transcribing manuscripts

Some months ago I came into possession of some beautiful manuscripts. There's something amazing about these things. You look at them, and imagine the people who may have used them 400-500 years ago. Imagine the chants echoing throughout the cathedral. Then I think about the people who created these works of art. The process of making the vellum alone is a time consuming effort. There's just something magical about it!

Being very interested in early music, I of course wanted to hear these chants. I learned at university how to read plainchant, so I decided to transcribe them into a MIDI file to share with people.

The first one I did is the leaf on the far right of the above photo.

Read along with this video I created

Sometime later I will post better pictures, and manuscripts from my collection that aren't music.

baroque in okc

Something special happened today! Here in OKC there was an authentic baroque concert given. As you know, baroque music is my absolute favorite. I have a passion for it. So when I heard there would be a concert given I was extremely excited. I was worried it would be canceled, as we had a bit of snow and places in OK like to close up when it snows. (Starbucks was closed today!)

The concert was in the beautiful chapel at the First Presbyterian church. 

The exceptional musicians were Brad Bennight on harpsichord, and Henning Vater on violin. I was very anxious, so I arrived early. Actually, I was the first audience member haha! (I was only 15 minutes early!)

Walking into the chapel I saw the harpsichord, and it brought back memories of my first baroque concert in Amsterdam. 

The harpsichordist, Brad Bennight, built this beautiful instrument. And an interesting fact about the violinist, he was playing an Italian violin from around 1750. Apparently Haydn had a viola from the same maker of this violin! 

The concert was absolutely amazing. I was in a place only baroque music can take me, and the program was great. Two amazing composers. Prior to this concert I had only heard a few pieces by Krebs, and that's a shame because the music was wonderful. I even purchased a CD of Bennight playing Krebs harpsichord music afterwards. It was truly an amazing performance.

paper beads

Hello! 

So my latest creative endeavor has been paper beads! I don't know what sparked my interest in making these, nor do I know what I will do with the beads! It is just super fun and almost therapeutic rolling the paper, gluing them, glazing them, etc. It's fun!

My life has been sooo crazy lately. I've been in the pit orchestra for my university's production of "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini. Endless rehearsals! Sunday was our final performance, and while I'm glad it's over, I'm also going to miss it! Hopefully I can fit some more blog posts into my schedule on a more regular basis now!

3 new cards

In the past 2 days I've received three more cards. I figured I may as well post them today, as I didn't want a post at the end of the week with tons of images on it!

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France

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Taiwan

I love the little drawings she added!

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Hong Kong!

That's it for now. I recently bought an intervalometer/remote for my camera, so I hope to do some interesting time lapse photography. We'll see! 

cards from thanksgiving break

Here's the postcards I've received this Thanksgiving break! I adore all three!

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Germany

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Poland

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Holland!

orange pomander

This was SUCH a simple project. I know it's a little early, but I like to test out new projects before the holiday season gets here.

What is it? An orange pomander.

Basically you take an orange and stick whole cloves in it. I found it helpful to take a sharp tool to pierce holes first, as cloves can be fragile sometimes.

The cloves act as diffusers of the oranges juices and oils, causing a most delicious aroma!

Arrange them in any design you wish! Put them in a decorative bowl, or wrap with ribbon and hang around the home!

antique dutch tile

When I went to Amsterdam last summer, I wanted to come home with a really memorable souvenir. My partner I was traveling with told me about the beautiful, and often simple, antique Dutch tiles. We looked through many antique shops, until I found one I liked.

I wonder what the man is doing? Sneaking around? Or perhaps playing some game?

(ca 1700)

For more history on these Dutch tiles, check out this website!

http://www.nederlandstegelmuseum.nl/Museum/Geschiedenis_English.htm

This is one of my true treasures, and probably the oldest item I own!