Sunday, January 8th was the Baptism of Christ and I programmed two settings of “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” by J. S. Bach. They were both from a collection called “Clavierübung” or “keyboard practice,” which is sometimes referred to as Bach’s German Organ Mass because there are chorale preludes on the Ordinary — the… Read More Amazing coincidences
Yesterday when I opened the Star Advertiser newspaper, I cannot tell you thrilled I was to see Rodney Gehrke‘s picture prominently displayed in the entertainment section. Rodney arrived yesterday from San Francisco and will be playing a recital on the mighty Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, Sunday, January 15th at 4 pm.… Read More Two organ recitals in January
Former organ student, Joey Fala, has been at home for Christmas break from college, and he and I were talking about Toccata in D minor by Max Reger (1873-1916) which he has been learning. I was telling him, it was “a heck of a lot easier to play when you have a crescendo pedal,” but of course,… Read More No crescendo pedal!
Not too long ago, we were contacted by Ken Peterson, a singer in the Seattle Compline choir, for information about the Compline service at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. Ken writes an excellent blog, Compline Underground, and he is beginning a new series of articles on the fifty plus Compline services which have been started… Read More Compline Underground
I’ve just put away the Christmas decorations and it’s time again to get the guest room ready — this time for Rodney Gehrke, organist who will be giving the second of this season’s Abendmusiken Concerts on Sunday, January 15th at 4 pm. Carl and I met Rodney over twenty years ago as part of the… Read More Rodney Gehrke, Concert Organist
I just got an email from WordPress.com with the Annual Report on this blog, “Another Year of Insanity,” which states that 27,411 people visited my blog in the year 2011! This is pretty remarkable, because of course, I don’t know 27,411 people — in fact I don’t know that I even know one-tenth of that!… Read More The numbers are in!
Today we had lunch with a long-time friend and fellow church musician, Dana Marsh, who happened to be home with his family in California. Dana is no stranger to LCH, having given several duo countertenor recitals with Carl Crosier in the 1990s, and conducted the LCH choir in a Bach cantata for Epiphany in… Read More Catching up with Dana Marsh
Christmas around LCH takes on the nature of a marathon where endurance and training are the name of the game. I met with former student, Joey Fala, on Friday to review all the music for the three services (two on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas Day). As I handed him “The Book,” which I… Read More Christmas Eve at LCH
After researching the options for fine church music in the Los Angeles area, we decided to attend All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. We had a very leisurely dinner in a local restaurant (wow, what a concept on Christmas Eve!) and arrived in plenty of time to attend the 11:00 pm Festival Choral Eucharist. The… Read More All Saints Christmas Eve, 2011
Every day I pass Hawaiian Rent All on Beretania Street, a company which has pithy sayings on its marquee. This month the sign lists the three stages of a man’s life: 1. He believes in Santa Claus. 2. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. 3. He is Santa Claus! I could say that there are… Read More Three stages of development