month.
If I pace myself at one of the fifteen pieces each six weeks, we will have all of them recorded before my two years is over.
April 18, 2144 – The dining room was essentially empty today. The services were attended by a few Clarklians, but, as usual, they left before the sermon.
The staff is idle. They are playing cards in the lounge when the Reverend Walters is not watching, and some of them are given to weeping. There is no alcohol for anybody to drown in here, as I frequently regret.
The lull in activities in the dining room has not stopped the Reverend Walters from continuing with his long, sometimes angry sermons. Today the text was the commandment against coveting your neighbor’s wife, something these poor people have little time or inclination for. Even if the Clarklians were staying for the sermons, those texts are certainly inappropriate for them.
I wish we could just have a list of suggested texts from which he is not allowed to depart. I also wish the government’s contract covered the maximum time for any sermon.
We are out here without any supervision, except for the general manager who comes to inspect the dining room for cleanliness. If the Reverend Walters is driving away the dining room business, nobody can tell him to change his ways.
Meanwhile, the choir and I keep moving ahead with the spirituals. I sent two more to the Deacon’s agent today, via the messaging service.
Today we rehearsed I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray and Little David, Play on Your Harp . Very rough. The first sopranos were both in poor voice, and the baritone was as usual.
One woman keeps her hymnal on a very large zoom scale; I think she can only see three notes ahead of where we are singing, and this does not give her much time to sight read. When a rest comes, she has a hard time getting started again, often coming in flat. After a few rehearsals, she forgets the hymnal and sings from memory. That works much better.
The tenor is our most enthusiastic singer, but, of course, his range is small. His face turns an alarming shade of red when anything like an F or an F# shows up on his hymnal. I can see he is thinking about the F and straining toward it, but it never comes out. He has a really solid middle C, though, and the notes about an octave below that are pretty good.
Our best sight reader is one of the women, who will take nearly any part we ask. She has a good range on the low notes, from a good G below middle C up to about a high E or, on a rare day, F. She clearly is very intelligent, but her voice is not the best. It sounds like it has been washed frequently with gin.
These people have become quite dear to me during the last couple of months, and I have learned much about their strengths and weaknesses as choristers. They are all treating this assignment as something to do for two years that is interesting and for the good of the Christian church, but nobody is exempt from continual complaints about the housing and the meatless food.
I worked on the first of the Rachmaninoff pieces this evening, O Come Let Us Worship . I think this will be the easiest for me to arrange and the easiest for our choir to work with.
These pieces have a haunting effect on me. I am almost hypnotized by them as I try to imagine how they will sound. I wish I had a recording to work from, but I brought only this bound sheet music.
I went back to the sanctuary late in the evening to play the first Rachmaninoff piece on the piano. The Reverend Walters was kneeling in prayer at the chancel, and I slipped away before I disturbed him.
April 19, 2144 – At the second service, I played the doxology for myself. After the recessional, I was the only entity left in the sanctuary.
Two more letters came from my mother today, but no new people were on the spacecraft to replace our crew.
My mother reports the wedding date has been confirmed with the church and the reception hall. Plans are moving forward.
She knows I left complete
If I pace myself at one of the fifteen pieces each six weeks, we will have all of them recorded before my two years is over.
April 18, 2144 – The dining room was essentially empty today. The services were attended by a few Clarklians, but, as usual, they left before the sermon.
The staff is idle. They are playing cards in the lounge when the Reverend Walters is not watching, and some of them are given to weeping. There is no alcohol for anybody to drown in here, as I frequently regret.
The lull in activities in the dining room has not stopped the Reverend Walters from continuing with his long, sometimes angry sermons. Today the text was the commandment against coveting your neighbor’s wife, something these poor people have little time or inclination for. Even if the Clarklians were staying for the sermons, those texts are certainly inappropriate for them.
I wish we could just have a list of suggested texts from which he is not allowed to depart. I also wish the government’s contract covered the maximum time for any sermon.
We are out here without any supervision, except for the general manager who comes to inspect the dining room for cleanliness. If the Reverend Walters is driving away the dining room business, nobody can tell him to change his ways.
Meanwhile, the choir and I keep moving ahead with the spirituals. I sent two more to the Deacon’s agent today, via the messaging service.
Today we rehearsed I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray and Little David, Play on Your Harp . Very rough. The first sopranos were both in poor voice, and the baritone was as usual.
One woman keeps her hymnal on a very large zoom scale; I think she can only see three notes ahead of where we are singing, and this does not give her much time to sight read. When a rest comes, she has a hard time getting started again, often coming in flat. After a few rehearsals, she forgets the hymnal and sings from memory. That works much better.
The tenor is our most enthusiastic singer, but, of course, his range is small. His face turns an alarming shade of red when anything like an F or an F# shows up on his hymnal. I can see he is thinking about the F and straining toward it, but it never comes out. He has a really solid middle C, though, and the notes about an octave below that are pretty good.
Our best sight reader is one of the women, who will take nearly any part we ask. She has a good range on the low notes, from a good G below middle C up to about a high E or, on a rare day, F. She clearly is very intelligent, but her voice is not the best. It sounds like it has been washed frequently with gin.
These people have become quite dear to me during the last couple of months, and I have learned much about their strengths and weaknesses as choristers. They are all treating this assignment as something to do for two years that is interesting and for the good of the Christian church, but nobody is exempt from continual complaints about the housing and the meatless food.
I worked on the first of the Rachmaninoff pieces this evening, O Come Let Us Worship . I think this will be the easiest for me to arrange and the easiest for our choir to work with.
These pieces have a haunting effect on me. I am almost hypnotized by them as I try to imagine how they will sound. I wish I had a recording to work from, but I brought only this bound sheet music.
I went back to the sanctuary late in the evening to play the first Rachmaninoff piece on the piano. The Reverend Walters was kneeling in prayer at the chancel, and I slipped away before I disturbed him.
April 19, 2144 – At the second service, I played the doxology for myself. After the recessional, I was the only entity left in the sanctuary.
Two more letters came from my mother today, but no new people were on the spacecraft to replace our crew.
My mother reports the wedding date has been confirmed with the church and the reception hall. Plans are moving forward.
She knows I left complete
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