What have I been up to?
I’m learning to play the organ. This is a lot of fun, but rather difficult. I try to play the right hand line with my right hand, the left hand line with my left hand, and the pedal line with my other left hand. It’s going well, though; I’ve played at a few services, and a funeral, and I have a few more lined up.
I’m also rehearsing a lot with the Brigantia Consort. No, we haven’t a website just yet, but soon, hopefully!
I’m still playing serpent with the London Gallery Quire, and enjoying both the metrical psalmody and the camaraderie.
I’m still teaching piano, and I still love it. I’m finding I do notice the commute much more than I used to, partly because it’s a little further but also because there are days when I don’t have to leave Leytonstone at all, so the days when I travel across London seem very long indeed.
Longer-term, I’m writing some bits and pieces of music, some for competitions and some for specific performance situations. It’s mostly choral, mostly liturgical. I love doing this, but I lack confidence; I’m never quite sure whether what I have written will turn out to be very good, or a bit naff. I guess that comes with experience.
I’m also planning a series of workshops on psalmody. I want to start with the origins of psalmody and then explore how the psalms would have been said, sung or chanted in different liturgical traditions. I know that I won’t be able to do a full treatment in the four to six sessions that would make this a manageable project… at this point I’m just reading a lot and letting ideas slosh around in my brain.