Nunc Dimittis
Denise Restout died on March 9, 2004, in Hartford, Connecticut. Born November 24, 1915, in Paris, she came to the United States in 1941 as assistant to Wanda Landowska. Upon the great harpsichordist's death in 1959 Restout inherited their home in Lakeville, maintaining it as The Landowska Center, conceived both as a shrine and a venue for the study of early music. For many years Denise Restout served St. Mary's Catholic Church, Lakeville, as secretary of the parish council, religious instructor, and organist. Her burial mass was celebrated there on March 13.
SEHKS
Featuring the Aliénor Awards for Contemporary Harpsichord Composition, the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society held its annual meeting at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, March 11-13. Officers elected for the coming year include Larry Palmer, president; Dana Ragsdale, vice-president; Douglas Maple, secretary; Martha Clinkscale, treasurer; and new board members Robert Parkins and Ann Marie Rigler, who join continuing members Ardyth Lohuis, Charlotte Mattox, Karen Jacob, Elaine Funaro, Gene Jarvis, and Genevieve Soly. Harpsichord maker Richard Kingston was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the business meeting and banquet on Saturday afternoon. SEHKS' next meeting will take place at Stetson University, Deland, Florida, March 3-5, 2005.
The Baritone Wore Chiffon: A Liturgical Mystery
by Mark Schweizer (St. James Music Press, 2004; $10)
Hayden Konig, organist-choirmaster of St. Barnabas in St. Germaine, North Carolina, is also the town's police chief, an amateur detective, and a putative author. Following the Christmas goings-on detailed in Schweizer's The Alto Wore Tweed, Hayden is involved this time in Lenten shenanigans at St. Barnabas. The fictional detective's parallel literary work, inspired by and executed upon Raymond Chandler's very own typewriter, adds a second layer of madcap mystery to this hilarious crime novel.
Musical references abound, although not quite so extensively as in Schweizer's earlier offering. Nevertheless the reader encounters Penderecki's St. Luke Passion, Orlando Gibbons' Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, Britten's War Requiem, and Handel's Messiah, as well as the musical portions of a clown Eucharist and an Edible Last Supper, both added to St. Barnabas' schedule of Lenten services by a zany interim priest ("Clown Imperial" as processional, for example).
With a significant part of the action set at England's York Minster, a steadily expanding cast of Hungarian expatriates, including a dwarf verger named Wenceslaus, and the complete text of Schweizer's Weasel Cantata (see pages 149-150), this second Konig mystery is another page-turner. Copies are available from
Last year I suggested that the first volume of this series was the perfect Christmas gift. Number two is recommended as enhancement for any festive occasion, to enliven a plane flight, or as that unique gift for a literate church musician friend.
Send news items or comments about Harpsichord News to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275;
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