Half Way through the Fall Semester

The fall 2014 semester is in full swing and I just finished a week of midterm exams.  My classes are going well and I am learning a great deal.  In Theory we are studying counterpoint, modulation, and mode mixture.  In Sight Singing, we are learning to sing solfège using scale numbers instead of sol fa syllables.  In conducting we are learning to cue, show dynamic expression, and use the baton.  One of our conducting classes met in the swimming pool to demonstrate different resistances.  We are speeding through music history having already studied the Baroque (1685-1750) and Classical (1750-1821) periods and we are now studying the Romantic period.

In addition to music at school, I sing in three choral groups in St. Paul the Apostle Parish.  I sing alto in the St. John’s Adult Choir, which sings most Sunday mornings at the 10:30 am Masses and rehearses on Thursday evenings.  I sing with the schola choir and often cantor at St. Teresa’s Church at the Masses on Sunday evenings at 5:30 pm. 

I sing with the St. John’s Chamber Choir, which presents two concerts a year:  one in Advent in December and the other in Lent, usually in March.  The 2014 Advent concert will be Saturday evening, December 6, at 7:30 pm at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York St., Bangor.  We will be singing works of Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981), William Byrd (1540-1623), Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), Richard Lloyd (b. 1933), Robert Parsons (1530-1572), Leonhard Paminger (1495-1567), and Andrew Smith (b. 1970).  Some will be a cappella and some will be accompanied by pipe organ.  Admission is free, and donations are appreciated.

I sing with the Oratorio Society, a mixed choir of university students and community members led by Fran Vogt.  We are presenting G. F. Handel’s Dixit Dominus on Sunday, November 16, at 2 pm in Minsky Hall on the University of Maine campus.  Admission is $9 and is free for University of Maine students.

I continue to learn to play music for the catholic liturgy.  I will be playing the organ for the 5:30 pm Mass at St. Teresa’s on October 26.

Every Monday during each semester, music major students perform for each other and for faculty in Recital Lab.  I will be performing on Monday, November 3, at 2:10 pm in Minsky Hall.  I will play Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Minor ("The Cathedral"), BWV 533, on the pipe organ in Minsky Hall.  Below are a couple of pictures of the small organ in Minsky Hall.  This organ was originally built by Hook and Hastings in 1908 and was rebuilt and tonally revised in 1968 by Fritz Noack and John Boody when Boody was a student at the University of Maine.  Boody is one of the founders of Taylor and Boody Organbuilders:

http://www.taylorandboody.com/

The Boody Noack Pipe Organ in Minsky Hall

The Organ Name Plate