Music for Sunday

This Sunday Christ Church will be anticipating the feast of the Epiphany, which falls on Tuesday.  Here is the organ music I have planned:


Fantasie -- Louis Couperin
March of the Magi Kings from Douze Pièces pour Orgue – Théodore Dubois

Music for the Sunday after Christmas

After all the excitement of the last couple of days, you'd think it's time for a rest...

Ah, but there's always a Sunday lurking in the wings, so here is what I have planned for this week.

Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar [BWV 606] -- J.S. Bach
Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [BWV 614] -- J.S. Bach
Wir Christenlaut [BWV 612] -- J.S. Bach

Out and about for Christmas

There are two times in the year when being in the church music game can be like a running race. The work of Holy Week and Easter is spread out over a few days, which gives time to rest before starting again. Christmas is a different matter: it is a sprint from the middle of the day on Christmas Eve to lunch on Christmas day.

This Christmas is as busy as ever. Before this post pops up, I will have done a series of carolling gigs including in a hospital, a parish street-side singalong, a couple of more formal carol services, along with all the associated rehearsals and preparatory work. When I started out as a church musician I was given a useful piece of advice: plan your Christmas music before September.

From Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning I have four services. Here is the music I have planned for each of these.

4.00pm Family Service at Christ Church, Brunswick

Minuet Gothique — Leon Boëlmann

8.30pm Christmas Eve Mass at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Hawthorn

Minuet Gothique — Leon Boëlmann

11.00pm Carols and 11.30pm Midnight Mass at Christ Church, Brunswick

There will be a choir for this service, and here is the music we have planned:

Missa O Quam Gloriosum -- Tomas Luis da Victoria
All this time -- William Walton

Toccata from Douze Pieces (1886) -- Theodore Dubois


10.00am High Mass for Christmas Day at Christ Church, Brunswick

Trio super Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Her [BWV 664] -- J.S. Bach

Music for Sunday

Here is the organ music I have planned for Christ Church this week:

Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland [BWV 659] -- J.S. Bach
Trio super Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland [BWV 660] -- J.S. Bach

Events in Sydney

For some reason, a poem of Les Murray I encountered recently popped into my head when I heard news of the siege in a cafe in Martin Place in Sydney.

The word goes round Repins,
the murmur goes round Lorenzinis,
at Tattersalls, men look up from sheets of numbers,
the Stock Exchange scribblers forget the chalk in their hands
and men with bread in their pockets leave the Greek Club:
There's a fellow crying in Martin Place. They can't stop him. 

The traffic in George Street is banked up for half a mile
and drained of motion. The crowds are edgy with talk
and more crowds come hurrying....

It's worth going and visiting the page for this poem on Les Murray's website. There you will find a recording of the poet reading the poem.

Out and about on Sunday

Here is the organ music I have planned for Christ Church this Sunday:

Ciacona [BuxWV 160] -- Dietrich Buxtehude
Wachet Auf (Op. 78, No. 18) -- Sigfrid Karg-Elert

Music for Sunday

Here is the organ music I have planned for Christ Church this coming Sunday:

Largo from Sonata V (BWV 529] -- J.S. Bach
Fantasie et Fugue — Alexandre P.F. Boëly

Music for Sunday

Here is the organ music I have planned for Christ Church this Sunday:

Fantasia -- Abraham van den Kerckhoven
Recit de Nazard -- L.N. Clerambault
Wachet Auf [BWV 645] -- J.S. Bach

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be playing at Christ Church, Brunswick.

I was first appointed director of music at Christ Church in early 2004, and left in mid-2008. The parish has had quite a journey over the last six and a half years. It will be interesting to renew associations and see how things have developed.

Here is the organ music I have planned for Sunday.

Andante -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly
Fantasia [BWV 572] -- J.S. Bach

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play for High Mass.  Here is the organ music I have planned.

