For it's Christmas time...

Here we are at Christmas Eve! Elaine has had her surgery for varicose veins on the right leg and is doing very well - next Monday will be the left one. I'm in the middle of preparing my "famous" lasagne for tomorrow's dinner, and am going to try a recipe from Petroni's "Il libro della vera Cucina Fiorentina" for Gamberi in dolceforte (Shrimp in Sweet-Strong Sauce) as well. It uses cinnamon, lemon juice and raisins, so should be quite festive!

Tonight the service at Bethlehem Lutheran is at 7 - the choir will be singing four anthems, two of which will be accompanied by handbells. The ringers have been working diligently to prepare, and it should be a lovely offering. There is also a piece by Rameau to which the text "Wake O Shepherds" has been attached that will feature the flute stylings of high school student Lauren Anderson.

The service at St. Mary's is at 10, and the choir will be singing several of Kirke Mechem's "7 Joys of Christmas."

Busy times, but good! Hallelujah!

December tidbits

Can't believe it is already December. The Camerata concerts are over, and were very well received. Still, there seems to be ever more competition for the scarce choral concert dollar...

I'm giving Vonage a shot, and managed to get it up and running with only 48 minutes with a customer service tech on the phone! Trying Skype and Google Video Chat with a webcam as well. Brave new world.

Elaine underwent the knife today for phase 1 of varicose vein treatment. The procedure is minimally invasive these days, and essentially consists of "shrink wrapping" the offending veins with a laser on the end of a long fiber. Pretty cool, really.

Now if we can just get that apartment rented!

On the other hand...

I had my regular check up with the radiation oncologist last week. He was concerned that my PSA numbers are not going down. This is anomalous in his experience, so he thinks we should remain vigilant. They are tending to hover around 1, plus or minus a tenth or so. This time it was 1.13.

The urologist last time thought that leveling off was ok, so this was a little disturbing.

New Voices

There was a concert yesterday for the Monterey County Composers Forum called "New Voices." It was basically a choral concert featuring Voci, which is a professional subset of I Cantori di Carmel. They did a wonderful job singing my setting of William Blake's "The Tyger," but even more gratifying was the performance by 7 string players from Pacific Grove Middle School of my Gloria Passamezzo Moderno! The concert started with it, and the kids played their hearts out. Absolutely a wonderful moment!

Normality, and the lack thereof

I've been busy with the substitute teaching - hardly a moment to breathe. It is very satisfying work.

All of my musical groups are back in session, so I am out almost every night of the week with one rehearsal or another. Mondays is the professional caroling group, Tuesdays Camerata, Wednesdays the Lutherans, Thursdays St. Mary's, and one Friday a month is the madrigal group. On top of that there are the church services every Sunday morning.

Viola da gamba lessons are my newest adventure. I meet with Tracy Achtman nominally once a week (though for practical purposes it has been about once a fortnight), and I am making progress. She is an excellent teacher. Unfortunately, she spends part of the year in Germany. She has been giving me facsimiles from the early 15th century to play, and it has been like a mini course in notation (or musical paleography, as Sofia's course was titled in Padova last year).

It is very confusing, but I am gradually getting the hang of it. She likes my willingness to read original clefs and notation, and I am having a blast doing it.

Next week is going to be stressful. Our building has to be fumigated, so we have to be out Monday morning by 8 am and can't return until Wednesday after 5 pm. Being the landlords, it is our responsibility to put our tenants up for those two nights at a local inn. Being a tourist area, that is pretty expensive. One of our tenants is going to stay with family, so we are giving him a discount on his rent instead, which is quite a bit less money for us. In the meantime, we have to double bag all of our ingestibles in special plastic receptacles provided by the fumigator. Not fun.
The week after, though, we go to Ashland to participate in our friend Pat's wedding. It will be a Jewish one, and I will wear a yarmulke for the first time in my life. Gotta get pictures of that!

Another great festival

This year's Carmel Bach Festival has come and gone, and we had a fantastic time participating with all those wonderful musicians. The Brahms Requiem was received enthusiastically, and it was a particularly moving experience for me. The texts Brahms used are all from scripture, but designed to comfort the people left behind rather than to contemplate the future of the deceased's spirit.

I am using most of them as the readings for Xenia's memorial this coming Saturday.

Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.
(Matthew 5:4)

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
(Psalm 126:5,6)

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.
(1 Peter 1:24)

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
(James 5:7)

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
(Isaiah 35:10)

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee....
(Psalm 39:4-7)

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.
(Wisdom of Solomon 3:1)

And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
(John 16:22)

Ye see how for a little while I labor and toil, yet have I found much rest.
(Ecclesiasticus 51:27)

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you....
(Isaiah 66:13)

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
...then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is they sting? O grave, where is they victory?
(1 Corinthians 15:51,52,54,55)

Xenia DeMarco RIP

My mom passed away in her sleep yesterday morning, July 12, 2008. She was 96 years old.

Still here, but fading fast

We have been visiting X a couple of time each day. Yesterday she was a bit more responsive, making signs of pleasure when we massaged her feet a little, and even made a slight vocalization at the sound of my voice. Not so this morning. The nurse indicated that she is in constant decline, and perhaps has two or three more days left. Here's a photo of her from February 2007.

Looks like this may be it for X...

