Jubilation festival

Last night was the second night of the Jubilation/Elizabeth Stuart Choir Festival V, and appearance of the Mary Queen of Peace Chamber Choir, the Little Choir That Could. In the end, we couldn’t, but we gave it our best shot.

It had been pretty stressy going in. The Thurs. rehearsal was a workout; I had throat discomfort the next day. When you’re 1-2 on a part, there’s not much of a lifeline if you fall off the tightrope, you can hear every little imperfection, there were the usual suspects adding stress. Even warming up downstairs, we were changing things like performing pitch (though thankfully, we finally had the notes in hand).

Then upstairs to hear the competition. I’d heard 2 groups on the radio the night before and wasn’t worried, but tonight’s competition was stiffer, alarmingly so. Hudson UCC was pretty damn good… fine blend, dynamic range, diction and rhythm. And I sat there thinking, “We are screwed.”  Their gospel tune rocked pretty hard for a bunch of white folk from the ‘burbs. Processing to the back to that tune seemed a bit too much like a victory lap for me.

Next up was St. Noel Willoughby, in their first competition. They were big – about 70 – and also good, though not as consistent as Hudson, with some blend issues in the men, mushy diction and the occasional intonation lapse. And they HAD enough men, unusually for an OF Catholic choir. And the very able accompaniment of the amazing Eric Charnofsky.

And then it was our turn, and we sang at about 96% of potential. There were a few little lapses, but no disasters, and we were VERY well received by the audience. Praise afterwards, from other choir members, about our diction, our voices, expressivity, and repertoire (especially the Iain Quinn Vidi Aquam, which had been a controversial repertoire choice, particular for the closer. It’s beautiful, but pretty crunchy harmonically, and not at all a “big finish”.) All this we heard from people while we waited for the judges.  Fr. Doug showed up, which meant a lot to me. It is SO important to have the pastor in your corner, if you’re going to do traditional Catholic music.

Finally the judges came out, they got people shushed and cut back from the station, and they brought Robert Page up to read the results and give out the prizes. He was saving the winner for last (they don’t rank anyone else). So they named off yesterday’s choirs, then Hudson, which I somehow didn’t notice. Then #5, Mary Queen of Peace. Oh shit, we didn’t win. Shocked silence in the room as it dawns on St. Noel that if we’re #5, they’re the winner. BIG applause for us, and then of course big applause for St. Noel. After things quieted down, we approached Dave onstage. We’d gotten some amusement from Hudson’s choir motto, because Dave’s motto for us had been, “If you don’t win, you’d better find another choir director to go home with.” So Majersic said, “You SUCK! I’m quitting!” and I said, “OK, Hudson IS closer to home.” He was amused, and was happy with our performance.

I don’t know how the judges judged, and how subjective the process was. In purely objective terms, I thought Hudson was the better choir. But I’m really glad that a Catholic choir won, because most of them suck so badly (when they exist at all). And their repertoire was middle-of-the-road, which is an improvement on so many parishes. We got judged harder because we were obviously professional…but we predicted that going in. We just weren’t professional enough, what with that bass with the breathing issues (that would be me). I don’t feel very bad about being beaten by a choir 10x our size. And I’m not sure how we compared, since what we did was so different from anybody else. Our program was 50% Renaissance, and 50% Latin (not the same 50%), and was radically traditional-Catholic except for the obligatory African-American piece (and the Stainer maybe, though it’s hard to define a setting of John 3:16 as sectarian)  and we were the only group to perform exclusively a cappella. We got to show the world the best of what happens musically at MQoP… which is mainly why we did it.  That, and making some money to pay us with.

There were choirs (at least half) who brought instruments besides piano with them. Do they usually have that in their services? Was it an attempt to curry favor? I don’t know. I was amused by St. Noel’s flute piece though. It’s funny; flutes had never been part of the Catholic church music tradition, and were actively discouraged in Papal documents (which means they WERE used occasionally) — until Vatican II. Now they’re everywhere, the sackbuts and violins of the 21st century. Now, I don’t have a problem with that, as they don’t have those noisy theatrical lascivious associations for me, and the V2 docs are more permissive in that regard. I should have a problem, maybe, as flutes, harps and drums are the primary neo-pagan instruments. I just note that it’s yet another 180 from tradition.

