Archive for the ‘Liturgy & Music’ Category

Creating the Universe in Music

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
This afternoon I am once again with Tony Barr at Solid Sound studios in Hoffman Estates, IL. Tony is working on serial CD projects. Having finished the massive Light Eternal project - currently with the duplicators - which I co-produced,  he is now working on 20 tracks for ‘Where Might We Find You’. This one I’m just helping out with on an occasional basis – guitars, synths at chez moi etc. Right now I’m listening to the great Joe Dilillo shred it up on electric guitar in a trio with French Horns! Berlioz meets Pink Floyd!

That kind of sums Tony’s music up. Tony sees few stylistic barriers in music. He can come up with the most gorgeously complex cathedral styles, and then turn around and channel the Beatles with overtones of the theme music of Star Trek, and a little Avro Pärt besides. Tony likes to say that his brother, Paul Barr, who was one of the leading astrophysicists in the world until his untimely death some years ago, used to explore the cosmos of the physical universe, while he – Tony – explores the metaphysical cosmos through theology and musical composition.

Tony Barr and John Towner record Fred Vipond on organ back in February.

Tony Barr and John Towner record Fred Vipond on organ back in February.

 My involvement in Tony’s music has been long and comprehensive – I’ve probably spent more time on his work this past year than I have on my own. I’ve also got to spend several hundred hours working in a recording studio, one of my favorite places to be, at a professional level. And been paid for it, even! It has at times been frustrating, at times exhilarating, but always interesting, skillbuilding, challenging.

Anyway, by the end of the month Tony will have completed three projects (the fourth is in the works, of course), hopefully in time for the NPM convention in July. I’m just grateful to my friend for letting me be a part of it, and for giving me the opportunity to learn so much in the doing of it.

Now . . . Back to Pink Floyd! (Or is it Berlioz?)

Posted in Life & Meaning, Liturgy & Music, Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »

A Day Late And A Lot Of Dollars Short

Friday, May 29th, 2009
How MANY First Communions???

How MANY First Communions???

Let’s try this again!

This has to be the world’s most boring blog!

Of course, since no one seems to read it but me and my favorite spammers . . . so what?

This weekend is Pentecost and with it comes the pscyhological end of the choir season. There are churches where music directors keep soldiering on, since liturgical Ordinary Time is really anything but ordinary. But I say, “Stop the insanity!” We are only human and we all need a break – if not a life of indolence at least a break from the ordinary. It is a time when we can do those exotic things that normal people, with less insane work hours, can make time for more easily if they choose to . . . like “spend time together”, or “count daisies”.

Starting next week, the phone stops ringing, the e-mails stop coming, and folks withdraw from frenetic church activity. It is a time to catch up, look forward, and enjoy more evenings at home – for both myself and for them!

It’s also a time to revive a languishing blog and give some TLC to neglected projects and ideas.

Certainly the coming months will not be boring. The NPM (National Association Of Pastoral Musicians) Convention is here in Chicago this year and we will be there, promoting our CDs and websites and seeing old friends again. Being local this year I will be helping out with preparing for a few events like the Opening Plenum Address music, the Convention Eucharist Choir, apart from bringing our own youth choir and having two showcases ourselves. Look out for us if you are going – Exhibit Booth #119 – Kingsfold Music Productions.

Busy and off the streets as this will keep us, it is NOTHING compared to the insanity of the last few months. I’ve been working in this profession for a long time now – am I just turning into an old dude or are things just getting crazier. There has to be an easier way.

So I’ll say it in public (listen up, spammers!): I vow, this Summer, to work efficiently and proactively so that next Spring will not be as insane as this Spring. Advance prep is the name, moving past sharpening pencils is the game!

Next year in Jerusalem . . . a day early and less dollars short!

Posted in All About Me, Family & Lifestyle, Liturgy & Music, Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Perfectly Imperfect

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
Wisconsin Lake

Now THAT'S perfect!

Is it a considered a compulsion if you feel that not contributing to your weblog for even one day will jinx the whole exercise, and next thing you know 6 months will have gone by and you’ll have dropped the ball?

I’ll admit to having some compulsive tendencies which have dominated my life in different periods. The thing of it is, a compulsion that is a problem in one situation can be a strength in another. I am a church music director and liturgist. Both of those professions go hand in hand with OCD tendencies – anal retentiveness can be a plus! On the positive side it is called “attention to detail” or “highly organized”, terms frequently seen in job advertisements in my line of work, where perfectionism in minutiae can be a prized virtue.

What’s the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist? Answer: you can negotiate with a terrorist! If I had a dollar for every liturgy seminar I attended where I had to listen that . . . anyway, it’s true of many of us.

I used to fit that mold a lot more closely. When I was younger and straight out of liturgy training I was so full of rules and justifications and the overwhelming need to control everything (and everyone) in the name of liturgical correctness. Somehow, that’s not the case any more. I don’t mean I ignore the rules or my instinct for liturgical propriety, it’s just I’ve had to learn to temper that zeal in view of real life, within reason of course! I need to stay employed!

My moment of realization when the sickness of my own perfectionism became clear to me was on the day I had just printed out 200 copies of a letter and found three small blemishes from the photocopier surface, no bigger than the size of a period on this page. I just caught myself short of dumping the lot in the recycling bin and reprinting them.

I’m a perfectly recovering perfectionist now!

But if you want to know the reality of THAT . . . ask my wife!

Posted in All About Me, Internet & Blogging, Liturgy & Music | 1 Comment »