Prelude — Theodore Dubois
Cantique — Edward Elgar
Priere — Louis Niedermeyer
Fantasie et Fugue — Alexandre P.F. Boëly

Out and about on Saturday and Sunday

This week it is a double-dose of St Aloysius, Caulfield.  All Saints (the day after Hallow e'en) falls on Saturday 1 November, and then there is Sunday.  Here is what I have planned.

Saturday 1 November, All Saints

Andante and Andante con Moto from Sonata 5 — Felix Mendelssohn
Sonata (K 328) — Domenico Scarlatti
Adagio from Concerto in a minor — J.S. Bach
Praeludium in F — J.S. Bach

Sunday 2 November, Pentecost XXI

Andante and Andante con Moto from Sonata 5 — Felix Mendelssohn
Sonata (K 328) — Domenico Scarlatti
Adagio from Concerto in a minor — J.S. Bach
Tempo Ordinario from Concerto in a minor — Bach

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will be at St Aloysius, Caulfield, as part of an extended weekend of music-making with choirs.

The parish is keeping the feast of Christ the King, which falls on the last Sunday of October in the old calendar (and was the original date when the feast was promulgated in the 1920s).  The regular parish choir is very involved with events in Ballarat and Bendigo, so the Newman Singers will be popping up at St Aloysius to allow the feast to be kept with suitable solemnity.

Here is the choir music.

Propers for the day.
Mass IV
Sicut Cervus -- G.P. da Palestrina
Bone Pastor -- Thomas Tallis

One of the parishioners is a very good gamba player, so the instrumental music will include this:

Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Continuo in D Major -- Dietrich Buxtehude

...and the organ music will be:

Fantasia -- Abraham van den Kerckhoven
Prelude -- Louis Neidermeyer

Program for Sunday afternoon

On Sunday I will be playing a short recital at St Stephen's Anglican Church, Richmond, as part of the annual Historic Organs of Richmond Hill promenade.  This is my fourth year appearing in this series, which is always a good way to spend an October afternoon.  Over the last three years I've descended the hill, having performed for the first time in the series at St Stephen's in 2011.  There's a feeling of the grand old duke of York about having made it this far.

The promenade begins at St Stephen's at 3.00pm, moves to St Ignatius, and concludes at Richmond Uniting Church around 5.00pm, when there will be afternoon tea following the third recital.

The concerts highlight the work of the Richmond Churches Food Centre, an ecumenical initiative that provides supplementary food assistance to people living in many situations of need.  Over the last twelve months distribution numbers have gone up considerably.

Here is my program for the first recital.

Sonata -- Jose Lidon
Jesus bleibet meine Freude from Cantata 147 -- J.S. Bach
Fantasie et Fugue -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly
Andante con moto -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly
Handel in the Strand -- Percy Grainger (arr. W. Stockmeier)

Entry is by donation of cash or non-perishable food goods to the food centre.  The three churches will be comfortable with the forecast fine weather for the weekend, but I'd strongly recommend bringing a cushion as the pews at St Ignatius were designed to bring you to your knees.

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will be playing for High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  Here's the organ music I have planned.

Minuet from Bernice -- G.F. Handel
Sonata -- Jose Lidon
Andante con moto -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly
Fantasie et Fugue -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly

Something random for the 700th post

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be playing for High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  It's the Sunday where they're observing their patronal festival, so some of the music I've chosen is focussed around John Henry Newman, either composers who were contemporary or came to be associated with him.  And the postlude is just a bit of fun referring to London.

Grave-Adagio from Sonata II -- Felix Mendelssohn
Cantique -- Edward Elgar
Pastorale -- Henry Smart
Handel in the Strand -- Percy Grainger

There was a time when trams occasionally didn't take passengers...

There's an old saying about the customer always being right.  I wonder what would happen if a lot of customers preferred conductors over ticket inspectors.

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will be at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play for High Mass.  Here's what I have planned.

