Three in the morning

It was no use trying to slip out of church quietly and unnoticed this morning. Of course the choir has known I was going for over a week, so there was no problem there, but after communion, the associate pastor (who'd been the celebrant at the 11) told the whole parish during announcements, made me stand up so they could see me, and then had them all applaud. Then I had to put up with all these people talking to me after Mass. I hate that! I have to kick myself and keep reminding myself to smile and nod and say thank you, and not flee and hide somewhere.

After dinner tonight, we went out to Rhema Bible College to walk around and look at their Christmas lights. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures, but I only got one....I think the camera batteries are dying.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all!

It's been a lovely day. I got lots of nice presents and everyone seemed happy and in good humor today.

Midnight Mass went well last night. The music was not terribly original, but at least it was acceptable. The choral prelude included "Of the Father's Love Begotten" with handbells, an instrumental piece with string ensemble and oboe called "Gabriel's Oboe" by Ennio Moricone, Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria," the Harold Darke version of "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" (I prefer Gustav Holst's version), and Leontovich's "Carol of the Bells." During Mass we did Vittoria's "O Magnum Mysterium" for the offertory and John Rutter's "What Sweeter Music" for communion. One of the nicest things about not being Southern Baptist is that one of the priests gave me a bottle of champagne last night after Mass. Above is a picture of the church last night from the organ loft.

This morning I got to sleep in, since I didn't have to do the Christmas morning Mass for a change. It's getting late, so I should away to bed. Tomorrow is Boxing Day, so all the servants will be gone. ;-)

There's a pine cone on my tree

Bought the last of my Christmas presents today. I was going to wrap them tonight, but I discovered that Tony used up all the Scotch tape this afternoon and didn't replace the roll. Now I have to try to find some more. I was going to cave in and get him a present, but I haven't decided yet. I wanted to get him a new violin, but the one I like is $7,000, and that's not in the budget this year what with the move to Washington next week. He's making the argument for "Christmas is a secular holiday these days" just to get presents, and I find that argument (not just from him, but everybody else, too) to be rather offensive. Why don't the non-Christians secularize Hannukah? Then they could have eight days' worth of presents!

Bedtime

Heard a church's Messiah today. When I get old, I want all my friends to make a point to tell me when I'm no longer able to sing in public.

Public trees

As I worry about finishing Christmas cards and Christmas shopping this morning, I see all the news about the atheists who are objecting to municipal Christmas trees ("holiday" trees?). The blogs and newsgroups are full of angry Christians responding to that news. I'm always so amused when the Christians defend so vehemently the customs and traditions of those well-known tree worshippers, the Druids. Don't they know that during the Puritan period, Christmas trees were prohibited to Christians?

At the same time, when the non-Christians object to public displays of Christian nativity scenes, Jewish menorrahs, pagan Yule logs, and Druidic trees, why do they not object to having a free, paid holiday from work, which the federal, state, and local governments all call "Christmas Day"? No one sues to stop that.

My Tony is attempting to reject the Christianity of his upbringing, being the typical educated, liberal philosopher who finds all Christian mythology and tradition to be total bunk, and he's always asking me questions like "how can you profess to be intelligent and still go to church every week?" So, I've made a point to take him shopping with me while I buy expensive presents for all of my/our friends and family, and even though he's hinted not-so-subtly as to what he wants for Christmas (let no one say Tony has frugal tastes!), I've told him that since he's not a Christian, I'm not going to insult him by imposing my religious beliefs on him by giving him a Christmas present. I guess if he goes to Mass with me on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (I want him to turn pages for me on Christmas morning, but he's not inclined to wake up that early!), I'll give him a present, but otherwise, I'm not going to force my religion on him.

Ho ho ho.

Sight reading

I was annoyed at church this morning. I usually slip in right after the offertory during the 9:30 Mass to play the last half of the service, allowing the organist/choirmaster to go rehearse the gallery choir in preparation for the 11:00 Mass. Well, this morning, I was just about to play the Agnus Dei and the organist came over with major handwritten changes to the accompaniment to accommodate the guitarist playing along. I always like sight reading manuscript and notation I can't read in front of 300 people.

