Spatula Monday

I call them "spatula mondays" because you have to pry me out of bed in the morning with a spatula.

The reason for that is that I've just had a pretty full weekend. I play four church services a weekend usually, although this weekend we only had three. However, the Central Illinois Children's Chorus had their annual Winter concert on Saturday afternoon, between my impromptu recording session and lesson and the Saturday evening service; then the church choir had their music Sunday the next morning. I enjoyed both events; my energy started to flag toward the end of the choir service and I had to press on with internal motivational speeches, but everything turned out ok. I also had an incident at the Children's Chorus concert that took twenty years off my life that I'll share with you on Wednesday. I got a short nap on Sunday afternoon before the three hour choir rehearsal in the evening.

When you add all of the hours together it probably still doesn't come out to an official 40 hour work week so anyone who doesn't do this for a living might have a hard time wondering how, say after a concert of only an hour and half of activity a person could be so drained. But you need to experience it. To be so "on" the entire time, responsive to the choir and the conductor and the moment and with all of those notes to play and to listen for--it isn't like most activities. It burns up physical energy and nervous energy at a much faster rate. Having two full concerts with different programs within 24 hours and a long rehearsal afterward makes this a rougher weekend than usual, nervous-energy-wise.

So today, while I'm in recovery, we'll have a short blog entry, with a bit of music attached to make it worth your while. Here is something that you can also find on the homepage of pianonoise.com, where I've provided a program of holiday music this week with additional programs to follow the next two weeks. The music was recorded over the last three Christmas seasons.

Liszt: The Shepherds at the Manger

I anticipate another "spatula Monday" next week after the all-church megamusicaldramaproduction, which is not the official name for it, but you get the idea. It's some time of year, ain't it?

See you Wednesday.