“Kathy! What are you doing here?!” Those were the first words from organist Jonathan Dimmock, whose recital I attended this afternoon at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles. Before going on this trip, I checked the internet to see if there were any good concerts to attend, and was absolutely delighted… Read More Surprise reunion — Surprise!!
When I got into the car this morning, of course public radio came on, and I immediately recognized the music. It was Olivier Messiaen’s Alleluias sereins d’une ame qui desire le ciel (Serene alleluias from a soul who desires heaven) from his Ascension Suite for organ, although the performance was done in an orchestrated version. And then guess what… Read More A taste of heaven
I recently overheard someone was looking forward to hearing the upcoming Duruflé Requiem but wasn’t so excited about hearing a new work by American composer Frank Ferko (born 1950) which is on the first half of the program. This person was perhaps thinking of the stereotype of “modern music” which is highly dissonant, with no… Read More Not bug music!
I guess I had never heard the word “necrology” before (I could not have used the word in a sentence!) until I took a job as a parish administrator in an Episcopal church in 2004. It refers to a list of people who have died. I couldn’t help but think back to the last time I entered… Read More Necrology
You remember the legend of Sisyphus, don’t you?Sisyphus was a bad king whose punishment for his deceitfulness was to push a huge boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back to the bottom again. I had recalled this Greek myth in a prior post about playing Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary over and over and over… Read More Bridging the Centuries
For Pentecost the LCH Choir will be singing one of the Hildegard motets by American composer, Frank Ferko. I was very interested to learn that Ferko is a graduate of Valparaiso University (the same alma mater as Allen Bauchle) and studied organ with Philip Gehring. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Ferko… Read More Ferko and Messiaen
Here’s a cartoon that was posted to Facebook recently. It’s Pentecost this Sunday, a day I have always thought of as a “bookend” to the church music season — in spite of the fact that I have one more Sunday to play after that before going on vacation. For the prelude, I’ll be playing “Apparition… Read More Mysterious Messiaen
Yesterday, our long-time friend from the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Randy Knutson, sent me this cartoon and it reminded me about what I wanted to write about for a long time — the organ prelude. Now, if we were in the Mormon church, we would read this from the Church Handbook of Instructions: “Quiet… Read More The organ prelude
For several weeks the choir has been working on two pieces for Pentecost by Peter Maxwell Davies: “Dum complerentur” and “Veni sancte spiritus.” His music reminds me of Pentecosts past at LCH when the lesson was read in several foreign languages. In the early years one heard the lessons read one after the other. But for… Read More Peter Maxwell Davies and Pentecost
With Memorial Day weekend past, we are now shifting into the summer schedule, starting this coming Sunday, June 5th. Last Sunday, Carl said to me, “This is my last 3-service Sunday!” referring to his being at the two morning services (8:00 and 10:30 am) and 9:00 pm Compline service. We switch to a single morning… Read More Shifting into summer