Music for Sunday

Here is the music I have planned for Sunday morning at Christ Church, Brunswick:

Andante and Andante con Moto from Sonata V -- Felix Mendelssohn
Praeludium -- Johann Christoph Kellner

The parish choir will be resuming, and the communion anthem will be It was to older folk -- John Bell

At 7.00pm there will be a special evensong for the commemoration of Charles I. This includes a major address, which is being given this year by Peter Sherlock, vice-chancellor of the University of Divinity.

There will be an augmented choir for the occasion, and the music will be as follows:

Evening Service in C -- C.V. Stanford
O Thou the Central Orb -- Charles Wood
Preces and Responses -- Plainsong
Psalm 85 set by S.S. Wesley

Australia Day thoughts

Why is the Anglo-Celtic identity not considered ethnic?

I've grown up hearing various white-faced folk declaring various degrees of warmth or chilliness to what they call 'ethnics.' At school it was the kids who had caught the semi-white supremacism of the Pauline Hanson moment. I've also heard it on the lips of older people, usually referring to their Italian, Greek, French or Spanish-speaking neighbours. In church circles, 'ethnic' is often the nice euphemism for talking about a congregation that meets at some time other than the main Sunday service where English is not spoken.
Out in society at large, 'ethnic' has moved on from the old signification of asian people, who have been overtaken as a significant Other by different cultural groups, mostly Islamic. White Australian society seems to spend a lot of its public discourse finding a cultural Other against which to identify itself, never once thinking that it is itself an ethnic cultural identity. We are all foreigners, eventually.

The big gongs should be trashed

Reinstating knighthoods into the Order of Australia was Tony Abbott's step through the looking glass. The whole notion of orders of chivalry is risible. But giving one to Prince Philip simply beggars belief. I think there is a strong argument for throwing out the whole honours system as it stands, and starting again by remembering the reasons why the attempt to create an Australian peerage didn't work the first time round.

Reconciliation starts with justice

Constitutional recognition of the indigenous heritage of Australia is probably not going to work out on Tony Abbott's watch. This is a very frustrating and humiliating place for our society to be. Tony Abbott and his colleagues are too invested in the cultural conflict over land rights and pre-European history that the Liberal Party has cultivated over the last 20 years. The current government lacks the cultural vision and the moral centre to do anything more than an empty symbolic gesture. Doing that would be worse than doing nothing.

Here is a better start to the conversation:

In memory of Marcus Borg

Second prize-winners of the world: unite!

Stephen Fry's latest volume of memoirs is proving an entertaining read, even the lengthy chapter re-telling much of the previous two books offers some new sidelights. However, as a perpetual second-placer in every competition I've entered, here's an encouraging nugget:

I once judged a reading competition at Harrow School...I awarded one of the schoolboys, who went by the exotic name of Benedict Cumberbatch, second prize. Second. I cannot remember the name of the boy who won first, but I hope he will suddenly burst on to the acting scene, blow Benedict out of the water and finally vindicate my judgement. Something tells me that the contingency is a remote one, and I shall continue to look upon myself as the fisherman who let the big one go.

More Fool Me (Penguin: London, 2014), 119

Music for the Australia Day weekend

This weekend is the end of the summer holidays. Next week brings the return of the school term, and the slow arrival of ordinary routines.

This is the weekend where I usually break out the Australian organ repertoire, so here is what I have planned.

Melody -- Fritz Hart
Chorale -- Alan Tregaskis
Handel in the Strand -- Percy Grainger

Music for Sunday

Here is the organ music I have planned for Christ Church, Brunswick, this Sunday.

Christe redemptor omnium -- C.H.H. Parry
Praeludium -- J.C. Kellner

Music for Sunday

This week is the Baptism of Christ. Here is the organ music I have planned for the day.

Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam [BWV 684] -- J.S. Bach
Sinfonia from Solomon -- G.F. Handel

Happy New Year