I spent my Friday night at a Memorial Mass. Very interesting, since the Spanish 'band' showed up unannounced to participate, after I had organized and printed a bulletin with traditional hymns. The Bishop was in attendance, too. So we had a 'blended' Mass on the spur of the moment. LOL

Donna

Charles, I played for our 8th grade graduation ceremony, Elgar up front, Clarke bringing up the rear with a Ken Canedo tune midstream that the kids sing traditionally.
Then it was home and "Theology Roundtable" with my wife and one of our organists, and some fine reds.

Byrd is good; bulgogi is better.

For several years I tried my best to combine the 'band', the Spanish 'band' and the traditional choir for Triduum. An exercise in frustration guaranteed to send one over the edge. And the congregation HATED it!! I gave it up a couple of years ago, and now use those Spanish Psalms in Responda & Acclama for Vigil readings. Seems to work. But you are right about the Spanish group. They were asked to participate a week ago, and never replied. Just showed up 5mins or so before Mass. Oh well.
Donna

I know it's a cultural thing, but why are WE expected to be sensitive to their culture, but THEY who are new members of our society are not expected to respect, let's say, the "prevailing norms" of our professional music culture?

I told the girls I work with that the head voice is like if you had a condo, and one day you opened a door and found out you had an entire extra condo for free.

chonak, you are too funny.
I just got home from playing for grade eight graduation and cleaning up the church
and the thought occurred to me that I must find this Discussion and bump it up if nobody else had,
while muttering to myself that this Discussion should be renamed to "Friday Nights in CMAA-land"
or some such so it is easier to find.
I like your discussion name and the t-shirt draft.
When you set up your multi-level-marketing (MLM) website system,
will there be a special edition shirt with the added text "I support the CMAA"
and how many would someone have to sell to accumulate sufficient funds for airfare, tuition, etc? ;-)

MLM, very funny! I second the Discussion name change you suggest, eft.

I just returned from singing as sop soloist in Mozart's Solemn Vestpers of a Confessor. What a glorious piece of choral music! To my knowledge, it was the first time in over 40 years since EF Vespers have been sung at the cathedral here. A happy day, to be sure.

Now catching up on laundry, and blog reading.

I had a good musical Friday night. There is a Sacred Music symposium going on at CUA. Three good teachers, and the really great presentation was Dr. Latona explaining his creative process of choosing music for Mass. Working with examples of his compositions, some of which we sang, he explained what he was looking for, artistically, and how he worked with existing resources to make music that was just right for a given Mass.

jeff
when i first encountered schenkerian analysis, my reaction was exactly like yours. to see a masterpiece of western music so simplified was...well... kinda abusive.
truth is, notes can only remain the same, go up or down.
the lesson i got from schenkerian analysis is that what makes music music is obviously more than the notes. its the systematic exposing of layers of detail that may give insight to what makes the music tick. so with schenkerian analysis its more the journey then the destination.

wow, great shirt! any additional choices? What about the backside?

Oh my Jeff, you miss the point... The presenters likely did not say that any of the scherzi boiled down to ONLY ^3 ^2 ^ 1 and that there was nothing else worth discussing in the pieces. They probably said that this was the undergirding progression. Analysis of music has only some connection to performing music. For example, a professional performer should know when he is in the development section of a Mozart sonata and take the audience into that process. Knowing the Schenkerian analysis of a Chopin scherzo is probably not as important, but I would think that a MUSICIAN would be interested in different ways of understanding great music and not publicly denigrate a thoughtful analytical process and, by extension, anyone who is interested in how music works at the architectural level. Perhaps Boethius was right about the difference between "musicians" and "performers". He attributed the former title to those who understood music and the latter to those who only had skill to play or sing it. I thought we had evolved beyond that in the ensuing centuries.

BTW my favorite Scheonberg statement was to David Diamond, who had asked him for lessons in 12-tone. "I did not mean the technique for everyone. You are young Bruckner."

@Michael: I am very interested in the way music works at an architectural level, but I would suggest that this does not de facto make Schenkerian analysis a valid or helpful approach. I would suggest that the best approach is to judge it on the strength of its merits. Also, I believe that the best performers are good musicians.

@Doug: Have you heard Furtwängler's recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion? Several friends and I were revisiting it the other day with great delight.

Michael --- QUESTION: Are we allowed to post on this thread when it is not Friday night?

