This is the time of year where you summarize the year in terms of numbers. For example, I received these notifications from Duolingo, the foreign language app, about my progress in learning Spanish. As you can see by the above, I have an unbroken streak of 1955 days — as of November 30, 2024 when… Read More The year in numbers
This weekend, within the space of 24 hours, I will have performed such a mixed bag of music, that my head is spinning! On Saturday morning, I’ll be practicing Gabriel Fauré’s Messe Basse (1881, rev. 1906) for treble voices, which will be sung at the ordinary for Sunday morning’s High Mass for “The Seven Sorrows… Read More A mixed bag … all within 24 hours!
EDITOR’S NOTE: I realized that this post was sitting in my Drafts for several years (!), and now is a perfect opportunity to publish it. Sorry it took me so long! When is the last time you walked into a church and saw any sort of memorial tribute to an organist? Oh, I’ve walked into… Read More Tribute to an organist
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
It’s been awhile since I bought an iPad to substitute for all the paper I’m burning through as an organist at two different churches, but as of now, I’ve been too afraid to use the iPad in the service. Instead, I’ve relied on all my paper copies of the sheet music, being that I don’t… Read More Christmas Eve iPad debut!
I guess you could call me a “working stiff” — meaning, that I’m back in the work force, after ten years of relative retirement. Here are some of the synonyms for “working stiff” from Dictionary.com: I’m a working stiff organist! My last post, “Too many notes … too much!” described the quantity of music I… Read More Working stiff
If indeed the period between Halloween and Christmas is called the season of excess, I’ve got it in spades! As you may have learned, I have two completely different church positions, taking up much of my waking hours. Let me share with you what parts of the service I play on the organ: Nu‘uanu Congregational… Read More Too many notes … too much!
Well, maybe it’s not entirely life-changing, but at least it’s going to change my life at leisure. I can say with certainty that my life of “retirement” is over, and it’s all because of a phone call I got last Sunday afternoon from the Rev. Paul Lillie, rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. You may… Read More Life-changing phone call
And in the “Adventures as a Church Organist, episode 813 …” I found an article recently, written by Ashley Danyew, on the skills needed to be a church musician. The skills included: The complete article may be found here: “8 Skills that set you apart as a church musician.”) Let me expound on number 2,… Read More Church organist adventures
If you go back and read my post “Double duty,” you’ll remember that today was the day that I had very little time to travel from the 9:00 am service at Nuuanu Congregational Church in order to arrive at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church to play their 10:30 am service. Even though typically the Nuuanu service… Read More You know you’re late …