A busman’s holiday is simply a vacation or a day off from work where the person still engages in activities similar to what they do at their regular job. In other words, it’s like a bus driver taking a holiday only to spend it driving a bus. Technically, I’m not on a busman’s holiday, because I haven’t… Read More Busman’s holiday
This has been a week of reunions, a celebration of long time friendships that have lasted a lifetime. These friendships have all happened because of our common interest in the pipe organ. My current houseguest is Barbara Adler, whom I met in December 1972 on a visit to Hawai’i in anticipation of my move here.… Read More Old friends
I am in Seattle this weekend because the Compline Choir is celebrating a streak of 65 unbroken years of Sunday nights singing the last monastic office of the day. I felt special to be included in the festivities, starting with a buffet dinner on Saturday at “Chez Hallock,” the former home of Peter Hallock, now… Read More 65 years of Compline
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… Read More At St. Mark’s Seattle
When one steps inside St. Mark’s Cathedral Seattle and attends a worship service, one is immediately struck by the fact that … “this is a sacred and holy space; something mystical and magical happens here.” It is the huge space, the magnificent Flentrop Organ, it is the rolling acoustics that make music so extraordinary in this… Read More Mysticism and the sense of the sacred
It was again another gorgeous day in Seattle—the sky is blue and clear, no rain and it’s cool, in the lower 60s F. When I walked into St. Mark’s, the choir was rehearsing the Kyrie in a mass setting by Uģis Prauliņš (b. 1957), a Latvian composer who “is noted for his powerful and idiosyncratic… Read More Outside the bounds of time
Last night I had dinner with Michael Kleinschmidt and Marc Aubertin, who are in Hawaii on vacation. You may recall that the first time I wrote about them was in my post “A break from Bach,” in which I recounted their visit to our condo in May 2011 and Carl cooked dinner. Guess what we were doing back then… Read More Discovering Hallock anew
Okay, okay… maybe this is a little melodramatic, but I’m currently in the process of refinancing my mortgage and the lender wanted to see a copy of the retirement letter. Retirement? I said I’m not retired, yet! But since I am the beneficiary of Carl Crosier’s annuity, I guessed they were looking for the official… Read More A voice from the grave
We are in Portland, OR for the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians regional conference and today is Trinity Sunday. Where else would we spend Trinity Sunday but at Trinity Cathedral (Episcopal) here in Portland? And it just wouldn’t be Trinity Sunday without the “St. Anne,” Bach’s monumental Prelude and Fugue in E-flat, which organist Michael Kleinschmidt… Read More Trinity at Trinity
Today I watched a YouTube video shared by Manuel Rosales, the builder of the magnificent Trinity Cathedral organ in Portland, OR where John Strege was formerly the organist/choirmaster and Michael Kleinschmidt is there now. Someone had commented on Manuel’s FaceBook page that this is where the world-class Catharine Crozier had played — except that he had… Read More The grande dame of the organ