Archive | April 2011

When I Dance

Apr30

By Cosi Fabian

When I dance, the sun sails safely through the night
When I dance, the future is formed by my feet
When I dance, the stars move through the heavens
When I dance, Venus shimmers the desert
When I dance, dust becomes silver, stones are made of gold…

Last Day

Apr30

Saint Bridget

by Eleanor Farjeon

Part of a series of poems on saint’s lives and because I have been lax in my flamekeeping.

Saint Bridget she was beautiful
In feature and in deed
And she would give the world away
To anyone in need.
It was enough for her to know
Of beggars at her door
That women starved and babes were cold,
And ragged men were poor.

Saint Bridget gave the world away
And cut her golden hair
To dwell beneath the Holy Oak
Men speak of in Kildare.
The stick she put her lips upon
Broke straightway into flower,
The sunbeam in her greenwood cell
Lingered beyond its hour.

Saint Bridget laid her beauty by
That earth might leave her be,
And God bestowed it twice on her
Till angels leaned to see.
‘Look, look! There goes the loveliest one
In Ireland ever known,
Our Bride who gave the world away
And made all heaven her own.

The Wedding

Apr29

I’m sitting here listening to various hold music that Doctors and Hospitals use on their systems. Some of it weird and a lot of it terrible and reflecting back on the sublime music used in the wedding this morning. Growing up as a choir brat in a church where music ruled the service spoiled me so I was very interested to see what William and Kate would choose for their service and while it was a little heavy on the Parry it was all beautiful. I especially like the John Rutter piece he composed for them, that was glorious and I bet a lot of church choir directors just started to try and find it for their choirs.

Selecting the right music for any service is not easy and picked music for a royal wedding can’t have been easy with all the past precedents and the urge not to replicate but stay in the same tradition. They done good.

That is about the only thing I ever miss about becoming a pagan, our music hasn’t come up to the level of Parry, Rutter, or Durufle’ etc. Maybe in time it will but not yet.

I thought it was interesting the chose the Mealor “Ubi Caritas” and not the one by Durufle’. I still liked it but I think I like Durufle’ better, probably because I have such good memories of singing under Paul Salamunovich at All State Junior College Honor Choir. I got to sing the choir boy’s part and it was great fun. He was one of the most fun conductors I ever sang for and he loves altos which is even better. If you ever get a chance to do a clinic with him, DO IT! He’s funny and brings out the best in his singers. We got to spend 8 hours a day with him rehearsing for a week for a Choral Conductors Guild Conference and it was a week of bliss. He also tells a lot of Marilyn Horne stories and tall tales which caused us to spray a shovel with gold paint and give it to him at our last rehearsal. Some where I still have the vinyl record of it even if I can’t play it. I’d love to get it converted to MP3. Someday… (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Salamunovich)

I sang under Dr Charles C Hirt’s wife growing up and under him once a year when we had Choir Recognition Sunday. His wife was just as good as he was and I think worked harder because she had to choral all of us kids, make us behave and make us sing like angels and we did because we were both terrified of her and we loved her. She had all the qualifications of her husband but stood in his rather large shadow. He had 2 choirs at church, she always had at least 4 going, sometimes more while he was teaching at USC. (http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/12/local/me-24375) And she arranged a lot of the children’s and girl’s choir pieces for us.

Anyway, I miss the feeling of being in a choir and singing amazing choral music but not enough to go back to a Christian church.

I loved that they included Prince Edward’s daughter, Lady Louise, she has strabismus and they easily could have left her out for not looking right. Yay for William and his bride for being inclusive! Plus she was just adorable as were the rest of the bridesmaids in their crisp white dresses.

Alison and I kept looking for our friend, Maureen every time we saw a motorcycle officer. She is a motorcycle police sergeant and her beat is Buckingham palace but we only saw men. Fuzz is really tall with bright red hair. She’s kind to hard to miss even with a helmet on.
Alison wanted to watch ABC but I voted for the BBC because the Beeb knows when to shut up and they let the church service go on with out yacking about every little thing. If you watch American TV they seem to be afraid to let things unfold naturally. They have to fill the silence and I find that annoying. If I was going to attend a church service even virtually, I wanted to do it right. Too much childhood training I guess, besides the BBC included things like showing the tile floor and the mosaic behind the altar and talking about their history and restoration. I love the added history and not the silly celebrity watching. I really didn’t care what Posh was wearing. I liked knowing which heads of state were there and that the trees were going to be planted on one of the estates. I wanted to know the history of things and what was behind the 2 different choral groups outfits. Now I know why we wore red robes and white cottas. They were almost identical to the Abbey choir robes. I think somewhere I have a picture of Alison in one, maybe I’ll find it and scan it.

Just had a chat with one of the women here who also watched, something must be wrong with my taste ( or not American enough). She kept saying nothing was big enough, the dress wasn’t fancy enough and the train wasn’t long enough. Kate’s mother wasn’t wearing enough bling and the bouquets were too small and there weren’t enough flowers in the Abbey. I thought the dress was perfect and the bouquets were just right. And unless you are doing the pagan jewelry races there was just the right amount of bling. But then I hate big earrings. Hell, Mom thought my 5 ear piercings were vulgar and cheap but then she thought when I got the first 2 they were, I think she put it, for gypsies and whores. She thought a watch and 2 screw back earrings were enough and maybe a brooch for special occasions. I didn’t realize that ‘less is more’ had crept into my psyche even if I don’t always do it but then she thought when I had long hair and put things in it, it was vulgar too. Besides if you have a beautiful bouquet why do you need bling? Oh I forgot the bouquet wasn’t big enough. Well. I thought it was lovely and traditional and just right and not too heavy to haul around and very sweet to add the Sweet William which I love.

I also thought it was great that Bucklebury had Morris dancing. Yay for Morris dancers!