Composer Milton Babbitt died earlier today.
Gentle Jesus, grant him eternal rest.
Labels: Babbitt
I realize that I am ignorant when it comes to this sort of thing, but isn't conducting an orchestra basically air guitar for rich people?27 Jan from @JimmyKimmel
Labels: conducting
One follow up note to organ - gratuitous use of.
It turns out that the composer for The Cape is Bear McCreary, the same person who scored Battlestar Gallactica, one of the greatest shows on television works of art human achievements of all time.
The music on the National Broadcasting Company program is richer, scored for full orchestra, and taking it's cues from recent comic book blockbusters - but it is decidedly excellent in its own right.
Labels: McCreary, television
I recently watched the pilot of The Cape, a new television programme from the National Broadcasting Company.
Yes, okay, judge me all you want. I'll tell you one thing though: it's no Knight Rider.
But this website wouldn't be what it is unless I pointed you to this gratuitous use of the organ to make someone seem creepy.
Also, who builds organs set up to play diminished chords with one key?
Labels: organ, television
Starting today I'm at the American Sarum conference. I'll be tweeting using the hashtag #AmSam.
While is unclear whether tweeting was part of the Sarum rite, this is one of the things I hope to learn at the conference.
Update: 2 Mar: Here, for posterity are my tweets with the hashtag #AmSam
Terrific few days in Bronxville for American Sarum conference. Great to learn so much, spend time with old friends & meet new ones #AmSam 4:13 PM Jan 18th #AmSam dinner (@ J. C. Fogarty's) http://4sq.com/eNLSpH 11:46 PM Jan 17th from foursquare 15th Century Mass recreation #AmSam 9:01 PM Jan 17th Rubrics advanced course #AmSam (@ Blue Moon Mexican Cafe) http://4sq.com/ijBqGb 8:22 PM Jan 17th from foursquare 2 hour session on rubrics beginning #AmSam 6:53 PM Jan 17th Technology can make bridges to modern liturgical principles. #AmSam 4:56 PM Jan 17th We have more resources than Percy Dearmer. Too many really. This is a burden and a blessing. #AmSam 4:54 PM Jan 17th Text is common. Use is specific. Is diversity pastorally advisable? #AmSam 4:50 PM Jan 17th John Austin Baker (frmr Bishop of Salisbury) "Christian Faith" disposes with penal substitution theory of Atonement - Davies #AmSam 4:46 PM Jan 17th Roman Church core is atonement. Sarum Rite (Anglicans) core is incarnation. But it's about theological perspective #AmSam 4:43 PM Jan 17th Gathered circle doesn't leave room for hiding behind pillar. No theological place for choir. #AmSam 3:52 PM Jan 17th Harper: priesthood of all believers: laity need to be formed to shape the liturgy #AmSam 3:52 PM Jan 17th Davies: someone has to make liturgical decisions - that process and input is theological #AmSam 3:48 PM Jan 17th Whirmore: fads are a part of human culture. We have to reach back to find enduring principles in order to go forward #AmSam 3:39 PM Jan 17th Whitmore: Music and liturgy are not separate things #AmSam 3:36 PM Jan 17th Harper: don't draw lines of style. Community has to decide. Start with music of liturgy #AmSam 3:32 PM Jan 17th Liturgy is shaping of sound and silence. Already music. (Harper) #AmSam 3:31 PM Jan 17th Harper: music in liturgy is perhaps our least developed side of theology. #AmSam 3:28 PM Jan 17th Harper: 1906 English Hymnal plainsong. Intended as congregational music. Martin Shaw had a different aesthetic. Look to 1549 music #AmSam 3:27 PM Jan 17th Harper: experience in liturgy is Primary Theology. Early Music grounded in hist principles. Liturgy never static. Always changing #AmSam 3:25 PM Jan 17th Davies: places to go. Staging posts from medieval rite. Enfleshing the theology through liturgy. #AmSam 3:22 PM Jan 17th Davies: at Salisbury we get the