calm

Sacred Sunday: “Jisas Yu Holem Hand Blong Mi,” Melanesian Choirs

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This Melanesian song, used in the film, “The Thin Red Line,” is in Pidgin English (translation below) and is a beautiful hymn with (surprise!) a great rhythmic aspect. I love its sparseness.

—
Jesus hold my hand
Hear my cry when I call you
There is none like you,
I praise you Jesus
I come unto you now
Take me as I am
Jesus I come unto you
Take me as I am
I humbly come unto you
And say thank you for everything given to me
And I will be ready for your return Jesus
I come unto you now
Take me as I am
Jesus I come unto you
Take me as I am

Salubrious Saturday: “Tribute to Peadar O’Donnell/Takarasaka,” Jerry Douglas

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I may or may not be obsessed with the show “Hell on Wheels,” and by may or may not I mean am. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to clear your schedule, get some snacks, and hie thee to a Netflix account. It’s fantastic. The show follows the adventures of one Cullen Bohannon, a Civil War veteran on the Confederate side whose family was killed by Union soldiers. The show begins with him hunting them down and the plot hinges on what happens to him in their pursuit.

Plot plot plot blah blah blah. The music is awesome and is so successful at putting you in the time period that you hear twangy guitars after the show ends, and walk around with a pretend six-shooter on your right hip. Never mind that the life portrayed in the show is awful. You want to be Cullen Bohannon.

The song “Takarasaka” puts me in that frame of mind.

Throwback Thursday: “Tant Que Vivray,” Claudin de Sermisy

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It’s Eduardo Antonello again!  Yay!  You might remember his Praetorious recording from a few Throwback Thursdays ago.  “Tant Que Vivray” is one of my most favorite French Renaissance pieces.    It’s just charming.

That's the chap.

That’s the chap.

de Sermisy wrote this piece in the 1520, during the reign of Francis I.  Francis was a serious patron of the arts (he acquired the Mona Lisa) and of scholarship, who apparently standardized the French language.  de Sermisy joined the court of Francis in 1515 and became assistant chapel master in 1533.  In an odd sort of way, we are listening to the same music heard by the (quite expired) king of France.  Wowie zowie.

Termagant Tuesday: “La Paloma Azul,” Dave Brubeck

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In a number of months, after the weather turns cold again and the darkness of winter is creeping closer and closer, I’m going to thatched-roof, one-room hut on the beach, at the southernmost tip of Baja California in Mexico.  My thatched-roof, one-room hut is in the absolute middle of nowhere.  I will wake up, open the screen door, step out onto the beach, and walk down to the ocean for a swim.  Then I might read in the shade.  I might nap.  I might take a walk.  I might have a beer in the evening.  That’s all there is to do, and I will do this for an entire week.  Until that week starts, I will listen to this song and imagine myself there.

 

Hola, Baja.

Hola, Baja.

 

Sacred Sunday: “Freuen Wir Uns All In Ein,” Michael Weisse

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This extraordinary hymn was written by Michael Weisse in the very early 16th century in Silesia.

Silesia

Silesia

I can’t find the German or English anywhere for the life of me, so sorry to leave you hanging.  Nevertheless, I can’t get enough of the tune.  It’s classic German and classic Baroque at the same time: solid, four-square construction, with gorgeous but sober harmony.  It’s an earth-bound hymn with heaven-ward eyes, like all good prayers should be.

Sacred Sunday: “Call to Prayer,” Baaba Maal

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Islam is a beautiful religion.  One of its most wonderful aspects, for me, is the Call to Prayer.  I’ve heard it in in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, and the West Bank.  Even for a Christian, it has a calming, centering effect.

I am completely remiss in not posting this last Sunday, when the holy month of Ramadan officially began.  In the Islamic tradition, the month of Ramadan marks the month the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhamed.  Ramadan is also the time when the doors of Paradise are open and the doors of Hell are closed, with the devils within chained up.

To all of my Muslim readers: Ramadan Mubarak.  Kul ‘am wa enta bi-khair.

Sacred Sunday: “Creator’s Prayer,” Joseph Fire Crow

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I’m off for a long hike in the woods. Every time I go for a hike I think of Joseph Fire Crow. I first heard of him through the “National Parks” series. So this song will be running through my mind as I’m scrabbling up rocks and hopping across streams.

SHAME WEEK! Salubrious Saturday: “Je t’aimais, je t’aime, et je t’aimerai,” Francis Cabrel

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hacR4ElzkNE

 

High school.  High school, high school, high school.  Wow.

Okay.  Before we jump into the backstory here, let me just say that I am forced to post this song today because I am going to a very good friend’s wedding and therefore it has to be a love song.  This week being Shame Week, I had no choice.  And all men are Socrates.  Okay.  Moving on.

I really do love this song.  It’s beautiful.  But it’s like eating Frosted Flakes with maple syrup.  It’s way, way, way too cloying and sweet and over the top.  You know what time in your life is made for things that are over the top?  Say it with me now: high school!  Hooray!  Sometimes in French class our teacher would play us French pop songs and we would have to transcribe the lyrics.  It was a genius way of teaching French and it also gave high schoolers the greatest gift of all: ways to look effete and worldly at 15 years old.  I thought I was soooo sophisticated for loving – and being able to sing along to – Francis Cabrel.  Until I went to France on an orchestra exchange and my host family asked me what music I liked and I said, “oh, moi j’adore Francis Cabrel,” and they were like, “…vraiment?”  And I was all like, “…merde.”

But I was undeterred!  The angelic boy chorus that comes in around 1:30 gave me visions of eternal, perfect, heartbreaking love, because when you’re a teenager, love and pain are obvious synonyms.  (Spoiler alert for any teenagers reading this: wrong!  They’re antonyms.  Trust me.)  I put it on a mix I’m horrified to admit I called “Romance Mix” that I brought with me to college.  I played it during my first relationship, and the breakup of my first relationship.  It slowly fell out of rotation through my early and mid-20s as relationships became less of an item of necessity, like a purse, and more of an item of choice.  Now, a decade on from university, I kind of like its treacly intensity.  The older you get, irony becomes lame and earnestness is more appealing.  Even if whatever is earnest is also just a tad cloying