Fantasie [BWV 562] -- J.S. Bach
Fantasie et Fugue -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly
Christe redemptory omnium -- C.H.H. Parry
For a Festive Occasion -- Alec Rowley

Coming up

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play for High Mass.  Here's the organ pieces I have planned.

Larghetto -- Nicolas de Grigny
Fantasie et Fugue -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly
Senza Rigore -- Charles Tournemire
Keltic March -- Alec Rowley

Out and about on Sunday

This week I am at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play for High Mass.  Here's the organ pieces I have planned.

Ciacona [BuxWV 160] -- Dietrich Buxtehude
Variations [SwWV 319] -- J.P. Sweelinck
Andante -- Alexandre P.F. Boëly
Praeludium [BWV 557] -- J.S. Bach

Out and about on Sunday

This week I'll be back at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play for High Mass.  Here's what I have planned.

Rockingham -- C.H.H. Parry
Sonata -- Jose Lidon
Meditation -- Herbert Brewer
Triumph Song -- Alec Rowley

Out and about on Sunday

This week I'll be playing for High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  After the great festivities of last week's big services, there's almost an element of the Sunday after Easter about this week -- sort of basking in the retreating roar of a very intense few days of liturgical goings-on.

Here's what I have planned.

Voluntary for Double Organ -- Henry Purcell
Fantasia super Komm, Heiliger Geist [BWV 651] -- J.S. Bach
Adagio from Sonata I -- Felix Mendelssohn
Keltic March -- Alec Rowley

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be back at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  It's a high Sunday, as there is a special visit by a cardinal from overseas who will be confirming and celebrating High Mass.  This means there will be a fair crowd of people turning out both to support the confirmees and to see the visitor.

There is slightly more for the organ to do as a result, what with multiple vestings and de-vestings as an integral part of the ceremonial, plus covering movements of more than the usual number of processions.  The choir still gets the lion's share of the work.

Prelude

Adagio Triste from Sonata Cromatica — Pietro Yon

Andante con moto — Alexandre P.F. Boëly

Andante — Boëly

Andante con moto — Boëly

First procession

Marche Religieuse (Op. 176) — Gustav Merkel

Offertory

Fantasia super Komm Heiliger Geist [BWV 651] — J.S. Bach

Communion voluntary

Cantilene (Op. 29, No. 2) — Gabriel Pierné

Postlude

Keltic March — Alec Rowley

Grand Choeur — Theodore Dubois

We really don't ask enough of our politicians

Just a couple of weekend impressions with quick thoughts.

Christopher Pyne suggesting that at least students aren't yet being pressed to sell their organs to pay for their university courses.  Jaw-droppingly contemptible, coming from a university graduate who cruised through in the golden days of the pre-HECS era.  That's right folks, Pyne got his degree free of charge, which is why he's up for screwing the current generation to the floor as a measure of how greatly he values his own university education.  For my money he owes considerably more than a kidney.

Mathias Cormann pops up to say that if the government can't whittle down services then we'll just have to pay higher taxes.  That's fine by me: we get what we pay for.  By that measure the National/Liberal government is costing far too much for the ride we've had so far.  Time for another election so we can install a new administration that can offer better value for our progressive tax dollar.

Having said that, neither of the ALPs has seen fit to have a meaningful go at the low-hanging fruit in our tax system.  The Liberals have rolled back the Future of Financial Advice reforms, to which even the banks put up some token resistance.  The Medicare $7.00 payment is a big sticking point; the AMA proposal that a smaller fee actually go to the doctor suggests a problem in salaries for your neighbourhood GP.  Plus they've repealed the carbon tax/trading mechanism (call it what you will), which was generating revenue.  Oh, and the mining tax.  And they don't have the intestinal fortitude to take on boondoggles like negative gearing.  And they've pressed the Australian Tax Office to reduce its staff.  Labor was at least on the right track with the tax reform on corporate rental cars, but of course that went by the board with the loss of the election.