chairs out of the way. The people move. Color, texture, darkness, mystery. Moving across thresholds. #AmSam 3:21 PM Jan 17th Davies: liturgical principles come first. Moving away from text. Preparation behind presentation important. Senses engaged. #AmSam 3:19 PM Jan 17th Doig: rich, dense, layered symbolism express the theology being worked out by congregation. Expressions beyond words. #AmSam 3:17 PM Jan 17th Liturgy: orderly, complete, uncluttered by ideas. Reaching back in order to go forward. #AmSam 3:12 PM Jan 17th Generational differences have emptied our churches of people under 35. GenX & Millenials interested in experience #AmSam 3:09 PM Jan 17th Bishop Whitmire: AAM 2003 Indianapolis (after General Convention) was life-giving. Musicians are your best partners in the church #AmSam 3:06 PM Jan 17th Morning Prayer at AAM midwinter conference. Voluntaries by Marcus Karl Maroney (b 1977) and Hindemith #AmSam 1:50 PM Jan 17th American Sarum dinner. Great food. Keeping the roast beef warm on the fireplace. #AmSam (@ Bronxville Field Club) http://4sq.com/fbU3GW 1:24 AM Jan 17th from foursquare Final work is Pierre Cochereau (1924-1984) Variations sur un vieux Noël. #AmSam 11:15 PM Jan 16th Great use of French Horn stop. Howells a bit too fast and accelerandi too exaggerated for my taste. #AmSam 11:11 PM Jan 16th Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele, BWV 654. Flutes, 8, 4 accompanying cornet. Mr Forster seems to be using a few main note trills #AmSam 11:04 PM Jan 16th Organ recital beginning on the new Casavant organ at Christ Church, Bronxville. Stuart Forster. Buxtehude Magnificat is first. #AmSam 10:53 PM Jan 16th Evensong: Byrd responses; Hostis Herodes impie - Sheppard; First Service - Parsons; #AmSam 9:54 PM Jan 16th Appreciate space through teaching #AmSam 8:47 PM Jan 16th Easter Vigils held here in 1935. #AmSam 8:37 PM Jan 16th CS Lewis: unaware of details (dance steps, shoes). Attention on God #AmSam 8:35 PM Jan 16th Deliberate study of liturgy is a matter of pastoral care, worship, theology #AmSam 8:34 PM Jan 16th "We are overwhelmed with choices today" - Fr Bird #AmSam 8:34 PM Jan 16th "Christian worship can never be passive" -Fr Hohly #AmSam 8:22 PM Jan 16th Fr Hohly inspired to congregation to embrace change #AmSam 8:21 PM Jan 16th Morton Stone wasn't willing to stay only with the English expression - he looked East. Hymn 324. CCBNY willing to take risks #AmSam 8:20 PM Jan 16th Hohly moved to more Roman expression to what he would term English use. Reredos added during his time & moved the Altar further East #AmSam 8:17 PM Jan 16th CCBNY built 1925/6. Percy Dearmer's ideas prevalent in building of US churches. #AmSam 8:14 PM Jan 16th Now Fr Michael Bird, rector on the history of the parish. #AmSam 8:11 PM Jan 16th Watched a cool video of mediæval liturgy reenactment: Reconciliation of Penitents on Maundy Thurs #AmSam 8:10 PM Jan 16th "you have to go through the threshold of boredom to discover the beauty and the power" #AmSam 7:17 PM Jan 16th Most solemn feasts have more voices in music of Sheppard. Music reflects added solemnity. #AmSam 7:02 PM Jan 16th Compline separate and more solemn in Lent. In manuas tuas. #AmSam 7:00 PM Jan 16th Services are mostly plainsong or improvised polyphony. Lady chapel is small! Not music for whole cathedral. #AmSam 6:53 PM Jan 16th Pricksong (notes are "pricked") Lady Mass at Workdays, Holy Days & Antiphon on Holy Days #AmSam 6:52 PM Jan 16th Now: deployment of the choral body at Rochester Cathedral 1540s (no longer Benedictine, adopts Sarum liturgy) #AmSam 6:45 PM Jan 16th Cathedral doesn't provide candles for the parish Mass in the Nave. #AmSam 6:43 PM Jan 16th "Polyphony of prayer" was common in cathedrals. #AmSam 6:42 PM Jan 16th Sonic Ceremonial: music and ritual in late medieval England. John