A musical day

For starters, the music at Mass was wonderful, but this is not blog-worthy news, since it is always wonderful. Then, later in the day, I went to a musical tea party with my friend Suzanne who won the tea party at a charitable auction. The party was given by the Drs. Berg. Their house was an art museum unto itself, the tea spread was delicious, and the music was great fun. The musicians were the host and two of his friends. They played trios spanning Buxtehude to Astor Piazolla, and then the host, a very nice fellow, gave me a demonstration of his personal pipe organ, and offered to let me play it. Unfortunately, my fingers have not touched organ keys in about ten years, so I declined. I did get to turn his pages though. This job can be almost as traumatic as actually performing. Of course, this was a casual event, so it was fun. I used occasionally to turn for the organist at St. James, but once I got distracted and lost the place, and he has never asked me to turn pages again. And it wasn’t even my fault, since the person who was supposed to be turning forgot and processed off, and then – no doubt filled with horror at her omission, rushed back and said, “I’m supposed to be turning!” just at a crucial point – about three quarters down the right hand page. I glanced up at her meaningfully, and all was lost. “All” being the place in the music.