Sunday

I hate contemporary Catholic music! I had to play contemporary trash hymns at the 9:30 yesterday, and the printed accompaniments made me feel like a frickin' cocktail lounge pianist. Where is the grace, the elegance, the musicality in modern Catholic worship? What's worse, the hymnal is so convoluted, the average parishioner can't follow the "new" hymns, so they just don't sing.

The 11 o'clock was better. We sang some anthem from Handel's Judas Maccabeus for the offertory and a strange little arrangement of the men singing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" against the women singing "Let All Mortal Flesh" for communion. Seems like we're getting a little "Emmanuel" overdose this Advent, since the Mass setting is all tunes taken from that hymn. Oh, well.

Wake me up soon

Yesterday was Advent 1, so we changed Mass settings. Yay—we're doing the same new one at both of the services I do, so I don't have to learn multiple pieces. We're doing Richard Proulx's Missa Emmanuel, which is putting everything to chant taken from "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." Pretty straightforward. Except for the Agnus Dei, which has an atonal accompaniment that I'm sure made the congregation wonder why they are paying me.

I've already forgotten what we did as the anthem at the 11. Some weird chant thing with handbells.

Evensong tonight

Tony and I are just in from Evensong at Trinity Episcopal. The Tulsa Boy Singers, who rehearse at Trinity, served as the choir tonight. They did Martin Neary's Preces and Responses and Herbert Sumison's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G. The anthem was "If Thou Love," by Stephen Tappe, organist/choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness in Denver, formerly of Trinity. The officiant was the rector's wife, who happens to be a trained opera singer who was in the choir at the wedding of TRH the Prince and Princess of Wales. Following Evensong, the parish hosted a birthday party cocktail reception for Saint C.S. Lewis, whose birthday is on the morrow. I drank too much wine.

Drunk again at church

Today is Christ the King Sunday, so we were a bit festive at Mass this morning, what with it being the patronal festival and all. The choir was joined by a professional brass quintet with typani to good effect. They played an extended prelude, with an interestingly slow version of Sine Nomine arranged for brass quintet, then they were joined by the organist to play Eugene Gigout's "Grande Choer Dialogue." The choral offertory was Witherope's "Look Ye Saints! The Sight Is Glorious." For communion, the brass did an arrangement of the hymn tune Crimond, then the choir sang the "Agnus Dei" from Paul Basler's Missa Kenya, accompanied by fluegal horn. The postlude was organ and brass playing Vaclav Nelhybel's Concertato: All Creatures of Our God and King. After Mass, they had champagne brunch in the parish hall.

Tony was up and dressed when I got home and wanted to go eat, so we landed at the Palace Cafe for a couple of bloody Marys, then we decided to eat. We converted to mimosas when the food arrived.

Assuming we don't fall asleep beforehand, we're planning to go to Evensong at Trinity Episcopal this afternoon at five to hear the Tulsa Boy Singers. Tomorrow is Saint C.S. Lewis's birthday, so they are planning a cocktail reception and birthday cake after Evensong in honor of St. C.S.

You know, one of the oddest things about getting to be over 40 is that I still get drunk just as much as ever, but now I always do it at church!

Wesleys

Whatever is offered to God should be as faultless as man can make it. Music should not be compelled to bring her worst gift to the altar!

—Samuel Sebastian Wesley

I always like that quote on Sundays when I've sung in a contemporary Catholic church. :-)

Samuel Sebastian Wesley isn't the Wesley, you know, the John Wesley who was the Anglican priest who founded Methodism, which led to the Methodist Church in the United States, or even John's brother Charles, who was the prolific hymn writer, but rather he is Charles's son Samuel's bastard child with the housekeeper!

This morning was odd. I played the last half of the 9:30 and sang the 11, and my playing at 9:30 and the organist's playing at the 11 were both unusually sloppy! Musta been the weather. Anyway, the choir had James Mulholland Day. Both anthems were hymns tunes he'd arranged into performance pieces, with "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" at the offertory and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" at communion. I thought the choir sounded good today, though, even with only two tenors this morning.

Hiccup....A-men!

Is it holyer to get drunk at church than other places?

