A fantastic musical point of our journey overseas was worshiping at Christ Church in Dublin on Trinity Sunday. The key musical insight was that medieval high tech (a Gothic acoustic and a fine choir) is as good or better than any modern sound system. In fact, to hear the springing to life of such vibrant sounds while watching mere humans make them, was nothing less that miraculous - a true experience of "transcendence in the space," as the priest put it.
On returning home, I made a little music with an experienced musical friend. My friend threw me a curve ball. Really, I think the music threw my friend a curve ball.
While music can help us remember words, words can lead us astray while making music. In this case, starting into the wrong set of words led my friend into a similar, but not identical, musical phrase that was supposed to have occurred later in the music, requiring that I jump forward and make a cut in the performance.
I've often been pretty lucky with these sorts of things. Many times, my eyes have, by instinct or coincidence, jumped to the right spot on the score. Not this time. In fact, this time I took a gamble. I put my money on my singer friend catching the mistake and getting back on track with the right phrase. That's not what my friend did, so I needed to jump ahead, and my eyes couldn't find the right spot quickly enough for me not to sound lost.
The moral of the story? These things happen. Also, I would be wise to mark phrases that begin similarly with an easy-to-see, colorful bracket so I'll be prepared for such goings-on.
One more thing I'll remember from this June: at the invitation of another friend, we went on this lovely tour of the Lake Mirror civic center here in Lakeland. It was well-researched, charmingly presented, and covered politics, wildlife, history, and a bit of music. Here's a beautiful scene across the lake that I captured on film as we neared the end of the tour.
