April 03, 2009

Foliage of the Heart


Guerrieri: Now Once More (2009) (PDF, 2 pages, 122 Kb; MIDI here)

I've never ended up hiring trumpets for Easter, since I'm always miffed at how much they want to gouge me. But a very nice person at my church had the wherewithal to recruit a couple players from the local high school this year, so I wrote an introit for them. I'm not sure I like it as much as our usual Easter introit, but when life gives you trumpets, make trumpetade. (Plus, the first line makes a good Beckett-like title.)

In other news:
  • Geoff Edgers profiles one of the best musicians I know.
  • President Obama's gift to the Queen of England—an iPod loaded with showtunes—was actually rather spot-on.
  • "ACCESS TO QUALITY MUSIC EDUCATION SHOULD NOT BE ONLY FOR THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD IT. THE BENEFITS ARE TOO GREAT." Emphasis Linda Ronstadt's.
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber, anti-piracy crusader! The original Phantom of the Opera is public domain, right? Puccini as well? Just sayin'.
  • Although I would certainly not turn down some of that filthy lucre in order to bid on an original edition of the Kandinsky/Marc Der Blaue Reiter almanac, including facsimiles of song manuscripts by Schoenberg ("Herzgewächse"), Berg ("Warm die Lüfte"), and Webern ("Ihr tratet zu dem Herde"). Christie's gives an estimate of $40,000-70,000. (Compare that with the number quoted in the first item in this list.)
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4 comments:

  1. Scott3:57 PM

    Keep in mind that we trumpeters do not play every Sunday as a rule. Thus Easter is one of our few opportunities to make some church money, unlike chorister, choir directors, and organists.

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  2. Matthew4:18 PM

    I do understand—I freelance, too—but it's gotten fairly ridiculous around these parts, at least, the past few years. Mine is a small church (with a volunteer chorus), so when I'm getting quoted double-and-over union scale without even a chance to audition the player, I tend to become protective of my rather limited budget.

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  3. Robert F. Jones12:48 PM

    The local high school trumpeters know about C-flats? wow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Matthew6:04 PM

    Well, D-flats, transposed. (And if they don't, well, here's their chance.)

    ReplyDelete