Stranger than fiction

I stumbled on a National Geographic book "The Gospel of Judas". Call me a nerd but I find this stuff pretty exciting. The text is unbelievable enough but the very story on how the book was discovered in an Egyptian cave, lost, abused, frozen, sold and finally interpreted, is just as good.

After reading all this, I'm satisfied cool heads of orthodoxy prevailed. While they are more interesting than "the force" these Gnostic texts sound an awful lot like Greek mythology to me.

Now here's something I never thought I'd be excited about. The organist/choirmaster position I took is purchasing a new electronic instrument. Typically, I wouldn't even consider a position without a real pipe organ. However, I'm very excited to explore something called the Hauptwerk program. Our chapter of the AGO just did a workshop on it.

With Hauptwerk, anyone with a home computer and a MIDI keyboard can access such instruments as the Cavaille-Coll Organ at St. Ouen to local gems such as the Buzard Chamber organ at the U of I/Champaign or the E.M. Skinner at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Chicago.

Hauptwerk is most often used:

For study and practice at home by organists, organ enthusiasts and music students.
In churches, theatres and concert halls to power digital organs and voice expanders.
To upgrade old digital/electronic organs to the latest audio technology and realism, without having to buy a complete new console.

*In commercial and home recording studios to provide the ultimate pipe organ sound.
*For music composition and arrangement.
*For historical organ and music study and research.
*For making playable documentary recordings of endangered or valuable pipe organs.
*As an instrument on which to learn the organ in schools, music colleges, etc.

For more information on the Hauptwerk program visit: http://www.crumhorn-labs.com/index.shtml

-Sir Monocle

Google is Good

I've not been a diligent blogger lately because I've been distracted by yet another Google product: Google Books. Come and check out the Sir Monocle library. I've been compiling of all things, hymnals. If you're into Anglo-Catholic liturgy, I'm sure you'll find a few things here as well as the occasional "tenting" hymnal. Imagine that what I've collected is only the tip of the iceberg. Google is good indeed. Please check it out.

-Sir Monocle

Begin with the end in mind

The following is "The Dean's Message" from the SW AGO Late Spring edition.

If you were to ask me "what do remember about your first date with your wife", I would probably say, "I remember needing a paper bag to hyperventilate". My anxiety had little to do with the usual first date jitters. Rather, it was the simple question (which still gives me anxiety): "so what is it you want out of life"?

I quickly changed the topic away from myself. But, the question definitely caused me to stop and reflect. At the time, a friend suggested I read Stephen Covey’s "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Many of you have probably read this book or at least heard of it. It attempts to help people (like me) get on track by centering life on correct principles and using one’s unique talents. I read the book. But unfortunately, I forgot the message.

Now, eleven years later, a co-worker, said to me, "I never read '7 Habits'. Would you like to read it with me?" I said "sure". And so, once a week, we do a "walk and talk", essentially, to discuss a chapter and talk about it’s impact on our lives day to day.

In one of my favorite scenarios in this book, Stephen Covey asks the reader to imagine a funeral. He says,

"you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family. You feel the shared sorrow of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there. As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself… As you take a seat, you notice that in the program there are to be four speakers, (a relative, a friend, professional colleague and an individual from your church congregation)…. Now think deeply. What would you like each of them to say about you and your life?"

Like you, I’m a musician. I don’t need a book to help me figure that out. But, when I start to think about the specific impact I’m leaving on my choir, congregation, or family, I suddenly feel the need to reach for that paper bag again. When I look at certain church musicians I see that they are supremely patient teachers or approach their work with unbelievable enthusiasm. So why is it so easy for me to see it in them but not in myself? Honestly, I think it’s because I don’t think I will ever be as patient or as enthusiastic.

Easter makes me realize how trivial all this anxiety is. Christ knew exactly his mission. The love He lived and preached was a difficult road. Yet because of it, we may celebrate the Easter victory over fear and death.

As a follower of Christ, my path isn’t easy, but at least it’s clear. He has given me all the principles which guide me. So what is there to be afraid of? My choir, congregation and family, will doubtfully remember that wrong note that plagued me all day Sunday. But what they will remember is that when I was in their presence, I was engaged with them. That I listened to them, cared for them, and loved them.

