We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £2 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident singer -- follow along with the text and see what you can pick up. Everyone is welcome. If we don't have enough confident singers we can always say the liturgy instead.
This setting uses the words from Common Worship Traditional Language Compline. Various smartphone apps for this exist and it is also available from the C of E website on the day, if you're worried we won't have enough music or you'd rather just use the words.
Some time ago, Thomas Thurman drew my attention to a text to try setting as a hymn. The story behind the text, as well as the text itself, is here.
After spending the requisite months sitting in a "drafts" drawer while I got distracted by other things, and some help with editing from various people (Dr Christopher Parker at St Mary's Addington was particularly helpful), I think it's about as finished as it is going to get.
I've called the tune "Hitchin", because that is the birthplace of the author of the text, and because clever Latin things ended up looking like "Cum hoc tellure" which, let's face it, isn't going to be a giggle-proof title for working with choirs.
Today the some churches celebrate or remember the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and this morning after the necessary clarification about just whose conception this refers to (the Immaculate Conception is not the same as the Virgin Birth), I was thinking about that. I was thinking about how it is that when someone does something wonderful, or fulfills what we might call God's purposes for them, we are sometimes tempted to say "Oh, but they're special, we could never do that..." rather than being inspired by their actions. For me, the amazing thing about Mary is not that God chose her or somehow set her aside -- whether or however that happened -- but that she said YES. "Let it be unto me according to thy will," she said.
Or possibly, in today's language, "My Lord, I pray my life will mirror you."
1) Flash Compline again tonight. Christ Church Greyfriars, 9.15pm. Details here. We arrive quietly, and depart in silence.
2) I have a very rudimentary page on Bandcamp now. It lacks a biography, pictures, that sort of thing. The one track there is one that you can also download for free from Soundcloud; I'm using it as a sort of test, to play around with things like artwork. So it's very un-pretty right now, but it's there. Advice, other than "do more stuff with it", would be welcome.
3) The Advent Psalms are going well but I am, obviously, not going to have the booklet done by the start of Advent. I will try to finish something by January, so that the next time Year B comes around I can just point at it. This may seem like a long way off but these lectionary cycles seem to go awfully fast if you ask me. If I do the same thing for Lent I will try and get it finished with more time to spare.
4) I've started using my Dreamwidth account as a sort of notes repository for creative projects. The idea is that I update the post for each project as I go along, so that my various notes are all in one place. I can make the entries private or restrict them to an access list of Dreamwidth/OpenID users if I need to put more sensitive information in them.
There will be a Flash Compline service at 9.45pm on Wednesday, 30th November, outside St James Garlickhythe, near Mansion House Tube station. Here is a map.
Music: We will use this setting of Compline. I will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase from me for £2 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident singer -- follow along with the text and see what you can pick up. Everyone is welcome. If we don't have enough confident singers we can always say the liturgy instead. This setting uses the words from Common Worship Traditional Language Compline. Various smartphone apps for this exist and it is available from the C of E website here on the day, if you're worried we won't have enough music or you'd rather just use the words.
From what the internet tells me, this is a very simple portable harmonium. More complicated ones have drone stops which, when activated, sound a drone note constantly, and some also have couplers or even separate sets of reeds to give various different textures.
I'm quite pleased with this: I finally have a keyboard instrument that can play more than one note at once which fits on my bicycle. The fact that it doesn't require electricity is an added bonus. I think it will be really good for folk music and some bits of community music, and it suits me a lot better than trying to learn the guitar would (though that is still on the wishlist). But to be honest, I probably would have bought it anyway; I have a soft spot for weird and wonderful instruments, even if they're not all that practical.
There are a few very low and very high notes where the tuning is a bit of an issue, and I'm wondering exactly what is involved in maintenance of an instrument like this. It looks like flathead screwdrivers are required for taking it apart, but I haven't done more than give it a superficial dusting.
(Some of the alignment is messed up in this post, but to fix it I would have to re-upload all of those pictures, so I'm not going to. Sorry. It's staying crooked.)
This service will draw on a mix of Advent and Christmas repertoire, including the Advent Prose and Berlioz's Shepherd's Farewell, as well as a West Gallery carol and traditional hymns.
There will also be a rehearsal at 3.30pm on 11th December. All are welcome to join the choir. If you can't make all the rehearsals but would still like to take part, please speak to me.
Various folks have blogged on David Cameron's favourite Bible passage, and the comments that this is the "central message" of the Bible. I did enjoy Archdruid Eileen's viewpoint.
I suppose it isn't a definitive answer, but apparently someone asked Jesus what the central message of the Bible is. Or at least, the greatest commandment.
