Avec Tonnerre

What do you get when you cross a pipe organ, an altar server and a piece of lumber?  Why, my morning, of course!

For the Solemnity of Pentecost, I was requested to accompany the 9:00 Sunday Mass at St. Mary of Victories Chapel as organist.  After hearing a 7:00 Missam Brevissimam at St. Ambrose Church on the Hill, I headed over to the chapel, stopping quickly along the way at St. Francis de Sales Oratory to eat breakfast in their basement.*  Since I was alone, I decided I would sit in choir during Mass, so grabbing my vestments and a plank of wood, I made my way into the church.

Yes, a plank of wood.  You know things are getting serious when the organist shows up to play with a plank of wood in tow!  The postlude for Mass, Michel Corrette's Grand Chœur avec Tonnerre, actually specifies for a plank of wood to be laid across the bottom octave of the pedalboard, enabling you to play all of the notes simultaneously.  Discordant, much?  It's intentional.  The idea is that the dissonance on the 16' and 32' ranks will imitate the sound of thunder ("avec tonnerre"), and I thought this piece fit nicely with Acts 2:2 ("suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming").  For the prelude, I played Mozart's Adagio in C-Dur für Glasharmonika (K.356, K.617a), and for the recessional, Come Holy Ghost.

From there, I made my way back to the Oratory just in time for the Consecration, waiting in the vestibule until it ended, and then boldly going up into my front pew as if I weren't totally walking into Mass an hour late!  Thus ending my liturgical adventure for the day.

*The true motive was hope of hearing the Veni Creator Spiritus chanted before the 8:00 Mass, but they did not do so.  It was used during the Offertory at St. Mary of Victories, however!

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Mass heard: 07:00, St. Ambrose; 09:00, St. Mary of Victories; 10:00, St. Francis de Sales

Serving streak: 3 days

Datum S. Ludovici, die XIX mensis Maii, in festo Pentecostes, anno MMXIII.