Welcome to April!
It is just incredible that it is April now! The six weeks of Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter have now disappeared into History! Lately it has been very interesting in reading the submittals by many musical colleagues worldwide on Facebook to note that many of these people have faced sometimes an exorbitant number of Masses, services or special services/events especially during the Holy Week Triduum. I think that now I have counted that some musicians have faced anywhere from four upwards to eleven special services and/or a separate musical event.
In my own life of playing for liturgical services, it seems as if there was some sort of service every two hours. I remember the many years when there were at least three services on Palm Sunday, a Wednesday night soup & sandwich meal followed by a short service, Maundy Thursday services (one at noon in the Dining Room mainly for shut-ins and a full evening service) followed by a Senior Choir rehearsal, Good Friday services including a three-hour seven last words service followed later by a late afternoon service mainly for children and finally an evening Tenebrae service that was basically a service of lessons and Lenten carols equating to a concert. Of course the culmination of the week was Easter Sunday with at least three full services with the first one of the day being a sunrise service usually starting at the exact time of the sunrise of the day – maybe as early at 6:00am or before! Of course the special event in my tenure was the very special Easter Sunday of 1976 with Karl XVI Gustave, King of Sweden in attendance! This was a very special extravaganza featuring a full one hour of brass and organ music prior to the service and then of course a full brass ensemble plus organ and three choirs singing for this unique event! What I remember most of all of this time was the many weeks prior to these days – like most musicians – is the process of arranging tons of music for the various singing choirs and brass ensembles!!
The question of this week of course is – how many organist and church musicians will be taking the Sunday after Easter as a vacation to get away and to get some needed rest???
The Romans gave this month the Latin name “Aprilis” however the derivation of this name remains as uncertain. Actually the word comes from the verb “aperire” meaning to open such as Spring flowers. April actually is sacred to the goddess “Venus”. The Venerable Bede notes in his “Reckoning of Time” that this month “ester” is the root of the word “Easter”
The “Days of April” (journées d’avril) is a name assigned in French history to a series of insurrections at Lyons, Paris and elsewhere, against the government of Louis Philippe in 1834, which led to violent repressive measures, and to a famous trial known as the procès d’avril.[3]
North Shore Chapter AGO Nominating Committee Report:
Please note that the Nominating Committee (Judy Kohl and Chris Urban) have been very busy the last few months calling and requesting several North Shore Chapter members to have their names placed in nomination for the coming elections this Spring. The following is the slate of members to be elected:
Dean Brian Schoettler
Sub-Dean Marianne Kim
Secretary James Janossy
Treasurer Chris Urban
Board Members to serve a three-year term 2024-2027:
Richard Clemmitt
Michael Gagne
Evan DuVall
To all North Shore Chapter members please watch for an “Overtones” newsletter to be sent mid-April that will be a ballot noting a picture and a brief biography of these candidates for election. The results of this election will be announced at the North Shore Chapter AGO Annual Banquet on May 19th.