St. Andrew’s Cathedral Choir, who also composed one piece specially for this performance.”

Tickets may be purchased by going to the Early Music Hawaii website. Hope to see you there!