Clouds

Today I went to church alone whilst Ryan slept in, and I went back to that St. Paul's K Street, which is just a short three block walk from here. Today was essentially an "ordinary" Sunday, but they still had a solemn high Mass with clouds of incense. The choir did William Mathias' Missa Brevis for the Mass setting, and it was typically atonal as are most of Mathias's works. Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer who's the current "fad" contemporary sacred choral works composer. He does a lot of twelve-tone work and other strange things. Today, the organist played his "Pari Intervallo" as the prelude and the choir sang his 1990 "The Beatitudes" for the offertory. It was very interesting, and not as weird as I expected. Their communion anthem was Mendelssohn's "Verleih' uns Friden gnädiglich" which was vaguely familiar to me.....I may have sung it years and years ago with Canterbury Choral Society in Oklahoma City.