It’s Holy Week — the busiest week of the year for church musicians. My late husband, Carl Crosier, used to call this “Holy H— Week,” because in addition to conducting nine services of music during the week, typing a complicated bulletin containing all the services and music of the Triduum, rehearsing the brass and choir… Read More The Holy Week marathon begins
The Sunday after Easter is sometimes referred to as Low Sunday. One website described it this way: The word “low” may serve to contrast it with the “high” festival of Easter on the preceding Sunday. Or, the word “low” may be a corruption of the Latin word laudes, the first word of a sequence used in… Read More The week after Easter
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTpNV5_N4w8&w=480&h=360] Here’s a YouTube version of the Sinfonia I played for the prelude at the 10:30 service — this performance is by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. I think we played it faster! Well, another Holy Week and Easter are in the books, and I can’t believe how many notes I played over the last few days!… Read More Soooo many notes!
In Pastor Jeff’s message in the April issue of The Heart Beat, LCH’s monthly parish newsletter, he described the services of the Triduum, the “Three Days” celebrated by Christians all over the world in anticipation of Easter. That means we’ll be singing services on Maundy Thursday (April 5th), Good Friday (April 6th) and Easter Vigil… Read More Holy Week Math: 3+1 = 5
That’s how long it took the Lutheran Church of Honolulu to celebrate its Easter Vigil last night. But even though the service started at 7:30 pm, we did not return home until 11 pm. Yesterday afternoon, Carl was scrambling to finish the turkey lasagne dinner he prepared for the choir and participants. He was supposed… Read More Two hours and fifteen minutes
I read online that in India among Orthodox Christians, the Easter Vigil actually starts in the evening after the service on Good Friday. In the Crosier household, we actually began our Easter Vigil preparations on Good Friday itself, because that is when Carl Crosier started cooking the sauce for tonight’s lasagna dinner for the choir… Read More Preparations for Easter Vigil
“Well, Carl, what are you going to cook this year?” For the last 18 years, Carl has provided dinner for the choir and the participants in the Easter Vigil. In the years BEFORE his 1992 sabbatical, we used to start the Easter Vigil at 11:00 pm and the service ended at 1 am or later!… Read More The Last Supper