So, it’s over…and there’s planting and composing to do.

Copland and Perry

The day began with one of my lefty Facebook friends raving about Rick Perry’s TV ad using Aaron Copland’s music. I hadn’t heard the ad, so I played it there as it was set out. Now I read Tom Jackson, linking the ad and noting that the music is NOT Copland. And indeed, it isn’t. Not only is it not any Copland piece that I know, but the woodwind writing doesn’t ring true; it’s too dense and solid. It’s certainly Copland-LIKE. But so is most of John Williams, just to mention the most famous miner of that lode. When you’re the Iconic American Composer, you set the style for icons. And that style has become the musical shorthand for “wide open spaces good old-time America”.

It was apparently an Alex Ross tweet that got the whole Perry/Copland meme going. Now, there’s less than no love lost between Ross and Perry; I’m a Ron Paul guy myself so I really don’t give a shit one way or another (especially as I’m not much motivated by gay issues). So yea, it was a deliberate attempt to make Perry look bad (as opposed to a passing cultural observation.) But then, the standard musical formula for love scenes in an earlier movie era was to use fake Tchaikovsky…who was of course queerer than a $3 bill. Yes, passion is passion (like “a mouth is a mouth”), but if we’re going to read things into films, based on the back story of composers who inspired film music composers, just what does that signify? If one is responsible for taking into account the sexual preferences of the inspirations on one’s media employees, then what was Perry’s team to do? I suppose that they could use fake Charles Ives, who had pretty impeccable gay-averse credentials (I don’t use the term “homophobic” because such people generally do not fear gays…though considering how many gays are  into physical culture, perhaps they should .),  but polytonality doesn’t suggest “E pluribus unum” and conservative politics to the average listener…. not to mention that Ives’ source material was diversity-deprived, being very Christian, and very WASP, and hasn’t been on the hit charts since 1898 at the latest. Which may, now that I think of it, might be an advantage to Perry.

The irony is probably lost on Perry’s target audience, who, if they noticed the music at all, probably thought it sounded like “movie music…John Williams… the score from The Patriot“, in order of specificity. I’ve never seen Brokeback Mountain, but I have to wonder now if there are Coplandisms there, and what they mean.  This friend-on-a-friend stuff is weak tea… which may be why the Internet insisted on amping it up to real Copland.

Choir rant

Last night was another rehearsal of the church choir I’ll be singing with come October. And it was not a pretty listen, to hear the notes of the easiest possible motets being beaten into them. I haven’t sung with a choir of non-music-students or dedicated amateurs since high school, and I had forgotten how bad it could be. Lack of literacy I expected. I don’t know why; I really need to check out all those community theater troupes who give parts to illiterates and then teach them their lines by rote. What I did not expect was a soprano section that could not match pitches. There was somebody seriously wandering in the wilderness there, and it did not seem to get better. There’s an ear at work, I think; at one cadence, having landed a whole step lower than the rest of the section, she corrected herself down to a minor third, which sounded better. I’m not in charge there, so I can’t do anything about it; perhaps neither can the director, given the gnarly world of church politics. He kept on mentioning “intonation”, but once you’re more than 50 cents off, it’s no longer an intonation issue,but a note issue. I’v got a guy in my section who is a bit behind too, but he’s making noticeable progress. He tends to get off when there’s more than one part going, and big leaps are scary, but he’s getting there. Of course, blend and vowel issues aren’t addressed, or dynamics. We do observe a few cutoffs, just to stay out of the “snake pit” of endless S.

I have to wonder whether modern Catholicism is subliterate. There’s seldom a worship aid that will give you the jingles of the Mass…which are never what’s in the missalette. So if you won’t go there every week, you’re not going to do the “active participation” thing. If choirs and congregations aren’t expected to “say the black/do the red” is it any wonder that priests don’t either?  If you can’t read notes, you’re like the priest who says “This is THE Body” at the consecration. If you can’t hold a pitch, worse, you’re like a priest with such a bad case of the shakes that he spills the Precious Blood.

