Saturday, May 29, 2004

They're playing my song!

Got to do a wedding today with the cantor from my old church, at another church. Of course, we did a couple of my songs, cos we always do. But she told me that my replacement at St. C's scheduled my Pentecost Sequence for today/ tomorrow.

What was odd, was that I didn't remember writing one. I wrote a song based on the Easter Sequence, but the Pentecost Sequence wasn't ringing a bell.

I went home and checked my files - sure enough, I had deconstructed Divinum Mysterium, borrowed some existing lyrics, and assembled a nice little piece of music. COMPLETELY forgot about it!

Also, this could probably only happen in small towns:
The cantor and I ran the music program together in Dryden from 1997-2002;
She was secretary at the church (where we had the wedding) in Allenton until recently;
The pastor in Allenton is also pastor of the church in Capac, where my wife and mother-in-law now attend; and
My wife is waitressing for the wedding reception at the banquet hall in Imlay City tonight.

One more piece of news - Happy Silver Jubilee to my pastor, Fr. John Markham. He's been at St. Elizabeth's for 38 years!!! A bishop is coming tomorrow, not sure which one. Hope he's not expecting a Pentecost Sequence from us - apparently, if it ain't Gospel, we don't touch it...

Monday, May 10, 2004

I know, it's been forever.

Here's something. Report card finally showed up:

Class Voice: A
Chorale: A
Organ: B+

Definitely a mercy B+, there. I played terribly at juries and master class. Prof said I'd overcome so much that semester - meaning my hearing loss and vertigo - that he thought the grade was appropriate. Still sounds like a pity grade to me.

In other news, the newly reported abuse of Iraqi prisoners should help dispel any thoughts that humans are innately good. Wonder what kind of support the war would have had if we had announced ahead of time that we'd be humiliating naked prisoners on camera. Nope - we always pretend we're above evil, and always act surprised when we get caught, and pass it off as a few bad apples. Remember My Lai? Awful hard to hold the moral high ground when there's photographic evidence to the contrary.

Score one for the USCCB, who could easily say "told you so" right now.