I got a call from the convalescent hospital today while at our rehearsal for the Bach Festival. My mother has taken a turn for the worse. We went down to visit her, and she was completely non-responsive. She was awake, with her eyes half open, and she was exploring her mouth and face with her fingers. She did not acknowledge our presence in any way - she was just in her own world. We had been there yesterday, talking about hospice with her. She was in good spirits, and even ate a hot dog that had been grilled on the patio for the 4th of July. That may have been her last surge of energy. According to our hospice book, this is typical of someone in their last few days or even hours of life. She is 96, so it is not a tragedy, but she is a great gal and will be missed.

Piano Grande Ancora

castelluccio country
Originally uploaded by paololivorno

Here is another glorious shot of the Piano Grande in HDR! Looks like this was a good year for the fioritura.

Temporale d'estate

Temporale d'estate
Originally uploaded by fotomassimo

I belong to a couple of Flickr groups, one of which is of the Sibilini Mountains National Park in central Italy. I found this photo to be quite striking, and made me wish I were there.

Interesting times

Derek is off to Australia today to be one of the presenters at a philosophy conference. Needless to say we are very proud. A very exciting time for him. Then tomorrow Sofia returns from Padova, after an incredible year. Apparently she will have a young Ligurian man in tow - I am anxious to meet him. Anyone who adores the Gabrielis and Monteverdi comes to town with a good reputation already ;-)

My mother is still at the convalescent hospital. She seems somewhat better, but it is beginning to look as if she will not be able to come home after all. She seems to want to stay there. Her mentation has been off ever since her TIA, and it is looking like she will need 24 hour care. In any event, she is to go on hospice in the next few weeks. We shall see. It is still in the process of being sorted out.

X's Travails

My mother fell and broke her shoulder and hip in April. She had surgery on the hip, and has been in a local convalescent hospital since that time. On top of that, she had a very mild stroke (TIA) a couple of weeks ago, from which she has mostly recovered. We went with her to the doctor today, and her bones have healed well. We are hopeful to bring her home within the next two weeks. She'll have to have more care than before, but it should work out.

Darn those kids!

They just keep getting older, without any consideration for what that means for their parents! Sofia, the youngest, turned 21 in January. Four adult children... what is this world coming to?

She is living the life fantastic in Padova, and has had the opportunity to make some very good friends and see a lot of Europe. Among her ports of call have been Rome, Assisi, Sicily, Milano, Budapest, Prague, Paris, London, Barcelona, Firenze, Venezia (for Carnival) and so forth and so on. Now she just needs to get to Monteleone!

Lia continues to thrive in the PhD program in Linguistics at Ohio State and in her marriage, while Morgan is exploring the job market for folks with Bachelor's degrees in Creative Writing. Derek, the oldest, will be giving a paper in Philosophy in Australia this summer (winter by their standards), and has been nominated for a 5th year fellowship at Princeton.

Not sure where we went wrong ;-)

Easter comes early this year...

Can't believe we're already at the end of Holy Week! At least in the western church calendar. (Cousin Саша advises that Orthodox Easter doesn't come until April 27!) It won't be this early again for over 200 years.

Over Lent I led a religious education class at St Mary's on Crossan and Borg's "The Last Week." It was quite an interesting experience, though quite draining. Everyone enjoyed it immensely, which was gratifying.

My Mass on Renaissance Basses is complete! It was a lot of work, but it came out very well. You can hear midi files of each movement and follow along with the PDF's on my website.

I got hit pretty hard with the flu bug a couple of times. This last one kicked in within an hour or so of the last Camerata concert on March 9. I ended up flat in bed for a few days, and even had to miss a day of substituting. All better now, and raring to go.

This week has been extraorinarily busy, with Camerata rehearsal on Tuesday, Bethlehem Lutheran rehearsal on Wednesday, Maundy Thursday at St Mary's on Thursday, and the Tenebrae service for Good Friday at Bethlehem Lutheran last night. Tonight is the Great Vigil of Easter at St Mary's, and tomorrow the Easter Sunday service at Bethlehem! Whew...

I've hired a few high school and middle school musicians to swell the ranks for Easter. It is a wonderful experience for all involved, and the adult choir members have really benefited from the injection of youthful exuberance. It has been a sheer joy working with the kids. We are going to be singing the Gloria Patri from Monteverdi's "Beatus Vir" as a call to worship, so the two violins and extra voices will really help make the piece exciting. We are also having a couple of the younger kids play the tone chimes on our anthem (which is a contrafactum Easter text on the traditional "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day" tune). It warms the heart, I tell you!

My most recent PSA test was up a little bit, when it should have been down. The doctors are going to keep an eye on this. It's probably nothing, but we'll see. I had another blood test done yesterday in conjunction with my annual physical, so I'll get a second bite of the apple before the next regularly scheduled PSA in 3 months.

Happy Epiphany!

Time marches on. Christmas is over, and we are well into Epiphany. We had a nice trip visiting family on Coronado after Christmas, and then resolved to lose some weight in the new year. One of the side effects of my surgery in August was weight gain, and I was up 15-20 pounds from where I had been previously. I didn't worry about this too much during my recuperation - I figured that my body needed to heal, so it was not a time to try to lose weight, but we are far enough along now that the timing seemed right. It is harder this time around, but I am making slow but sure progress, and am down nearly 10 pounds from my high. At least I was this morning!

I am continuing the substitute teaching, and this week was particularly nice in that I was able to fill in for music teachers three days in a row. Some of the kids are pretty amazing, and we were able to bring some good musicality to their playing. This morning I had a beginning band with about 10 kids one period, and one of them came up to me at the end of class that he really felt they had learned something. Moments like that are really wonderful.