Second performance

Many, many years ago, I went to a national Boy Scout jamboree, where I met a guy from Scotland. We kind of hit it off a bit and had some minor continuing communications over the years. Then, about a decade later when I was up at Oxford, I reconnected with him. Quite unexpectedly since the jamboree, his father, a third son, had acceded to the title of Earl of Lothian (and today my friend, a second son, is now the earl). So, several times, he made me hop on the train and go to to Edinburgh to come visit him and stay at their country manor. His Lordship, being ever the prankster, knew that there were few things in the world I hated more than bagpipe "music," so he arranged that every morning, to wake me up, one of his servants would stand outside my bedroom window playing the bagpipes.

Now, my opinions of the bagpipes have changed little over the years, so you can imagine my chagrin to arrive at the funeral I was playing yesterday to find myself sharing the musical billing with, you guessed it, a bagpiper. The bagpiper in question was actually quite good, from the technical performance stand point and knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, he decided to start piping in the church about half an hour before the service was to start, and with the reverberation of the space, it was making my head throb! Those things have no volume control on them!

Fortunately, we had a brief respite from the cacaphony of the pipes. But, alas, the family had asked him to pipe "Amazing Grace" in the midst of the service, which he obligingly did. And did he do it! I believe he went through every verse of the hymn plus a full verse of introduction and then a full verse reprise at the end!

He was supposed to have played the entire prelude, but he stopped about five minutes beforehand. So, after waiting a bit and determining that he wasn't just taking a brief breather, I grabbed some music to play on the piano, landing upon the middle movement "Andante" of Bach's Concerto in the Italian Style, BMV 971. At the end of the service, I was planning to play the first movement of the concerto for a postlude, but then I saw the piper come back into the nave, and he played and played and played a postlude.....thankfully, we got to leave before he was done!

But, otherwise, I survived the service. This was actually the "second performance" of the funeral for my friend Kevin's grandmother, who I thought we had buried last weekend. Last week we were at the nursing home, and yesterday we were at his aunt's Episcopal church just a few miles away; I've no idea why they had two services in the same neighborhood. I gathered, though, that last week was Kevin's father's service and yesterday was Kevin's aunt's service. Whatever works for the family. They were both at both services and looked civil with one another, so I'm happy they worked out whatever issues they had about the services; I recall in past years seeing some families actually going to court before the funeral to determine who gets to make the funeral and burial arrangements, so it's good this was settled peaceably.

Since we were in a sacred space with a more liturgical service, I wore "choir dress": black cassock, white surplice, and academic hood. I also played altar boy and tended to lighting and later extinguishing the candles, attracting odd looks from the Presbyterians when I genuflected before and after entering the sanctuary space. The MCC minister also vested, wearing an alb and a white stole.

This service was very similar to the one at the nursing home, with me having to play the same two hideous hymns. Kevin's aunt made one addition, though, and added a new third hymn I'd never heard of called "Bye and Bye." I was a little stressed, since I didn't have music for this thing, and I hate having to sightread in front of a congregation! But, they assured me it was in the hymnal at the church. Well, that sounded kind of suspicious to me, since there is no such hymn in the Episcopal hymnal—The Hymnal 1984, that is. It turns out that this parish, which just happens to be located in lily-whitest northwest Washington, actually has Lift Every Voice and Sing II—the African-American hymnal—in the pews. "Bye and Bye" is a traditional Negro spiritual that wasn't hard at all to play. So, we did it. And, you know what? She picked the wrong hymn! LOL! Apparently, she'd wanted some hymn called "Sweet By and By," but she didn't look at the words to this one or listen to the music ahead of time.

