Last week I agreed to play timpani for a friend I met during the March Freisinger B-Minor madness. This is my current business trend: stand-in percussionist.
[Did I mention I played drum set for Zach Braff a couple Mondays ago? Yes...the Scrubs guy.]
So Thursday night I drove in to play timp for the graduation Baccalaureate service for Boston College High School at a church in Southie. For a private school there were so many people in the audience. Every pew in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross was packed side to side. The church's architecture is exquisite. Four second reverb even with carpet-laden floors allowed for Maggie's well-prepared choirs to sound even rounder and more amplified (playing for her is quite a treat too- a great conductor AND a singer...with sass!). The alter...white marble and ornately designed.
From the website:
Designed by the nineteenth century Irish-American ecclesiasitical architect Patrick Keely, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross boasts a length of 364 feet, a width of 90 feet, and a height of 120 feet. In 1860, Bishop John Fitzpatrick realized that Boston had outgrown the cathedral on Franklin Street, but the Civil War interrupted plans for building a replacement. Ground was finally broken on April 29, 1866. The rites of dedication for New England's largest church were performed on December 8, 1875 by Archbishop John J. Williams, Boston's first archbishop. The Cathedral can seat just over 1700 people. Constructed in the Gothic Revival style, it utilizes both Roxbury puddingstone and gray limestone. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross contains an 1875 Hook and Hastings pipe organ, the largest, and arguably finest, instrument ever built by that company.
I grabbed a glass of shiraz at a local thai-fusion place down a few blocks from the church after, waiting for a friend. And here comes a pun...
Meow-com X?
Wellesley and its shared-name college is where I am singing as a choral ringer/soloist cover for the Brookline Chorus' Bach B-Minor Mass (appropriately enough). Great group with great energy and community shared spirit for this music. Lisa Graham is conductor- real pleasure to sing for her. She allotted me time to step in for the soloist last night who was out of town...that Domine Deus duet for tenor and soprano is just so lovely. When music fits your body, you just know.
I discovered the picturesque Massachusetts I was looking for and having difficulty finding in Western Massachusetts. This place is gorgeous even when skies are gloomy and rain is pouring. So many trees and stone buildings and a Whole Foods with unlimited free samples! I learned of a root called Fiddlehead - from a fern that you boil and can make with vegetable or chicken stock broths. They taste like a weaker cousin of the generic green bean. Nothing to write home about other than the fact that you just ate boiled fern.
Now within one month before my flight to Australia and ten days to Toronto...and all this [Tafel]musik to learn!
Congrats to Will and Thomas, who like myself, will join the roster of Boston Baroque starting the 2011-2012 season. Just keep putting trust in music and everything will be alright.
And hopefully, couchsurfing.com.
Fern?
No comments:
Post a Comment