Days to go: 864 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 136: The Reboot of An Organist's Bucket List!

I am happy to announce that I have started serious practicing again. It helps to have motivation: in my case, the Memorial Concert for Larry Cortner, 3:00 pm, May 1, 2011, Studio 18, The Don Wright Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

I am going to play the .25 of this list -- the Fugue from the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor by J.S. Bach. I was going to play John McIntosh's "Thou My Soul's Shelter" but I have a different plan for that work.

So I stopped by St. Patrick's and played the fugue 4 times through on a full plenum. Many errors up to tempo but none at a slower tempo so I guess the future is clear... 60 days to fix it before the concert.

This is fun! I'd forgotten.

Days to go: 865 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 135:

BOY AND EGG

Every few minutes,
he wants to march
the trail of flattened rye grass
back to the house of muttering hens.
He too could make a bed in hay.
Yesterday the egg was so fresh
it felt hot in his hand
and he pressed it to his ear
while the other children laughed
and ran with a ball,
leaving him,
so little yet,
too forgetful in games,
ready to cry if the ball brushed him,
riveted to the secret of birds
caught up inside his fist,
not ready to give it over
to the refrigerator
or the rest of the day.

(Naomi Shihab Nye)