Adventures in Grad School, Part 2

A test, hymnal review, article review, many Finale transcriptions, four organ lessons, a choral hymn setting, and about 70 hours of class later, I am done with grad school.  The first half of the session, and over half of my whole MCM degree.

The Kretzmann post feels like forever ago.

Anyhow, since then, I promise that I have learned LOTS, including actual coursework.  One of them is that I say the word "actual" way too much - oops.

Last Sunday, Trinity Sunday, I attended my first-ever hymn festival for the dedication of this organ:

My organ instructor led the special program, several choirs sang, the parish handbell choir rang, and the pastor read the three articles of the Creed from Luther's Small Catechism while we joined in on hymns describing the explanations to each.  Fun!  More ideas for MY upcoming senior service/project, whenever that is.

To reward ourselves for doing so well in an unconditioned church on an 80-degree afternoon, my friends and I wandered over to our favorite frozen custard joint, where I tried a banana split for the first time.

For one of our projects, I got to explore the rare-book room here at school, and obviously did make it out of there.  Just barely.  Gingerly, I perused the tiny German hymnals, numerous English psalm books, and other token publications of the old Synodical Conference with columns so tight and bindings so fragile I was afraid to drop anything.  There, in the crisp air, I cradled several of them in white-gloved hands, smiling as I traced the names written inside.  Each one belonged to someone like me.  For the first half of my project, I selected the English Chorale Book for England, and carefully paged through, taking down its organizational characteristics.

Another perk about school?  Running by a lake every morning.  :)  I've discovered it's hardly possible for myself to listen to anything but the grandest music with this view.

Perfect.  It's also always cool early in the morning here, and not many people can roll out of bed and come this far to be right on the shoreline, so awesome for the students here.

For lessons, I get to work with one of these:

Yes, that is a Zimbelstern.  Apparently, in some Lutheran synods, this stop of whirling bells is Pavlovian for "Please rise and sing the Doxology."  Currently, I'm working on a Herman Schroeder prelude, Brahms' "Schmucke dich," Buxtehude Prelude/Fugue/Chaconne BuxWV 137, Joseph Jongen's "Choral," and Bach Prelude/Fugue in c minor BWV 549.

Today, I'm getting together and exploring the area with some friends who live about an hour away - so excited!  The end of classes are in sight.  Still, I'm realizing in all of this that I'm really not cut out to live by myself.  Doing serious coursework like this, it's honestly very difficult for me to get back to my suite and have no one with whom to recall the day's events.  That's why I blog.  Hopefully I can have a person someday to share morning coffee and Gerhard loci and silliness and awesome music...

You can tell where my mind is.  Happy Saturday.  Study hard and play hard, and God's blessings on all of it.