Two ASU events

On Thursday I went to a "symposium" at ASU where three visiting professors presented short papers about aspects of the concert that we're performing on April 26. First speaker, a rabbi, went through the union prayer book and its history, Bloch's approach in condensing elements of the prayer book into the choral work, etc. And he said Bloch at that stage was not particularly religious, calling him a "seventh day absentist." (Everybody laughed.) Speaker number two was from Claremont College; he focused on Bernstein's Jeremiah Lamentations. Speaker number three was the most interesting; he was a music professor from University of Georgia and discussed sources of the music, played clips, etc. He described a theory - not proven but much work went into trying to prove it - that Gregorian Chant was based on sources from Jewish worship. Some of the figures were very similar. And he played the orchestral lead-in to Bloch's Sacred Service, which sounded extra nice given the buildup. It's going to be good.

On Friday, Patrick was in town for an interview; he, Patricia and I went to ASU to see a concert put on by a group in which Meghan Jones performs (the "Pitch Forks", some dated info about the group is here). Paul Jr. and Nedda also attended. A fine time was had by all, including a late dinner at Z/Tempe.