2010 ColloquiumA compatriot here in town, who happens to be both a chant schola director and a professor of Organ Studies at the local university, put together an organ recital for tomorrow night.
Not your ordinary organ concert, though!
It’s a mixture of Compline in Gregorian Chant, and … organ pieces by Phillip Glass, Arvo Pärt, and Olivier Messiaen. Not simultaneously, the pieces are interspersed. I’m helping with the chant, not the organ.
If nobody has a heart attack, it should be quite interesting!
Just wanted to let you all know… I didn’t have time to post something after the recital on Saturday, because I was headed off for this training class in Toronto.
The concert was wonderful. Not necessarily all the music I might have selected myself, but it really did work quite well. The chant was the best rendition we’d managed (well, after two rehearsals) and the intersection with the organ works was striking. Joel’s explanation was excellent – this experience was based on something he’d heard during his time at Munich, where he had heard a similar type of juxtaposition.
I was extremely pleased. Don’t yet have the recording, but I’d like to hear what this sounded like from the audience.