Having recently read the work of two friends whom I had the great pleasure to meet last year in Halls, I am somewhat concious of once again, slacking off as far as this blog is concerned! Once more, I am typing off the top of my head at 1am, but this time I'm sober, and this time it won't be about Organs. Well. Not entirely.
Therefore, starting with Organs, I have taken up lessons again! Be in no shadow of a doubt that I am expressly pleased with this, even if my lessons no longer take place on a III/P Neoclassical essay with a balanced tracker...sigh... But they do in fact take place on a very fine instrument, built at the beginning of the Twentieth century, mechanical stop, key and coupling action, with some fine stops inside as well. The trumpet, while without the French grandeur in the bass does not lose power in the treble, with the swell strings being nothing but sheer delight. I have gone back to where I left off material wise, with Langlais' Priere and Prelude Modale, Vierne's Bercuese, and selections from Couperin's Messe pour les couvents. Today on a short crawl with my teacher however, I sightread the Andante Tranquillo from Mendelssohn's A major Organ Sonata, and not terribly badly either. I pedalled! Huzzah! My next lesson is on Thursday morning, and it's bloody brilliant to be back.
But my teacher? Well, he follows on from last year's tradtion, of being a highly skilled and musical man, an excellent improviser, in his mid-twenties... but he's getting married? Certianly not something Saint J of N would be considering? Perhaps not...
But I will be attending this wedding at the beginning of June, sat way up at the front of the nave of Truro Cathedral, not only watching the ceremony unfold in front of me (rather than being at the stall!), but also, it transpires, participating! I haven't read in Church since...well, Mancroft, and certainly not at anything as felicitous as a wedding! I have new paisley tie at the ready, and it's just shy of three weeks away.
The squalid Scholary still stands though, despite all we who live therein. The kitchen needs breaking again, with a rather unsavoury backlog of plates and pans... not withstanding the hob. As I am still unemployed, I pick the slack up in the day (or plan to, anyway), so at least the plates and cutlery are clean and ready to go. As ever, the cutlery box is here, but has been plundered entirely of forks! I plan to reclaim all mine, and see how that leaves us off for cutlery and flatware. It's a mystery what happens to forks at the best of times.
There are many half finished drafts on my books here. Some barely started and abandoned as bad concept, and a few complete essays that cannot be published for various reasons. There are some that have been written in the first flush of anger for instance, that the cooling influence of a computer that sometimes crashes halfway through have saved from public viewing. I really ought to do something more interesting with my life than wash up, practice, and generally slulk about on the internet. I haven't even played any ridiculous videogames for a while now! Life has slowed down somewhat from the whirlpool that almost dragged me under last term...and I am thankful for that. It's certainly no quieter. Different.
Anyway. There'll be some more beardy organ bearding published soon. Next week I'll be recording a CD of the music of Philip Stopford with Choir, the weekend after that will be the wedding...and after THAT (with a few days rest), I'll be back in Norwich, A FINE CITY. Upon my return we perform an Orchestral Eucharist in the Cathedral, and then it's into the last part of Trinity, and the end of the year. A tearful valediction looms at the beginning of July...
Anyway. Time for bed. I have a kitchen to clear and preludes to practice and chess games to win. See you on the other side.