So I’m there, listening, trying to get a convert’s handle on this “Offer it up” (euphemism for “Suck it up!”?) thing that Catholics do.  Realistically, Jesus suffered for me, so I can hear bad singing for Him. As martyrdoms go, it’s penny-ante, pissant stuff. I’m not locked in a room with 9 other smelly Polacks to starve to death, or wrapped in reed mats and burned, or flayed alive. If it’s too much, God could take away my voice or hearing, and that would be far worse. Objectively, I’ve got it pretty good. I’m humbling myself on purpose, because I need to observe how these thing work, because the dioceses who are having trouble keeping the lights on are not going to be springing for professional musicians any time soon. And I realize that my horror of the experience is a good marker of how much I need to do it.

Iron Composer

Around 11 AM on Thursday, I got a call from Joe Drew of ANALOG arts, organizers of the Iron Composer competition. I’d thrown my hat in the ring for that, but never heard back from them, and had forgotten all about it.  Well, their composer judge had bailed on them, and would I judge the competition? OK…let me check with my wife…”Hell yes”, she said…OK. there went my only free night of the week (which is why I felt I had to ask my wife.)

Iron Composer is a bit like Iron Chef. 5 contestants are chosen from a field of applicants. They arrive at 9 AM, are given an instrumentation and a “secret ingredient”, and have until 2:30 to come up with a piece. Applying was sort of a dare to myself… I’m not noted for long working periods, or working quickly, so it was just as well that I was not selected. I hadn’t been notified because they had me pegged as a potential judge, and somehow I slipped through the cracks. There are three judges: a composer, a non-musician, and one of the performers (who of course is not announced until the day, as that would give away the medium).

So I friended IC on Facebook, went to the website, and tried to find out what I could about their music.  There wasn’t all that much music up, surprisingly; my site is much better provisioned in that way. And Mari Takano’s site did me little good, as it was in Japanese (duh! I just now on Monday found the English version). And all of them, without exception, had better paper credentials as composers than I do. Oh well. I didn’t have all that much time to do homework, as I’ve been solo in the library, at a busy time there, with a Thursday night rehearsal. I also heard some of the previous contestants, and had thoughts of doing a practice judging session with them; that didn’t happen for obvious reasons.

Friday I packed my suit and my camera (not the Tascam, though I probably could have found an audience member to leave it with) and left for work. Around 1PM,  the outside world discovered the terms. The medium was solo organ (the Austin in Gamble Auditorium, 4-manuals,  74 ranks, played by my colleague across the parking lot at Church of the Covenant, Jonathan Moyer…who was thus by default the third judge).  My first thought was “You sadistic MFs…”  NOBODY writes for organ, unless they’re involved in church music; I am, and I’m just beginning to understand the instrument and its capabilities. And NOBODY talks about organ in instrumentation/orchestration classes, though there’s usually something inadequate in the textbook. At least it’s a normal keyboard…solo guitar would have been far worse (I know, I’m working on a guitar piece right now), or accordion.  And…hmm, Zvonimir Nagy is an organist; is that an unfair advantage or not? Would it be so if the instrument were a violin? How do I handle this as a judge? I decided that the Iron Composer knows ALL instruments, and if you can’t write effectively for organ, it’s your own fault.

The Secret Ingredient was a pair of Regina music boxes with 11 discs. And I thought “they aren’t going to use them together, are they? Those Reginas CAN’T be at 440!” I went online trying to find a tuner to check the recordings. I never did, but the online samples compared to Finale inputs suggested F#/Gb at A440 or thereabouts. Without assurance that the instruments wouldn’t sound like hell together, my hypothetical plan of attack would have been to transcribe one of the tunes, write a final variation, then several intermediary variations as time permitted, with a lot of 2′ flutes and other music-boxy stops, possibly with the box itself making a surprise appearance, cadenza-like, near the end. I would not have picked one of the sacred pieces, even though it would make for a more useful piece, because my perception was that what would be win for Iron Composer would be fail in church…definitely a difference in function.

Dinner at Cracker Barrel (not too hungry but wanted real food, and being Friday it needed to be non-meat…no greens today!), change clothes in the bathroom there, off to Berea. I don’t get out there much, and it’s certainly changed since I lived there. Jonathan was finishing his practice when I arrived (he had about a half-hour each to learn the pieces). He got done, and I was seated onstage next to the non-musician judge, the charming Gina Cirino of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. She claimed she was going to copy all my grades (but didn’t), but in fact her comments were quite perspicacious. There were scores on the table, so I got to study them for several minutes before the show began.

