Gates Of Vienna: Why We Fight Reason #4558

The authors of Gates of Vienna have been conducting their lonely war against the encroachment of Islam upon the West, recognizing that our survival is at stake, that their intentions toward us are not at all benign.

Today's post, linked above, is a jewel. It reminds us all, each engaged in little bit of The War For The West, of why it matters that we get up every morning, and do what we do in our worlds.

Even if, by some miracle, militant Islam were to evaporate from the face of the earth by lunchtime today, we still face massive challenges flowing from the erosion of our culture from within. OS believes that had we been paying attention all along, and not stood by while the ground eroded from under our feet, that bad actors like Islamists, Chavistas, various Fascists, President Teleprompter and the left side of the Democrat Party (who will rescue TheWeiner, by the way) would not have smelled blood in the water and circled 'round.

So, enjoy the link. Lace up 'yer boots. It's another day.

Julia Project Week 1, and a Bach Moment

The goal--to learn every Bach chorale as published in the classic Breitkopf edition--to able to sing any line whilst playing the other three.

Week one: This is fun, and it is a mind-bender for those like me, trained as single-line orchestral musicians. But it's fun for just that reason.

I've spent great stretches of my life feeling vaguely restless and at times unhappy. After the privilege of marriage to my bride and raising two bright children with her, it finally dawned on me that the restlessness was borne out of boredom: If I'm not learning something, working on the next project, creating something, I'm not happy.

Everyone in the house is the same sort of person, including the border collies.

Bach scratches that itch. And ideas for my composing/arranging trade are beginning to flow fast and furious.

And, for this week's Bach moment: Rostropovich performing the prelude to the first Cello Suite. It's about two minutes long.

Bach worked in obscurity, in deeply difficult circumstances.

Rostropovich survived both WWII and Stalin in Russia.

Both endured to create this moment.

'Julia Projects'

Nora Ephron, the creator of Julie & Julia, definitely makes the list for the 'Green Shoots' Award.

Go see the movie, I don't wish to give it away.

It's the account of two people deciding to take life by the horns by embarking on a long-term difficult project, the outcome of which was unknowable. What follows should inspire us all.

I've got one 'Julia Project' underway already: 18-handicap golf, walking the course from the blue tees. Right now, I'm getting close riding from the white or yellow tees, so there is much work to do, but it's pure joy.

And, closer to home, there is the standard volume of the Bach chorales sitting on my piano. What if I could learn to play any three voices while singing the fourth, and take on the whole book? I've toyed with it, and it's not easy. Today I began deliberately, making the morning coffee and visiting with the master before anything else is undertaken.

I begin with #137: 'Was Gott vertraut, hat wohl gebaut.'
Who puts his trust in God most just
Hath built his house securely

G major, just one sharp to deal with, no major departure from the key, and the melody is very simple. This should be doable! After all, I'm a an experienced musician--people pay me for what I do and know in this field.

Five minutes in, I'm totally absorbed, singing one line and playing another. Looks are deceiving, I discover again, with the internal voices (each simple in itself) coinciding to create a complex and subtle whole.

On to my day--bills to pay, forms to fill out, work to do.

That book of chorales stares at me from the piano.

Thanks, Julia, Julie, Norah, and Johann.

BACHanalia: Music for the soul of a city

Friday evening, March 27, 2009 was an extraordinarily good evening for Nashville, as Christ Church Cathedral hosted its annual six-hour marathon of the music of J.S. Bach.

Two hundred performers(many of them professionals), a very conservative official estimate of 600 in the audience (I counted a lot more), and some fifty volunteers all converged downtown for an evening of extraordinary music-making.

Only Bach's music speaks in every setting, be it performed on harps, or a trombone choir from the balcony, or a double-reed ensemble, or solo English Horn, along with the more traditional performances by organ, harpsichord, choir, and continuo. A twelve year-old boy held the house spell-bound with his treble rendition of Schlummert ein from the cantata BWV 82. Complete presentations of the 'Coffee Cantata' and the motet 'Jesu Meine Freude' were heard for the first time in recent memory. The evening ended with brilliant jazz renditions for soprano saxophone and piano, performed for the brave souls who stayed to the end, and for the volunteers.

The first notes, played at 5:00 on the harp, were heard by about 200 in the pews. As the evening progressed, the pews filled, and soon the house became SRO, with the little café in the Parish Hall abuzz with audience taking a quick supper break before heading back for more music. There were teenagers, young families with children, buttoned-down banker/lawyer types, bohemian artist types, taking it all in. Musicians came early to hear their colleagues, and stayed late after performing. You could hear a pin drop during the performances, and the applause was warm and long.

Professional musicians can be a prickly, territorial, and self-absorbed lot. Susan Dupont, the event's organizer, has the gift of inviting all these people to donate significant hours of practice, drive miles, and lend instruments; all for the privilege of participating gratis in a Bach marathon, together. Corporate sponsors and private donors stepped up generously in the throes of deep recession. This would not happen for for a Haydn or Mendelssohn marathon; as great as they were, their music wouldn't survive performance by a saxophone quartet. There is a universality, a (Dare it be said these days?) spiritual transcendence to Bach's music not found anywhere else in Western culture; and the more we look toward the source of his inspiration, and his lifelong response to it, the sooner we may regain our own cultural soul.

Thankfully, there was a photographer present, and he posted a few shots here:
The solo image on page 4 summarizes the evening brilliantly.

If you're in the area next Spring, set the evening aside, and join in.
Plan to arrive early; I suspect the crowd will grow dramatically.

And, if you live elsewhere, perhaps this is worth pursuing in your own part of the world.

Just a thought…