The funeral was held at St. Columba's Episcopal Church in the Tenleytown neighborhood. I'd never been there before. It's an older church that's had additions made to it over the years for office and classroom space. And, at some point, they did some very unfortunate architectural modifications to the church itself, pulling the altar and choir out of their proper positions and installing a crossing altar on a wood platform. The organ (an interesting-looking 28-rank tracker) and choir are now in the north transept, the Steinway C I played (and a harpsichord) is in the south transept with overflow seating, and the former chancel and sanctuary are now a bare chapel open to the nave. Alas. Some of those church architectural revisionists need to be drawn and quartered for ruining what was once a very nice liturgical space.

Candlemas at St. Paul's

Well, I came home from church tonight a little tipsy, but I'm going to try to recall the service for you anyway.

It was long! It lasted 2.25 hours! I expected on the low side of 1.5 to 2 hours....the bishop who was principal celebrant and preacher talked unusually long so that's probably what bumped up the time.

Tonight they had the Blessing of Candles, Procession of Lights, and Solemn Pontifical Mass for Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. Principal celebrant was the Rt. Rev'd E. Don Taylor, Bishop Vicar of New York and the former Bishop of the Virgin Islands.

The St. Paul's orchestra played tonight, so it and the combined choirs were set up in the narthex. The orchestral Mass setting tonight was Mozart's Mass in C Major "Orgelsolo," K. 259. It was a nice Mass since Mozart got down to business and went straight through the text without a lot of repetition. Soloists were Rebecca Littig, soprano; Naomi Pomerantz, mezzo-soprano; Gerald Stacy, tenor; and William Heim, baritone.

During the blessing of the candles, the choir did an introit antiphon, a Nunc dimittis sung to Mode VIII, and Charles Wood's "Hail, Gladdening Light." The video clip above is the Wood. The offertory was "Senex puerum portabat" by Tomás Luis de Victoria. During the Solemn Procession, the choir and congregation sang four hymns, Edmonton (O Zion, open wide thy gates), Iste Confessor (That which the Prophet's reverend assembly), Regent Square (In his Temple now behold him), and Old 120th (Hail to the Lord who comes). Other hymns tonight included Pleading Savior (Sing of Mary, pure and lowly) for the post-communion ablutions and all eight verses of Daily, daily (Ye who own the faith of Jesus) for the recessional. The Anglican chant for the Psalm was by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

The organ prelude was Fugue et Choral by Arthur Honegger and the postlude was Movement VI. Final from Symphonie I, Op. 14 by Louis Vierne.

His Grace the Bishop, aside from talking two or three times longer than he should have, was a very engaging speaker. He made a lot of observations about modern society and behavior and our crises of faith. He talked about how the biggest issues and questions he gets deal with how people in modern American society suffer from great loneliness and constantly question their faith and the existence of God. He spoke about how God does things in His own time, and then he managed to tie together his talk with the theme of Candlemas, that being how Jesus was presented in the temple and to the world and became the Light.

After Mass, they had a little reception up in the parish hall. It was a little different than usual. In past receptions there has been a huge variety of foods and part of the fun was traveling around from table to table looking for the various unique treats and goodies. Tonight, though, it was very standardized, with each table having a liver paté, cornichons, a cream cheese-based dip, firm and soft cheeses, red grapes, and slices of stollen-like cake. And, of course, at the far end of the hall, they had lots and lots of wine.

I ended up running in to John Bohl, organist at Old St. Paul's Baltimore, and Brian Harlow, organist at St. Paul's Morristown, N.J., (it was a Pauline night at St. Paul's!) both of whom were there to hear the service. We had a long chat, and it was nearly ten before we left the church. Here's a pic of the two of them:

Candlemas

This is Candlemas Day! This is the church feast day when candles for the church traditionally are blessed for the year. Some people think of today as the Solemnity of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary while others call it the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. Either way, it's Candlemas, and it's time for a party! At 6:30 tonight, they are having a Blessing of the Candles, Procession, and Solemn Pontifical Mass at St. Paul's K Street, plus a "reception" (read "light supper of heavy hors d'oeuvres with lots of wine") following in the parish hall, so I'll be popping in over there.

