Soldiering On

I am so very sleepy.

I've been running on a sleep deficit today, having only slept for four hours last night. There's no rest for the weary though; I am still working on the NC-ACS newsletter.

I'd have to remember to have an earlier night tonight as I cantor the 7.45 am Mass at Immaculate Conception tomorrow morning.

We had our dress rehearsal at Grace Baptist Church this morning. I was very happy that the choirs of First Presbyterian and Watts St. Baptist will be joining my choir in singing the Hal Hopson arrangement of Dona Nobis Pacem. (Members of St. Philip's Episcopal Church were also invited to join my group; however, I don't know any of them by face, so I have no way of knowing if they were amongst those who joined us this morning).

They picked it up pretty quickly. They also appreciated that I replaced the last page, which consists of an Amen setting with two-equal parts, to a reconstructed SAB Amen. Why reconstructed? I sang this anthem whilst a member of Montgomery Junior High School's choir. (I'm pretty sure I was in the choir as Adeline Hernandez and Gary Thomas, who were the student accompanists, were still in the choir at that point.) We sang an SAB version of it, so had a three-part canon (as opposed to the two-part canon we'll be singing tomorrow). When I first introduced this anthem to my choir, I was very disappointed at how... well, thin the Amen section sounded. I was happier with the more full SAB version. So one day, I sat down at the piano and reconstructed that section. And it works well.

I am looking forward to this hymnfest. And I'm glad the Durham-Chapel Hill chapter of the American Guild of Organists is able to help out by contributing the trumpeter to this festival.

I should get back to work. Knowing how busy I'll be tomorrow (two morning services, hymn fest in the afternoon, dinner with the main organisers of the hymnfest for afters, followed by Compline), I will probably not have any time to work on the newsletter tomorrow.