The organist librarian

Mass and art. Interfaith lunch was enjoyable and had a good chat about truth to Fr David walking to our cars. Went to Battersea to collect mosaics in the mddle of bingo. Decided to park at Selhurst.  A really unpleasant 52 bus ride to the hall. Woman in front of me put purse up to pay and said the man in front of her is with me. She then argued with the black driver and was very rude to him and other passengers. In the end the driver drove off and the man got a free ride but the driver should have called 999 and had them both arrested as the man kept on talking to him when he was driving which is dangerous. I have reported to tfl and praised the driver for keeping calm and polite under extreme provocation. Had I been quicker I would have discretely videoed the incident on my mobile phone.  Super Tchaik 6 and well done Mena for ignoring applause and going on into 4th movement. Not happy with Mark Simpson interesting talk but not to be able to hear a single word in a choral wor...

Peter has posted his last post in Hills of the North rejoice! He will be much missed. 2500 posts is impressive.

Spoke to Ann and Paul on Skype. To Coulsdon for family Eucharist. We didn't sing Gloria or Lamb of God because Vickie said the congregation didn't have the words! I played lots of French noels. To Purley for 12 noon Mass. Fr Jim did his best to get people celebrating but the singing was pathetic despite having the organ played by "Bill". The little boy behind me shouted out "No! I want that!" and had to be removed to the sacristy. Liz came home from serving at the cathedral and we both went to second Vespers and Benediction. superb singing from the choir of Bethlehem Down by Warlock and O magnum mysterium by Poulenc. Messiaen Dieu parmi nous at the end - that final chord is amazing. Nice to see Deacon Peter. Grandma joined us for dinner of roast beef and mango pudding. Spoke to Graham on Skype.

Congratulations to deacon Peter Simpson on the 10th anniversary of his ordination. See Chapel of the resurrection for some fine thoughts and photos! I served at Mass this evening and Mgr Mark congratulated Peter. He preached a fine homily on the sacrifice of Abraham. When I was waiting for the bus to go to chorus, a lady said "Is he going to become a priest?" Why can't people accept deacons as permanently in that state? I was late for chorus - Beethoven 9 again from memory for the first night of the Proms on the 13th. The men are to be in black shirts again, no ties and jackets - I hate that! Robert finished early. Liz did not come as Mum wasn't feeling good. This morning I only swam 18 lengths as had to be at St Mark's centre, Battersea for 8am breakfast meeting where we saw presentations about plans for Clapham Junction and the traffic around it. Very interesting and at last there will be disabled access to the station!

I miss singing "Victimae paschali" again this year! In the morning we sing "O sons and daughters" arranged by Anthony Greening - Martin Baker memorably arranged this for the Vigil. Liz is cross because I ask her to sing at evensong and she has a dinner to prepare. I am worried because 2 sopranos say they may not be coming but in the end everyone is present and we are able to bring off big items like Stanford's Psalm 150, Stanford in C and "Blessed be the God and Father". Ellie sings the solo more confidently and with better breath control so she ought to pass her Bishop's Award this year. Twice today the wrong hymn number is announced but all is soon sorted! The Sanders responses based on the Dresden Amen from "Parsifal" work well. We sing a fine hymn by Timothy Dudley-Smith "Light of the minds that know him" to a haunting minor Welsh tune. Best of all there is a procession to "Hail thee festival day" - the congregatio...

The organist librarian: Happy Easter! http://revprs.blogspot.com Just discovered a superb singing of the Exultet on http://godzdogz.op.org Both these sites are favourites! Easter Sunday and the organist pulls out all the stops to catch that feeling of triumph! At Coulsdon we sang Haydn's little organ Mass St Johannis de Deo, This joyful Eastertide and the Celtic Alleluia! At the end I played Herbert Howells' Saraband for the morning of Easter. I see there is a Howells on My Space! Picked up Grandma and drove to Acton for lunch at Louise and Tom's - delicious belly of pork and chocolate pudding. Bruce joined us and Liz came straight from the cathedral where the choir sang the Vierne setting. Unusual for us to miss evensong or vespers but we were both tired out. Watched Aled Jones on TV learning to play the drums!

To 10am Morning prayer at the cathedral with magnificent singing from the choir (Anerio, Victoria, Gesualdo). Chat to Deacon Peter and he has commented about Palm Sunday. Invited him to dinner and thanks to him for this lovely image. Joined the Westminster procession led by members of the Passage and Sister Ellen Flynn to the Abbey and at the end met Janet Whiting the chair of Churches Together in Westminster, Lots of people took part. We sat in the front for the 3pm liturgy. The Cardinal gave a wonderful homily on how all are welcomed and accepted by the Church. The choir on stunning form (Bruckner, Victoria, Gesualdo, Casals). The servers led the veneration at the end. Picked up Micky and drove to Coulsdon. The St Luke Passion went really well and the recording is good although the tape recorder is showing signs of its age. About 30 in the congregation. Adrian did a great job at the organ and the augmented choir sounds excellent. All the soloists coped well and Karen's 2 arias ar...

And so the greatest week of the year begins! We spent Saturday rehearsing for the Holy Week ceremonies at the cathedral. We began with an excellent talk by Father Slawomir aimed at the youngsters about the Triduum liturgy. After a shared lunch, Deacon Peter gave a fine talk about our role aimed more at the adults. See Peter Simpson's excellent blog http://revprs.blogspot.com for some fine stations of the Cross. There was quite a lot of waiting around and I felt that the day started too early and was too long for some people. Also there was a missed opportunity to go through some general aspects of our serving like processing, acting together on stands and sits, and clarification of some aspects. An obvious point is where to sit on the sanctuary. I find it much better to sit in the stalls as I can hear there and I am not on top of the heating ducts which can be like a sauna at times! The 6 p.m. Palm Sunday Mass is shown on the cathedral blog. See http://westminstercathedral.blogspot...