If you can believe this, the photo of me above was taken while I was playing for the Baccalaureate Service for the Class of 2020 of St. Andrew’s Priory!

Shocking, isn’t it! Look at the way, I’m dressed! I properly have my mask on, but I’m wearing a T-shirt and shorts! A complete faux pas, to be sure, but hey, it is an Organist T-shirt, after all. In case you’re wondering, it says “Organists Gone Wild!”

Seriously, this year’s Baccalaureate Service will be like no other in the school’s 150+ year history, as it is scheduled for July 17th, the middle of summer. It will be presented “virtually,” whatever that means, and I was asked to record the music for the prelude, postlude, two hymns and the school’s Alma Mater for the virtual presentation.

I’m guessing that people will watch the virtual Baccalaureate from home which means it will be okay to sing the two hymns and the Alma Mater. Otherwise, it would be too dangerous to sing indoors in the Cathedral with all those droplets being sprayed about!

I can’t even count how many school baccalaureate services I’ve played. I just remember the first one I played, in 1968, for my own graduating class at Burbank High School. It was a complete nightmare, and one I’ll never forget. I know I’ve written about it before, in my 2014 post “Sisyphus.”

… I can’t help but think back to my own high school baccalaureate which I played forty-six years ago. I’m sure that no one except me remembers it! Because, you see, for me it was a nightmare!

I had chosen to play Jeremiah Clarke’s “Trumpet Tune,” for the processional and his “Trumpet Voluntary” for the recessional. No problem there—these pieces are used a lot for weddings and other grand occasions and I had practiced them well.

The problem is that each of the pieces only lasts three minutes or so. With over six hundred students in my graduating class,  I had only brought the “Trumpet Tune” to get everyone in and the “Trumpet Voluntary” for everyone to march out. Which meant that I played each of the pieces over, and over, and over, and over . . . I think I lost count of the repetitions after about thirty or so, and I started flubbing up. A missed note here, and a missed note there. STOP THE WORLD! I WANT TO GET OFF!

I certainly learned my lesson after that, and at Iolani School where I was the chapel organist for 20 years, it usually took a good ten minutes to get the graduating class into St. Alban’s Chapel from the Student Center. I always brought several pieces to string together so that I wouldn’t run out of music.

This year at the Priory, though, there won’t be any processionals or recessionals, so I won’t have to worry about not having enough music.

Now next week’s commencement, though, will be in-person and a different story altogether. I’ve already been forewarned that background music is expected during the presentation of diplomas which may take up to 30-40 minutes!

Wow! That’s a whole lotta music!