A C, an E-flat, and a G go into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve minors." So the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished and the G is out flat.
An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, "Excuse me. I'll just be a second."
Then an A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor.
Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims, "Get out now. You're the seventh minor I've found in this bar tonight."
The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized) says, "You're looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development."
This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au natural.
Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility. On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless.
The bartender decides, however, that since he's only had tenor so patrons,and the sopranout in the bathroom, everything has become altoo much treble; he needs a rest, and closes the bar.
...courtesy of Erich Wolz.
(Courtesy of Ye Olde Organist's Humor Page)
Sunday, June 29, 2008
HUMOR -- Guide to Understanding Your Organist
Bach Prelude and Fugue: Organist is happy
French Toccata: Organist is very happy
French Toccata at double speed: Organist went to Donkey Coffee during sermon
Improvisation on hymn: Organist has lost glasses
Improvisation on popular song: Organist has lost temper
Long chord cluster: Organist has gone to sleep
Silence: Organist has gone to Donkey
(courtesy of Ye Olde Organist's Humor Page)
French Toccata: Organist is very happy
French Toccata at double speed: Organist went to Donkey Coffee during sermon
Improvisation on hymn: Organist has lost glasses
Improvisation on popular song: Organist has lost temper
Long chord cluster: Organist has gone to sleep
Silence: Organist has gone to Donkey
(courtesy of Ye Olde Organist's Humor Page)
Friday, June 27, 2008
Note: New Blog Member
In case you hadn't noticed, the exposition below is written by Rachel, not Mary. (Mary can't write!)
She'll be posting her musings semi-regularly.
She'll be posting her musings semi-regularly.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Apparition De L’Eglise Eternelle: Dissonance and the Eternal Church
In 1932 a twenty-four-year-old Olivier Messiaen wrote a piece that received two of the strongest sentiments of which mankind is capable—love and hate. Easily one of the only pieces that causes some people to sigh and collapse with joy and others to wail in anguish, Messiaen’s Apparition De L’Eglise Eternelle is indisputably one of the finest works for organ that has come out of France within the past hundred years.
Apparition stands aside from Messiaen’s other works, being unlike his later works in style and overall tone. But the most important thing about Apparition is that it crosses boundaries that other music…can’t.
Many musicians have acknowledged the organ as being the most magnificent—more or less. Mozart called it ‘The King of Instruments’. Berlioz called it ‘The Pope of Instruments’. Most, if not all, classical composers played the organ. So what is it that this fantastic instrument has that draws people to it so?
The organ has the incredible ability to either snare someone in its grasp, or repel someone so viciously that they dislike the very thought of it. The latter tends to happen when an individual hears the organ being played incorrectly, thereby resulting in a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare.
Apparition exemplifies the organ in its highest form, its most glorious form—one of the heights of organ music. Yet some people continue to hate it. Why is that?
The first possibility is that Apparition begins with heavy, heavy dissonance. Upon hearing it the first time, I found it actually painful to listen to—and then to my surprise—it resolved to a partial first inversion of a C major chord. It returned to the opening chord, and resolves to fifth. It continues on in this way, and changes in the 12th measure, continuing the dissonance—but by this point, it ceases to be a shock. It progresses onward, and resolves. By the end of the 17th measure, it has resolved altogether to a fifth, giving a restful, peaceful sound. And then—
There comes the dissonance again!
It is not surprising, nor even slightly offensive, that many people find the initial dissonance painful. But the resolutions make the pain worthwhile—such curious, innate beauty that it compensates, and somehow feels very much like an elaborate story—something standing through the darkest hours to grace the earth, triumphing in glory, surviving when nothing else can, a single candle remaining lit when other lights are smothered and put out—like the Eternal Church.
There are major chord sprinkled throughout—rising climaxes, so gloriously triumphant, filled with such power and strength that it almost makes one cry. They are preceded by dissonances that seem to weep and burn and nearly die and are sometimes to filled with tragedy that it brings tears to your eyes—and when the climax comes, it makes it all the more glorious.