Someone argued last week that the Liberals have had trouble making the moral case for their budget. That would work if there was any discernible morality in the budget, of which there seems to be very little indeed.  We are poorly served by the current mob in a way that cannot be said of their predecessors.  They were elected without sufficient scrutiny, and all claims to the contrary have evaporated as soon as any pressure has been put on them.  The budget is a collection of talking points from secretive ideologically-driven bodies such as the IPA, which proves the lack of capacity to develop policy within the Liberal party, and the personal connection between Tony Abbot and the likes of a certain Herald-Sun-affiliated television talk show host suggests that morality might well be present, but not the sort one would bring to mixed company.  Looking at how things seem to work, alley cats come to mind.

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be playing for the Parish Eucharist at All Saints, Northcote.  Here's the organ music I have planned.

Intermezzo from Sonata VIII -- Josef Rheinberger
Voluntary -- Alec Rowley
Andante -- A.P.F. Boëly
Keltic March -- Alec Rowley

Out and about on Sunday

This week I have a double-dose of services at St Aloysius, Caulfield.

On Friday I will be playing for the evening High Mass for the feast of the Assumption.  Here's the organ music I have planned for that.

Ave Maria von Arcadelt -- Franz Liszt
Prelude au Salve Regina (Op. 7, No. 7) -- Joseph Bonnet
Cantilene (Op. 29, No. 2) -- Gabriel Pierne
Prelude -- Louis Niedermeyer

On Sunday I will be back to play for the regular parish High Mass.  Here's the organ music I have planned for Sunday.

Adagio Triste -- Pietro Yon
Allegro Ritmico -- William Walton
Chorale Dorien -- Jehan Alain
Lebhaft from Organ Sonata II -- Paul Hindemith

It's not the holy grail: it's just a very stupid policy

The Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, Professor Ian Young, spoke at the National Press Club yesterday, where among other things he described deregulation of the university sector as the 'holy grail.'  I think the sub-editor on the Guardian website is pushing things a little hard when they say Professor Young speaks for the whole of the Group of Eight universities.

Deregulation of the universities only makes sense if one sees them purely as businesses that receive government grants.  This would certainly be in line with the rather narrow and myopic brand of economic theory that has ruled the game in education policy over the last twenty-five years, a period in which the universities have received real cuts in funding each year.  That's since 1989, pretty much the lifetime of a middle-stage graduate student in 2014.

The reality is that the universities are not businesses.  They aren't even particularly creatures of the Federal Government, even though they have been funded via federal structures since the late-1950s.  The universities are eminently state institutions, and originate from the need for locally-trained surgeons, engineers, lawyers, school teachers, scientists, and thinkers that became very apparent from the middle of the nineteenth century.  All Australian universities exist as a result of legislation in the various state parliaments, and up to the period following 1945 they were funded directly by their state governments.  It was the government of Robert Menzies that changed how universities were funded (which had flow-on effects for how the post-1958 universities were founded) and it was the government in which Paul Keating was treasurer that capitalised on the earlier structural change in order to bring us ultimately to the present situation of thinking about universities as businesses.

The motivations for these changes is a study in contrasts.  Menzies wanted the universities to have a wider reach, and for the cultivation of advanced knowledge in order to give Australia a way to face the socio-economics of the future with a better chance of success.  The universities were a vital part of advancing the national economy.  Keating's rhetoric was cloaked in social responsibility, but had the paradoxical effects that are inherent to the Labor Party, which has become a political entity in (unenthusiastic) search of its class base.  Keating himself might well have been able to distinguish between an institution and a business, but that is a largely academic matter in the light of his economics.  It was he who began the progressive de-funding of the universities after the introduction of HECS in 1987, which continues to the present.