-Sir Monocle

more God is dead talk

Articles like this one entitled “The End of Christian America” have been circulating for a few years. Jon Meacham in this Newsweek article explains how and why the numbers of Christians are suddenly dropping while agnostics and atheists are rising.

Unfortunately the major religions have been doing a poor job leading by example. And Meacham spends a lot of print acknowledging that, since prohibition, the Evangelicals have been increasingly losing their political power struggles.

Underneath all that religion, could it be that America suffers from a lack of faith? The phrase, “if you want to see God laugh, tell Him your plans” comes to mind.

In the end, if, what we’re seeing is a transition from a theology of fear and guilt in favor of love and compassion, would that be such a bad thing? So, I’m just not going to get too worked up over this article.

-Sir Monocle

Happy holiday

I’m walking to work this morning and in the plaza in front of my building what do I see but a young couple dancing. There is no music. Just a couple dancing right in the center of downtown Chicago.

My first reaction wasn’t "what a lovely couple, or “isn’t that romantic”, but rather, “what the hell are they trying to sell me”?

I’m not sure if this is a reflection of my own cynicism or of the constant bombardment of advertising in this city. Believe me’ve got it all: samples of energy drinks and dog food, actors putting on a skits for Alka Seltzer, shring wrapped trains (and train stations), obnoxious Greenpeace people all over the place.… and my favourite - a glass box-mobile full of bikinied women playing volleyball (in the middle of winter). Sorry, I don't remember what they were selling.

With all of this going on, each company has to be that much more creative just to get your attention. And so, I am convinced that this dancing couple was either involved in some corporate sponsored scheme or just some sick April fools joke to make me think that's what they're up to.

-Sir Monocle

Like a new man

In an episode of the Sopranos, Dr. Melfi, likens a session of therapy to giving birth. Tony insists "it’s more like taking a sh#t".

More often than not, I post as a form of therapy. And this is one of those instances. A personal conflict of mine has been finding fulfillment in my music career despite it being a part-time job. As a husband and father, I don’t have the luxury of making church music my sole profession. It just doesn’t pay the bills. And so, I have an enviable M-F/9-5 job with excellent benefits, pension, etc. I really shouldn't complain. As someone who comes in contact with artists on a daily basis, I see how lucky I am. I actually make money doing this.

And then, I read about those full-time positions – you know the ones with all great acoustics, a 3 manual Austin and a paid choir? And I’m tortured.

My wife insists I count my blessings. I know she’s right. I need to remind myself that I’m more than an organist. I’m a husband, a father, an Indian Guide Chief, a blogger, etc... To put all the eggs into my organist basket would mean subtracting an equal number of eggs from someplace else.

And so I saved myself from a trip to the shrink’s office and a walk down the laxative aisle.

Sir Monocle

Hypocrites need a vacation too

I just got back from a short family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. It’s been a Chicago area/family destination for years.

I remember my first Dells vacation. I was 4 years old. We stayed at the Mayflower Motel, visited Storybook Gardens, saw the Tommy Bartlett Water Show and ate at Paul Bunyan’s. Awesome.

Over the years, other spots have worked their way into our Dells vacation itinerary such as The Ishnala Supper Club (I love that place!), The House on the Rock, and Sandbar. Admittedly, some of these places are more for us parents. Still, we’re humans too - and they are all part of the kitschy nostalgia I love about the Dells.

As with everything else in this country, the corporate hotelier behemoths have completely wrecked the place. Examples include The Wilderness, Hotel Rome and The Great Wolf. These monstrous water-parks really have taken the “e” out of this destination's charme.

Still, just as I call Wal-mart the “evil empire” (and shop there anyway), my butt seems to have grown accustomed to sitting in a big, fancy hot tub while my kids are zooming down the “Hurricane”. You just can’t do that at the smaller motels in March. I hate to admit it, but this has been our third time to The Wilderness. And while I feel a little guilty for going against my nostalgic ideals, I'd prefer to say “I did it for my family”.

