For quite a bit of time, I have been looking for a solution to practice the organ at home. A digital piano may simulate a real piano quite well, but for an organ, the pedalboard is a real need. 🎹
I concluded that building a digital organ with a pedalboard would be way more exciting than buying one (which would be very expensive too!).
So, here's the story! 🛠
There is no doubt that astronomy is an extraordinary field of science. I love it! I am amazed by the accuracy of how the Universe works. Specifically, it is remarkable how the constellations and planets move with such a precision that we can anticipate eclipses, conjunctions, and other astronomical events. 🌌
We can also calculate the exact position of the stars in the sky at a given moment in time and a point in space. Neat apps are showing you the position of the stars and planets on the night sky just by allowing them to know where you are geolocated. The events predicted by the astronomers do happen exactly as they say.
For example, the conjunction of two planets of our solar system will take place at the end of this year, more exactly: on the 21st of December, Jupiter will be 0.1° south of Saturn. This kind of conjunction occurs every 19,6 years (so, the last one was in May 2000, and the next one will be in 2040). Lovely, isn't it? If you want to find more on this, check out this article. 🪐
“Through Adam's Fall” — BWV 637 — it is fascinating how Bach harmonised this choral which illustrates the fall of the human race. With a massive amount of dissonances and chromatic sequences, the effects of the ancestral sin are emphasised in an astonishing way.
To add even more intensity to the piece, I chose a plenum registration featuring trumpets, mixtures and other registers, giving a feeling of severity to the subject of the piece — the fall of man.
The piece ends in a positive manner, using major chords and upward chromatic structures.
The final chord is a major one, encapsulating the idea that even Adam fell, each one of us can be justified by grace, through Jesus — the Last Adam, as the Apostle Paul writes:
To continue the idea of peace and meditation, this second section of Op. 148 is yet another piece to inspire the souls of the listeners and to create calmness.
The apostle Paul once wrote to the Philippians with his concern on this topic:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 4:6, 7 (NIV)
I chose a soft registration so that the listeners’ minds can meditate in the sacred atmosphere of the church and get closer to God.
Jesus said:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” — John 14:27 (NIV)
Sometimes we need to stop from the usual daily activities to take a few moments to meditate, to find the peace that Jesus gives us.
That is what this song is about. I played it choosing a soft registration of Principal 8’ and Flute 8’ with the hope to bring peace to each one that listens to it.
During the last couple of weeks, we had been working on some recordings featuring sacred music for pipe organ written by Bach and Louis J.-A. Lefébure-Wély.
I am happy to share with you this good news that the videos are finally ready and posted on this page soon.
The filming sessions were taken place in two churches in Oradea, Romania - Rogerius Reformed Church and The Descent of the Holy Spirit Church.
Thanks to @Stefan Jacob, @Dorian Corb and @Cristian Stoican for recording and editing.
For me, 2018 was a special year in which I accomplished many objectives and learned a bunch of things. Having the flexibility to work and travel is a great blessing. 🙏
Here are a few highlights of this year. ✨
Perhaps the most touching experience I had this year was living and traveling in Ecuador for three months (September—December).
I visited many wonderful places, met lovely people and made a couple of close friends. I learned a little bit of Spanish, enjoyed the diversity of fresh fruits and vegetables. During this time I was in contact with the Church and made the important step of baptism. 💖
In 2017 I travelled to India for 5 weeks. 🇮🇳 Finally, I took the time to write about what I learned there. As European, I tried my best to adapt to the Indian life as much as possible, eating what and how they eat, doing stuff the way they do it, visiting some nice places and working at the same time. 🍀
I was lucky because Bhargav–an Indian friend travelled with me and I had the privilege to be hosted for a few days at Suresh. 🙏
I made this video which covers a couple of highlights from India:
Summarizing, here are some things I learned during these 5 weeks:
I have a powerful ASUS machine which I use when I'm at home. I guess it was designed for gaming. It's quite useful for any tasks, but I often use it for expensive tasks using more resources (e.g. training neural networks). It got a fast enough wired internet connection, as well! 🚀
When travelling, I do not have physical access to my home computer. However, I do want to access it sometimes (when I work on projects requiring lots of computations). ✈️
The solution I ended with is to connect to it via SSH. 🔒
So, using my MacBook, I can simply run ssh -A ionicabizau@<public-ip> -p <port> and land in my home. There are a couple of problems, tho. Here is how I did it! ✨