Heeere’s Jonny!

Here are the Reginas. The 440 one (that got most of the work) is on the right.

Here’s the audience, about 5 minutes before showtime. The composers sat in that empty front row during the contest.

And then we were live…everyone got introduced, and the pieces began.  First up was Melody Eötvös, native of Australia, now in Bloomington IN. No, I don’t know or care if she’s a relative of Peter.  Her piece was called Regina vs. Austin…or Austin vs. Regina; it was different on the score and verbally. The notion was that the two “instruments” were so disparate that the natural thing was to set them in opposition, rather like a bickering couple. “Austin” was pompous in a BWV565 sort of way, maybe a bit patriarchal; “Regina” was, if I remember correctly, actually “Lucia de Lammermoor”, and if I had to live with “Austin”, I’d go nuts too. At the end they find harmony together. It was a high-entertainment-value piece, well shaped, and to the point. There were no registrations in the score, but there really didn’t need to be; “Austin” was pretty full all the time.

The next contestant was Matthew Heap, doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh, a late substitution for Kate Neal, who withdrew. His work used the organ to explore the resonances of the music box. (Sorry, I forget the title…I should have been taking notes, but I was busy judging…it had something to do with resonances.) It was unique in synchronizing the organ and music box rhythmically (a nice thing musically, but I’m sure it was a PITA for Jonathan.) I found some depth to it, and liked the thematicism of his style, but also found the pacing of musical events a little slow (but then, I’m a “fast” person; even when writing pieces with a low number of attack points per minute, I tend to change harmony at a fairly rapid rate.) There were some general registration suggestions in the score.

Next we had Nearer Thy God to Me by David Kirkland Garner from Duke, based on the music box tune “Nearer my God to Thee”. The switch in title seemed to be a commentary about over-aggressive evangelization: Nearer thy (not my) God… The piece had 2 innovative uses of the Secret Ingredient: the score itself was circular like the music box discs (in the tradition of Senleches and that other Southron who went to the University of Michigan, George Crumb.). And at the end, the disc was transferred to the other music box, the one flat to the organ (Garner was the only one to use this). This was the most effective moment in a piece which seemed somewhat formulaic to me: 3 seconds of music box, free organ patterns crescendo/diminuendo, repeat about 10 times. If there was a clear sense of forward motion over the repetitions, it would have worked better (hey, Ravel’s Bolero is formulaic too, in just about the same way.). No organ registrations on this one.

Next we had Mari Takano. Leave it to the student of Ferneyhough and Ligeti to write the most tonal score of the evening (even if she did write in every flat in Gb instead of using a key signature). It was also the only one to not use the organ and music box together. I had a hard time following the explanation of the piece through her accent. but it was high concept, dealing with jazz and the memory of the dead, and beginning with a jazz-style head of “If I but knew”, played by the music box at the end, with some variations in between. It was the transition to the music box that didn’t quite work for me, coming down to the box’s dynamic. Charles Ives, the master of memory, would have used the trick he’d learned as an organist and built up something loud and then cut it off to reveal the music box underneath. No registrations.

Last was Zvonimir Nagy (That’s “Nahdge”, not like the baseball player or the baroque oboist). Here the registration information was incredibly detailed and probably Austin-specific (and why not? It’s not like you’re going to get a lot of play out of a duet for organ and music box. I suggested he could make the end into a real chorale prelude.) His piece was based on the two sacred selections of the music box, Abide with me and Nearer my God to Thee, ending with both themes in counterpoint in the pedals, over a semi-improvised manual part based on perfect fifths. The harmony was a bit grittier than I prefer, and there wasn’t much in the way of hooks, but it was well-assembled and definitely strong writing for the organ.

So we filled out our sheets and they were tabulated backstage while we heard samples of each piece and then music-box music. And the winner was:
Zvonimir Nagy, Iron Composer ($500)
2nd place: Melody Eötvös ($300)
3rd place: David Kirkland Garner ($200)

The other contestants got the same honorarium the judges did: bupkis.
I felt sad for Ms. Takano, having come all that way and returning with nothing. I thought her piece deserved better than it got (well, so did Matthew’s…and that doesn’t mean the winners weren’t deserving). On the other hand, soon she’ll be able to console herself by listening to her third CD on BIS, so there won’t be a keg at this pity party.

