Sacred Miscellany

Be Where Your Feet Are - Hmmm

Every now and then I hear a phrase that "resonates," as we like to say.  This is today's.

Be where your feet are!

Just being where you are is the easiest thing to say and the hardest thing to do.  Not wondering about what went wrong yesterday or in 5th grade, not worrying about next week's performances or work.  Actually writing the essay you're working on, performing music attentively, etc.

Well, I can do this for up to 3 second at a time right now.  Hope you all can do better!

Historical American Sheet Music Collection at Duke

Another wonderful way to pass the time is browsing digital collections of sheet music - and Duke University has done all the work!

Don't Mess with the Musicians!

Minister of Music tazes pastor, another woman stabbed during fight at church.

If we saw more headlines like this, I bet choir directors would be a lot more respected.  None of that complaining that the music is "too loud, too soft, too slow, too fast," etc. 

 

People would think twice before they left those little notes on the music stand!

Here's the full story from the Press-Register.

No Beginning No End

If you know Kenny Werner's work as a musician and writer, you're probably already familiar with this large-scale work.  If not, it's a marvelous tribute and catharsis. Here's the YouTube:

 

Back from a Remarkable Week at the Barn

I just spent a fantastic week in Maine at the Celebration Barn.  Two great teachers working together, Deborah Henson-Conant and Karen Montanaro.  Nine other great musicians, all there to take their work to the next level.  And we all got there, whether or not we wanted to!  There was lots of hard work, amazing discoveries, angst, and laughter.  It was about movement, music, connecting, hearing, and really being there.  Many of us went there looking for one thing - and learned that what we were really searching for was something entirely different.

We were together long enough to take ourselves apart and reassemble.  Long enough to try on new ways of seeing and hearing our music - and new ways of working beyond technique, beyond "getting it right."

Whatever it is that you do, I only hope that you can have such a wonderful experience.  Because my musical world has been fundamentally transformed.

Lentils from Le Puy

I can't resist sharing this picture of the famous dark green lentils of Le Puy, France.  Le Puy is the town from which the Sisters of St. Joseph came to St. Augustine, Florida in 1866.  This picture is something I stumbled across in the process of researching a concert Cantorae St. Augustine will be performing in the sisters' honor in November of 2011.  You might want to circle Sunday afternoon, November 13th at 3 p.m., so you can plan to join us.

Now I'm hungry - just from looking at the picture!

Wedding Worries I Don't Have - At Least Not Today

Well, at least no one's asked for this:

I am playing for an outdoor wedding (and reception) on the Fall Equinox, Renaissance theme, to be officiated by a High Priestess.  Anyone have music recommendations?

But I've had some other interesting requests.  Coming up soon, a recessional that combines Anchors Aweigh and Navy Blue and Gold.

Improving One Art Form By Learning From Another

Anyone who lived through the 60's and 70's may have been afflicted by a bad mime.  San Francisco was particularly full of wanna-ba Marcel Marceaus.  They made me cringe. 

This will change your mind about real mime art.

Here is a segment by the late Tony Montanaro on how to mime a tug-of-war.  Watching this superb performance while hearing it broken into components gives me a way to think about my own music - isolating the different components, bringing them together, communicating the whole.  Enjoy the magic.