Whoops! My Posts Haven’t Been Going Out!

Image by Solen Feyissa from Pixabay

Dear disappointed subscribers–at least, I hope you’re disappointed:

My abject apologies for the big gap in your receipt of these blog posts. I’ve been writing them all along, as usual, but my e-mail service stopped sending them last July because I’d exceeded my subscriber limit for their free plan. We thought we’d addressed the problem but clearly hadn’t. That’s all I’ll bore you with about the issue, except to say that I shoulda listened to a friend who kept saying, “How come I never get your posts any more?”

Included in the recipients for this post are those of you who subscribed at some point after the limit was reached and who therefore have never received anything via these e-mails. I do hope you’ll stick around, along with all of you who subscribed before the Great Cut-Off. There’s a lot of interesting material here, if I do say so myself.

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A Christmas Lagniappe

Hello Friends! Here’s a little something to listen to as you wrap up your Christmas preparations, or whatever holiday you may celebrate–or perhaps you can put in your earbuds and put your feet up while you drink a nice hot toddy–or a nice wassail cup:

Wassail, Wassailing, and the 16th Century Songs to Sing

I was extremely honored to be invited onto the podcast That Shakespeare Life to talk about the traditions associated with wassailing with the host Cassidy Cash. She tracked me down because of this post that I had written several years ago:

The Wild and Wacky World of Wassailing

I’ll be back in January with posts about Celtic music. See you then!

Welcome, Subscribers! And a Plan for the Rest of the Summer

Image by Schorsch from Pixabay

I’ve been very pleased over the past few months to see a steady trickle of new subscribers to this blog, with very few unsubscribes. All this in spite of the fact that I haven’t written much new here for awhile. This gap isn’t at all because I’m losing interest; it’s just that most of my material stems from concerts that my beloved community choir, the Cherry Creek Chorale, is in process of rehearsing. Because I didn’t sing in the May concert I sort of lost that connection. But now I’m back, and looking forward very much to our 2024-25 season. You’ll be seeing lots of material about that concert in upcoming posts, with a multi-part post on the biggie we’re performing in October, Mozart’s Coronation Mass. I can hardly wait!

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Follow the Sheep and the Shepherd All Through Psalm 23

Image from the website “The Expeditioner”

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
He guideth me in straight paths for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, For Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, They comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou hast anointed my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord,
Forever,  forever.

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We Are Altogether Unprofitable Servants . . .

Image by Ana Krach from Pixabay

. . . We have done that which is our duty to do” (Luke 17:10).

Note: This post was originally written in April 2016 and has now been updated.

I’m not going to try to give the full Scriptural background for this verse since I’m applying it in a very specific way.  I will just say that this is something Jesus said to His disciples in a discussion about faith.  You can read the entire chapter at Bible Hub.

This verse originally came to mind as I was congratulating myself on how much work I was doing to prepare for an upcoming Cherry Creek Chorale concert, which included the Mozart Requiem.  (I’ve since finished a book on this wonderful work; you may purchase it here or here.)  I always struggle with learning new music, especially the difficult stuff (of course).

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Monsters at the Concert

Back in October 2015 my choir gave a concert titled “BOO!” We had so much fun with doing a Halloween-themed program. Here are three short essays about songs we sang that include some kind of monster theme.

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