Now, if a university is a business then Professor Young is quite right to be questing for the holy grail of deregulation as an ultimate reform that would benefit the ANU.  Like any responsible executive he should be looking for ways for his company to differentiate itself from competitors in the market, and to find ways of delivering the product with the best return.  Professor Young favours freedom to set fees according to the university's priorities, and to enrol a smaller pool of students, which implies the ability to be more rigorous about entry scores.

This is a category error that rests on two problems.

Universities are public institutions.  Government at all levels depend on the capacity of the universities to turn out not only the professional people -- the doctors, lawyers, engineers, and so forth -- but also to develop the pool of policy specialists who land up working in the public service, and for the more unscrupulous, in the party apparatus.  There is a direct relationship in the decline of our national politics and the successive 'reform' of the universities to force them to seek funding from non-government sources (Dame Elizabeth Murdoch -- of blessed memory -- has her name on so many rooms and buildings in the University of Melbourne I'm surprised the University hasn't renamed itself) and to behave like private businesses.  It should come as no surprise that the Vice-Chancellor of the ANU thinks he's a Macquarie executive.

Standards is a perennial conversation in any university, almost as predictable as pseudo-sociological articles about Gen Y in the Fairfax press.  Of course every student starting in a degree is duller and more illiterate than those of the previous generation, according to the despairing souls charged with teaching them.  It's a predictable lament you'll hear from frustrated academics from one end of the country to the other -- possibly with one honourable exception.  However, in Australia we believe in meritocracy, which boils down to the assertion that if you can get yourself into Arts/Law at Monash, that is what you will do, no matter if you've never read all the way through a serious novel in your life and spent your VCE years focussing on maths and sciences because they get higher marks.

Universities have ended up compensating for the narrowness inherent in school education at the moment when the inherited structures for broadening students' experiences have been eroded -- I remember the palling effect of John Howard's gutting of student union fees, and the universities have been stuck picking up the tab ever since without any assistance from government.  Students come from narrow horizons in school to a university setting where whatever enrichment they receive is provided at net cost to the institution.  The upshot of this is that attrition rates can be very high in some disciplines, and that gaps inevitably need to be filled for students who have come with the assumption that university will simply continue the narrowing of horizons they've come to accept at school.  Standards are as much a question of attitude as academic capacity.

University policy is a complete mess, which becomes a vicious cycle of social irresponsibility when it meets with the vindictive tendencies of whichever party holds government.  I think it would be better to deregulate politics and trash the neoliberal duumvirate known as the ALP.  This would undoubtedly clear the electoral marketplace for a more diverse range of political products, some of which are probably terribly old-fashioned in terms of social and education policy.  But, you never know: they might be just what we need at the moment, and it may not be a moment too soon.

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be playing for High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield.

Here's the organ music I have planned.

Priere -- Louis Niedermeyer
Voluntary -- Alec Rowley
Rhosymedre -- Ralph Vaughan Williams
Marche Religieuse -- Gustav Merkel

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will playing for High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  Here is the organ music I have planned.

Intermezzo from Sonata VIII -- Josef Rheinberger
Fughetta from Sonatine (Op 14, No 3) -- Sigfrid Karg-Elert
Choral Cistercien -- Jehan Alain
Prelude pour Orgue -- Louis Neidermeyer

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will be playing at St Aloysius, Caulfield, for High Mass.  Here's the organ music I have planned.

Adagio Triste from Sonata Cromatica -- Pietro Yon
O Lux Beata Trinitas -- J.P. Sweelinck
Chorale Dorien -- Jehan Alain
Prelude and Fugue in F -- J.S. Bach

Out and about on Sunday

This week I'm back at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play for High Mass.  Here's the music I have planned.

Andante con moto -- A.P.F. Boëly

Canzona [BuxWV 172] -- Dietrich Buxtehude

Molto Tranquillo -- Guy Ropartz

Ciacona [BuxWV 160] -- Dietrich Buxtehude

Out and about on Sunday

This weekend started out looking like rara avis, a free Sunday.  But things often happen to keep that particular bird well-caged; this time it was a locum organist having a gardening accident, bringing about the need to find a locum for the locum.  Which is where I come in.