I'm just in from Evensong at Trinity Episcopal downtown, and as always, they had wine and cheese in the parish hall after the service. In fact, they had a lot more than just wine and cheese tonight, with some yummy canapes of pate and pesto on small sourdough slices, new potato halves scooped out and filled with bacon, herbs, tomato, sour cream, and two cheeses, lots of fresh fruit and crudites (including some steamed sugar snap peas!), and I think some cookies, brownies, and other sweets. The white wine was a surprisingly good Gallo Sonoma Valley "white wine" and the red was a Tinfield Hall cabernet, which I'd never seen or tasted before.

Evensong was charming as always. The choir is so good there. I miss singing with them. They did the Stanford Mag and Nunc in C, Gerre Hancock's Preces and Responses, John Barnard's Psalm 34, Thomas Matthews' "Souls of the Righteous" for an introit and then for the anthems at the end of the office they did the Randall Thompson "Alleluia" and the Faure "Cantique de Jean Racine." Casey Cantwell, the organist, did a fabulous improvisation for the recessional. I was kind of surprised that he opted to play the accompaniment to the Faure on the piano, rather than using the organ (it's only 83 ranks, so I can't imagine using that little toy! ;-) ).

At Christ the King this morning, we did the Lacrymosa from the Mozart Requiem for the offertory and Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring for communion, with one of the high school boys from Cascia Hall accompanying both anthems on his violin. He also played Bach's Double Concerto for the prelude. The kid is only 15, but he's phenonmenally good for a high school violinist. I had a hard time tuning the choir during warm ups this morning. Must be the weather. I noticed the reeds on the organ sounded a little whanky today, too. Mass went well, and the sermon was short, which is always the case with Fr. Bill, who I like a lot, and who also happens to be a math professor at TU.

Trick or treat

This morning was an easy, one-anthem Sunday. I wore black wool trousers, a black cotton cardigan, a white shirt, and my black and white spider and skull Halloween tie, and carried (out of necessity!) my black umbrella. I'm still wearing it! I was probably the only person handing out candy tonight in a tie. Back to church.....we sang Durufle's "Ubi Caritas" for the offertory and the organist did an improvisation on that during communion. All Saints' is tomorrow, and we aren't doing a high Mass. That's a bit of a surprise, cause I think that all of the holy days of obligation should have a proper sung Mass. I'd like to go to Trinity tomorrow night, but I have to teach tomorrow night. Alas.

En Français

Mass was annoying this morning. The assistant priest was going it alone this morning and had his usual too-long sermon (sometimes I think he thinks he's at a Baptist church!) at the 9:30, which delayed the organist/choirmaster getting into rehearsal even longer than usual. Meanwhile whilst I hold down the fort, I was having to find the music to rehearse, since no one had bothered to put today's music into my folder. Hymns were ok....more of the old standard Protestant tunes with weird Catholic words....and we did Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine for the offertory and John Rutter's God Be in My Head for communion. I was busy reviewing my French for the anthem during the sermon, so I can't comment on the quality of the priest's long chat. :-)

Emergence

Yea! Finally done with the Butterfly run. Sold out house this afternoon, standing ovation (of course), and Cio Cio San and Pinkerton both interpolated extra high notes.

Church went ok this morning. We did the Slumber Snot Song ("He watching over Israel" from Mendelssohn's Elijah) for the offertory and the Byrd "Ave Verum Corpus" during communion. The hymns were all easy....my only complication was that the descant on the processional was on another page from the accompaniment music.

Ennui

I needed to practice today, but by the time I got in the mood to go, it was going to put me right on top of confessions and the vigil Mass, so I decided to punt. I don't know what I have to play tomorrow morning. Twill be an adventure.

Welcome to The Sensible Christian!

I'm just a common, simple Indian living in the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma (yes, we have indoor plumbing, and no, we don't live in a teepee).  A long time ago, my ancestors—Kickapoos, Pottawattomies, Seminoles, and Wyandottes—were evangelized by Anglican and Catholic missionaries, and most of them ended up Anglican/Episcopalian, though some are Catholic and some (like me) are caught in the middle.

