In praise of short stories

Pumpkin Cornbread photo and recipe by Healthy Seasonal Recipes

I was thinking of following up September’s ode to Molly Bloom and pumpkin spice with a Tolkien-inspired epic about the perils of shopping/traveling/surviving during the holiday season. I came to my senses when I looked at my calendar and realized the vast number of tasks I have to begin/undertake/improve/finish in the next couple of weeks, so I’ll leave you with this: Happy Thanksgiving, and may we all have pumpkin cornbread with our meals!

By the by, we’re giving a concert in December. I think you should come! Details below.

-Danny

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Joy & Light:
Delights of the Season

Saturday, December 14, 2024 at  7:30 pm
&
Sunday, December 15, 2024, 3:00 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue

Hosted by Arts on Alexander on the campus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 
2111 Alexander Ave, Austin, TX 78722.
Visit the Arts on Alexander 2024-2025 events on the AoA website.

Admission $35 general; $30 seniors (60+); $5 students with ID
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

For more information, email boxoffice@early-music.org.

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of diverse holiday music through the ages. Cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous carols, magnificent motets, sweet Celtic songs, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

 Much of the music for this concert comes from Northern Europe, including folk tunes and chant from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Hungary that have remained popular through modern times. We have chosen three enchanting Sephardic songs for the Chanukah section, two secular and one sacred. In addition, we will present music by the “newly discovered” Vicente Lusitano, a mixed-race Portuguese composer. Active in the 16th century, Lusitano has been described as the first published Black composer.

 One of the central composers of the French Baroque, Marc-Antoine Charpentier was a master at composing graceful and exciting Christmas pastorales. We have combined one of his most popular pastorales and one of his most popular oratorios into a seamless, shorter work, featuring his intimate orchestration, solos, and choral airs. Enjoy the audio teaser from our Gaudete CD below.

Visit our Recordings page to view all of our CDs. They make great holliday gifts!

 The British Isles are represented by a variety of popular ballads and folk songs from England and Ireland, all penned by that long-lived composer, Anonymous. As usual, there will be a few pieces composed and arranged in the last few years using some of the styles of Medieval and Baroque repertoire.

 Cayla Cardiff, Joel Nesvadba, Erin Calata, Page Stephens, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Jenny Houghton, Ryland Angel, and Jenifer Thyssen are among the featured soloists, and we are happy to have both acclaimed harpist Therese Honey and kantele virtuoso Viktoria Nizhnik featured in our small orchestra.

Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. We coined a new word to describe the concert: multilicious!

TEMP 2024-2025 Season: Reconnections

Joy, Light, & Everything Pumpkin Spice

Welp, we all know what’s about to happen, right? I’m gonna make a reference to the artificial jet lag created by the time change and that I kinda like it. And then I’m gonna say something like “it must be that time of year for another sweet potato curry, washed down with a pumpkin stout, and then chased by a slice of pumpkin cheesecake” or somesuch.

So let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?

Time’s a’wastin’ because I need to be finalizing the music for our Joy and Light concert in December and preparing for the Fall Texas Toot workshop in East Texas and trying to make time to watch our London City Limits concert video because we spent a lot of time on the concert and the audio/video editing and it’s pretty danged good! You should watch it. Details are on our website.

So, you see, rather than go on and on about not being able to find any pumpkin spice contact lens solution, I’m gonna get back to work! And think about the pumpkin spice ice cream I might have during a break.

See details about about our upcoming Joy and Light concert below!

And Happy Thanksgiving!
–Danny

P.S. Don’t forget: TEMP CDs make great holiday gifts! Purchase CDs at our concert venue or order from our Recordings page!

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Joy and Light: Delights of the Season

Saturday, December 9, 2023 at  7:30 pm
&
Sunday, December 10, 2023, 3:00 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue

Hosted by Arts on Alexander on the campus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 
2111 Alexander Ave, Austin, TX 78722.
Visit the Arts on Alexander 2023-2024 events on the AoA website.

Admission $35 general; $30 seniors (60+); $5 students with ID
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of diverse holiday music through the ages. Cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous carols, magnificent motets, sweet Celtic songs, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

 Much of the music for this concert comes from Southern Europe, including folk tunes from France that have remained popular through modern times as well as newly written pieces based on French chant. The enchanting Sephardic songs that we have chosen for the Chanukah section come from Turkey and Morocco. In addition, we will present music by the “newly discovered” Vicente Lusitano, a mixed-race Portuguese composer. Active in the 16th century, Lusitano has been described as the first published Black composer.

