Month: July 2013

I’m back from vacation!  Just about every summer, my family and I go back to Montana and visit my in-laws.  It’s a regular pilgrimage for us as we Western types need to see MOUNTAINS once in a while.  There’s a trailhead about 6 blocks from my in-laws home and I was up it the nearly the moment we got there.  What can I say, I see a mountain, I want to be on top of it.

Well, for more news on the organ, the motor is unfixable and I’m still stuck with the piano for now.  Hopefully the organ will be up and running before September and the return of the choir.  But in the mean time, I have this very nice improv from yesterday’s Mass.  I usually edit the film to only include the improvisation, but I thought it was rather neat that Fr. Edwin read the proper immediately as I finished.  Perfect timing for both of us.  Fr. Edwin is also a fantastic tenor and we always work well together.  I only had a Liber Usualis in front of me so the proper for Communion is from the proper for a virgin that’s not a martyr.

Also, I included me rolling up my sleeves because it’s funny and I don’t even remember doing that.

Right.  So the organ blower motor is still kaput.  Then what does one improvise without an organ, particularly since one is an organist improviser?  Well, use the grand piano of course.  Now, to make things very clear, I will not claim to be a great pianist.  But I have enjoyed doing more pianistic things while improvising in a somewhat French style.

I have to admit though, I think I have improvised better than this (and didn’t record).  But this particular improvisation is based on a unique theme.  As I work at a Passionist Monastery, they have their own propers for their own feasts.  This day is the Feast of the Precious Blood of Christ.  The readings are from the Passion narrative and focus on the spear piercing Jesus’ side.  If you look closely at the video, you might note that I’m using an old LIBER USUALIS.  It contains chants unique to St. Paul of the Cross that the new Gregorian Missal (or Romanum) does not include.