Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Who Knew?

Apparently, God has a fantastic sense of humor. Apparently, I'm a favorite target. Tomorrow the essaying flute player has an interview with a local monastery to become their organist.

Under other circumstances, I'm sure I would be purely thrilled and say, "Look, I'm on my way to reforming liturgical music!" but I am mostly petrified at the fact of being an organist when all of my formal training on keyboard a) was on piano; and b) ended over a year ago. Guess who has barely touched a keyboard of any variety in that year?

I'm partly afraid that I won't get the position; I'm even more terrified that I will.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Early Music in Odd Places

Sting is going to release an album of Dowland's lute music!!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Commencing

Saturday was my graduation from college. It was a lot different than I thought it would be: I was bored out of my mind, only getting excited when the Dean of Academic Affairs said, "Will the candidates for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Sciences please stand?"

Now, I'm left with a feeling of emptiness that mixes with and dilutes the thrill of accomplishment, but at least I can say I made it.

I've decided not to completely give up on graduate school, but rather to delay it. I spoke with the professor who encouraged me to rethink my easy acceptance of rejection from ND and to continue to pursue others. So right now, I'm researching more programs repolishing essays, finding copies of the history journal I co-edited, writing letters to professors.

I feel like a yo-yo, back and forth about this issue constantly. But I keep coming back to it; the most random things make me think about it. Right now, I'm reading The Barn at the End of the World, and the author (Mary Rose O'Reiley) mentions that she was raised Catholic but that the hideous post-Vat II church music started making her rethink her faith. That struck a huge chord with me. This music, or the lack of it, really affects people. It makes and breaks faith in some.

And I really shouldn't have given up my crusade as easily as I did. So this time I'm going to do it right--I'm going to research and get in contact and submit everything early and make these universities beg me to join them. And then we'll see what happens from there.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

"A Sixteenth Century Success"

One of the many reasons why I thoroughly enjoyed Renaissance and Reformation History with Dr. Wessley this semester!