a day of preparation

2:00 am – I awaken in my bed; what is my postlude for tonight? I have been so focused on bulletins, then Sunday, then the funeral, and the Canonic Variations, and more bulletins yesterday afternoon, that I have not worked on my postlude for Midnight Mass. I cannot so much as recall what I have planned.

7:45 am – Fifteen minutes late for Matins: I overslept. I sit in the back row of the dark church: Psalm 45, of the beauty of our great King, “the fairest of men... all [his] garments fragrant with myrrh, aloes, and cassia.” Isaiah 35, where I read that “then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” And best of all, the final verses of the Bible:

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.... (Revelation 22:17)

For the last time, I pray the beautiful collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and the other Collects of Matins.

I look at the Midnight Mass bulletin; no wonder I could not recall my postlude. None is listed. I wish I could get away with that.

9:00 am – Needing to work, I am sidetracked by e-mail. There are important things: an e-card from a beloved college friend in England, to which I respond all too briefly; I have not heard from her for several years. And an e-mail with an Appalachian song from Fr. Tim, up north in Alberta; I listen to the fine old Doc Watson song with delight. And a notice of the sixteenth birthday of Emmanuel, who sang beside me at RSCM this summer. That takes me to Facebook, where I send him my good wishes, and respond to several other people whom I should not have so long neglected. One is, most surprisingly, newlywed; I convey my good wishes. There are work e-mails also; questions about tonight which need prompt responses. I am welcoming two former choristers to the Youth Choir tonight; I hope that the others, who have worked so hard this fall, will not mind these interlopers. I hope rather that they will enjoy singing with them again. Then, one more bulletin.

10:30 am – Finally, up to the organ. Less than six hours remain to the preservice youth choir rehearsal. I have not yet gone over the hymns for either service (to say nothing of tomorrow morning!), and there is that postlude, plus a difficult anthem accompaniment for the Midnight Mass. But I must start with the Canonic Variations; they still need a lot of work.

2:00 pm – Three hours on the Variations, and they are sufficiently prepared to lay aside. I have a simple solution for the postlude: I will repeat the Third Variation, the one which takes the chorale tune in various sorts of canon, turning it upside down against itself, and finishing with four measures in which he does all four phrases of the chorale at once in stretto. There are reasons peculiar to the history of this work that make it less of a shameless cop-out; were I attending rather than playing, I would be happy to hear the Third Variation again.

3:30 pm – Having eaten Dinner, it is showtime. Pageant participants are due by 4:00, choristers at 4:15, liturgy at 5:00.

(To be continued...)