Let me tell you —It’s been a rough week! I’m writing this in the lobby of United Airlines at Honolulu International Airport as I wait for my flight to Seattle. I have always been a lousy sleeper but this week takes the cake. The pseudo-jet lag is like when I’ve just come back from Europe,… Read More Sleepless in Honolulu
Yesterday I had a most fascinating conversation with Dr. Jim Holt, as pictured below. He is a otolaryngologist (ears, nose, throat specialist) who has taken up the study of organ and music theory in his retirement. This was the starting point of our discussion, when he wrote in an email: There are two related topics… Read More Musical fluency
For some reason, I felt like saying this in Latin, “de profundis.” I feel like I’ve been to the abyss and back. However, it’s not because of any “sorrow or anguish” on my part. Why? On Tuesday I had my Covid booster shot and although I had been warned that some people were more deeply… Read More De profundis
You probably know that I’ve been struggling to learn Spanish over the last three years, spending two hours per day with Duolingo, listening to Spanish podcasts, attending online classes, having daily Zoom tutoring sessions and watching Spanish telenovelas every night. And yet … I consider myself an intermediate student with only a moderate fluency. Sure,… Read More It’s not fair!
In my last post, I wrote about the upcoming 65th anniversary of Compline which will be celebrated at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle after 65 years of weekly services . I couldn’t help but think all of that was due to the work of one man, namely Peter R. Hallock, our former business partner of… Read More Love, prh
The first time I heard the word “Compline” was when I was a music student at the University of Southern California and learned about the Daily Offices in Music History 101. That was more than fifty years ago! The Lutheran Church of Honolulu started its own Compline Service modeled after the one in Seattle on… Read More 65 years of Compline
Those eleven minutes of terror happened in tonight’s First Mondays concert, “La camera y la chiesa,” in which violinist Darel Stark and I played the “Violin Sonata in G minor” by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. I’m not even sure I took a breath during that work! The piece begins at about 33 minutes and 26… Read More 11 minutes of terror!
Question: How many people does it take to play a trio sonata? Answer: 4 Huh? I thought a trio meant 3! Nope! That’s because the bass line requires two players, in this case, a cello plus a keyboard instrument to fill out the harmonies (harpsichord or organ). Here’s what Brittanica says on the subject: Trio… Read More When 3=4
Yesterday the Early Music Hawaii board made the difficult decision to postpone the September 11th all-Josquin concert. Here is the message from Ian Capps, president of Early Music Hawaii: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT Dear Lovers of Early Music: Given the sudden and serious developments in COVID infections here and the uncertainty of whether gatherings will be further… Read More Blame the delta variant
It’s easy to categorize organists as natural multi-taskers. After all, in order to play a fugue, for example, you have to be able to play and hear every single voice phrased and articulated simultaneously. That means that you are hearing and playing at least four melodies at the same time, all starting at different time… Read More The perils of multi-tasking