What would Bach do? That was my reaction to last night’s concert—the Bach Collegium Japan’s performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Even though I’m afraid I was left with more questions than answers, this performance was certainly memorable. The fact is that here we were, nearly 300 years after the date of the work’s composition,… Read More A surprising performance
We are here! After an 8 hour flight to Chicago, a 6 hour layover, an 8 hour flight to Frankfurt, and a 4 hour train ride to Leipzig, we are settled into our hotel. We are feeling human again thanks to a hot shower, good night’s sleep and a hearty German breakfast. This morning we… Read More Arrival in Leipzig
“Carl! Carl and Kathy!” We had just come out of downtown Chicago’s Crate and Barrel store and heard a man and woman calling our names. We had a six hour layover in Chicago on our pilgrimage to Mecca, aka Leipzig and took the train into town to kill some time. We turned around to look… Read More En route to Leipzig
It’s Jennifer Lane, the mezzo soprano who sang in the Lutheran Church’s performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion and Pergolesi Stabat Mater! She has also come to Hawaii frequently to perform with the summer festivals of the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble (conducted by Tim Carney). This trip, though, I think is purely for… Read More Guess who’s in town?
With the church organist shortage situation reaching critical mass, I guess it was just a matter of time before someone would come up with a technological solution. When I was sick with stomach flu a couple of weeks ago, apparently a few people went into panic mode. I wonder if they would feel better had… Read More Replaced by technology?
. . . and could only have one piece of music with me, what would I take? Well, I’m not anticipating being on a desert island anytime soon — but I am going on vacation next week. I’ll be packing my organ shoes, just in case I’m able to get to an organ. I’ve decided… Read More If I were on a desert island …
For Pentecost the LCH Choir will be singing one of the Hildegard motets by American composer, Frank Ferko. I was very interested to learn that Ferko is a graduate of Valparaiso University (the same alma mater as Allen Bauchle) and studied organ with Philip Gehring. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Ferko… Read More Ferko and Messiaen
Here’s a cartoon that was posted to Facebook recently. It’s Pentecost this Sunday, a day I have always thought of as a “bookend” to the church music season — in spite of the fact that I have one more Sunday to play after that before going on vacation. For the prelude, I’ll be playing “Apparition… Read More Mysterious Messiaen
The organ, be it either pipe or electronic, is quite possibly the most complex of any musical instrument. And so the odds that something might go wrong are always a possibility. In the post about Yuri McCoy’s wedding last week, I told you about the cipher in the trumpet stop for the recessional. That means… Read More Gotta Plan B?
My last post generated a lot of discussion about the whole notion of poor pay being the reason for the organist shortage, especially considering the amount of preparation time required to play a church service. I suppose if you go back to my ten years of private organ lessons, four years of college with courses… Read More How much prep?