Liam

Choir furniture: Tall Music Stand?
Well, there are regular music stands where the shelf-lip of the stand can be as high as 5': http://www.amazon.com/Manhasset-48TA-Symphony-Music-Stand/dp/B000B5K9PU For ones with ample space - folded out, triptych-style (just be careful not to…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
The "Magic Feather" Phenomenon
You can also ask the Michael Jordans to sit in the back half of the congregation to support congregational singing.

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
The "Magic Feather" Phenomenon
I've long recommended a presumption in favor of programming choral music that sounds good when it's not accompanied, that does not require accompaniment to make it sound good. It's not a conclusive presumption, but a rebuttable one. N…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
The "Magic Feather" Phenomenon
Some people have such a need for rules that their nature is to invent them (this is *not* a commentary on the EF, because it also exists in the NO) - it's a personality issue, and becomes more evident when such personalities have effective powe…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
New hymnal from St. Paul's!
"I especially like the index of Latin and Greek original texts!" I like that, too.

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
New hymnal from St. Paul's!
Randolph Thank you. My first contextual intervention here was based on the fact that HP&SC and the body of work represented by it* have been the subject of inquiry by many people over many years here (and elsewhere, of course), and I wanted to …

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
New hymnal from St. Paul's!
Noel The foundation for your comment is lacking.

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Is this normal for an unpaid volunteer job?
Basic rule: where possible, choose to operate in organizations that foster trusting and trustworthy interaction rather than those that do not. This pastor and MD are putting you in difficult situations, and you haven't even played your first Ma…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
New hymnal from St. Paul's!
Ryand In this case, it would be counterexample of not. (Which is not to argue that the former repertoire needed to be preserved in amber.) Chuck A small but important mercy. The way this was handled was a Parthian shot of sorts, but all is not lo…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Bach St John Passion in place of reading
Chuck Thanks for that very informative correction of my error!

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Bach St John Passion in place of reading
Deacon Fritz While I am sympathetic to that recommendation, it should be noted that JS Bach's settings of the Passions were acutely designed according to the liturgical calendar. The St Matthew Passion for Palm Sunday ends on a somber chorus t…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
New hymnal from St. Paul's!
My understanding is that the parish copies were sold to someone who has an appreciation for the body of work that was being...superceded...by the new hymnal.

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
New hymnal from St. Paul's!
I will be brief to provide context: it's virtually bereft of anything from Ted Marier and completely bereft of anything from John Dunn, and it has a lot of music that is foreign to the repertoire that the parish used for decades (going back bef…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
The Easter Wiggle
Get out and try some Hispanophilia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2USYdLL_48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Jd4A4d5iA

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Fasting during the Octave of Easter
From the old (1910) Catholic Encyclopedia, some helpful background: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01067a.htm In historical reality, the ascetic practices required of the faithful were partly derived and modified from those developed by monastics…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Weird Choral Voicing Situation
I was joking, but with a point - draw comfort from the fact that your conundrum is nothing new: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLCV3TbQYGs

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Weird Choral Voicing Situation
Have them sing a fifth below instead.

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Fasting during the Octave of Easter
Well, there's no *fasting* during the Easter Octave under any traditional practice that I am aware of. In traditional practice, Easter Friday was a day of *abstinence* because it was not a day of precept. However, that law of abstinence has cha…

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
OMG
It's a spoof. http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Stolen-organs-lost-violins-French-invasion/story-29033441-detail/story.html

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
The Easter Wiggle
Germanic Latin, I assume.... Americans are sheltered.

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
Funeral of Empress Zita
Well, Archduke Otto was in a sense the last personage of state - he was Crown Prince in fact (not merely in pretense) for a couple of years. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Kroenung_Budapest_Karl_und_Zita_1916a.jpg

Comment by Liam April 2016 permalink
RIP Mother Angelica
Well, their ecclesiology, among other things, wasn't always so sure....

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
Easter crankiness: Is Eric Whitacre too popular?
In the US Catholic church, the pattern since the advent of the Great Depression has been that church buildings, music and liturgy are budgetary centers to be rigorously minimized. You can see it in the switch from grand, interesting parish churches…

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
Bach St John Passion in place of reading
Or it could be for redistribution.

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
Long-Term Voice Loss
You may have a bacterial sinus infection causing a prolonged post-nasal drip that is settling lower. While a rhinovirus or influenza would not be responsive to an antibiotic, the presence of a virus can lower immune resistance to a co-existing bacte…

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
New Setting of Jesus Christ is Ris'n Today
It's supposed to be in minor, or a least mixolydian mode.

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
Easter crankiness: Is Eric Whitacre too popular?
Ah, the weekly High Mass at midday on Sunday, taken by many Catholics as punishment for sleeping in on Sunday (whereas for me, I would have strongly preferred a High Mass and found the punishment to be having to wait so long for it as I am an extrem…

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
Easter crankiness: Is Eric Whitacre too popular?
"Oh sure, some have tried to re-establish what was once musically and ritually universal in the Church." Well, even there you have an equivocal term: "universal". As a "norm", it was what was, but as an experiential re…

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
Easter crankiness: Is Eric Whitacre too popular?
Ah, a subject near and dear to my heard: weeds and flowers. Turns out, some erstwhile weeds are not weeds but treasured things. (Like the goldenrod in my fairly shady side yard - courtesy of a bird, there's no way I would have been able to plan…

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink
Easter crankiness: Is Eric Whitacre too popular?
The Greater Boston area has an alarmingly high number of capable choral groups. The great choral warhorses appear on the calendar every year with at least one or two groups performing them. People survive.

Comment by Liam March 2016 permalink

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Username: Liam
Joined: August 2009
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