 In addition to the haunting motet for 5 voices by Lusitano, we have created a “medley” on the popular 14th-century tune In dulci jubilo (also known to modern carolers as Good Christian Men, Rejoice), using settings by different composers of the German Renaissance and Baroque: Michael Praetorius, Hieronymus Praetorius, and Dietrich Buxtehude. The settings range from verses for 2 parts, 3 parts, and so on, up to 12 different parts.

 The British Isles are represented by a variety of popular ballads and folk songs from England and Scotland, all penned by that long-lived composer, Anonymous. As usual, there will be a few pieces composed and arranged in the last few years using some of the styles of Medieval and Baroque repertoire.

 Tim O’Brien, David Lopez, Cayla Cardiff, Erin Calata, Page Stephens, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Jenny Houghton, Ryland Angel, Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon, and Jenifer Thyssen are among the featured soloists, and we are happy to have both acclaimed harpist Therese Honey and kantele virtuoso Viktoria Nizhnik featured in our small orchestra.

 Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. We coined a new word to describe the concert: multilicious!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

It's beginning to feel a bit like…

…Concert Time!

Overheard at the grocery store:

A (answering cell phone, loudly in speakerphone mode): Hey, I’m at the store, what’s up?
B (yelling into his phone): What do you want to do tonight?
A (also yelling) I dunno. What do you want to do tonight?
B: Well we could see what’s streaming on WhateverFlix.
A: Nah, we’ve done that the last 18 months.
B: Well, ok, whatever you want is fine with me.

Enter person C, friend of A:

C: Hey, A, I was in produce and heard you talking with B. Listen, I don’t know about tonight, but on December 11 or 12, you should go to the TEMP An Early Christmas concert.
B (even louder): Well, cool beans, sounds like a good plan! So, A, where do you want to go for dinner before the concert?
A: I dunno. Where do you want to go for dinner before the concert?
C (walking away sheepishly, muttering to nobody in particular): And take your phone off speaker in the grocery store.

It’s just a thought. Read all about the concert below!
-Danny

P.S.: Hope to see you at the concert! All phones will be silenced.

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An Early Christmas

Saturday, December 11, 2021, at  7:30 pm
&
Sunday, December 12, 2021, at 3:00 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by buying season tickets!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of diverse Christmas music through the ages. Cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous carols, magnificent motets, lively Celtic songs, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

Almost all of the music for this concert comes from Northern Europe and the British Isles. We’ve chosen pieces from Medieval England and France that glimmer with the transparency of the styles of the period. Renaissance Netherlands, England, and France give us both glorious polyphonic and appealing chordal ambiance. A little Baroque music from France and England will leave us with memorable (and recognizable) tunes. Although most of the pieces were written by the long-lived Anonymous, some composers of note are Dufay, Sweelinck, Handl (not Handel), and St. Godric of Victor, who died in 1170. In addition to a few pieces composed in the last few years using some of the styles of Medieval and Baroque repertoire, we will be presenting a short set of music for the Chanukah celebration!

Encompassing more than 700 years of humanity’s hope, love, and joy, TEMP puts its distinctive stamp on the intangible essence and passion of Christmas, with arrangements for solo voices, small chorus, harp, violin, mandolin, viols, lute, and Karelian chromatic kantele.

Tim O’Brien, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Jenny Houghton, Ryland Angel, Meredith Ruduski, and Jenifer Thyssen are featured soloists, and we are happy to have both acclaimed harpist Therese Honey and kantele virtuoso Viktoria Nizhnik featured in our small orchestra.

Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. And you can use our new word, multilicious!

Hosted by Arts on Alexander on the campus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Ave,
Austin, TX 78722

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COVID PROTOCOLS

TEMP will be adhering to all State and City regulations, as well as guidelines from the CDC concerning masking and social distancing, as well as the requirements of our venue. We urge you to buy your tickets in advance, as the audience size will be limited so that the audience can be safely distanced. The audience is strongly requested to be masked at all times; we will have masks available for your use as well. Please feel welcome to contact us with questions or concerns.

Join us as we are gaderen: gathering again!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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