This morning I was at St. Mark’s Cathedral Seattle where the worship service was in-person but a little different from the usual. When you enter, you see this sign:

Upon entering on the left, a person spritzes your hands with hand sanitizer and on the right, another person will hand you the service bulletin.

I’m staying with Charles and Maria Caldwell, whom you may remember have a condo in Hawaii. He is a recorder player who played a couple years ago on the Organ Plus Advent program at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu with Jieun Kim Newland. Maria was formerly Executive Director of Early Music America and presently sings in the St. Mark’s Cathedral choir—she had warned me ahead of time that they divided the choir into two smaller sub-choirs with each sub-choir singing on the odd or even Sundays alternatively.

Michael Kleinschmidt, the Canon Musician, played the first and third movements of Bach’s “Trio sonata in C, BWV 529 as the prelude and postlude.

Since Maria lives only a few blocks away from the Cathedral, she had invited Michael Kleinschmidt and Marc Aubertin for a quick lunch before going back for the choral reading session part of the Peter Hallock Symposium.

When I got ready for church this morning, I was regretting not bringing my check book with me to put money into the offering. However, to my relief, instead of ushers passing out offering plates at the Offertory, there was a QR code linked to the St. Mark’s Venmo account! So I just scanned the QR code with my phone! How 21st century!

I was happy to hear Peter Hallock’s “Sanctus” and “Agnus Dei” from his Simple Missa Brevis for the Ordinary. This mass setting has been newly published by the Hallock Institute.

Then at communion, we again had our hands spritzed with hand sanitizer as we lined up to go forward. We were only given the bread and not the cup, which was fine by me.

This is the weekend of the Peter Hallock Symposium, and there was a display of photos and old newspaper clippings in the back corner of the cathedral. Many of the photos I had never seen before.

In the afternoon, there was a choral reading session of Peter Hallock’s previously unpublished works. There we were, in the “Compline” corner, singing Peter’s music which I recognized from “Songs for Liturgy and More Spiritual Songs,” first published by Walton Music Corp. in the 70s. I think this is the first time in 40 years that I have heard this music—we used to sing all of Peter’s music from the “red book.”The copyright has now being assigned to the Hallock Institute. (Click the link to purchase the music)

Some of the titles newly-republished include:

1. A Simple Missa Brevis
2. Nunc dimittis
3. Christ our Passover (Easter canticle)
4. Come, let us sing joyfully
5. I was glad
6. I will magnify your name, O God
7. It is a good thing
8. O clap your hands
9. Praise God in the Holy Temple
10. O Cross, whose wood is our race’s boast
11. Away in a manger
12. The Willow Carol

With some of Peter’s ashes interred in the column right here by the piano, I couldn’t help but think that Peter was pleased to hear us. After all, he composed this music for this acoustical space— and it was both glorious and peaceful.

We sang 80 pages of music in 45 minutes! Much of the music is written in one or two parts, very accessible for modest choirs.