Judging is tough. You always want to put your aesthetic positions aside, and somehow judge pieces as pure craftsmanship, but that’s impossible, and perhaps undesirable if it were possible. I was glad there were three judges, so that my own prejudices were diluted somewhat. Joe thought I’d struck the right balance as judge between the general and the specific, the technical and the witty. I felt I did okay, but how would we have judged if we could hear each piece a half-dozen times over days?

Afterwards Zvonimir and I talked… it turns out that he will also be at New Voices @ CUA! How cool is that? And one of these days I’ll make a research trip to Duquesne (so many scores, so little scanning time… I should try to ILL them), so maybe this is the start of a real relationship.

All in all, a unique way to spend a Friday night. But the weekend was dedicated to rest!

UPDATE: Tim Robson’s review for ClevelandClassical is here.

Carla Rees and the savages of England, and their defenders.

I’m a member of a society (well, more of a mailing list, as I haven’t actively promoted my music through them) of tonal composers. These are folks who, by and large, like to complain that their music has been blacklisted because it isn’t atonal, and blame the Academy for all their problems (notwithstanding that many of us have no problem getting performances, and that most music being performed is tonal to one degree or another). When they are not complaining about not getting unmerited performances, they complain about not getting unmerited money from the filthy rich, or about others not doing so.

Well, a piece was posted about the recent misfortunes of contemporary flutist Carla Rees. It’s sad, absolutely. My boss lost a Baroque lute in a car theft, and it took him 4 years to replace it. Ron Andrico of Mignarda lost 3 lutes in a carjacking, but managed to recover them. But it’s not intrinsically more sad than some working-class person who last their family photos.

Immediately the tut-tutting began, and I lost it:

Unfortunately, this is what happens when people are poorly educated (ethics isn’t taught in most schools and is neglected by parents), and social and economic problems are allowed to fester.

No, this is what happens when the state refuses to perform its one unarguable duty of protecting property, when the intelligentia argues that religion doesn’t matter, and when artists make excuses for barbarians. Y’all own this one, far as I’m concerned.

Immediately, I was accused of being “partisan”

There are many elements that brought this about, but I don’t think blaming the ‘state’ for not protecting property in the face of widespread rioting is going to achieve anything.

And there was conflation of the property crime of the original Tea Party with the current Tea Party:

> Sorry, but today’s Tea Party movement just doesn’t get it. When a society and its government ignore your misery and kick you down, they, too, must acknowledge their own role in bringing about violent upheaval. The violence is indefensible–but it is explainable.
>
No, it’s you and Anthony who don’t get it. People have been miserable and kicked throughout human history. Why didn’t they burn their villages down?

You want to make this partisan. I didn’t. I figured that we could agree that a government at a minimum exists to keep order. I wasn’t addressing any functions beyond that. If we don’t agree that government exists to govern, then why does it exist at all? Note that Britain is currently ruled by what passes for the moderate Right over there, and they couldn’t even decide to deploy water cannon until well into the crisis. With somebody like the craven Home Secretary Theresa May in charge, who needs Labour?

There are three options for citizens: fear God, fear Man, or fear nobody. To fear nobody is to get what we’ve just had. To fear Man is either to have a police state, or a fully-armed populace…and without the fear of God, what makes that populace or that state anything other than an armed counter-mob? To fear God(s) is the foundation of Western civilization, because people control themselves, therefore needing a minimum of external control. “Teaching ethics” won’t do it, because any ethical system that can be rationally derived can be rationalized away. Pride in doing what’s right will only extend so far. In Britain, you had government unwilling to act, a citizenry unable to act (having been disarmed), and a nation badly in need of reconversion…so there is no reason not to do whatever you want to. When (not if) sharia law comes to Britain, the citizenry will dance in the streets, because at least those streets will be safe.

When I said, “You own this”, I meant it, because you’ve been making excuses for the inexcusable. You lament Carla Rees, because her values are yours. But she played music for toffs; if the poor dears were oppressed, didn’t she get what she deserved? What about other less-privileged victims? Aren’t family photographs irreplaceable, even more so that Rees’ instruments and scores? … What is ironic is that the members of a society which believes that there are objective canons of beauty in music refuse to recognize that there are objectively-correct moral beliefs.

