Oh, Edmonton

Remember in February when it was -40 (see bottom of that post)

Hard to believe this is the same city in July eh?




14 day forecast shows no break from this either, hot and dry. Oh well, guess I'll have to make sure the tee times are early in the morning to take advantage of the cooler air!

Keep in mind, my southern friends, that here, air conditioning in your home is considered a luxury, not a necessity. And we do not have that luxury. So we are trying to find a way to sleep in this heat! It is 10 PM now, and still 80 degrees.

Trying to be Organ-ized

Having been an organist for various Anglican churches for about twenty-five years now, including an early stint as a Cathedral Organ Scholar back in Ottawa, I don't stress out too much about playing services. So when I was asked to play at Edmonton's Cathedral in the organist's absence this summer during my holidays, I figured we could use the extra money, so a little double dipping would be welcome right now. Plus, it's only once a week, I won't need to practice, and I just have to get to the church by 9:00 AM, and after two services, I'd be done by 12:30. Not bad.

I've come to realize that my laissez-faire approach to playing the organ can be a fault. Generally, I'm pretty organized at the console, I make sure I go though the order of service carefully, highlight all the places I need to be ready to give a note, play a hymn, a response, do liturgical dance and the like. So I did this at around 9 AM, before the start of the 9:15 service. I took both the 9:15 and the 11:00 bulletins and circled anything that I needed to be ready for. Then I opened the hymnal to the first hymn, picked an alternative harmonization for the last verse, laid it all out on the console, behind that was the Gloria, ready to go quickly after the first hymn. Still five minutes to go, and I had everything ready to go.

Timeline of 9:14.00 to 9:15.00:

9:14.00 "I'm a good organist, I don't need to prepare for this or practice - it's like falling off a log - so nice to be so organized!"

9:14.25 looks over at the bulletin, and notice I have the wrong one on the console, this one says 11:00 - but this it the 9:15 service!

9:14.20 switches the hymn to the right one for the 9:15 service. Phew, that was close. I guess that was my close call of the morning.

9:14.30 one last glance at the bulletin. "Hymn 440" (check) "to the tune of Hymn 3"

9:14.35 "Gasp!" Flips to hymn 3. Heart rate increases significantly, I'm unable to blink my eyes.

9:14.37 "What? This hymn has FIVE FLATS - who writes hymns in FIVE FLATS"

9:14.40 "Maybe I could transpose it at sight to two sharps? Are there any accidentals that will throw me off? - Yes - at least two C-flats that would have to be changed to C-naturals, and one F-flat that would have to be switched to F-natural - I could do that"

9:14.45 voice from off the sacristy door - it is the curate saying "GO! - START"

9:14:50 "What am I doing here, I'm a conductor, not an organist? Who gave me the right to be a Cathedral organist again?"

9:14.51 "Do I have the right stops pulled? Am I going to play this in D-flat major or D major? What happens after the hymn?"

9:14.52 "Shit - I have the wrong Gloria open behind this hymn, and it's the one I've never played before."

9:14.53 "Wait a minute - how many verses does this hymn have - I've switched the page to the hymn tune, but I don't have the actual verses in front of me anymore. What was the number of the actual hymn again?"

9:14.54 "OK - I'm going to start - just play it in D-flat as written, stay focused, hopefully the deacon will close her book before the last line of the hymn letting me know it is over"

9:14:55 "GO! NOW!"

9:14:56 "My bench - it feels too far forward - the swell pedal feels too close - I wonder if the reeds are in tune"

9:14.57 "Why am I'm shaking? I really shouldn't drink coffee before church - will all those 16' foot pedal stops balance the swell flutes?"

9:14.58 "WE'RE WAITING FOR YOU"

9:15.00 "push fingers and feet down - hope for the best".

I'm happy to say, I pressed the right keys, for the most part, and everything after that went smoothly, no one was the wiser. I was however on edge for the next three and a half hours convinced that I was going to make some colossal blunder, but never did.

Next week, I think I'll get there just a bit earlier, hide the 11:00 bulletin until 10:45, and toss the 9:15 bulletin right after the 9:15 service.

At the 11:00 service, I played Bach's Prelude and Fugue in e minor ("The Cathedral") as a postlude. A well respected retired professor emeritus from the University's Music Department was there and spoke to me afterward and said "That wasn't a very good piece of music, who wrote that". I said "Oh, some guy named J.S. Bach", she said "No way, must have been W.F Bach". My wife's family and I laughed about it over lunch, at which point we realized I should have said "WTF Bach". My, we've come a long way since PDQ.

Editing the holidays

There are two good reasons that it's been eleven days since I've last posted.

The biggest reason is that we've spent the better part of the last week moving into our new house, and getting used to our new surroundings. In brief, we love the house, and the neighbourhood. There are still a few rooms that need attention, but for the most part, we are now very much in livable conditions, and the cats seem to be adjusting to the change. The second reason I've been so blog quiet is that we are on Holidays! So when we aren't unpacking boxes, we are playing golf. Edmonton's weather is such that if you don't enjoy the Summer when it is here - it will pass you by.

I'm not taking a complete holiday this Summer, as I have about a half-dozen weddings to play, and I'm subbing in as organist at the Cathedral for the next three weekends as well. I will, however, take two Sundays off in August.

My other departure from my holidays began last night, with the start of the final editing process of Da Camera's CD project, which we recorded live in concert, and followed up with two recording sessions last March, and is set to be released in mid-September, at the start of our season.

I've been away from this recording now for about three months, and it was a refreshing exercise last night to bring out the first draft of the CD for a critical listen. I do think it is going to be a fine product when it is completed. A few of the problems that I remember from three months ago are indeed still there, but I think in general there are fewer places that need attention than I remember.

I'm trying to decide if that is a good thing or not.

I think the danger in doing your edits so close after the recording session is being so focused on minute details, which in the long run probably aren't as noticeable as you think they are, that you sacrifice the balance of accuracy with the excitement of sound. After all, this is being billed as a live recording, so the acceptance of the odd misplaced consonant, or cough from the audience could be let slipped if the take has the adrenaline of a live performance, which is hard to get in a stale recording session environment. This is, at least, what I noticed last night. There are many fine things in this recording - energy and presence that I think are lacking in many studio-type recordings that I've done.

As an artistic director, working on a recording is probably one of the most excruciating processes around. We are our own worst critics, and this is most noticeable to me in the editing room. I tend not to listen to my own live concert recordings, except when necessary for job applications, grant applications and etc. I like to live with notion that the concert was as good as my audience's reaction. If I listen to the recording, I quickly become critical of the concert and lose the emotional high that I had immediately following the event. Is this a healthy process? I suppose it is one of the only ways we can improve, so it is a necessary evil indeed.

Well, that's what I'm up to this week. What musical projects are you involved in this Summer?

Two years ago

Happy Anniversary, my Love!

Today's Schedule

Here's what happened today:

6:30 - Wake Up
7:30 - Tee time with my wife and a fellow choral conductor and his father-in-law.
7:30 - 11:30 Golf. Highlight's included:

• Watching my wife out drive all of us on three occasions.
• I shot an 84, one of the best rounds of the year for me

1:45 - took possession of the NEW HOUSE!

All in all, a fantastic day! Looking forward to tomorrow when we go back to the house (which is a one hour round trip), continue cleaning, thinking about where we are going to put our furniture, which cabinets will hold which dishes, and which walls will get repainted.

Official move-in day is July 11th. Lots of packing to do!

Happy July 4th to all my southern friends!