Sunday, April 20, 2003

Easter Day evening

I'm sitting here relaxed and tired but refreshed after a short nap. The long season of Lent culminating in Easter is over. Easter now will linger until Pentecost. But my music duties go back to normal, after six weeks of extra services, including two memorial services. Today I played both piano and organ. A trumpet player played the prelude, postlude, and accompanied some of the hymns. Two altos sang Vivaldi's "Laudamus Te," accompanied by a jazz acoustic bass player. The trumpet player stayed for the beginning of the Spanish service, too.

Yesterday, of course, was spent dreading what might happen today as I wasn't able to practice with the singers or trumpet player until 45 minutes before the service. Then one of the organ pipes needed tuning (a 16' F#, crucial for all the hymns in D major). The person who knows how to do it didn't show up until about ten minutes before the service. But everything turned out fine and was very festive.

This afternoon, to recover, I went for a leisurely stroll at the Huntington gardens. It seems such a civilized thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. In the desert garden the ice plants are in shockingly bright full bloom. I walked around to the Japanese garden to admire the bonsai, rub the California jade river rock "sculptures," and sit quietly and contemplate the Zen rock garden.

Then I went to the William Blake exhibit. I didn't realize he was an artist as well as a poet. Many of his etchings and illustrations are of biblical themes and thus fit with my frame of mind today. I was intrigued by his etchings (and interpretation) of the book of Job.

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