BTW, I don’t think that the Boston Tea Party was morally right, and it was short-term counterproductive… I’ve seen nothing equivalent from the modern Tea Party.

Immaculate Conception, Ravenna OH (11 AM)

I really should have taken my camera with me. The inside of this church is drop-dead gorgeous…white walls, high brown beams, a large choir loft, hard floors, exquisite statuary. The front had the usual post-v2 “altar”-ation, but tastefully done. It is everything a Reform-of-the-Reform church building should be. Alas, it is not that kind of congregation.

Music, OTOH, was another issue. Everything was accompanied by a piano and a chantress, the hymnal was Gather Comprehensive, the hymns and Ordinary were all in the post-V2 (as opposed to Vatican 2, which is chant) eccleasy-listening style. They were well performed generally; there were some intonation issues in the Psalm, but that seemed to be the result of a modal mismatch between the response and the psalm. The priest did not sing any of his part.

Of course, there was not a mantilla to be seen, but a number of bare shoulders. To the young woman in the backless magenta number, about 6 rows from the front on the Gospel side: this means you! I still have too much testosterone and not enough grace. If I wanted the female form to be a focus of my worship experience, I’d still be Wiccan.

The homily, by the deacon, was interesting. There were no bells at the Elevation, which I missed, even though I was paying attention; sometimes I’m not, quite, and those bells tell me Look up, this is important! But, in general, they did things with proper reverence. They had EMHCs halfway back in the church, and I tried out my new solution to the choreography problem: walk up, bow before the Sacrament, and walk on. Nobody batted an eyelash, and everybody got into their original seat OK.

This particular Mass is disqualified for me, because of the appalling music. Like I said about Newton Falls, they should sell the piano to feed the poor. I saw pipes up there in the loft, but who knows, they might have gotten hippie-church stupid in the ’70s and threw out the console. So they should sell the piano and buy a Roland C-180 and a decent amp, or a $50 Salvation Army store Genie, or, well, anything. Indeed, I’m beginning to think that the Church should ban pianos entirely. Yes, there is legitimate music that you’d no longer be able to do in church, but they’re as much an incitement to musical sin as backless magenta tops are to concupiscence. But there are also some real positives in this church. I’d be willing to check out the 7Am or 9AM masses…maybe there’s an honest Low Mass without music in the bunch. And if you like sacro-pop, well, you could do far worse than here.

St. Mary & St. Joseph, Newton Falls, OH

Here’s another in my series of reviews of churches. It’s one that arguably I shouldn’t write. But the truth must be told.

This was one of the most bizarre Catholic worship experiences of my life. What the HELL (and I use the word advisedly) is going on in this parish?

I got lost getting there, and arrived during the “gathering hymn” (Gathered as One), so I didn’t have a bulletin.  Architecturally, it’s a nice traditional church, with slightly updated interior decoration. We did the spoken Kyrie option, and then…no Gloria. Hmmm, didn’t know that O17 was a penitential season. Then came the Psalm, and lo, it wasn’t what was listed in the Small Weapon of Mass Destruction (aka missalette), but it was there under O14 (same tune but with altered rhythm). Now I don’t know for a fact that this is illicit; there might be seasonal psalms like the seasonal propers. It’s lazy, certainly; responsorial psalms are easy enough to put together. [ UPDATE : it was, indeed, a seasonal Psalm and hence licit.]

Then on to the Homily. It turned out this was a very special day, being the farewell mass of Fr. Matthew Mankowski. So there was nothing at all about the texts of the day in the Homily, which was his farewell address. OK, fine, you don’t leave a parish every day; we can let the lack of catechesis slide. But there was recorded background music to the homily! I couldn’t make out the words at that volume, but it was a trained male and female singer with orchestra, in a style reminiscent of 50s movie musicals, and it looped several times. Fr. thanked everyone who needed thanking, and praised their accomplishments together…feelgood stuff. About 2/3 through, there was an abrupt change in tone. He said that he could be bitter about what happened, then cited Matthew 10:14-15 while stamping his feet.  Apparently, he’d been driven out of there. There were other remarks which seemed to express regrets that he’d focused on the physical plant and externals of parish life to the detriment of souls.