Harper #AmSam 6:36 PM Jan 16th Church is out. #AmSam 4:19 PM Jan 16th #AmSamStealth http://twitpic.com/3qmacl 3:57 PM Jan 16th May sit in the balcony and tweet this service. #AmSamStealth 2:32 PM Jan 16th Still waiting to catch the shuttle to Christ Ch, Bronxville for this morning's 10 am liturgy. Jeremy Davies is preaching. #AmSam 2:31 PM Jan 16th 40 days of Christmas at Salisbury #AmSam 8:35 PM Jan 15th We come to God with our empty spaces. God gives us the resources. #AmSam 8:18 PM Jan 15th Jeremy Davies lecture is like poetry, or one of his beautifully crafted prayers. #AmSam 8:07 PM Jan 15th Sarum liturgy orderly, but highly elaborate. #AmSam 8:01 PM Jan 15th God's Patterns - Jeremy Davies. Salisbury: inhabit use work (building & liturgy) #AmSam 7:53 PM Jan 15th The Lord does not speak to us without a parable. Eucharist the "acted sermon of the church" #AmSam 7:07 PM Jan 15th "We have a ritual, and we must use it whether we like it or not" #AmSam 7:06 PM Jan 15th Churches become overlaid with symbolism and are themselves sacramental vessels. #AmSam 7:04 PM Jan 15th Oxford mvt strove for apostolic succession. Dignity of priestly office and sacraments #AmSam 6:47 PM Jan 15th Churches (good ones) "spatial embodiments of sacramental worship." #AmSam 6:43 PM Jan 15th 1824 grant for 450 churches fostered an architectural style known as "commissioner's gothic" (see Thomas Rickman) #AmSam 6:30 PM Jan 15th Revival of Sarum Rite in 19th C. Dr. Doig #AmSam 6:19 PM Jan 15th Conf participant stands to recommend Dr. Harper's "City of the Lord" publ RSCM #AmSam 5:01 PM Jan 15th Medieval liturgy is a sensory "polyphony". Layering of words and action. Elevation is a moment of focus. #AmSam 4:56 PM Jan 15th Britten took Ceremony of Carols procession from an actual processional chant. #AmSam 4:50 PM Jan 15th Procession is its own rite. #AmSam 4:46 PM Jan 15th Meanwhile, Salisbury continues to change. Incense happens at offertory, not Credo #AmSam 4:41 PM Jan 15th 8 to 9 thousand churches then adopt their cathedral's liturgy in the middle ages. #AmSam 4:38 PM Jan 15th Salisbury offered a ready model for non-monastic cathedrals to adopt in the 13th C. #AmSam 4:36 PM Jan 15th Canons were likely living common life by a "monastic-style" rule. #AmSam 4:34 PM Jan 15th John says look at the library of St Gall online #AmSam 4:27 PM Jan 15th Time: Large clock in north nave aisle. Big bell tower outside (demolished 1790) #AmSam 4:23 PM Jan 15th They are obsessed by who does what. Also there's not much separation between things musical and liturgical. #AmSam 4:21 PM Jan 15th Books are very sacred objects #AmSam 4:16 PM Jan 15th Key people: Osmund, Roger le Poer, Jocelin de Bohun & Richard Poore #AmSam 4:09 PM Jan 15th Old Sarum 1075-1220, New Sarum 1220 onward #AmSam 4:03 PM Jan 15th "Use" is Materials (texts, objects) People (office, individual) Place (location, space) & Time (general, local) #AmSam 4:02 PM Jan 15th Previous tweets from Fr. Cody Unterseher's talk. Now, "The Medieval Use of Sarum" by John Harper #AmSam 3:57 PM Jan 15th If in liturgy we do something from the past, we do it *in the present* #AmSam 3:23 PM Jan 15th Brian Spinks has a liturgy shopping mall analogy. What do we have to offer? Clinging to "we've always done it this way" won't cut it. #AmSam 3:18 PM Jan 15th Dearmer sought an English use, not a Baroque Continental one. #AmSam 3:12 PM Jan 15th Percy Dearmer was distressed by ritualism "naughty child of Protestantism" "unworthy of our self-respect" #AmSam 3:11 PM Jan 15th What the ritualists appealed to was forbidden. #AmSam 3:10 PM Jan 15th Processions and ringing of bells forbidden in 1547 by parliament #AmSam 3:09 PM Jan 15th "ornaments" rubric points to Edward VI way of doing things. Points to an unbroken continuity which didn't really exist #AmSam 3:08 