by Fred Moleck
The Pilgrim Musician
On page 21 in the current GIA Quarterly is an ad from Peter’s Way Tours, Inc., announcing a seven-day Greek Island cruise, May 19–28, 2005. The tour leaders are Fr. Michael Joncas, Bob Batastini, and Marty Haugen.
It sounds like it might be a type of GIA/Peter’s Way/Club Med event. Of course, there’s an agenda.
Entitled “In the Footsteps of St. Paul: The Song of the Early Churches,” featuring Scripture study and choral performance. If you know anything at all about the travels of Paul and his escapes, you may be curious to see how Peter’s Way will interpret and reenact the storm, the wrecked boat, and the other two hundred or so prisoners who had to listen to Paul’s polemics.
Another curiosity that I am harboring is to see how Marty Haugen and Bob Batastini will train us to sing microtones (quarter steps plus half steps) in GIA octavos, since the early churches of Corinth would have been under the influence of the Greek modal system and strange singing (strange to our ears) of microtones—quarter steps sometimes in the line.
It’s a great idea. Then, I started to wonder: why only Paul? Why not someone like Egeria, the third-century learned woman (probably a nun) who kept a diary of her travels in Jerusalem during Holy Week.
Her accounts are the first major descriptions of how the Church did Holy Week in Jerusalem 1600 years ago. She writes with great lucidity and vivid imagery when she describes the ceremonies at the various sites in Jerusalem.
It would be the better part of valor to wait, however, until things settle down in Jerusalem before a GIA or an NPM tour could be planned. Liturgical vesture would have to include flak jackets.
Until then, we can always offer to each other the Jewish wish: “Next year in Jerusalem.”
For the musicological types, how about a tour Mozart and his sister and dad would have taken as they left Salzburg and visited Italy with a sojourn in Rome during Holy Week?
That’s where Mozart heard Allegri”s “Miserere Mei Deus” sung by the esteemed Sistine Chapel choir. This motet was exclusive to the chapel and nobody—and I mean nobody—could have a copy.
Mind you, there were no Xerox machines or faxes in existence. Undaunted, Mozart returned to his room in Rome and wrote the music down with all the parts. Ha!—and all before copyright laws.
No big deal, actually. Mendelssohn did the same thing when he was a kid.
Then there is David Anderson. You would know David if you ever examined GIA Presents speaker/workshop program. He’s the itinerant clinician on the circuit who, when summoned, goes to a hosting church or diocese and works his magic.
He has visited places not as exotic as Athens or Rome or Jerusalem or Vienna. No, he’s more a homebody, sticking to mainland United States.
Looking at these possibilities, I must admit the Greek Island cruise seems most appealing. Now, if I can just schedule twenty-seven weddings and funerals in the next several months to pay for it, I might be able to swing it.
And that doesn’t include membership in a local health club and the services of a trainer to make me somewhat presentable at poolside.
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@earthlink.net