Then on into the intercessions, no Credo. Offertory: “Prayer of St. Francis” by a vocal duo (no point of contact with “Exaltabo te”, which would have been appropriate, considering). Communion was a choir “anthem” ( i.e., song). All of the music was “eccleasy listening” style, with only the opening and closing hymns (We are called) accompanied (loudly and with inappropriate style and foot-twitching on the expression pedal) by organ, the rest on piano. The choir, by the standards of OF parishes in the Diocese of Youngstown, actually sounded decent. Distribution of communion was efficient (should it be?). Then, after  Communion, Father sat there while they had more recorded music…it was a feature, not just to cover sacramental cleanup.

So, OK, apparently there are some toxic goings-on here, and we should pray for the parish, for Fr. Mankowski, and for whoever follows him. I don’t know the whole story; maybe my neighbor who sings in the choir can fill in the details. I don’t know whether this approach to the liturgy was Father’s idea (in which case maybe he should have been drummed out) or, as seems more likely, the inmates took over the asylum and he tried to stop it. At any rate, here are the violations of liturgical norms (not counting things like “not even pretending that the bologna of the 4 hymn sandwich has anything to do with the Proper texts”, which ARE norms here in the US, albeit aberrant norms):

Omission of Ordinary texts (2 counts)

Substitution of Psalm texts

Use of recorded music in church (2 counts)

If I were the incoming pastor here’s what I’d do: give the organist copies of Sacrosanctum concilium and Musicam Sacram and set a meeting to discuss how he would implement them, disband the liturgy committee, and sell the piano to feed the poor. I’d point out that since we’re not doing the FCAP thing where the Propers should be, maybe we should have real Propers, and that they don’t necessarily have to be in English. That superabundance of women singers would make a dandy women’s schola. And if we’re doing something extra, like a big homily, maybe Mass doesn’t let out at noon sharp like some public school class.  And Bishop Murry, could you keep an eye on these guys? They need some healing…and some supervision.

Colloquium wrapup

The story of the Ember Day Mass motet was rather exciting. We set a rehearsal time for 9AM Sat. (cutting breakfast short) in Powers, but apparently that space wasn’t available, so it was announced at breakfast that it would be in the music school. Unfortunately, nobody told Mahrt. We started rehearsing without him (I would have taken it, but had dodged out for a pee, and my fellow necktie tenor Andy Motyka ably took it). Meanwhile, Powers WAS available, and some folks were over there with the Dr.. They all got over to the music school at about 9:25, and we had a couple runthroughs before departing late for chant class… which means I guess that what goes around comes around.  We got to Mass early, and ran it several times outside (which made me think of some experiences I’ve had at the Mac), but alas, it was not one of our finer moments. I like to think we made up for it with today’s motet. The 11:30 Ember Day Mass was almost 2 hrs., which meant we got out at 1:30, before a 2PM wedding, the folks whose rehearsal had pre-empted the Vespers.  I felt bad for them…and really, you know, it’s just one liturgy vs. a whole life together making Catholic babies. I wish them all the best.

For me the big deal, main reason I was there was the new music reading. It was a good if mood-inducing experience, as I learned that not only do some people read better than I do (and I’m so literate tralala) but they compose as well as I do (if differently).  Some highlights were the simple but elegant short motets of Charlotte Lansberg, which I could see being done at Queen of the Holy Rosary, and the 3-voice Mass (English/Latin ) and Ubi Caritas (admittedly “imitation Durufle”,  but in 4 voices) of Benjamin Cornelius-Bates. My Ave Maria was well-received and well-read, the others somewhat less so. Pitch and tempo sag were a problem.

Today we had Mass with the congregation, or perhaps the congregation had Mass with us. I have no idea what they thought of a Latin OF Mass in double overtime (almost 2 hours!). Some I heard were not amused. Then off for an elegant farewell luncheon. I’ve been ragging on the food, but that’s really not fair…it was often elegantly prepared, and Duquesne went out of their way to provide for those with special needs. It was just more carb-heavy than I’m used to. And there’s the coffee issue. If it wasn’t that it’s in Salt Lake City next year (and I probably won’t be going), I’d pack a coffeepot and start a little mission for early risers.