I've always gone to church.  I can't ever remember a time when we didn't go.  Since I was about six- or seven-years-old, I've sung in church choirs, and right now, I'm a professional cantor (think worship leader or music minister) and assistant organist for a major Catholic church here in Tulsa when I'm not doing my regular day job as a college professor or my other part-time job as an opera singer.  I've also sung professionally for several Episcopal churches and cathedrals, and I've even sung for high holy days services for a Jewish temple.

My favorite class to teach is ancient and medieval humanities, and unlike many of my colleagues who teach it as an art history course, I prefer to base the study around the development and evolution of religion.  It seems to me that all of the arts—painting, sculpture, music, literature, dance, philosophy, architecture, law—evolved to support and to respond to religion.  In order to understand modern Western society, we have to understand our history and how we got to where we are today.

I used to think I wanted to be a minister.  There was a little problem, though.  While I certainly believe in God or a "supreme being," I don't agree 100% with denominational religion.  Denominations and churches have a problem with that.  Maybe I've just studied and learned too much about our history and religious/cultural evolution, but I just can't buy the official party line of the various denominations without a lot of asterisks.

Most every major world religion has some good points, ideas, and concepts.  Within Christianity, most denominations have some nice thoughts and traditions.  I would never be so arrogant, though, to assert that my denomination or my personal thoughts are the correct and only answer as to the Mystery that is God.  That doesn't make me any less a Christian or any less a believer in God; I just happen to prefer to think for myself.

Now, those of you who are Evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestants should be forewarned:  I do not think the Bible is a fixed, static, personally-dictated-by-God-to-King-James piece of literature.  I believe that it cannot be taken strictly and literally, that the Bible has a lot of instances where it contradicts itself, and that the historical record shows how various parts of the Bible were written or amended for then-contemporary political purposes (not to mention the politics in voting on which books to include and which to exclude).  That does not mean that the Bible might not have been divinely inspired.  That does not mean that the midrashic (I'll write on the Aramaic tradition of midrash later) stories in the Bible did not have some basis in fact.  I certainly respect the Bible as a cornerstone of morality and faith.  But, I have to look at the Bible in its cultural context based upon those times and cultures when and where the passages were written.  Yes, some of you will have a problem with that, but when I discuss things, I will try to explain the culture and the language that underpins Biblical passages under discussion.

Because 70% of my family is Episcopalian, 20% is Catholic, and the remaining 10% is some flavor of non-liturgical Protestant or still adhering to traditional tribal religion, I grew up Episcopalian and I most closely identify with the conservative, Anglo-Catholic branch of the Episcopal Church.  The music, liturgy, prayers, and ceremonial are familiar to me, and I like them.  That doesn't mean I won't argue finer points of music and liturgy with the clergy, or that I agree with the politics of the Church.

Lately, since I'm the professional cantor at the Catholic parish where I spend my Sundays, I've been going to Catholic Mass the vast majority of the time.  I find that I know more about Catholic music and liturgy than most priests, and often have to argue and cite the General Instructions to the Roman Missal (GIRM) to them to prove my points to the clueless clerics.  I also have a personal mission to save American Catholicism from the really, really bad contemporary Catholic music that sprang out of the post-Vatican II St. Louis Jesuits movement and that now sadly pollutes much of the American church.

So, you know a little bit about me.  This is my blog to talk about religion, faith, church politics, church music, worship, prayer, and anything that seems related.  Obviously, they are my observations, experiences, thoughts, and beliefs.  I hope you'll enjoy my perspective.

If you have comments or opinions, please post them!  I love calm, intelligent, sensible discussion of issues.  No flames, please, and, there's no need to write me a long witness statement, try to convert me to your religious belief or viewpoint, or try to tell me why Catholics or Episcopalians are bad or not "real" Christians—I'll just delete those kinds of posts.  I don't want to stiffle debate, but we're not here to argue in a negative and unchristian way.

Oh, and here's the all the standard disclaimer and legal language.  The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone in my individual capacity. They do not necessarily reflect my official position as an employee of any church or the opinions or views of any of my church or non-church employers past or present.  I also reserve the right to change my opinions at any time without notice.  All original thoughts, opinions, ideas, words, or other intellectual property of mine expressed or published herein are protected by U.S. and international copyright laws, and may not be copied in any way or form without express prior written permission.