-Sir Monocle

Merton on Art

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal ran this article entitled "Arts Groups Lose Out in Fight for Funds". It reminded me of an interview I heard on NPR a few months ago where the executive director of a prominent museum basically threw up his hands and said, "while what we're doing may bring meaning to people's lives, it's not saving any".

On my way into the city this morning, my train partner, John, noticed that I've been reading Thomas Merton's "No Man is an Island". It just so happens that John's Godfather was a Trappist who lived at the Abbey of Gethsemani at the time Merton was in residence. His Godfather had a few interesting reflections on the famous scholar. I'll leave that alone for digression's sake. But, apparently, those guys ate like porkers and drank like hell.

In the book, Merton has this to offer (Chapter 3, "Conscience, Freedom, and Prayer" pg 34-36)

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. The mind that responds to the intellectual and spiritual values that lie hidden in a poem, a painting, or a piece of music, discovers a spiritual vitality that lifts it above itself, takes it out of itself, and makes it present to itself on a level of being that it did not know it could ever achieve.

... If the Church has emphasized the function of art in her public prayer, it has been because she knew that a true and valid aesthetic formation was necessary for the wholeness of Christian living and worship. The liturgy and the chant and Church art are all supposed to form and spiritualize man's consciousness, to give him a tone and a maturity without which his prayer cannot normally be either very deep or very wide or very pure.

There is only one reason why this is completely true: art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order, which it expresses and in some sense explains. Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God because they induce a kind of contact with the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. The genius of the artist finds its way by the affinity of creative sympathy, or conaturality, into the living law that rules the universe. This law is nothing but the secret gravitation that draws all things to God as to their center. Since all true art lays bare the action of this same law in the depths of our own nature, it makes us alive to the tremendous mystery of being, in which we ourselves, together with all other living and existing things, come forth from the depths of God and return again to Him. An art that does not produce something of this is not worthy of its name."

In the purest sense, then, art does far more than bring meaning into our lives. It's our spiritual life preserver (musicians, no pressure, no pressure).

-Sir Monocle

Psalmody help me

The best part of my weekend was enjoying the outdoors with family. Playing catch with my 7 year old daughter was very entertaining. She blamed her errors on her pink baseball glove, explaining, "it's not wooking".

This past Saturday, I attended an AGO members retreat. The theme was creativity. I learned that there is a wealth of information on this topic within the first few chapters of Genesis. At the retreat, I received a copy of the ledgend that follows. I don't know its exact source, though I believe it to be authentic to the 1st century AD. For another, more contemporary look at psamody, I'd also recommend this article by Franciscan, Bob Sprott, entitled, "The Church's Hymnal".

AND IT CAME TO PASS, when Paul was at Corinth, he and certain disciples came upon a mob that was stoning an organist. 2 And Paul said unto them, "What then hath he done unto thee that his head should be bruised?" 3 And the people cried with one voice, "He hath played too loud. 4 Yea, in the singing of psalms, he maketh our heads to ring as if they were beaten with hammers. 5 Behold, he sitteth up high in the loft, and mighty are the pipes and mighty is the noise thereof, and though there be few of us below, he nonetheless playeth with all the stops, the Assyrian Trumpet stop and the stop of the Ram's Horn and the stop that soundeth like the sawing of stone, and we cannot hear the words that do come out of our own mouths. 6 He always tosseth in variations that confuse us mightily and he playeth loud and discordantly and always in militant tempo, so that we have not time to breathe as we sing. 7 Lo, he is a plague upon the faith and should be chastised." 8 Paul, hearing this, had himself picked up a small stone, and was about to cast it, but he set it down, and bade the organist come forward. 9 He was a narrow man, pale of complexion, dry, flaking, thin of hair. 10 And Paul said unto him, "Why hast thou so abused thy brethren?" 11 And the organist replied, I could not hear them singing from where I sat,and therefore played the louder so as to encourage them." 12 And Paul turned around to the mob and said loudly, "Let him who has never played an organ cast the first stone." 13 And they cast stones for a while until their arms were tired and Paul bade the organist repent and he did. 14 And Paul said unto him, "Thou shalt take up the flute and play it for thirty days, to cleanse thy spirit," and afterwards they returned to Corinth and sang psalms unaccompanied and then had coffee and were refreshed in the faith.