Like I said, the dissonance begins as being painful, even bordering on ugly. But one forgets that…which is what Apparition does, it cries, weeps, burns, forgets, laughs, rests, triumphs…and even the dissonance is beautiful now. Any wincing that occurs at the half-step clashes will vanish; there is no horror in it anymore. There is only resplendent, everlasting, true glory, true beauty, unlike anything that the world could possibly know. While it is true that people can learn to love the most horrific of things if they try hard enough, it never happens like—this.
So why is it that Apparition, which some people find so intoxicating, torments other people like the very fires of Hell?
We read often, in the Bible, of the Angels singing, and almost everywhere you turn music has been used as a higher form of expression, especially in worship, spanning not only the Catholic faith but other cultures as well. What is this connection—music with worship?
It is hardly any secret that music can move people to tears. Such a thing, I am told, happens every time that newly wed couples hear All I Ask Of You, though I’ve cried at more horrific sounds as well (imagine, if you can, someone trying to sing descant who oughtn’t have ever been allowed outside of the parlor-lounge music division). A famous director once said that, in musicals, people sing when the emotion is too great to be explained with speech—following it with, of course, ordinary people don’t burst out into song (a statement that I find most unreasonable)—but there’s something more than that. Music is so terribly interconnected with man’s emotions, with the very soul, that, when administered just so, it causes an overwhelming surge of—something—and touches one’s heart and mind in a way otherwise unreachable.
Perhaps it would be a good time to mention some of the people who had such a hard time with Apparition. Several were well-known atheists, others Christians in direct opposition to the Church's teachings.
Oh, of course there were people who disliked Apparition that were perfectly pleasant. There’s always going to be people who will disagree. But the fact that such an overwhelming majority of people that were not exactly friends with the Church hated it…
I am so interconnected with my faith that it is a part of me. In Apparition I see the very story of the Church—how it survived impossible situations, how it stands so strongly in spite of the fallibility of its members, how it triumphs over all, and how after two thousand years we haven’t broken it down. Apparition is an extension of that—it reaches not only to my heart and mind, but into my soul, in the most literal sense. It puts to sound what words could never describe, what could never be expressed in any other way. In many ways, Music is the Angels’ art. In Apparition is something otherworldly, something that is not solely on the plane of this mortal earth. In Apparition, I can hear the sum of everything I believe and love. In Apparition, a piece that extends beyond the physical, I hear God.
Apparition stands aside from Messiaen’s other works, being unlike his later works in style and overall tone. But the most important thing about Apparition is that it crosses boundaries that other music…can’t.
Many musicians have acknowledged the organ as being the most magnificent—more or less. Mozart called it ‘The King of Instruments’. Berlioz called it ‘The Pope of Instruments’. Most, if not all, classical composers played the organ. So what is it that this fantastic instrument has that draws people to it so?
The organ has the incredible ability to either snare someone in its grasp, or repel someone so viciously that they dislike the very thought of it. The latter tends to happen when an individual hears the organ being played incorrectly, thereby resulting in a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare.
Apparition exemplifies the organ in its highest form, its most glorious form—one of the heights of organ music. Yet some people continue to hate it. Why is that?
The first possibility is that Apparition begins with heavy, heavy dissonance. Upon hearing it the first time, I found it actually painful to listen to—and then to my surprise—it resolved to a partial first inversion of a C major chord. It returned to the opening chord, and resolves to fifth. It continues on in this way, and changes in the 12th measure, continuing the dissonance—but by this point, it ceases to be a shock. It progresses onward, and resolves. By the end of the 17th measure, it has resolved altogether to a fifth, giving a restful, peaceful sound. And then—
There comes the dissonance again!
It is not surprising, nor even slightly offensive, that many people find the initial dissonance painful. But the resolutions make the pain worthwhile—such curious, innate beauty that it compensates, and somehow feels very much like an elaborate story—something standing through the darkest hours to grace the earth, triumphing in glory, surviving when nothing else can, a single candle remaining lit when other lights are smothered and put out—like the Eternal Church.
There are major chord sprinkled throughout—rising climaxes, so gloriously triumphant, filled with such power and strength that it almost makes one cry. They are preceded by dissonances that seem to weep and burn and nearly die and are sometimes to filled with tragedy that it brings tears to your eyes—and when the climax comes, it makes it all the more glorious.
