7. August, 2010 - 'Yes, You Guessed, It's All For the Best' Movements 1 & 2.
Yes, You Guessed... Movement One
Yes, You Guessed... Movement Two
An obvious reference to the song 'All for the Best' from the 1970 musical 'Godspell' by Stephen Schwartz, this two movement improvisation is NOT based on Schwartz' tune. Rather, this is a personal commentary on the increasingly (and IMO) unneccesarily exclusive 'business of church music.' Two movements - very similar in theme and direction - one for each way the comment, 'All for the Best' might be taken.
Recorded at Zion Lutheran Church in Maywood, NJ on their II/27 1990 M.P. Moller.
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18. July, 2010 - Service postlude: 'Eine Feste Burg'
Final 'official' worship music performed on this organ. Based on the chorale by Martin Luther. An attempt is made to project a sense of forward motion and joyful resolve in the fact that while earthly steeples may fall, the gates of hell can never prevail against the true Church, while still acknowledging the personal pain felt by many of the parishioners as well as honoring, as best as I might, the traditions of musical grandeur inherited from the past.
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18. July, 2010 Improvisations from the Final Organ Recital at First Church, Orange, NJ. Please click HERE for music and commentary.
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Y.D.K.W.Y.G.T.I.G. # eight - 17. July, 2010 - 'The Organ'
Mostly this speaks for itself. This will be the last in this particular series. How seldom does an unknown have a brush with greatness? How often do grass root have opportunity to reach the world-class? For three years I have had the exquisite pipe organ at First Church in Orange at my disposal to practice, perform, compose on, and to record. For all the countless hours of practice, numerous recitals and recordings, I recognize that I have barely tapped the artistic possibilities of this mighty instrument. As of this writing the future of both organ and ediface remain uncertain. May both be recognized for the gift to the community that they are so that yet more wondrous and still more glorious praises again ring from these halls.
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Y.D.K.W.Y.G.T.I.G. # seven - 16. July, 2010 - 'They'll Never Know'
One of my favorite monologues by Garrison Keillor has the protagonist, suffering from a 'midlife crisis' leave home on what for him is an epic journey of discovery. Towards the end of his travels he writes words to the effect of, 'the saddest part of walking into a new place and seeing new people I don't know and who don't know me is that they will never know what a strange, wonderful, eccentric genius I am... but that's alright... I'll never know what strange, wonderful eccentric geniuses they are either...' For most anyone who travels, there comes a point of realization that for all you can know places and their inhabitants, so much, of neccesity must be glossed over, never explored, left to be forever wondered about.
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Y.D.K.W.Y.G.T.I.G. # six - 15. July, 2010 - 'Hammond Spinet in the Living Room'
Another Heinlein paraphrase: 'A poet who reads his own verse in public may have other bad habits as well...'
'hammond spinet in the living room'
their aged voices,
infused with the easy musicality of the caribbean ,
and my own white boy pseudo-gospel playing
still ringing in my ears,
my fingers and palms
still feeling the bone dry press
of their old, calloused hands,
i let the mostly inexplicable tears
trail down my face, afraid to wipe my eyes,
experience teaching me
soot from the decrepit living room organ
i half resuscitated would blind me
far more than my own weeping.
alanis crooned over the car stereo
over her broken heart,
and try though i might
i could not dispel the image
of the old man
who had been crawling around on the floor with me
as we dismantled his treasure,
watching my every move,
asking the same questions again and again.
i could not vanquish that vision
of vanishing intelligence
as he looked pleadingly
towards his wife for approval
the way a child might look to a parent,
''it's alright, isn't it?"
a half dozen earnest attempts
to dissuade them laced with the promise
of a newer, better organ all returned void,
''sometimes, you know,
it isn't about the money, young man''
she said, but she looked at her husband
the way jesus must have looked at mary magdeline.
' yes, ma'am, I agree"
(for Mr. J)
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