Lately I’ve been thinking about some of the contrasts that chase us through life at Emmanuel. They start on Sunday when I walk over the small round disk embossed BOSTON GROUNDWATER TRUST, which is set into the sidewalk in front of the church. It’s one of 800 wells monitoring the groundwater that still covers the 200,000 Maine spruce-tree trunks that were steam-pile driven-in 160 years ago to keep our feet out of the soup below. Sure, I know that part of the motivation for filling the Back Bay was to keep prosperous white Protestants from decamping to the suburbs, and my Irish great-grandfather south of the tracks. But still, there’s no way to get into Emmanuel without at least an unthinking pilgrimage over that magical, invisible, upside-down forest.
Tag Archives: Bach
2019
29 January. We celebrated John Harbison‘s 80th birthday in our Parish Hall with some of his jazz songs, a piece composed by Michael Gandolfi with libretto of Lloyd Schwartz‘ selections from John’s recently published book What Do We Make of Bach, and a tower of cupcakes wheeled in by Pat Krol, Executive Director of Emmanuel Music.
John Harbison at the piano provided by M. Steinert & Sons with Don Berman, Lynn Torgove, Pat Krol, and singers of Emmanuel Music.
- Thanks to a generous grant from the City of Boston’s Community Preservation, Commission restoration work on our Newbury St. façade began under the direction of Vestry member Peter K. Johnson. The multi-year project involved repair and refinishing of five sets of doors with their tympana, masonry work for our central entrance and several staircases, and roof work to prevent ice dams.
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Craig Smith directing our orchestra with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on viola; Don Wilkinson, Paul Guttry et al. in the chorus.
Pendragon Press published Bringing Bach’s Music to Life, a compilation of Craig Smith‘s program notes for 24 cantatas, edited by Pamela Dellal, in its series of Monographs in Musicology.
1978
- 21 April. Gov. Michael Dukakis proclaimed it to be Johann Sebastian Bach Day in the Commonwealth as “the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston…after seven years [had] completed for the first time in the USA the cycle of [his]194 sacred cantatas”.
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Constance visited us in Oct. 2017
Constance Hammond was elected our first woman (junior) warden. After ordination in our diocese, she served as rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR (1990-98) and then as rector and priest in other churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon Since 1998, she has been a practitioner and instructor in the Healing Touch Program. See also: 1986.
1971
Rosemary Dodge Hutcheson became our first female officer. A former president of the Junior League of Boston, she served as Clerk of the Vestry for two years. See also 1931.
“Start your day with Robert J.” says Priscilla Young’s T-shirt.
Robert J. Lurtsema took over Morning Pro Musica on WGBH’s FM station. On Sunday mornings he often broadcast a Bach cantata from Emmanuel. Our benefactor Priscilla Rawson Young supported not only our cantatas but also GBH and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
For more about PR Young, see: 1909, 1939, 1942, 1973, 1994 & 2000.