Sacred Miscellany

Move Completed - Head Over Here

I'm posting on www.sacredmiscellany.com now.  All the old posts have been moved (and there are quite a few since 2003).  And all the new posts will be there.

If you like this blog, change your bookmarks and stay with me.  If you don't, well - I guess it doesn't matter, does it?

While Facebook gets a lot of our attention now, I think there's still a place for blogs.  Let me know what you think.

I'd love to hear from you while I'm unpacking the boxes.

St. Andrew Novena

Yikes!  I almost forgot this important piece of my Advent "warm-up."  Thanks to the good sisters at Moniales for reminding me as well as providing some suggestions on how to work this prayer into your day.

Thus, I can remind you as well.  Remember, 15 times a day until Christmas.

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold.

In that very hour, vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ and of his Blessed Mother. Amen.

Moving Sacred Miscellany

I'm heading over to a WordPress platform very soon.  We've got most of the "updated blog" put together - and after a little more tweaking, I'll heading over there.  What will change?  Nothing more than the address - I'll still be winsome, witty, wise, and willing to share whatever musical thoughts (and liturgical peeves) cross my mind.

And yes, the address will be coming here soon! 

 

Montserrat Figueras

This singer was one of the great voices of the 20th/21st century early music movement.  Losing her to cancer at 69 seems way too early. 

 

Animated Gospel Choir - Have a Spiritual Smile

When to Pray

Today's favorite quotation comes from novelist Isaac Bashevis Singer:

 "I only pray when I am in trouble. But I am in trouble all the time."

Quoted by James L. Mays in "A Question of Identity: The Threefold Hermaneutic of Psalmody,"

The Asbury Theological Journal 46.1 (1991) 87-94.

Thanks to all who came to the Singing the Psalms workshop at Marywood. It was great! There are lots of hidden voices out there. And a special treat was the appearance of Arlene from Alabama. (Who can resist alliteration?) If you'd be interested in bringing a 2-hour workshop that shows ANYBODY how to chant psalms, get in touch with me. I'm happy to spread the word.

What Artists Should Learn from Steve Jobs

There is a terrific post over at The Savvy Musician by David Cutler.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  And I plan to re-read it about once a month or whenever I want to "be just like everyone else, wouldn't that be easier?"

It expands on a Forbes article about Steve Jobs.  And you don't have to be a musician to benefit.  Because, hey - your life is your art, isn't it?  It should be.

And if you don't know this blog, you should check it out.

Thought for the Day on Expectations and Resentment

Yom Kippur starts at sundown this evening.  And it probably doesn't hurt for those of us who aren't Jewish to do a little bit of reflection ourselves.  (Don't worry - you can do this again at the end of the calendar year, if you like.)

Here's the thought I came across:

Unrealistic expectations are premeditated resentments.

How often do we set ourselves up to be dissatisfied - with our performances, with our friends and family, with other musicians, with the clerk at the store?

Maybe I'll just try being pleased at what I get done, at how things sound right now, with all the kindness people show me.  Not that I won't strive to improve my own work (not improving others).

Maybe I'll be grateful.  To God and to everyone else.  And maybe my happiness will be contagious.

Thank you, Steve Jobs!

Everyone has their memories that relate to Steve Jobs.  Mine is my Apple IIE in California in 1983/84.  You had to swap out disks.  The version we had of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego is laughable by today's standards.  I also had a daisy wheel printer that made an ungodly amount of noise.

And we loved it!  It was a quantum leap from the typewriter - and as a former legal secretary and grad student, it was a leap of pure delight!  (Remember the backing sheet you used to keep your footnotes under control?  If you don't, you're lucky.)

Thanks for an individual who had ideas that he made realities - and then built the organization that could share them with the rest of the world.

Thanks, Steve.  With the saints.

Wishing Everyone a Shana Tova!

Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown this evening and I want to wish all my Jewish friends a very joyful New Year!  Two days of reflection and feasting. Honey and apples, the shofar, the services! 

In a lighter vein, it's Rosh Hashanah girl:

 

What's Up, Pussycat?

Short Answer:  Lots!  But I'm still smiling.

Longer Answer:

1.  This blog is in a "redesign process," preparing to move to WordPress.  My website is also getting a make-over.  Who do I want to be in the "public eye"?

2. October 25th workshop on "Singing the Psalms" - basic chant for psalmody.  An evening of history, inspiration, and a lot of singing. This will be at Marywood Retreat Center from 6:30-8:30 in the evening.  A chance to draw more voices into a song that's been uninterrupted for over 2,000 years!

3.  November 13th Concert honoring the Sisters of St. Joseph is coming up over the horizon.  Research, scripting, music selections, practice tracks.  Harp and song from France to Florida. Very exciting! 

4. Planning how to finish doctoral coursework by the end of this calendar year.  Motivation madness!

5. Family visits - lots of fresh northeast Florida shrimp and catching up.  Fun - but definitely put items 1-3 behind schedule.

6. Finished Eric Metaxas' Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  A gripping tale and a very good restatement of Bonhoeffer's theology rescued from the "death of God" nonsense of the 1960s. Inspiring!

7. Kicking up the Celtic with new songs and instrumentals.  Best part of the day, but never enough time!

8. Mega-planning for 2012.  Trying not to generate endless scheduling conflicts by getting festivals, shape-note singings, and workshops on the calendar NOW.  Generating serious expectations!

9. Sharing the best in very old or very new music with my listeners every Friday from 1-3 pm on WFCF-FM, Flagler College Radio.  Streamed live at radio.flagler.edu.  Tune me in!

So, watch to see the changes in Sacred Miscellany and mjballou.com.  If you're in the northeast Florida area, plan for the October 25th workshop and the November 13th concert.

Whew!  I'm enjoying this all. 

Brian Boru 9/11 Tribute

Cynthia Cathcart made this recording of the rallying march, Brian Boru, shortly after the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on the USA.  The instrument is a wire-strung harp. Here it is incorporated into a tribute and memory:

Even Bedbugs Look Cute in France

This image comes from the online store for the Tourist Office in Le Puy, France, one of the historic starting points for the Camino de Santiago.  Unfortunately, bedbugs have joined the pilgrimage in recent years. Ugh!

This is an advertisement for a powder guaranteed to eliminate your bloodthirsty little companions.   Notice the signature scallop shell in the background of the drawing.  Adorable, non?

Of course, the bedbugs were probably along for the ride in the Middle Ages, but vermin were just part of the landscape then.  Fleas, lice, bedbugs....

On Memory and Music in "Early Music America"

The Fall issue of Early Music America has a wonderful essay by Thomas Forrest Kelly from Harvard on "Our Memory of Music."  Worth searching out if you don't subscribe.  Here's the tantalizing opening from St. Basil the Great:

"Of the arts necessary to life which furnish a concrete result, there is carpentry, which produces the chair; architecture, the house; shipbuilding, the ship, tailoring, the garment; forging, the blade.  Of useless arts there is harp playing, dancing, flute playing, of which, when the operation ceases, the result disappears with it."

Rather discouraging words to a harpist, but one must remember that the early Church Fathers weren't exactly wild about instrumental music because of its pagan associations.  And in the age of "mechanical reproduction," as Walter Benjamin called it, we can make our music endure.

Or so we think.  How much of our performance is really "of the moment"?  How much is or isn't captured on a video or a CD?  Where's the real art? 

Good things to think about - check the essay.  Or join Early Music America and learn new things on a regular basis.