I took I79 to 422 and home. Fortunately there were few if any issues in the garden (started the hoeing), but Rusty had some mechanical emergencies to deal with. The door was busted off our mailbox. Rusty thinks it was the postman instead of the graduation ritual, as we were the only ones hit. And then there was the barn roofing job, of which the less said, the better. And fixing goat escape creativity.

More Colloquium

I didn’t post yesterday as I needed to finish a scanning project in the library while I could. After that crack about AYCE bacon, we actually had AYCE bacon on Thurs., and I was quite moderate. No meat at all yesterday, of course. Meals are moved to the dining hall today, so we’ll see if they’re different.

Yesterday seemed mostly about making connections. I’ve had a lot of people tell me how much they enjoy my Chant Cafe posts, or about things they’ve downloaded from cpdl. And several remembered me outing myself as a former Wiccan, so I really suppose I’m going to have to write up that testimony. It’s just that I can’t really do it without broadcasting what a horndog I was. I’m still ashamed of my sins (which is a different thing than being contrite for them; it’s caring about what people think.). But “we’re all bozos on this bus.”

Yesterday was the Vespers marathon. The rehearsals went pretty well and were productive. But we had a couple of people who were not at that last rehearsal, and they probably should not have sung. I’ve also noticed that women had a harder time going from chant to polyphony, and with the psalm tones themselves. I suspect that this is because, as a group, they’re less experienced; in a lot of places it’s a men’s schola doing it, up front and Pius X-y, so they don’t learn to do it.  Unfortunately, we were so involved in the Vespers that we forgot to rehearse today’s motet…so we’re cutting breakfast short to do it. But I’m not singing tenor this time, not unless the pitch is going way down.

I’ve been blissfully insulated from politics here. I heard that Weiner resigned, and that the Wisconsin bill was upheld.I haven’t been able to access Bloglines as I can’t find the URL for the new version, and the old one wants me to transfer, which I’ve done. It’s just as well. Work is going to be a bitch when I get home, at home, musically, and at the library

Colloquium: Weds.

Yesterday’s post was a little bitchy about food. By the time Starbucks opened, I decided to tough it out AND go to morning prayer. This was a mistake. I was short of blood sugar, and particularly fluids (because I’m not swilling coffee all day), I got tight in the throat and short of breath, and couldn’t sing for shit all day. But dinner was quite good. The problem, besides brekkie being so late, is that meat is skimpy. I think that when I leave here, I’ll stop at a steakhouse. Actually, I’d had a fantasy of all-you-can-eat bacon here, and being a fantasy, it didn’t match reality. I snagged a dinner roll last night for this morning, and it should hold me until 9

Advanced chant was better, as I was up front and could hear. The ambiant noise around this place is amazing. There’s the mechanical systems of the dorm (white noise, almost a feature instead of a bug), train whistles all night, big trucks outside the church, construction. The problem with the chant was that we were doing an OF Requiem (never saw that before) and they were splitting the Tract between men and women, which meant they felt they needed a rehearsal before the mass. We didn’t, really; the runthrough went fine. But a bunch of us had to bail early on Mahrt, and he was pissed. I think maybe we need a “no early runthrough” policy, and if you’re going to do something that requires it, well, just don’t do it. I can understand Mahrt being impatient with the situation; there’s been a snafu at the church and a wedding rehearsal had been booked for when Vespers was scheduled, so they had to reschedule later.

For the conducting  class, I got a couple of key concepts from Buchholz that  have fixed my entire stick issue (or will once I practice and feel comfortable). Lunch was tomato soup and grilled cheese. I had several newly-made priests at my table. Richard Rice finally showed up, and I did shake hands with Mr. Tucker, so all is good.

Dinner was an Asian theme. We also had wine, dessert (absent yesterday) and fortune cookies containing various quotes from the Missal. I had “I am not worthy that you should come under my roof”, somebody else had, “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.” this was either very sacred, or blasphemous, and I’m not all all sure which. I sat with a 16 year old girl named Grace from WV, who is directing a children’s choir, and who refused the wine, multiple times. Very charming, and sang well. It was “pastoral music night”, so Msgr. Wadsworth and Tucker led us through strategies for implementing the new chants.