Friday, December 8, 2006

My ears! My ears!

Ack! Il Divo is on the Today show right now singing "Can't Live If Living Is without You" and sounding like an old car trying to start on a cold morning needing to be shot to be put out of its misery.

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Oklahoma organist

doors


After Advent Lessons and Carols at the National Cathedral this evening, the cathedral presented John Daniel Schwandt in recital in their "Celebrity Organ Recital" series. Schwandt is the principal organ professor and director of the American Organ Institute at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I've been anxious to meet him since he came to OU, since he has a very active vision as to the role of organists in modern music and how they need to be more than just church musicians. My friend John was in graduate school with Dr. Schwandt at Indiana University, too.

Once the service was over and the chancel cleared and rearranged, they allowed people to enter and sit in the Great Quire to listen to the concert. I knew better than that, because most visiting organists are enamoured of the enormous trompette-en-chamade over the high altar. For those unfamiliar with organs, the en-chamade is a division of long organ pipes with a trumpet-type bell at the end that are mounted horizontally instead of vertically; they are used for fanfares and festal occasions when one wants to blast a melody out over the full organ. Pipes like this in most churches are usually so loud that the congregation/audience jumps when they first hear it (I used to like to use it at the church where I used to work in Tulsa cause it made the babies cry).

Schwandt turned out to be a very good organist. His playing was crisp and precise, even in a lot of the difficult fast passages in some of the works. I also liked his registrations and the way he provided variety without making it sound like he was trying to demonstrate every sound on the organ. There were a couple of times his playing sounded out of alignment to me out in the nave, but they were notes played simultaneously from different ranks on the organ, so that may have been an illusion of sound due to the distance between pipes (keep in mind the cathedral is huge and the organ has over 10,650 pipes).

The recital opened with Marcel Dupré's transcription of J. S. Bach's Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29 "We Thank Thee, God." It's a familiar tune for those who listen to organ music now and then.

Next on the list was a set of Three Improvisations created by Schwandt. He said that they were going to be total improvisations and he hadn't pre-planned them. The first was done in the French classic style, the second in the German baroque style, and the third in the contemporary style. I absolutely loved the contemporary improvisation; think "Music from the Hearts of Space" on public radio, only with a melody. He then immediately segued into the French Romantic style with Alexandre Guilmant's March sur un Thème de Handel, Op. 15, No. 2.

The American entry in the recital was Calvin Hampton's Prayer and Alleluias from Three Pieces. Then concluding the formal part of the program was Maurice Dufuflé's tour-de-force, Prelude and Fugue on the name ALAIN, Op. 7.

Because the lesson and carols service delayed the start of the recital by half an hour, I had to slip out at that point. For an encore of sorts, Schwandt was going to solicit musical themes from the audience and play improvisations on them. As it was I just barely made it to the bus on time, having to run across the street to catch it as it pulled up to the stop.

I feel so devoted tonight. By going to lessons and carols and the recital, I missed the chance to play fan/paparazzo down at the Kennedy Center, where they were doing the Kennedy Center Honors show today (usually nationally broadcast Christmas week), and lots of people gather to catch a glimpse of the glitterati. The President and First Lady always go, plus all the dozens and dozens of celebrities. This year's honorees included Steven Spielberg, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dolly Parton, Zubin Mehta, and Smokey Robinson.

Oh, above and below are a couple of pictures I snapped of the exterior of the cathedral at night.

towers

Friday, December 1, 2006

Ford's Theater

fordstheater
This is Ford's Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was shot. It's operated both as a historic site and a functioning theater (right now they're playing A Christmas Carol).

fordsinteriorHere is the inside of the theater, looking towards the presidential box. You can see how an actor would have quick, easy access, and how he was able to escape by jumping out of the box onto the stage below. Note the seating in the lower right corner—the entire auditorium is filled with what look like free-standing dining room chairs.