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)

Days to go: 866 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 134:

BIRTHDAY ARIA: "TO ANDREW ON HIS BIRTHDAY"

You were born long ago,
Long ago, long ago,
Lo-o-o-o-o-ng ago!

(W. A. Mozart, Tune: "Figaro")

Days to go: 867 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 133:

[RUBRIC]

Then,

Place the Easter Candle
close to the Ambo

Because we are reading Hebrew Scripture
in the Light of Christ

(Quoted by Bill Targett)

Days to go: 868 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 132:

[PROCRASTINATION]

Human wisdom says Don't put off until tomorrow
What can be done the very same day.

But I tell you that he who knows how to put off until tomorrow
Is the most agreeable to God.
He who sleeps like a child
Is also he who sleeps like my darling Hope.

And I tell you to Put off until tomorrow
Those worries and those thoughts which are gnawing at you today.
Put off until tomorrow those sobs that choke you
When you see today's unhappiness.
Those sobs wich rise up and strangle you.
Put off until tomorrow those tears which fill your eyes and your head,
Flooding you, rolling down your cheeks, those tears which stream down your cheeks.

Because between now and tomorrow, maybe I, God, will have passed your way.

Human wisdom says Woe to the man who puts off what he has to do until tommorrow.
And I say Blessed is he who puts off.
That is to say Blessed is he who hopes.
And who sleeps.

(Charles Peguy, from "The Portal of the Mystery of Hope")

Days to go: 869 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 131:

BUT...

But in the mud and scum of things,
there always, always something sings.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Days to go: 870 -- Pieces to go: 9.75

Day 130:

THE FIRST NOWELL

Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord,
That hath made heaven and earth of nought,
And with His blood mankind hath bought.

(English Traditional, c. 17th cent.)