Friday, February 20, 2009

...working in the "under croft" [aka, the choir room]

since I typed my fingers sore, yesterday...
going through the choir music for Lent & Holy Week...
today, it was,"go down to the church and do it" day...

so I went down there...
BTW...I go "south" to get there...
so technically, it is "down"...

after a brief chat with Square Peg...
I walked across the parking lot, up the ramp...
behind and around the church proper...
to the side door that goes, "down"...



down to what would be the "basement" in most places...
but here... it's known as "the under croft" or "crypt"...
[I love the British...]



at the foot of these stairs to the right...
is the Columbarium where I own a niche...
for I hope, much later...

the gate to the left goes into the public areas...



which include the nursery, adult Bible study room...
the only flush toilet in our 107 year old church building...



some storage and the choir room...



the door on the left, across the room is the choir room...



it's not huge, but it works just fine...



and now that my bathroom's finally done...
I need to get my finger well..
so I can sort & put away the piles...



as well as process the piles of new music on my worktable..



this pile is L&C music...from 2007...
in my defense, it arrived just after...
I had put away all the rest of it...

then there's this box...



last year when I got myself "jammed-up"...
I shifted it to other places...
before finally sorting it...

when my hands both work...it takes me NO time at all...
the entire mess you see...
will take me a couple of hours, at most... to put away...

all the new music that needs cataloging, boxing, labeling...?

that, will take a day or so... and both hands...

so now, I'm getting ready to rest since I accomplished a lot today...

I located ALL the anthems, service music, Psalms etc...
for Ash Wednesday through Easter...

I "edited them"...
[ie, page numbers, use dates/service, cantor assignments...]

I located the Byrd,"Passion According to St John"...
which we may do again on Good Friday this year...
I also found the "other" Vidi Aquam[Hammell]...
for Easter Vigil...
AND...
found the Mathias, "Ave Verum Corpus" for Maundy Thursday...

they weren't lost, just hadn't been used for a while...
and I had forgotten about them...

I could remember the title, just not the composer...
thank heavens, I arranged these stacks by title...
not composer, as would be the usual practice in music libraries...

then I made the working/edited copies for the singers...
we always buy enough scores, but keep them on the shelves...
using edited copies for practice & performance...
it is legal, the way we do it, and better for all...
[did I mention that the editing always includes enlarging the print...?]

I've done it both ways...
and it's SO much better to have bigger print...
with all pertinent information printed on the copies...
when they get ratty & dog-eared...we toss them & make new...

when you use "printed music"...
it wears out, gets hard to read from markings & erasures...
[not to mention greasy fingers...]
and singers are always misplacing them...

as long as you have a printed score for each singer...
accompanist & leader...using copies is legal...
as long as they are not used in lieu of buying a printed score...
if you buy 12 scores, for a 20 voice choir...
and make 8 copies, that's illegal...

so today, after copying & collating 15 sets of Lenten choir music...
finding & copying Psalms for the cantors...
as well as numerous other "details"...
I came home to edit & send elements sheets as well as Taizé plans...

now, after all that... having been given the OK...
I'll e-mail the Lent/Holy Week schedule to the choir...
then I'm taking a nap...
and a well deserved one at that...

2 comments:

The Calico Quilter said...

My idea of being confined to a lower circle of Hell is to be given massive amounts of filing! I have had two jobs in my life that had me alphabetizing and filing papers for hours a week, and while I am a fairly organized person, that is TORTURE.

BTW, if you were anywhere near where I'm from, "up" and "down" as in "I'm going to run down to Ashland tomorrow to the doctor" is strictly in relation to the river, not the compass points. I would always say "drive up to Ashland" and be corrected. Ashland is downriver from my hometown, so it's "down to Ashland". I never thought that way - it's strictly by the map in my brain - north is at the top so it's up.

catsinger said...

...I hate regular filing...
organizing or re-shelving things in an orderly[ie findable] manner...
always OK for me...
I actually enjoy it...
it's my "librarian DNA"...at work...

my task today was SO much easier because I knew right where everything was...even if it was in a pile...I knew which one...

I have always sorted by size, color, type face... etc...
so when my hands are OK...
I am VERY fast...especially when I'm alone & focused...

so it's not really a chore to do any of this for me...my biggest problem is getting stiff sitting too long on a bad chair...
BTW CA, being a "long" state...has always been an "up" & "down" kinda place... I know people who will say they going "over there"...just to avoid saying,"down there" or "up there"... I guess it all depends on what you grew up with...
I'm planning to watch the repeat tonight of"Stealing Lincoln's Body"
on the History Channel...they digitized actual Lincoln photographs
and then digitally animated them...
the promos I've seen are fascinating
... I missed it the first time it was on... NOT this time...