This week I'll be playing at St Stephen's, Richmond.  Here's the organ music I've cobbled together at relatively short notice.

Larghetto and Andante con moto -- A.P.F. Boëly
Praeludium [BuxWV 139] -- Dietrich Buxtehude

Think about how lucky we are

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  Here is the organ music I have planned.

Cantique -- Edward Elgar
Molto tranquillo -- Guy Ropartz
Intermezzo from Sonata VIII (Op 132) -- Josef Rheinberger
Agnus Dei -- Frank Martin

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be playing at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  Here is the organ music I have planned.

Gloria tibi Trinitas -- Samuel Scheidt
La Rejoissance -- G.F. Handel
Senza rigore -- Charles Tournemire
Sortie -- Louis Lefébure-Wely

Out and about on Sunday

This week I will be playing for High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  Here's the organ music I have planned.

Andante -- Alexandre Pierre François BoëlyVeni Creator -- Samuel Scheidt
Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott [BuxWV 199] -- Dietrich Buxtehude
March -- Louis Lefébure-Wely

Christopher Pyne is a dangerous fantasist

Mr Pyne told Insiders universities who hit students with excessive fees would be priced out of the market. “If universities think they can get away with charging exorbitant fees I think you’ll find that they’ll face very intense competition,” he said. “For example in Melbourne, if Melbourne University thinks they can charge ‘x amount’ for a university degree, Monash, Latrobe, [or] Deakin - others will compete with them on price, forcing prices down.” Mr Pyne said it was too early to be speculating about specific fee changes. [ABC]

Christopher Pyne has been one of the loudest voices in federal government since last September. His sound is by turns triumphalist and neurotic. As with certain other members of the cabinet it is now clear that the official title of his portfolio is a shabby misrepresentation. He shouldn’t simply resign. He should be tarred and feathered by his own constituents, dragged through the streets of Adelaide and dumped from a great height into the deepest bend of the Torrens at low tide. Then a very patient person from any university should sit with him and explain the tortuous process involved for getting a research grant in this country, including all the political dodging one must do to ensure the likes of Pyne don’t get all uppity at the notion of research projects that might challenge his very narrow worldview. If he understands before the tide rises, then he can be released, otherwise he can test his market principles according to the method of King Canute.

If anyone in Canberra geniunely believes the neoliberal fantasy that universities will compete on price, then I have a bridge to sell. Dead cheap.

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will be playing at St Aloysius, Caulfield.

Here is the organ music I have planned.

Ricercare — Johann Pachelbel
Toccata — Johann Pachelbel
Toccata — Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Toccata — Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will be at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play the organ and lead the Newman Singers for High Mass.

Here's the music for the choir.

Mass I

Bone Pastor -- Thomas Tallis
O Sacrum Convivium -- Giovanni Croce

And here is the organ music I have planned.

Adagio from Sonata I -- Felix Mendelssohn
Air and Gavotte -- Samuel Wesley
Andante Tranquillo -- Peter Warlock
Fugue -- S.S. Wesley

Out and about on Saturday

Saturday promises to be a big day of music-making.

In the morning I will be playing for High Mass at St Aloysius, Caulfield, for the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians.

Here's the organ music I have planned for the service.

Cantilena — Marcel Dupre
Ave Maris Stella — Marcel Dupre
Nigra sum, sed formosa — Marcel Dupre
Fugue — S.S. Wesley

In the afternoon I will be conducting a piece in the Australian Youth Choir winter concert.  This is a bit of a milestone in the choir's year, given that for the newest choristers it is often their very first time on stage.  Coming to sing in the concert is a big step in their life as choir members.

Out and about on Sunday

This week I'll be playing at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  Here's the organ music I have planned.