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Blaize, the patron saint of throats. This is an important day for singers and speakers! The priests will lay their hands upon and bless the throats of any who care to go up for the ritual. I'm not sure how I'll work out my schedule on the morrow.....I have some other engagements that conflict with the service at St. Stephen, and I don't know that I want to go to St. Matthew's Cathedral, since the archbishop is also going to be dedicating a statue in the cathedral of the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (formerly known as Mother Teresa) and then leading the Rosary and Benediction after Mass, which translates into LONG SERVICE.

Yeah, I finally made it to church

This morning I was going to go visit a couple of different churches with service start times throughtout the morning and I just kept getting involved in other projects and never made it out. So, I made myself go to Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St. Paul's K Street, not just because I've been really bad this past week but because my friend John from Baltimore was playing the organ tonight. And, poor John! He's been sick in bed for the past four days, but I thought his organ playing sounded lovely and he looked much better than I had anticipated.

Tonight's service was sung by the Choir of Men and Boys, with about a dozen boys and eight gentlemen.

Not sure who the officiant was. He's not on the full-time staff. I think I've seen him before, but I'm not sure. He had on a lovely cope, though, with a matching stole. It was deep beige silk with bamboo designs woven tone-on-tone into the fabric, a light olive green lining, and a fully operational hood.

For the prelude, John played a soft reedy thing called "Folk Tune" from Five Short Pieces by Percy Whitlock. I noticed the choirmaster was turning pages and he was having trouble getting the music to stay open.

The canticles were Evening Service in B-flat, Op. 10 by Charles Villiers Stanford. The choral Anglican chants were by Peter Godfrey for Psalm 8 and C.H.H. Parry for Psalm 84. The office hymn was Nunc dimittis from the old Hymnal 1940. Their anthem was "Before the Ending of the Day" by Healey Willan.

For the postlude, John played "Fanfare" by Kenneth Leighton. It was fun....modern, but not too dissonant.

Here's a picture of John after the service. I must admit, though, that I was quite taken aback to see him looking so naked! I didn't see his hood anywhere!

Playing a funeral

Sometimes the quiet and introspective days can metamorphosize into lots of fun. I guess the sunny, warm weather was a sign—yesterday was sandwiched between Friday's chill, brisk winds and today's cold, freezing rain.

My friend Kevin's grandmother died earlier this month and I was pleased to be asked to play the piano for her memorial service yesterday. I dug out a dark charcoal suit with a subtle windowpane pattern to wear, accessorizing it with a lovely little black foulard Armani tie. Kevin picked me up at 12:45 and drove me up to Maryland to the assisted living center where she had lived the past several years and where they were holding the service. The center had set up rows of dining room chairs in what I guess they call the sitting room, with overflow into the game room. I didn't count, but I'd guess that about forty residents and staff attended, plus members of the family.

My part was easy—just a quick little prelude and then opening and closing hymns (two of my three least favorite hymns in the world). For the prelude, I did a Bach partita and then the Samuel Barber "Adagio," perfectly timing the ending of the Barber—all in the best Westminster Abbey tradition, of course—to straight up 2:00, when we were set to begin. But, just as I got to the last page of the Barber, I got word that the service was being delayed pending the arrival of another grandson. Eh. So, I played some Chopin préludes in a suitably somber and sepulchral way. Finally, at 2:10, I saw a typical, disheveled-looking, prep school boy wander in the front door, so I switched to Bach's Prelude No.1 while the boy's mother got him straightened up and the knot of his tie pulled up to within half a foot of his neck. And then we started. My quick little prelude ended up being a twenty-some minute mini-concert, but, hey, it's the first time I've had access to an in-tune piano in months.

The minister for the service was the pastor of one of the big, local MCC parishes (for the uninformed, Metropolitan Community Church a/k/a the "gay" denomination). He looked very familiar to me and I couldn't place him, until I remembered where I'd seen him. Last summer, he and his partner were "Adam and Steve" on their church's float in the gay pride parade.

