Days to go: 875 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 125:

CRANHAM

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him -- give my heart.
Give my heart.

(Christina Rossetti set by Gustav Holst)

Days to go: 876 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 124:

PIE JESU

Pie Jesu, Domine;
Dona eis requiem,
Dona eis requiem.

Sempiternam requiem.

(Text set by Gabriel Faure)

Days to go: 877 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 123: A poll conducted among INFOCUS magazine readers had established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters <, though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies."

WAKA WAKA BANG SPLAT

<>!*"#
^"'$$-
!*=@$_
%*<>~#4
&[]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can be appreciated only by reading it aloud, to wit:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar underscore,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

(Fred Bremmer, Steve Kroese)

Days to go: 878 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 122: A delightful day at Donn Zver's in Troy today enjoying some comfort food with friends. Cinnamon salmon -- what a treat! Sharing one piece of birthday cake three ways seems just about right.

No practicing done today. Tomorrow will be very busy: get up VERY early, work on the online course, pick up an appetizer, go to St. Leo's, prep and play, go out for brunch at the Fish & Chip place with the family. Wonder who will be there?

Go to Jim's to trim the tree (put the appetizer together), enjoy some of Jim's famous Oven Stew for dinner, visit with friends and relatives I haven't seen for a while, work on the course some more (just more frantically), post a poem on the blog, work on the course some more...

Maybe I can come up with some kind of computer poem tomorrow.

Days to go: 879 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 121: This morning after seeing my nurse and printing off my course materials, I had a decision to make. Shall I work on my next course assignment or go see "Megamind"? Two equally-weighted options, in my opinion!

Well, using an unusual form of avoidance to avoid doing my coursework, I stopped off at St. Patrick's to practice. I relearned Variation VIII and played everything I knew twice. Eight variations still to learn. There was a man hidden in the shadows (very dark in the church; no overhead lights were on).

Not realizing there was anyone in the church I registered the Bach appropriately and let 'er rip! When I finished, he spoke out and thanked me for playing the beautiful music. I had trouble trying to figure out where he was sitting and it took some squinting around in the dark to find him. Creepy.

The upside: Mary Lou, Elaine, Helene and a woman I don't know were in the kitchen making sandwiches for the Bazaar tomorrow. I've been wondering about the secret of Helene's egg salad sandwiches for years. I told her I thought it was curry. Apparently not -- it is green onion. She insisted I have one, and I munched my way back to the Sanctuary.

I think I will ask my nephew to go with me to see "Megamind," and as for online course work -- byte me!

Days to go: 880 -- Pieces: 9.75

Day 120: Well, finally! Down to "Pieces to go: 9.75"! On Sunday I played part of the Passacaglia as a recessional. It was a lovely service all around, because...

My new choir sang its first choir piece (separate from the congregation), a trumpet player sounded Last Post and Reveille, the Assembly fairly shouted "O Canada" and the "somber music" that Fr. Charles wanted as an organ recessional ended up being the first few variations of the Bach Passacaglia.

At breakfast at the Fish and Chip place after Mass, a choir member reported that the choir had received a compliment! One of the other diners said that "the choir sounded good today." I was really glad. We all can go very far on a little bit of encouragement.

I guess I should mention that I stacked the deck when it came to the hymns. "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art" always are sung out well. I wonder how we'll do with this Sunday's "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"...

Oh, I almost forgot. The Passacaglia was perfect. More comfortable under my fingers than anything else I played all morning. Hooray for Dupre and his reps!!!

Days to go: 881 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 119:

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

(Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD)

Days to go: 882 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 118: The real "Bucket List" movie was on tv tonight. Too many familiar medical things made this quite a sad show this time around.

Our Remembrance Day tribute went very nicely at the 5:00 Mass, thanks to Paul the trumpet player. I chickened out at the end and played the Holst "O God, Beyond All Praising" instead of Bach.

Much work due for the aq course, so that takes care of my Sunday afternoon and evening.

I have turned back the clocks and I hope my musicians have, too. Otherwise they will either be really late for the 9:00 or really early for the 11:00 Mass.

The poem tomorrow should not be too surprising.

Days to go: 883 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 117: Looked up "The Last Post" and "Reveille" today just in case. Two trumpeters will cover three masses this weekend as part of our Remembrance Day tribute.

Had a delicious salad dressing last night which I thought consisted totally of pureed garlic. I asked about it and was reassured to hear that it also contained anchovies and mustard! No matter -- we ate every bit of romaine. I wanted to lick the bowl.

Had a tasty lemon curd muffin from Village Grocer this morning. Just outstanding.

Made a crockpot stew with extra turnips and lots of sweet onions. And dumplings. A nice winter evening meal.

Hmmm, I wonder if there's anything in the fridge...

Not a good day for music.

Days to go: 884 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 116: Delicious supper tonight with musical friends old and new. They are so alive, so vital. I feel like a pale wisp of a ghost among them. But that's ok. The promise of better days to come.

We talked about Marcel Dupre and his 16-rep method. Must get back into that! Muscle memory training. Like musical weightlifting.

My generous old friend who sent me music last week started in the music program at Western the same year I did. He had Larry Cortner (of blessed memory) as his organ teacher. It will be fun to meet up with this old friend and catch up after 41 years!

I called another old friend to find out if she could send me a picture (for the Memorial Concert) of her brother who died almost 15 years ago. Will was a student of Larry Cortner's. Will's daughter is the composer Sarah Quartel.

God bless all you old and new friends.

Days to go: 885 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 115: Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day.

Hey, old friend! Thanks for the poem!

: )

Days to go: 886 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 114: I am going to play part of the passacaglia at our Remembrance Day observance at St. Leo's. It will make a suitable somber postlude after the Last Post and Reveille.

Today I practiced at St. Patrick's for the first time in a long while. It was a pleasure to play the Letourneau, and the Franck sounds beautiful on it.

There's a YouTube video you should watch about a wonderful 106 year-old pianist. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlccsLr48

Hmmm, I don't think you can actually link from blogspot... anyway, the l after the Q is the letter, I am pretty sure. Or it may be the number 1. It is worth the follow up.

Man, am I tired. Goodnight!

Days to go: 887 -- Pieces to go: 10

Day 113: Well, this is getting ridiculous. I am just not getting any practicing done. And tonight I am really tired from choir practice, so now is probably not the best time to fret about it. Tomorrow is another day.

Yesterday the retirement celebration went very well with "What A Wonderful World" being especially well received. After I played the Toccata a small boy peered around the organ console at me -- I think he was just checking to see if I was really a witch!

I really am one, but that's another story!

I expected no one at choir tonight but to my surprise they were all there! They can sing in parts, so that is good to know for future planning. We started some new music for Advent and Christmas and this Sunday they are going to sing something on their own, sort of.

It is a good start and I am pleased.