Like I said, the dissonance begins as being painful, even bordering on ugly. But one forgets that…which is what Apparition does, it cries, weeps, burns, forgets, laughs, rests, triumphs…and even the dissonance is beautiful now. Any wincing that occurs at the half-step clashes will vanish; there is no horror in it anymore. There is only resplendent, everlasting, true glory, true beauty, unlike anything that the world could possibly know. While it is true that people can learn to love the most horrific of things if they try hard enough, it never happens like—this.
So why is it that Apparition, which some people find so intoxicating, torments other people like the very fires of Hell?
We read often, in the Bible, of the Angels singing, and almost everywhere you turn music has been used as a higher form of expression, especially in worship, spanning not only the Catholic faith but other cultures as well. What is this connection—music with worship?
It is hardly any secret that music can move people to tears. Such a thing, I am told, happens every time that newly wed couples hear All I Ask Of You, though I’ve cried at more horrific sounds as well (imagine, if you can, someone trying to sing descant who oughtn’t have ever been allowed outside of the parlor-lounge music division). A famous director once said that, in musicals, people sing when the emotion is too great to be explained with speech—following it with, of course, ordinary people don’t burst out into song (a statement that I find most unreasonable)—but there’s something more than that. Music is so terribly interconnected with man’s emotions, with the very soul, that, when administered just so, it causes an overwhelming surge of—something—and touches one’s heart and mind in a way otherwise unreachable.
Perhaps it would be a good time to mention some of the people who had such a hard time with Apparition. Several were well-known atheists, others Christians in direct opposition to the Church's teachings.
Oh, of course there were people who disliked Apparition that were perfectly pleasant. There’s always going to be people who will disagree. But the fact that such an overwhelming majority of people that were not exactly friends with the Church hated it…
I am so interconnected with my faith that it is a part of me. In Apparition I see the very story of the Church—how it survived impossible situations, how it stands so strongly in spite of the fallibility of its members, how it triumphs over all, and how after two thousand years we haven’t broken it down. Apparition is an extension of that—it reaches not only to my heart and mind, but into my soul, in the most literal sense. It puts to sound what words could never describe, what could never be expressed in any other way. In many ways, Music is the Angels’ art. In Apparition is something otherworldly, something that is not solely on the plane of this mortal earth. In Apparition, I can hear the sum of everything I believe and love. In Apparition, a piece that extends beyond the physical, I hear God.
Monday, June 23, 2008
June 29, 2008 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - UPDATED
Prelude - Apparition De L’Eglise Éternelle -- Olivier Messiaen
Processional - Take Up Your Cross
Preparation - O God, Beyond All Praising (BB 548)
Communion -
Recessional - Sing With All The Saints in Glory
Postlude - Jubilate Dei Omnia Terra (Paul Benoit) played by guest organist (and my mom) Cynthia Law
Nota Bene: I decided to do an instrumental at Communion because during the Summer months, the church is a bit less than full. The likelihood of anyone singing is slim to none. I guess I could do a hymn after everyone has received, though. Fr. Pat, if you're reading this, let me know if you'd like to have the hymn.
People generally have a quite visceral reaction to the Messiaen piece ("Apparition of the Eternal Church"). I think it's absolutely fantastic, and I loved it the first time I heard my mom play it. Others really hate it. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground. Here's hoping that folks don't give Fr. Pat a hard time if they hate it!
Listen to Daniel Roth play Apparition...
Processional - Take Up Your Cross
Preparation - O God, Beyond All Praising (BB 548)
Communion -
Recessional - Sing With All The Saints in Glory
Postlude - Jubilate Dei Omnia Terra (Paul Benoit) played by guest organist (and my mom) Cynthia Law
Nota Bene: I decided to do an instrumental at Communion because during the Summer months, the church is a bit less than full. The likelihood of anyone singing is slim to none. I guess I could do a hymn after everyone has received, though. Fr. Pat, if you're reading this, let me know if you'd like to have the hymn.