Anyway, what I found really nice is the fact that he had been pastoring Kevin's grandmother—who was 99, by the way—for the past several years and they had become good friends. There is always hope for American society when good, Christian, nonagenarian matriarchs enjoy the ministry of the openly gay clergy.

Church and politics

This morning I went to the early Mass, since I didn't want to be rushed getting between church and our costume call for our final Romeo and Juliet this afternoon. So, it was off to St. Stephen's for a quick and dirty, get in and get out, "medium" Mass. There's no choir at this service.

I sat behind a lady today who, aside from the fact that she was black, looked exactly like my friend Linda in Indianola, Oklahoma!!

Hymns today were the ever-popular Protestant hymn Nicaea (Holy, holy, holy) for the processional, Leoni for the offertory, and In Babilone for the recessional. The cantoress sang some responsorial "congregational" hymn during communion, but nobody sang the antiphon, and even I didn't know the song. Other than those unfortunate hymns as "marching music" for the people going up for communion (which seems to be a really bad habit in this diocese, not just St. Stephen's), the organist/choirmaster always does a good job of selecting good, inspiring, appropropriate, and singable hymns....in fact, I get the impression that he must have come from an Episcopal church before coming to St. Stephen, since the lifelong Catholic musicians always pick really, really sucky, saccharine hymns.

They didn't have printed service leaflets today for some reason. In a way, I thought that was actually a good thing, since the cantoress had to announce the hymns, and I think more people actually picked up their hymnals and sang than what happens when people have the hymns in their leaflets.

The GWU chaplain was the celebrant and homilist today. The Gospel reading today was about Jesus going to the synagogue in Nazareth, reading a passage from Isaiah, and then announcing that the promise had been fulfilled. Father took that and told how some Protestant minister taught the youth group to hear things and then say, "So what?" as a means of examining faith and Father thought we should do that, too, but he never really explained to what end. By the time he finished that section of the homily, I was thinking, "So what?" too. Then he launched into his frequent abortion-is-bad commentary, tying it in with some March for Life they are having on the Mall tomorrow.

Eh. I'd be much more inclined to be against abortion if the Roman Catholic Church were to permit contraception and birth control. This particularly struck me today, because after communion, they had some nuns from the Little Sisters of the Poor there to speak and then stand by the door collecting money as people left to help them pay for existing ministries to help the poor; the Catholic Church can't afford to pay for caring for the existing poor, and yet they want those people to continue breeding and having babies? A few condoms here and there would work wonders—if God wants a couple to have a baby, He'll cause the condom to break.

Yeah, I know, you priest readers of mine are having a heart attack right about now, but nobody ever accused me of being a good little Catholic boy.

And that's how my sinful day started. :-)

Biblical amazement

You know the Bible 100%!

 

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

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Well, isn't this amazing! And to think, I'm an Episcopalian!

As far as "personal reader" goes, I don't think so....I've just sung in church choirs for so many decades, I've either heard things read during Mass or I've had to sing about things. I must confess, however (Father, forgive me, for I have sinned....), that I had to guess on several of these questions where I was easily and quickly able to narrow it down to two choices. I've always been a good test taker! LOL

Church and a nice day

Ah, it's such a lovely warm day out today! I wore a light sweater-shirt to Mass this morning, and I got hot! There's a light sprinkle every now and then, but otherwise, it's a nice day. I'm thinking we should go ice skating today so we can have some semblance of winter this year.

This is, of course, in contrast to what I'm hearing from my friends from Dallas to Tulsa to Kansas City to Chicago, where they are buried under layers of ice, with more predicted to come today; it's supposed to stay cold til at least Wednesday, there, too, so it won't melt off immediately. I'm not a great fan of ice. Aside from it breaking major tree limbs and pulling down power lines, unlike snow, it's impossible to drive on.

