A Good Dose of Bach

Now that we have DSL, I can listen to music and watch those YouTube videos easily (I know...I'm so behind the times). The other day I was talking about organs, as I’d love to see a small, simple Allen organ in our church someday, and Sam argued with me that we already have one. We don’t: we have a Clavinova (a full-size Yamaha keyboard), so I was trying to describe what a real organ is. Apparently not doing a very good job, I remembered how easy it is for me to find something online and found a real showman's rendition of Bach’s Fugue in D Major. It was great to see my boys bouncing up and down and dancing to Bach organ music! That also led to a neat little video of the same song along with some commentary on Bach by a young German (who speaks very good English, I might add), who did a marvelous job playing it on a simply beautiful pipe organ.

Sharing the videos with Brewmaster that evening, he asked if this was a piece I ever learned: yeah, right. I wish. I told him of my last big Bach piece that I never quite mastered, Fugue in G Minor, aka “Little Fugue” (which really isn't that little). Trying to find a good recording of it on YouTube was very difficult, but alas I finally found one with an “air-organ” performer—the way I have to settle for playing real organ music these days. It’s rather amusing! He has good technique and is really playing it on his desk, although the video is a couple beats ahead of the audio, but when he brings in the first pedal line it’s almost together. A bit goofy, but at least it was a good audio recording and I was able to relive the good ol’ days of when my fingers were in better shape.

I can’t leave you with just that, though. After listening to the organ recording, you simply must listen to another I never thought I’d hear….ever. It will blow your mind!

Nothing in particular…

…Just a few random things:

First, we now have DSL...exciting stuff!

However, we lost about nine months worth of digital photos in the process. Brewmaster downloaded everything onto DVDs in preparation to format the hard drive, but the one with pictures from January-September 2007 didn’t burn properly. And me being the tightwad, procrastinating, lazy person that I am, haven’t printed any off in eons (always waiting to get that DSL so I could do it from the comforts of my home). Long story short—if any of you have pictures of our family since last January, send them our way!

On a blogging note, I invite you all once again to frequent a real blogger’s blog, Dana Hanley at Principled Discovery. I learn so much from her writing and am always impressed and in awe how a mother of four young ones finds the time and brain-power to do what she does. Of course, she is a real writer—that is her gift; much like I am a musician, and people wonder how I can play on a Sunday morning while my one-year-old is fighting his father and anyone else trying to handle him, screaming his head off. So I should probably keep that in perspective as to not get too envious of her talent. But she’s changed her blog a bit, moved it to its own domain, so hopefully I’ll get that all squared away on her link over there. But hers is, by far, one of my favorite blogs out there to learn about the importance of strong foundations for our family, our culture, and our country.

On a book note, I’ve begun reading Common Sense via DailyLit and have been really enjoying it. In the weeks to come, I am going to post favorite quotes from that and from another book Brewmaster and I are both reading, D.L. Moody’s Prevailing Prayer. (I’ll end today’s post with a quote from that.) In our women’s study from church, we’re finishing up Charles Spurgeon’s Faith before starting a study on Paul’s letters to maturing churches in January. And last month I finished up Susan Hunt’s By Design: God’s Distinctive Calling for Women, and am slowly reading her book on Titus 2, Spiritual Mothering. Yes, it’s probably not wise to read so many at once; I’m notorious for starting many books and never actually finishing. So the blog is going to be my outlet to help keep me accountable to at least retain some of what I’m learning by posting bits and pieces on the books I’m reading now and then….kind of my own Charlotte Mason way of narrating, I guess. So that’s what you can expect on my end of the blog the next couple months as I try to increase in knowledge and faith by studying not only God’s word, but also those he’s gifted to help the rest of us have a better understanding of our role in his plan of redemption.

Now something from Prevailing Prayer that I read last night (and keep in mind he was writing in the 19th century):

I firmly believe that the Church of God will have to confess her own sins, before there can be any great work of grace. There must be a deeper work among God’s believing people. I sometimes think it is about time to give up preaching to the ungodly, and preach to those who profess to be Christians. If we had a higher standard of life in the Church of God, there would be thousands more flocking into the Kingdom. So it was in the past; when God’s believing children turned away from their sins and their idols, the fear of God fell upon the people round about. Take up the history of Israel, and you will find that when they put away their strange gods, God visited the nation, and there came a mighty work of grace.