People generally have a quite visceral reaction to the Messiaen piece ("Apparition of the Eternal Church"). I think it's absolutely fantastic, and I loved it the first time I heard my mom play it. Others really hate it. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground. Here's hoping that folks don't give Fr. Pat a hard time if they hate it!
Listen to Daniel Roth play Apparition...
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Ross Schmittgen on Oboe
Choir Member Ross played this piece for Performance Lab in early June. I accompanied him on piano. The recording starts slightly after the beginning of the piece (blame Linda. I won't tell you which Linda, but she knows who she is! Hi Linda!). This was Ross's first performance in front of a lot of people and he did an excellent job.
Telemann Oboe Concerto in F Minor
Telemann Oboe Concerto in F Minor
June 22, 2008
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Processional: Praise My Soul the King of Heaven (BB 564)
Preparation: O God Beyond All Praising (BB 548)
Communion: Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All (this will be an instrumental, since this gorgeous hymn is not in the OCP book. Heaven knows why not.)
Recessional: I Sing the Mighty Power of God (BB 412)
Processional: Praise My Soul the King of Heaven (BB 564)
Preparation: O God Beyond All Praising (BB 548)
Communion: Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All (this will be an instrumental, since this gorgeous hymn is not in the OCP book. Heaven knows why not.)
Recessional: I Sing the Mighty Power of God (BB 412)
June 15, 2008
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Processional -- Holy Holy Holy
Preparation -- O God Beyond All Praising
Communion -- Humbly Lord We Worship You
Recessional -- Holy God We Praise Thy Name
I played Clerambault for a prelude, and a Bach Prelude for a postlude.
Processional -- Holy Holy Holy
Preparation -- O God Beyond All Praising
Communion -- Humbly Lord We Worship You
Recessional -- Holy God We Praise Thy Name
I played Clerambault for a prelude, and a Bach Prelude for a postlude.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Carissa and Sarah are graduating!
Yes, it's true; the two of them are moving on to the post-OU phase of their lives. I'm trying to not be selfish and think about how much I'm going to miss them.
So, ladies, congratulations on your graduation! Please keep in touch with us and visit when you can. And please sing in the 6:00 choir when you come back! You have been a wonderful blessing to the choir, and to us individually.
Perhaps you can keep us updated on your lives by leaving comments here..... ;-)
God bless you both!
So, ladies, congratulations on your graduation! Please keep in touch with us and visit when you can. And please sing in the 6:00 choir when you come back! You have been a wonderful blessing to the choir, and to us individually.
Perhaps you can keep us updated on your lives by leaving comments here..... ;-)
God bless you both!
June 7-8, 2008
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Choral III in A Minor – César Franck
| Processional | Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee (BB 556) |
| Gloria | Janco |
| Psalm | Respond & Acclaim p. 94 |
| Gospel Acclamation | Respond & Acclaim p. 95 |
| Preparation/Offertory | Where Charity and Love Prevail (BB 415) |
| Sanctus | Holy Holy Holy BB 882 |
| Memorial Acclamation | Christ Has Died BB 883 |
| Amen | Amen BB 884 |
| Agnus Dei | Chant BB 869 |
| Communion | O Sacrament Most Holy (BB 320) |
| Recessional | All Creatures of Our God and King (BB 550) |
Prelude in C Major (BWV 545) – J.S. Bach
May 31 - June 1, 2008
May 31-June 1, 2008
Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I am Black but Comely, O Ye Daughters of
O Mensch, Bewein….. (Bach)
| Processional | Praise to the Lord (BB 201) |
| Gloria | As Usual (Janco) |
| Psalm | Respond & Acclaim p. 92 |
| Gospel Acclamation | Respond & Acclaim p. 93 |
| Preparation/Offertory | Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life (Saturday) The King of Love My Shepherd Is (BB 477) |
| Sanctus | Holy Holy Holy BB 882 |
| Memorial Acclamation | Christ Has Died BB 883 |
| Amen | Amen BB 884 |
| Agnus Dei | Chant BB 869 |
| Communion | Humbly, Lord, We Worship You (BB 208) This is a chant, so sing in unison. |
| Recessional | Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (BB 566) |
Jesus Christus, Unser Heiland, der den ___ (Bach)
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