The Decimal Jam was a blast! Ignacio and I met Bibi, Dom and Father Stanich at the church on Friday afternoon, and we headed off to the Budweiser brewery. We took the tour, looking at the insanely huge vats where they ferment the beer and admiring the complex machinery in the bottling plant, and finally sitting down to enjoy beer (those who were of age) and soda (those who weren't.) Then we went back to the church to rehearse and attend First Friday Holy Hour and Mass, at which we sang -- Palestrina's lovely O Bone Jesu at Offertory, and Byrd's celestial Ave Verum at Communion, and I played an organ recessional/postlude.
After Mass, a few members of the choir for the wedding rehearsed the Missa Brevis, but mid-rehearsal I was called up to rescue the somewhat confused wedding party by playing the music for them. I ran up and, despite the lack of scores, played well enough to get a decent estimate of tempos for all of them to walk down the aisle.
When I came down again I found the choir had already dispersed and soon Father, Bibi, Dom, Billy and I headed off to dinner at Lombardo's Italian restaurant, tucked into a corner behind Union Station. We had a plentiful and hilarious meal, and when Father finally took us home we found the whole family up, despite its being nearly eleven! We settled in the library and Bibiana produced a pile of little presents for each member of the family, and even one that we had gotten for Father Stanich when I was with her in Austin - the little carved sign saying "You can take me out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of me!" Mom laughed at it and said, "The first thing you have to do in Syracuse is lock yourself into your office and nail that to the door!"
The next morning we woke up to a delightful breakfast of ham, eggs, pancakes and coffee, after which we dressed for the wedding. We ended up a very sharp-looking crowd, and it seemed no time at all until we had to pile into the car for string rehearsal. The car was packed; Mom, Domenico, Bibiana, Ignacio, Rocio, Maria and I, plus music and instruments, had quite a time getting all of ourselves in. However, get in we did, and got to the church in plenty of time to run over Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and Mozart's Ave Verum, which came out amazingly. The fact that we had a miniature string orchestra seemed to raise the level of our music several notches, choir and organists alike. At twenty to one we started the preludes; Bibiana and I played Massenet's Meditation from Thais, and then Dom joined us for Bach's Concerto for Two Violins. That still left a hole before the wedding party was ready, so Billy played something else - improvising, I believe - until we were given the "All Clear" signal and prepared for the real thing to begin.
We started with Jesu Joy, for the mothers' entrance - it's a really long piece for two mothers, but hey, they asked for it, and it came out beautiful. We used every instrument we had for that one - three violins, organ and recorder. Then I took the organ and played what were possibly the three hugest pieces anyone's ever chosen in a row: Dunstable's Agincourt Hymn for the three priests and the servers; the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition, for the bridesmaids; and then the Great Gate of Kiev, for Stephanie herself.
The vows were spoken so softly I never heard a word; but when Father Soos came up to the pulpit to speak to the newlyweds I sat back on the organ bench and enjoyed the sermon. I wish I had taken notes, because I always love his sermons but I have a really bad memory for anything spoken - I'm better at remembering things I read. I do remember that he made a constant parallel between the vocations of the priest and the married couple, addressing himself at once to Ryan and Stephanie and to Father Sick, ordained this June, who came to be subdeacon for the Solemn Mass; it was a lovely sermon. At the end, as Stephanie offered her bouquet to Our Lady, we sang the Magnificat, and then I pulled out all the stops for the recessional, the Allegro of Bach's Organ Concerto in A Minor.
Afterward we gathered in the choir room to rehearse once more for the reception, as Stephanie had requested live music. We had some contra-dance tunes, and Bibi and I had our Handel and Beethoven, and of course, there was the Mandolin Concerto to play. Father Stanich was nervous; he had never played while he was our pastor, so of course he had to have it perfect! We finally piled into Father's car and drove off to St. Charles, where the reception was held. We arrived to discover Brandon and Ignacio enthroned in what they labeled "the Cynics' Corner", which became the end of the Musicians' Table.
When the bridal party arrived, we were settling ourselves into the opposite end of the room where the speakers were; and when dinner was served, Bibi and I kicked off the music with Beethoven's Spring sonata. From there, we played just about anything; Bibi and I took our chance to grab a bite when Domenico, Ignacio and Billy (violin, guitar and piano) started an improvisation on a two-chord progression provided by Dom, which turned out amazing! Later we moved everything to the middle of the room for Father's concerto, which was received politely enough, though, typical for weddings, there were children screaming in the background almost the whole time. The keyboard and mikes were still there when the dancing began and we stood by enjoying Ryan and Stephanie's waltz, (Delibes' Valse Lente from Coppélia,) and then the daddy-daughter dance and Ryan's dance with his mother, before everyone else crowded onto the floor. I was asked for every one - there weren't that many, but I danced with Dom, Billy and another friend or two before we ended up degenerating into the hilarious but insane Broom Dance. Of course, there were way too many girls, but the men kept up their end and we danced for about twenty minutes to a wild series of reels and polkas. After that, Ryan asked us why we weren't playing and Dom, taking the hint, took the keyboard to improvise on Blue Moon and Summertime. Then the violins, guitar and accordion emerged and we started jamming out - contra tunes and an improvised polka, finally degenerating into the Duck Dance and Chopsticks, and Good Night Ladies at the end! We came home at midnight, had hot milk and honey and Dom and I sat down at the piano, where he showed me some basics of jazz, and an hour went by before we noticed it!
The next day after High-Mass we had breakfast with the newlyweds, and then we drove down to the Kokenges', where we spent a delightful afternoon which culminated, as usual, in a barbecue, Compline and music. Eight-year-old Agus even played a bit on his bagpipe for us, and we had the time of our lives! This was the night that we watched Hoodwinked, and the Gattozzis, who had not seen it, died laughing.
Monday we went to Grant's Farm, found it was closed, and spent a fun morning in the Visitor Center of Grant's house, though we didn't trouble to take the tour of the inside of the house -- it was too nice of a day to take an hour to walk through a house we could do in ten minutes! We walked home for lunch and then loaded all their things into the car and went off to Ted Drewes for ice cream. After that we dropped two of the girls at piano and, on a brilliant whim of Ignacio's, went over to MusicFolk to look at instruments and scores. We came out richer by a little book of mandolin pieces for Father Stanich, a sheet-music notebook for me, a bumper sticker that said "if you can read this, thank your piano teacher", and a book of Caribbean piano rhythms that Dom had discovered. By now it was time to drop Rocio off at piano and head for the airport, which we did. On the way I drafted a dedication for Father's little book and then we went through the check-in line, signed the book, and said our goodbyes -- "till Syracuse!"
