more music

  

Today's morning concert comes to you from the 800 year old church of St Peter. Great acoustics. 

I hadn't realised that JS Bach, in addition to his duties at St Thomas and around the city, was also musical director at this church. He was known for his knowledge of acoustics. As a party trick, he'd tell you to go and stand in the corner of a cathedral, then he would carefully choose a position at the other end of the building, face the wall and whisper a message to you. I'm trying to imagine the sound in this church in 1943, the night a bomb landed, destroying half the building (and the organ). 

The replacement organ is second-hand, moved here in 1968 from a smaller church about to be blown up (by the East Germans). 

As usual there's quite a bit of god-bothering in between the tunes today, but mercifully the minister is a woman, with a clear voice, short and to the point, so I didn't mind putting some coppers in the collection plate. 

Later there's an organ recital. Then a race across town to a big choral concert, which wouldn't interest me but for the composer. Both in churches. It'll be a busy night. I just pray there'll be no more of the god nonsense. 

...

Well, the organ music yesterday afternoon was so brilliant that I excused myself from the choral concert, and watched Ed Wood at home instead.