Attributed to Garrison Keillor, manuscript edited and corrected.


-Sir Monocle

Happiness

This past Sunday, my son participated in his Indian Guides Pinewood Derby. In years’ past, his car (it’s really our car as it's a joint venture) has done rather poorly. Last year, it barely made it down the track. But this year, the stars shone brightly in our favour. Following the advice of my brother-in-law (he’s a physicist) we made sure the car was properly balanced, the axles greased and wheels aligned just right. My son was so proud to finally win a race in this rather dad-dominated event. Granted, every dad wants their son to win. But to see some of these cars, one would suppose the kid never even touched the thing. I was happy that we did it fair and square, together.

Tonight, I’m singing in my home parish’s men’s choir. It’s a group that sings on Good Friday, every year. What makes this somewhat interesting for me is that I won’t be directing. I’ll be singing. My train partner has found my inner struggles with this very entertaining because while I promise to be on my best behaviour, I know I’ll be evaluating the conductor throughout the rehearsal.

This scenario reminds me of a CSO rehearsal I attended some years ago. The conductor was Maris Janson. The band was rehearsing the Brahms piano concerto and Daniel Barenboim was the pianist. This is one for the ages. Janson barebly begins the piece when Barenboim stands up and walks over to the conductor to educate him on the phrasing Brahms intended – right in front of the orchestra, the audience, God and everyone. As they say, for every stage there is room for only one diva.

-Sir Monocle

Starting Over

The following is my "Message from the Dean" found in the Spring edition of the SW Suburban AGO Newsletter.

A few years ago, my wife and I had watched this reality show called "Starting Over". On the show, a group of women came together to live in a house with the hopes of leaving their old lives behind them. It was easy for me to watch this show and say "gee, if Mary would only cut out the carbs" or "if Megan would just stop dating such abusive men…". These weren’t problems I’ve ever encountered, personally. Still, I truly empathized with these ladies because I believed everyone, at some point in their lives, has experienced a need to "Start Over". What, I think, made the show a success wasn’t that these individuals worked out their issues alone, but with the support of one another.

As an organist "between jobs", I will tell you that losing your job is no fun. There is definitely pain in being "let go". But, as I discovered, the transition actually came with some benefits! As soon as I secured a new position (I start my new job on June 1st), I was able to relax and enjoy my weekends for the first time in years. I’ve also been able to go to church WITH my family. What a great experience that has been! I’ve also been able to reflect and ask myself some real questions such as; Why do I do this work in the first place? Where do I go from here? And, where does the AGO fit into all of this?

I believe I do this work because I enjoy sharing and discovering musical ideas. I’m continually amazed how this work constantly shapes me into a better musician, a better leader, and a better person. The AGO fits beautifully into all of this because it is the "community" which I turn to for knowledge, inspiration and friendship. As I was reminded last month, when you have been "let go" from a position, that is no time to begin building your professional network! Thankfully, my AGO friends helped me, and I was able to land another job.

This season of spiritual renewal reminds me of an often quoted line of St. Francis. At the end of his life, he is said to have told his friars, "Let us begin again, for up to now, we have done nothing."

While it’s never too late to start over, I think Francis would agree that personal growth is a life long process in which we must frequently assess where we are and where we are headed. Notice Francis’ choice of words. Instead of "I" or "you", he uses the words "us" and "we".

For the purpose of collegiality, I would like to encourage you (especially those whom we haven’t seen in a while) to re-connect with your AGO colleagues by attending any one of our upcoming events. Consider our Lenten Retreat "A Spiritual Journey to Greater Creativity" on March 14th. You may find that the programming available to you through our chapter is better than you realized!

No matter where you are professionally, there is always something more to learn and someone new to meet. There’s no need to start over by yourself. Our chapter is here for you and me - and we’re all in this together.

- Sir Monocle

Sir Monocle has taken some time off

but will be back.