Janurary 26, 2020--Practice Blog

Whew. It has been a long day and it is only 3:30 pm.....

The day started with church service. There was a piece that a group was singing today that I honestly had not practiced enough. So I was nervous about it and went earlier than usual to practice it a couple times. Got there 1/2 hour earlier than normal. Practiced until the rehearsal time. We spent another 1/2 hour wood-shedding the piece and I got plenty of repetitions on it. Then we had choir rehearsal for another tough piece of music--Howard Helvey's Bethlehem of Noblest Cities. Lots of cross rhythms in it. He wrote it for the church I play at, so it is special there--but still a pain to play. After church, my wife and I went to lunch and quickly stopped by the house to pick up a couple of scores. This afternoon, I participated in the final recital of a festival of students through high school age. I was the closing performer. I then took my wife up to her office an did some shopping for a haggis dinner I am planning on cooking tomorrow night. Not traditional haggis, but one I've tried before and liked.

On the organ, I ran through the service music. My prelude was Mit Fried Chorale prelude from Orgelbuchlein. My postlude was the little C major Prelude and Fugue attributed to Bach. I improvised on the "Happy Days" theme during children's time and improvised on "When Morning Gilds the Sky" during the passing of the peace.

On the piano, I warmed up with Beethoven Op. 101 and Op. 10 No. 2. These were the pieces I played on the recital. First movements only.