Andante -- A.P.F. Boëly
Voluntary -- John Stanley
Aria -- Alessandro Stradella
Choral Song -- S.S. Wesley

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I'll be playing at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  Here's the music I have planned.

Melody -- Fritz Hart
Voluntary -- John Stanley
Chorale -- Alan Tregaskis
Processional -- William Mathias

Out and about on Sunday

This week I'm back at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  There is a sense of things coming back to normal (well, a liturgical kind of normal!) after the demands of the last few weeks.  Here's the organ music I have planned.

Fantasia -- Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Variations -- J.P. Sweelinck
Andante -- A.P.F. Boëly
Andante con moto -- A.P.F. Boëly

Worth hearing

Out and about on ANZAC day

Tomorrow I will be playing at St Aloysius, Caulfield, for High Mass on the Friday in the Octave of Easter.  It's a particularly special day, as the parish will be reaching one of the milestones in its establishment as a personal parish, with the installation of Fr Glen Tattersall as parish priest.

Here's the organ music I have planned.

Andante (Op. 18, No. 2) — Alexandre Pierre François Boëly
Theme and Variation (from Op. 58) — Flor Peeters
Forlana — Gerald Finzi
Andante con moto (Op. 18, No. 5) — A.P.F. Boëly
Fantasie et Fugue (Op. 18, No. 6) — A.P.F. Boëly

Out and about on (Saturday and) Sunday

Just when I thought I'd caught up on the sleep deprivation and begun to feel normal again, it's the weekend again.

This is a big weekend, with engagements from Friday to Sunday.  Friday's music will be detailed elsewhere.

On Saturday night I'll be playing for the vigil mass at St Mary's, West Melbourne, where I've not been for a little while.  Other sources of busy-ness have intervened with my regular Saturday there, so it will be nice to return to the Fincham there.

On Sunday I will be back at St Aloysius, Caulfield, to play the organ and lead the Newman Singers.  Music for High Mass will include a setting by R.R. Terry, and motets by William Boyce and Edward Elgar.

Organ music will be as follows:

Forlana -- Gerald Finzi
Voluntary -- William Boyce

Moderato -- Edward Elgar
Fantasie et Fugue (Op. 18, No. 6) — A.P.F. Boëly

Out and about the weekend just past: Χριστος ἀνεστη

Holy Week and Easter are always very busy times for me.  It seems like I've traveled a great deal since Palm Sunday, when I played at Holy Trinity, Port Melbourne.

Last Thursday I went up to the Cistercians at Tarrwarra Abbey, where I played the organ for their Triduum liturgies.  This is the second year I've been there for the great three days.  One of the liberating things is being able to walk in without being expected to contribute to assembling the musical structure of the services beyond organ music at the appropriate moments.

There is a givenness about monastic liturgy that one only encounters in cathedrals and those rare parishes where custom hasn't ossified into habitual rigidity or narrow aestheticism.  I think that givenness derives from the rhythm of the house: so many people go to church for eucharistic liturgies and would be surprised to discover that this is only one part of what goes on.  I suppose years of singing or playing at Evensong tends to shape one's consciousness of the daily office.  Staying in the guesthouse is an opportunity to be part of the daily office with the monks, which provides a much richer background for the big services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

At Tarrwarra the Easter vigil takes place just after the usual time for the office of Vigils, and runs from 4.30am till just after 6.30am.  Until I went up to Tarrawarra last year I had always experienced the Easter vigil as a night service, but now have to admit that that makes less sense on reflection.  Waiting until nightfall on Holy Saturday is all well and good, but a lot of the imagery of the Easter liturgy is about the breaking in of the light, new dawn, rising anew and so forth.  While there is a certain amount of urgency about these images at night time, I think this particular once-a-year liturgy really stops you in your tracks when the dawn breaks as the experience unfolds.  Maybe that's how it's meant to be.