PM Jan 15th "Ultimately the Oxford Movement was in search of authentic tradition." #AmSam 3:05 PM Jan 15th Radically different theological and liturgical hard to reconcile. "An idea as impossible as it is noble" #AmSam 3:04 PM Jan 15th "diversity of use" alluded to in first BCP. Movable type theoretically allows for liturgical conformity. #AmSam 3:03 PM Jan 15th Local uses had a lot in common with each other, but not with the Roman Rite. #AmSam 3:01 PM Jan 15th Bradshaw (West. Abbey) points to early Eucharists of fish and water (John 6). #AmSam 2:58 PM Jan 15th Tradition is fundamentally relational. See Fiddler On The Roof. But there is a fundamental lack of liturgical continuity. #AmSam 2:57 PM Jan 15th Liturgy is enacted as received #AmSam 2:53 PM Jan 15th Mundane behaviors acquire sacredness. #AmSam 2:53 PM Jan 15th Brian Harlow is playing Whitlock pieces as voluntaries for AM prayer. New organ is delicious. Sarum Rite: no tweeting during liturgy #AmSam 1:47 PM Jan 15th I'm the cantor for Morning Prayer. #DangersOfTheAfterParty #AmSam 3:19 AM Jan 15th Michael Steele: Tallis Masses are Sarum Rite Masses. No Kyries. #AmSam 2:09 AM Jan 15th Robert Wylkinson (1475-1515) Salve Regina. Glorious. #AmSam. 1:10 AM Jan 15th First half: a brief history of Sarum music (from the 13th C to the Eton Choirbook) #AmSam 12:28 AM Jan 15th Concert by Trinity, Wall Street about to begin. #AmSam 12:20 AM Jan 15th RIC to LGA. headed to American Sarum conference, or #AmSam 5:53 PM Jan 14th Getting all excited for the American Sarum conference, or as I call it on Twitter #AmSam
Labels: authenticity, church music, liturgical space, liturgy, Salisbury Cathedral
I am totally fascinated by Anthony Tommasini's search for the top 10 composers.
I don't know why.
"He is greater"
Richard Strauss said of Jean Sibelius
This begs the question, what is compositional "greatness"? In Strauss's mind it was something more than skill. That doesn't really make it fair, does it?
We understand that composers are born with a certain amount of God-given (or St.-Cecilia-given, take your pick) talent, but are they also imbued with "greatness"? And, if so, does this skill have any bearing on "greatness"?
And if composers are able to study music and hone their craft, are they also able to increase their "greatness" quotient?
Bach was tremendously skilled, and also "great". His music conveys more than technical mastery. There is a depth of feeling, a certain rhetorical pathos in much of Bach's music. How did he achieve both of these feats?
This is all speculative and theoretical, and that's what makes it fun, I guess.
But I do know one thing: if Strauss ranks higher than Sibelius on your list, you had better try again.
Labels: Bach, Jean Sibelius, NYT
Today is the 60th anniversary of Herbert Howells's anthem "Like as the Hart desireth the waterbrooks", which he wrote in a single sitting.
I could point you to a YouTube video of this, as I so often do of late, but really you should own a recording of your own.
If you're really in need and strapped for cash try here
Labels: church music, Howells
Do you want a pew in St. Paul's, Richmond?
For 85 years now, the seating has been first-come, first-served at the historic "Cathedral of the Confederacy". Pew ownership ended on the Feast of the Holy Name in 1926.
You're welcome to sit in pew 105, the "prince's pew", on which rested the Edwardian bottom of the Albert Edward, Prince of Wales in 1860. The prince was crowned King Edward VII in 1902.
Or try out the Confederate president's pew, No. 63, where Jefferson Davis worshiped while in Richmond.
Even Confederate General Robert E. Lee had an assigned seat. He had use of pew 111 when in town.
Me, I prefer benches to pews.
Labels: liturgical space, St Paul's (Richmond)
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