St. Michael of the videos

Some saints would lie on beds of nails, or live in the same tiny crevices for years, unable to move. Or in muck and filth. Or beat themselves with rods.

Then there are the ones who gave up chocolate for Lent. You know who you are.

I chose an even stranger path. Internet videos. So strange that it seems perfectly natural in this day and age. Except for them not starring kittens. Otherwise, what could possibly be Lenten about them at all?

Well, to start with, I had to get up early. The videos went live on Facebook every morning at 8 a.m., which meant I was up by 6:30 and out the door by 7:30. That wasn't all that big a deal, except for the every day part. Every day, for 40 days I improvised on some Lenten hymn or on whatever came to mind from the organ console at Third Church in Pittsburgh, the church where I am organist. Also, Lent takes a break on Sundays, but I didn't. I work that day and have to get up early. And on those days, Sunday mornings, I took a break from improvising to play composed Toccatas, pieces other than the Widor toccata of Easter fame, and to boost the posts to advertise our presence as a church to the people of East Pittsburgh. So, between the two pieces of the plan, Lenten improvisation days, and Sunday Toccata days, there were 6 and a half weeks of continuous getting up early* and going to church, and sitting at the organ, and playing whatever came out, sometimes with no warm up.

I don't think straight at 8 in the morning. That was a problem.

Going live to whoever is out there listening can also do things to one's nervous system, particularly first thing in the morning--Although it turned out that most mornings, nobody was listening, and that, as I saved the videos for later viewing, there might be at most about a dozen viewers--So if you were thinking I was mixing up a Lent discipline with becoming a celebrity, don't worry about it.

Later on, there might be upwards of 40 people (a Lenten number) watching some of the videos. I don't know whether they like them--some of the most watched videos were predictably the loud and fast kind, but more often I was not feeling flashy, particularly as this is Lent, after all. Most of these folks are friends of mine from the place I last lived. Which is really why I'm writing this.

I want to thank you for you encouragement, and for going on this strange Lenten journey with me. A few of year have watched and liked all of the videos, most have dropped in from time to time, but if you are hoping to experience something worth sharing (not that there is any guarantee when you are making it up) you hope that someone will be listening, and, if we are lucky, getting something positive out of the experience. At least I felt some connection to the people of Champaign, more than I have in a while, since a required move and the simultaneous disorientation of cancer treatment rudely removed me from your presence.

Saturday (tomorrow) is the last video. And then, live at the end of the Easter service, I'll play the Widor Toccata for anyone who wants to listen. I know that, due to the time difference, most of the Illinoisians who attend the 10:30 service will not be able to hear it live, unless it is on in the middle of Sheryl's sermon. Please don't. You can listen to it later. My friends in East Pittsburgh have the option of hearing it live, and in person if you would like to attend Third Presbyterian at 5701 Fifth Ave in Pittsburgh. You are very welcome. Come up to the organ and say hi afterward. I may be tired but I'm sure to be in a good mood. The last time I played the Widor Toccata after an Easter service I had an enormous tumor in my chest. I thought it might be my last one. But the Widor goes on. I was actually entertaining the heretical thought of playing a different Toccata his year (the Vierne that I played in last week's Sunday morning video and is this week's featured recording on the homepage) much in the manner that Gandalf the Grey becomes Gandalf the White after his near death experience, after cancer I wanted to change up the theme song a little, but I was told there would be much weeping and gnashing of teeth if I didn't play the Widor. So it lives on.

Again, my apologies for the awful sound quality of the videos. I'll get a decent camera one of these days. I did manage a tripod about halfway in, which solved some of my initial problems.

As for the future, I look forward to being able to sleep in just once in a month and half! But for those of you who have kept me company, might I suggest (because I often forget to mention this) that pianonoise.com, my website, gets regularly updates with new recordings and articles to the homepage every Friday. All day.

See you around. Next year maybe I'll try the bed of nails. Then I won't mind getting up so early. I don't know about the muck, though.

Happy Easter!

----
*actually, we where on vacation in Florida one of those weeks, which meant I had to improvise an extra piece every day for a week and prepare them all to auto-post on the days we weren't home.