Live from Lake Michigan

First I was blogging from the train, and now I am blogging from Lake Michigan aboard the Lake Express. I now blog from many places. Now all I need is a useful subject.

I do need to type fast as I will soon lose a signal. There are no cell towers in the middle of the lake and I am grateful.

Blogging in transit

I am enjoying the new found ability to blog at 70 m.p.h. No, I am not driving but riding the Metra. Blogging while driving would probably not be a good thing.

Driving hazards

Listening to Anglican Chant can be a wonderful and calming experience when driving in the Chicago area. However, for those who lean/kneel to the higher church end, there may be a hazard.

Kind police officer: What caused you to not see the stopped car in front of you?

Lawful and caring driver: Well, you see, I was singing along with an Anglican Chant CD, and then came the Gloria Patri....

Kind (yet annoyed) police officer: I see. I will have to cite you for GWD... Genuflecting while driving. And next time, no more head banging CDs. Do something safer, like talk on the phone.

Lawful and caring (yet annoyed) driver: Yes sir, I will try to be more heathen...

***Disclaimer: Not based on a true story. This never happened... yet...

Choral Music for the winter

Here is a brief overview of some of the music recently performed by the choir here:

All Saints: The Souls of the Righteous - Stanley Marchant
Nov 11: Jerusalem (Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone) - this is arranged from the Sacred Harp
Nov 18: Soon and Very Soon - Andre Crouch
Christ the King: Te Deum Laudamus - Slavonic Chant
Advent 1: E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come - Paul Manz (authors note -what a wonderful work)
Advent 2: People Look East - arr. Eugene Butler
Advent 3: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree - Elizabeth Posten
Advent 4: The Cherry Tree Carol - arr. Mark Johnston (seem to be having a tree thing here)
Christmas Eve: What Sweeter Music - John Rutter
O Magnum Mysterium - Dan Locklair (this is a wonderful little gem)
Epiphany: Arise, Shine for thy Light has Come - Healy Willian
Baptism of our Lord: Wade in the Water - traditional
Epiphany 2: Behold the Lamb of God, from Messiah - George Frideric Handel
Epiphany 3: Assurance - William Billings (this uses pieces Dr. Watts version of Psalm 27)

Flickr errors

I always enjoy when a company puts some humor into their "server down" message. I found the following on Flickr (the photo sharing place).

Flickr is having a massage.

For updates, please check the Flickr Blog.



The updates were even more interesting:

The latest estimate from our awesome Ops team is 6:30pm PST.

It’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your precious photos, plus, there’s the added benefit of giving us all a chance to reflect on our serious Flickr addictions. Thank you again for your patience.

Speaking of addictions, really I need to get off the internet and get practicing... starting now... or maybe in 2 minutes... or...

The XII Bishop of Chicago-elect

Though the former Quaker in me says it is no big deal, for those who really want to know:

The Diocese of Chicago has elected The Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee as the 12th Bishop of Chicago. After receiving the appropriate consents, he will be consecrated in February, taking over for the retiring Bishop Persell.

Information about the new Bishop and a breakdown of voting can be found here:

http://www.bishopforchicago.org/

What Chant are You?

No, I have not found a new online quiz, though it would be a novel idea. Instead, I am reflecting on a conversations I have had with others regarding chant. Just in Western Christianity, chant is a broad term covering many styles and the constant elaboration on chants have obscured the difference between a "chant" and "song."

Here are some styles that have been used recently at my church:

• Anglican Chant (by far my favorite)
• Simplified Anglican Chant (now explain the difference to a lay person...)
• Plainsong (a unison psalm chant based on 8 tones, collect tones can be considere part of this)
  

These three all use a reciting note for most of a line with notes changing for the end of a line. Where Plainsong is unison, unless harmonized by a choir/organ, Anglican Chant is harmonized as for a choir.

Other styles act differently:

• Gregorian chant,
  
• Old Roman Chant
• Ambrosian chant
  

We call them chant, yet they are almost a stand alone tune. At one point, there was likely more repeating chant on a psalm, but that fell away as musicians added more complex improvisations to the chant.

• We have also used Taize chant which returns to the repetitive idea, yet it is a repeated line and not a "repeating note" for the text.
• We have not used chant style by Joseph Gelineau, which is its own style of psalm chant.

And now, the final exercise:

Attempt to explain "chant" in a few lines for a church newsletter.

Do I know you?

Some who once were my loyal readers (all 1-2 of them, including myself), have likely wondered (or not), whatever happened to him? The working world having called, I found myself procrastinating from using my procrastination tools.

It should be noted here that the working world not only took away some time, it appears to exacted a toll on any limited writing style I may have once exhibited in my brief return to academia. This should be obvious by the shear length of the prior overly complex and run-on sentence.

Ability to write coherently aside, here is my somewhat brief wrap-up.

1. Music Director - St. Lawrence Episcopal Church, Libertyville, Illinois (no change).
2. Operations Coordinator - The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, Evanston, Illinois. I was doing "temporary" work at the same place but am now employed directly by Rotary International. Attempting to explain what I actually do is both futile and requires an overly detailed description. In short - donor operations/recognition operations stuff.
3. I have moved north to Libertyville so I can walk to the church. It is easier to take the Metra from Lake Bluff to Evanston five times a week than to drive up to Libertyville three times a week. It is also far calmer, and slightly cheaper.

Now the great mystery of life: will he ever post again? (or at least more than certain "Cowardly Seminarians")

quiz results... what a shock...

Your Dominant Intelligence is Musical Intelligence

Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes. You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time. You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it. Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds. You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Hmm... maybe I should become a musician...

The comment on being distracted at times by sound is spot on. I hadn't heard it mentioned before. This may explain why sometimes it is the sound of some people talking (though not all) that distracts me more than the content, which I can ignore.

Who is this?

Since certain other bloggers seem willing to remind me that having a blog generally means that you actually intend to post, sometime... ever, here I will attempt to get rolling again with yet another music list.

Lent, Holy Week and Easter, in my humble opinion, seemed to work quite well musically. I enjoyed many of the various offerings. Since the hymns have been rather typical, I will not recount those now but instead, give a brief wrap-up of various musical offerings.

Lent:
I made the decision to stick with the Church Publishing's Gradual Psalms on most Sundays of Lent to help keep a contrast to Portland Psalter that we use much of the year. On the First Sunday of Lent and Palm Sunday, we used Marty Haugen settings of the psalms for those days. They went over very well with this congregation. As for anthems, two larger ones were Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus and Taste and See by Vaughan Williams.

Now in more of a list form:

Palm Sunday
Taize - Hosanna. This was while we were processing in the park. We sang, "All Glory, Laud and Honor" while in the church.
During the Offertory: O Sacred Head - David Hurd (we did the standard hymn version later in the service)
Communion Anthem: What Have we Done (Sezeni Na), Hal Hopson. This was a very powerful moment with a piece based on a South African song.

Maundy Thursday
Ubi Caritas Et Amor, Maurice Durufle
Draw nigh and take the Body of the Lord set to Song 46 by Orlando Gibbons

Easter and Easter Vigil
For the canticles we about every type of "psalm chant" imaginable: Plainsong, Simplified Anglican Chant, and Anglican Chant.
The Psalm for Easter was Anglican Chant with a congregation response. We are generally using those for Major Feasts (if I get around to writing the antiphons).

For the remainder of the choir year which ends at the beginning of June, here is a list of some of the music:

Old Hundereth Psalm Tune - Ralph Vaughan Williams
I Love you, O My God Most High - David Hogan
If Ye Love Me - Thomas Tallis
Praise His Holy Name - Keith Hampton