porch swings, a wedding, Howells, and Byrd

Because of concerts and rehearsals for them, I was at the church late on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and did not get enough sleep. Monday was a day off, but it was filled with errands -- though I did manage to get a nap in the afternoon. Tuesday was election day, which meant I was working at the polling place. This is Good Work, both a pleasure and a civic duty, but it is a long day: appear at the polling place by 6 a.m., finish the day around 11 p.m. After four and a half hours of sleep, I was up early again this morning to cycle in for Matins.

I am tired, which has slowed me down this morning. Still, it is now afternoon, and I have done very little. Greeting me in the e-mail was information about my niece's wedding later this summer in Nashville. I decided that I do not want to pay $115 a night (plus tax, tips, etc.) to stay in the hotel (a discount from the regular rate of $250, but still far out of my league), so I sought other options, poring over motel reviews on the internet. I found a very good place for my first night, when I will be driving in from the midwest: a well-reviewed motel in Clarksville that caters to military families for just over $40 (including tax). But that is still about an hour from the wedding site; I needed something closer for the next two nights. I found it: a well-regarded family campground not far north of Nashville. It is mostly an RV site, but they have some little and modestly priced rustic cabins. I would be happier in my tent, but it is a wedding, and I should make an effort to appear halfway civilized and clean. It is possible to do that while living in a tent, but not easy.

It was a delight to talk on the phone with the young lady at the RV park. Her cheerful Tennessee drawl made me ache with homesickness for the South and the hill country. She told me of the free bluegrass music at the pavilion the first night of my stay; no, I will be at the rehearsal dinner. I saw the pictures of the rustic little cabins, complete with porch swing out front. I want to just go and sit on such a swing, with bluegrass music not far away, in a Tennessee summer evening. Maybe they will still be pickin' when I get back after the dinner.

Or there are other options: they run a shuttle on Saturday evening to the Grand Ol' Opry, which (since the flood) is back in their historic venue, the Ryman Auditorium, with discounted tickets for campground guests. I would love to take in a show, but it is at the same time as the wedding reception. "Duty, Cassie. Duty." I would not be going to Nashville at all were it not for the wedding. This time belongs to my family, not me.

Luxury hotels are not for me. Lavish weddings are not for me, not even when it is the wedding of the young lady whom I love as a daughter, my only niece. Porch swings in a Tennessee summer evening? Yes, that is more like it.


But so is Music. Having lots of hours at the church last week -- it was the second-most hours on duty in one week this year, almost as many as Holy Week -- I dove into the selection of Anthems for the year. This is work which benefits from concentrated attention, and almost impossible for me during the program year, so I was grateful for the opportunity to get it done in one week. It is as close as I ever come to grasping the whole Story -- the year's liturgical cycle, all at once.

There are some moments that should be good. We will make another try at Lynn Trapp's setting of "In the cycle of the seasons" for Christ the King, Nov. 21, where it is a perfect fit to the propers. One of our own parish composers is writing a new set of Preces & Responses for Evensong, and we are going to attempt the Howells "St. John's, Cambridge" evening canticles. I was pleasantly surprised to see that, almost without realizing it, we have eight settings of the evening canticles in our repertoire; Howells will make it nine, if we can manage it. We are going to repeat Bruckner's "Virga Jesse floruit" on Advent II, Dec. 5. I am going to make another try for the Canonic Variations of JSB in alternation with the singing of "Vom Himmel hoch" at Evensong on January 2 -- it was scheduled for last January's Evensong, but the organ was still in storage. On Last Epiphany, March 6, we will attempt Purcell's "O God, thou art my God," with its Alleluias that were later arranged into the tune "Westminster Abbey." We will do RVW's "Easter Hymn" at the Great Vigil.

In some respects, selecting music is like looking closely at a little wildflower in the grass, beautiful and perfect -- and then looking up to see a meadow filled with them. I wanted a setting of the Agnus Dei for Epiphany II, January 16 (St. John the Baptist says "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.") The Choral Public Domain Library has about six hundred settings of the Mass. Six hundred! How can anyone choose just one? (oh, for a parish where the Ordinary of the Mass is sung by choir every Sunday!) I settled on the Agnus Dei from Wm. Byrd's Mass for Three Voices, which will require quite a bit of rehearsal through the fall. Worthwhile rehearsal, that will be; the setting is as perfect as anything I know.

At the furthest reach of my plans: Oct. 23, 2011 - "Lord, thou hast been our refuge" (RVW), with the Youth Choir doing the semichorus part. This will be unorthodox, but I believe that RVW, practical musician that he was, would approve. The young people will sing the lines "The years of our life are threescore years and ten..." to the adults; I get chills imagining it, and contemplating a whole semester of living with Psalm 90 and this magnificent music alongside the young people. Singing it will teach them the Psalm more thoroughly than any words could do.

That is followed the next week with "At the round earth's imagin'd corners" (Lee Hoiby), and the following Sunday with the spiritual "Ain'-a that good news" in William Dawson's arrangement, and for Nov. 13, the old Friends song "How can I keep from singing?" I cannot find an arrangement of this that I like, so we will sing it from a hymnal version and I will probably improvise a piano accompaniment.

It was with this that I finished the planning work, for now:

"My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth's lamentation,
I hear the sweet, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul,
How can I keep from singing?"