Spiritual Classical MIX TAPE CD

I made my little brother a classical music mix! I was thinking it would be spiritual classical. Most of the music on it is kind of sad or meditative--I'm not sure why I didn't think really happy music should go on it. I actually had Rutter's "O Clap Your Hands" on the long list (went through most of my collection to put this together). I also wanted to include some works you might not typically listen to if you're thinking "religious music times." If you'd like a copy I can burn you one. 

Track List for Rachel’s Spiritual Classical Mix, with brief commentary.

01 Three Songs of Faith: I Thank You God For This Most Amazing Day by Eric Whitacre. The BYU Singers are famous for performing these acapella works, but this recording will do.

02 Panis Angelicus by Caesar Franck, sung by Andrea Bocelli. I know, Bocelli is someone my mom listens to... but classical is for everyone.

03 Open The Kingdom by Philip Glass and David Byrne, sung by Douglas Perry. I always find myself getting misty-eyed and shivers from this song. It's not a typical religious style, but it's a sentiment I treasure--open the kingdom! Also, not sure what is up with the weird imagery in this vid.

04 Fugue for organ in g, BVW 578, by JS Bach. It's a classic. This video is shot in Bach's church too.

05 Da pacem Domine by Arvo Part. Part (who is supposed to have two dots over the a) conveys something mystic and resonant. 

06 Come, Let Us Worship from Rachmaninov’s Vespers. It's probably not like the other Rachmaninov/ff you know.

07 Symphony No. 3, iii, by Henryk Gorecki. This symphony is so heartbreaking, but also so beautiful, that I had to put it on, even though it took up a lot of room, length-wise.

08 From JS Bach’s BWV 639 Ich ruf zu Dir, taken from the soundtrack to Solaris “Listen to Bach (The Earth). I think there should be more synth arrangements of Bach's organ pieces. It's so calming.

09 River Waltz by Alexandre Desplat from The Painted Veil soundtrack. I just like The Painted Veil, no excuses here.

10 Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass from the soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi. This has some of the super-deep basses like in the Rachmaninov piece earlier. Even though the name means destruction or chaos in... Hopi? I like that it's such a fatalistic and repetitive piece.

11 Always by Jessica Curry from the soundtrack to the game Dear Esther. The choral part mixed with Curry's simple piano makes this one of my favorites.

12 O Africa by someone with Cirque du Soleil. I admit, I just wanted to look cosmopolitan, but I think it changes things up pretty well.

13 In Church (Cyann & Ben Version) by M83 from the soundtrack to Stranger Than Fiction. I think I could listen to this one all day on repeat. Love the organ synth thing and acoustic guitar.

what my days look like

A friend of mine does "Day in the Life" posts where she posts everything she did that day. It's a nice way to get a feel for her daily schedule without writing/reading it every day.

So my typical mornings are like this: get up at 9, clean and eat breakfast, make Adam a lunch, and then start work at 10. I say work, but it's my unpaid internship with the Kill Screen. After I write up 5 things, I call it done, which is somewhere between 12 and 2, depending on how fast I find things and how alert I am. Sometimes when I can't think of something to write I just refresh Twitter a lot, hoping someone will post a good link. And sometimes I end up playing games that I report on.

The past two weeks I've been practicing organ every day (today I practiced organ on the piano, since sometimes I don't feel like driving down to the church). This week I started a computer science course at edX, and I've been trying to review some kanji at WaniKani.

Some afternoons I have an errand to run. Yesterday I went into Provo to get my blood drawn and tomorrow my dog has a vet visit. I'm working on a quilt for a quilting class with a neighbor, and I think there is a book I'm supposed to be reading for book club. And my sister is making a videogame I want to help write.

I wasn't feeling all that great yesterday and spent a considerable amount of time playing Guild Wars 2. I think today I'm going to try making some muffins, and we have eggplant parmigiana on the meal plan, so I'll start making that around 5:30. Adam will come home between 6 and 7, and after dinner we'll take Koko on a walk. In the evening Adam likes to play on his iPad and sometimes I'll play a game too.

I know some people think they'd be bored if they stayed at home all day... but I don't feel bored.