One of the beautiful things about the dawn vigil at Tarrawarra is hearing the magpies wake during the readings and to hear their singing intensify as the dawn breaks, and then to hear the wheeze of hot air balloons passing overhead once the sun is up.  The blend of a slow-rolling liturgy carried out with all the trimmings in a thickening haze of incense with these ambient sounds is one of those moments of poetry in motion.

One of the traditions at Tarrawarra is opening up the fireplaces in the guesthouse so that the first fires for the winter season can be lit on Easter Sunday.  This is one of the highlights of the day, along with the festal breakfast and meeting with many people who come up for Easter who form a sort of community-of-the-community beyond the monks and their near neighbours.  The flow from liturgy to breakfast is absolutely continuous: both begin with the kindling of new fires.  We are drawn to the light and comforted by the warmth, and together we share in the story and make a feast.

After the labours of the early morning, I took to the roads and made my way to St Aloysius, Caulfield.  The Newman Singers were scheduled to sing for the 10.30am Pontifical Solemn Mass, another slow-rolling liturgy with incense and all the trimmings of the traditional Latin Mass, which has a certain givenness about it.  This was the last of the series of big liturgies for the weekend, and the vigil had been held in the night before.  Quite a few people were a bit bemused that this was my second shift for the day, and then mildly horrified to discover how far I'd driven and when I'd woken up.

The mass setting was Joseph Haydn's Missa Brevis Sancti Ioanni de Deo, for which we had strings.  The parish has a very strong musical tradition of chant and polyphony, but no real exposure to much beyond a cappella vocal music in the liturgy.  This week there was the full dose of choir plus organ, choir plus organ and strings, and organ plus strings.  Other music included some of Mozart's Church Sonatas, one of which kept me at work on the piano during the days at Tarrawarra.  Many people responded very positively to the music, with a lot of comments about how the Haydn expressed a really high joy for Easter.

I eventually arrived home one hour short of four days after leaving and took to bed.  Easter Monday was fairly quiet, and Easter Tuesday brought a little more energy.  A few more days and it will be time to start thinking about Christmas...

Worth hearing

Worth hearing

Worth hearing

Out and about on Sunday

This Sunday I will be playing at All Saints, Northcote.

Here's the music I have planned.

Grave e serioso and Allegro from Sonatina II (Op. 38, No. 2) -- August Reinhard
Andante con moto (Op. 18, No. 5) — Alexandre Pierre François Boëly
Andante (Op. 18, No. 1) — Alexandre Pierre François Boëly

Worth hearing

Rara Avis

This Sunday I have a morning off.  Which makes a nice change -- it's not completely unpleasant to have the choice between staying home and going to attempt anonymity in a parish with passable music.  Still, it qualifies as a rare bird.

In the afternoon I will be leading a new group, the Newman Singers, in their first regular service at St Aloysius, Caulfield.  This will be Vespers and Benediction, marking the weekend's celebrations at the establishment of the personal parish for the Latin Mass community there.

The music for the service is mostly plainsong, will probably mostly be supported by the organ, and will include organ pieces and improvisations.

Organ music for Annunciation day

Tomorrow night I will be playing for the evening High Mass for the feast of the Annunciation at St Aloysius.  Being Lent, this is one of the few breaks in the season where the organ makes an appearance.

Here's the music I have planned.

Prelude: Andante con moto (Op. 18, No. 5) -- A.P.F. Boëly
Offertory: Canon perpetuel (Op. 18, No. 3) -- A.P.F. Boëly
Communion: Ave Maria after Arcadelt -- Franz Liszt
Postlude: Coronation March from Le Prophete -- Giacomo Meyerbeer

Worth hearing

Out and about on Sunday

This week I am playing at All Saints, Northcote.

Here's the organ music I have planned.

Canon perpetuel (Op. 18, No. 3) -- A.P.F. Boëly
Andante con moto (Op. 18, No. 5) -- A.P.F. Boëly
Christus, der uns selig macht [BWV 620] -- J.S. Bach