Meanwhile, I walked to the church this morning without wearing a jacket. :-)

Nothing exciting at St. Stephen's today. Hymns were Abbot's Leigh (to bastardized "inclusive" words based on "God is here! and we are His people") for the processional, Repton (He comes to us as one unknown) for the offertory, and Ellecombe (I sing the mighty pow'r of God) for the recessional. During communion the choir sang the "congregational" walking responsorial hymn with the Christopher Wilcock antiphon "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."

Mass setting was Proulx's A Community Mass for the Kyrie and Sanctus, How's Parish Communion Service for the Gloria, Nestor's Mass for the Parishes for the Memorial Acclamation and Great Amen, André Gouzes's Non sum dignus, and the traditional plainsong for the Gospel Acclamation, Intercessions, and Agnus Dei. The Psalm antiphon was by Robert Carroll.

For the communion motet, the choir did a very nice job on "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" by Samuel Scheidt (1587–1654), plus choral interjections on the Kyrie and Agnus Dei.

I forgot what the homily was about.

Now, I saw Monsignor Pastor and had an actual conversation with him after Christmas Eve's midnight Mass just two weeks ago, yet he said this morning that he "hadn't seen me in a while." Hmm. This isn't the first time he's said something like that. Were he not younger than me, I'd wonder if he were suffering from dementia! LOL I guess I'm just not memorable.

Congressional Cemetery

This morning I wandered around Congressional Cemetery way out in southeast Washington. This cemetery was established 200 years ago in 1807 by Christ Church (the original Episcopal parish in D.C., founded in 1794) as the parish cemetery, but by 1817, much of the grounds had been set aside for legislators and government officials. Even though it bears the "congressional" name, the cemetery is still privately owned by Christ Church and managed by a non-profit organization; funding for maintenance and upkeep is an ongoing challenge. The chapel where I attended Mass this morning was built just after the turn of the 20th century.

Here are a few scenes:



Today being the Feast of the Epiphany and the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I was particularly touched to find this Christmas wreath by a grave over fifty years old. The totem poles were put up as a memorial to the Indians who died in the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon.



Many famous people from the early part of the nation's history are buried here. Amongst them are John Phillip Sousa, the famous march composer, and J. Edgar Hoover, former director of the FBI (and, some twelve graves away, Hoover's "longtime companion," Clyde Tolson). Both the Sousas and the Hoovers have big family plots. I found it interesting, though, that the Hoovers have a bench as a part of their plot. Matthew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer, is also buried here, but I wasn't able to find his grave.



For a slide show of about 20 black and white photographs of the cemetery I took this morning, please click here.

Mass in the cemetery

There is a tiny, old chapel on the hill in Congressional Cemetery here in Washington, and the congregation in residence happens to be Our Lady of Mount Carmel Old Catholic Church. What is particularly interesting about this parish is not its historic location, but its tradition as the "Dog Chapel." What I didn't know until today is that the cemetery sells memberships for it to be used as a private dog park in order to raise funds for upkeep and maintenance of the cemetery. Since the chapel is within that cemetery/dog park, the dogs like to go inside, too, so it has become the tradition of the parish to allow people to come in for services with their dogs. They even have water bowls and doggie treats.

One of my other motivations for going all the way across town today was to see my friend Father Steven, who is now Bishop Steven, at work. He served as celebrant this morning for the low Mass.



The service opened with We Three Kings of Orient Are and closed with What Child Is This, both sung a capellla by the congregation. None of the dogs joined in or howled.

None of the rest of the service was chanted or sung except for the Gospel acclamation (Alleluia). A pastoral associate gave the rather long homily.

After the service, all the dogs ran outside the doors of the chapel where the priest and Bp. Steven passed out doggie treats.



Since I'd never before been to Congressional Cemetery, I took the opportunity after Mass to walk around and look at some of the famous graves there.