;-)

Schenkerian analysis has stood the test of time as a valid and useful study tool for tonal and atonal music

Michael, is that what you do of a Friday night for a bit of R&R? Schenkerian analysis? For Pete's sake!!!

I can just imagine the conversation in Queensbury:

Eh up, Mike, art tha coming down t'club for t'rehearsal and a beer?

Nay, lad, I'm just in t'middle of a fascinatin' prolongation problem ...

Ian, beer is assumed of course. BTW I haven't done a lot of Schenkerian analysis in recent years. It just doesn't work for pre-tonal music. However, my kind of pub is one where it would be welcome!

An update on the tee design (updated again Friday evening 6/11):
front:back:

This may change, depending on what dimensions the printing company tells me are possible.

And if somebody who (unlike me) has actual design skills turns up, they may offer something more interesting!

Once I get the design pinned down, AOZ intends to have some made for sale at the Colloquium.

I guess I am the first to report my Friday evening plans:
watching EWTN The World Over
followed by some archive.org movie (TBD)
while working on my Knights of Columbus council history project.

It's Friday night, and I am reading up in preparation for writing Wedding Music guidelines for my parish. It is interesting to note what was written about Schubert in the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13591b.htm

His productivity from 1821 to 1824 was enormous, "Rosamunde" and his "Mass in A flat" being of permanent value. His glorious Ave Maria> dates from 1825, apropos of which he writes that at the time he was filled with overpowering devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

Now, this article was clearly not written by a musicologist, nor by anyone familiar with Schubert's Ave Maria, because the poetry was actually the work of Sir Walter Scott. Meanwhile, the encyclopedia pillories Gounod, who was a pretty devoted Catholic.

Schubert never intended this song as a devotional piece, and in fact seemed to have some problem with the Church in general. So how fair is that? So we're going to put a moratorium on the Schubert Ave Maria at my church. I did it for years, but then it was requested by someone wealthy who gave lots of money to the church, and then it was all over.

As an alternative, however, my inner flea market man is suggesting I might want to charge a $500 mortification fee for singing it at weddings (special, only $300 for funerals).

Yes, it is actually from his Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom See (based on Scott). Perhaps it is overused, but the devotion works very well, even with the orginal German words, which I definitely prefer for this tune. In the right circumstances, I think it's appropriate.

Like everything else there is Wiki entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellens_dritter_Gesang

After all these years, the version I like the best is still the one by Perry Como. My mother had it on a vinyl record (remember vinyl?) and used to play it all the time at Christmas.

Don't get me wrong - it is a sublime piece. But when there are ten zillion other settings that are more like Sacred Music and less like a Lieder recital (and also less operatic), I'm trying to encourage people towards some of those better versions.

That said, of course I still sing it. And flea market man notwithstanding, I cannot in good conscience charge an extra $500 for it at a wedding. Even though the thought is pretty tempting now that I allow myself to think it.

sometimes, when people request for funerals "the Ave Maria," I just sing the chant one...I've never actually had anyone complain!

What is to be made of the Friday night silence from the Eastern Sea-bored? Here it is 4:30PST and no one's said "I can't believe Boston gave up a 13 point lead!"
You're all packing for PA? You're despondent after watching DVD's of "The Road" and "The Book of Eli" one after the other?
You're going over all your scribblings in the PBC and the modes?
Well, I'm wit'cha. Wendy took the grandsons to Toy Story 3, which proves she's not just the best grandmother in town, but the strongest woman! She'll be going to see their mom, our eldest, as Mrs.Hannigan in a local mounting of "ANNIE."
Note: dad's not going to either.
If I get real brave I'll make an appearance at the annual RE "Thank You Dinner" stag. If I'm braver I'll try to pack my carry on bag. We're not checking bags with United. Even tho' they lowered the fee from 50 to 25. I'm not making bets on the carry on success. I'm already down one bottle of cabernet to "Kirk" from another challenge.
Where is Colloquium this year, anyway?
G, you gotta sing polyphony! Get a Zpack and cowboy up!~

Bailed out of a week-long conference early and looking forward to leaving the world of economics and entering the world of sacred music, with only two days respite to put my life back in order again. I'm also sitting here extremely pleased about the launch of the Chant Cafe. It seems to be achieving something of a broad-minded and interesting tone with expertise backing it all. Very exciting to me!