Sunday Playlist - 11/22/2020

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1MPrmY_GlkrbSDD9ECAVvxR

For Nov. 22, an array of gratitude songs. We begin with Marie Knight, who had her start with Sister Rosetta Tharpe and has a similar blues, pre-rock-and-roll sound, and we end with a soul classic by Sly and the Family Stone--not exactly religious, but a song of thanks nonetheless. Between, I've included a hammered dulcimer solo of the tune "Ash Grove," which we most often use in the hymn "Let All Things Now Living"; a "lock down" recording of another Thanksgiving hymn classic, "We Gather Together"; and "Jubilate Deo" in Gregorian Chant.

Sunday Playlist - 11/15/2020

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1NZRMlUDpb1lwUWNy9OXkw_

Basant is a Hindustani raga associated with spring. This short performance is taken from a compilation, The Raga Guide. I’ve found this guide helpful as a westerner with minimal knowledge of the music of India. Notice that, as in all ragas, the ascending and descending scale that forms the base melody subsequently goes through many variations. To me, the piece is buoyant and signals hope.

“How I Got Over” is most often associated with Mahalia Jackson, who sang it at the march on Washington. Here it is performed by Joshua Nelson, who teaches Hebrew and sings in the African American gospel tradition.

Next is Renaissance polyphony from Portuguese composer Duarte Lobo, “Audivi vocem,” I heard a voice, based on the text that Pastor Clinton spoke about last Sunday.

Audivi vocem de caelo venientem: venite omnes virgines sapientissime;
oleum recondite in vasis vestris dum sponsus advenerit.
Media nocte clamor factus est: ecce sponsus venit.

I heard a voice coming from heaven: come all wisest virgins;
fill your vessels with oil, for the bridegroom is coming.
In the middle of the night there was a cry: behold the bridegroom comes.

(Text and translation from Wikimedia)

I’ve included another Sacred Harp piece, this one with thematic connections to the Audivi vocem:

Sacred Harp 26 “Samaria”

My spirit looks to God alone,
My rock and refuge is His throne;
In all my fears, in all my straits,
My soul on His salvation waits.
Trust Him ye saints in all your ways,
Pour out your hearts before His face;
When helpers fail, and foes invade,
God is our all-sufficient aid.

Make not increasing gold your trust,
Nor set your hearts on glitt’ring dust;
Why will you grasp the fleeting smoke,
And not believe what God hath spoke?
For sov’reign pow’r reign not alone,
Grace is the partner of the throne;
Thy grace and justice mighty Lord,
Shall well divide our last reward.

 (Text from Sacred Harp Bremen)

Finally, the beat poet, Lawrence Ferlenghetti, reads “The World Is A Beautiful Place.” Beyond “I love this reading,” I’ll say no more.

Update from Derek: Oops. I just realized that I included the wrong lyrics to the Duarte Lobo piece. The correct lyrics are in the video itself and are based on the Latin version of Revelation 14:13. For a setting of the lyrics that I posted in my notes, here is a bonus by John Taverner: https://youtu.be/5QmczRTXVTk

Sunday Playlist - 11/8/2020

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1NCk6WszfG8qf6y9Fp_Bozr

We have had too much noise this week. So the playlist offers peace, space, and silence.

For a translation of the Allegri lyrics, see Psalm 51, which begins:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

For additional wisdom, see the following from the Taoteching, as translated by Red Pine:

Sages have no mind of their own

their mind is the mind of the people

to the good they are good

to the bad they are good

until they become good

to the true they are true

to the false they are true

until they become true

in the world sages are withdrawn

with the world they merge their mind

people open their ears and eyes

sages cover theirs up

Sunday Playlist - 11/1/2020

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1OwZ6YkcXnXhn_5EYlw0qXv

A friend of mine who lived in the former Soviet Union claims that at the time, there was a saying, "A pessimist is an optimist who is well-informed."

I like to believe that I'm well-informed, and that there is nonetheless reason to be optimistic that in a few days, we will see that democracy has not died, that the people are not in favor of hate, that they are not against science and evidence, that the US, despite its many sins and shortcomings, still has promise. At least, I pray that's the outcome.

So the playlist this week includes some rousing songs of optimistic protest. Let us hope that the times they are a changin', and that the people united around inclusion and care will not be defeated by the few united around exclusion and indifference.

From Anonymous 4, we have another Southern Harmony piece that seems appropriate for All Saint's Day.

Finally the lyrics to the chant by Hildegard also seem appropriate to both the election and All Saints. (The translation is by Nathaniel Campbell, Hildegard Society):

O Pastor animarum et O prima vox
per quam omnes creati sumus,
nunc tibi, tibi placeat ut digneris nos
liberare de miseriis
et languoribus nostris.

O Shepherd of our souls, O primal voice,
whose call created all of us:
Now hear our plea to thee, to thee, and deign
to free us from our miseries
and feebleness.

Sunday Playlist - 10/25/2020

The playlist for this week: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1N3JEudnWDNKtcdirCsQ2I-

More American folk and bluegrass than usual rose to the surface as I put this list together, and the theme is probably evident enough without my explanation. In the center is a poem that many of us may have first encountered in high school, but the mordant humor and underlying seriousness seemed appropriate to our moment. It contrasts with most of the songs, which encourage hope in an attitude of prayer down by the riverside.

At the risk of ending in solemnity, we return for the last piece to a Gregorian Chant of Psalm 130, De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine. Out of the depths, I cried to Thee, O Lord.

Sunday Playlist - August 23rd

For 48 hours this week, I went offline and into the woods. Sammy and I camped at the Devil’s Tombstone, where we encountered no demons dead or alive. But we did hear owls and warblers and the waterfall at Plattekill. That waterfall is featured in the first short video on this week’s playlist. As we watched and listened, I remembered this stanza from W.S. Merwin’s poem “Hearing,” in which he and a companion climb to a falls and dip a tin cup into it:  

I could feel it move
I could feel it ring in my foot in my skin
everywhere
in my ears in my hair
I could feel it in my tongue and in the hand
holding the cup
as long as I stood there it went on
without changing

There is resonance between the sensation he describes and the feeling in the lyrics from another tune in this week’s list:

I stepped in the water one day
I stepped in the water
And the water was cold
It chilled my body, but not my soul
I stepped in the water one day.

The performance of the Heavenly Gospel Singers, as much as the lyrics themselves, communicates the power of this simple metaphor. I feel similarly about the descants in the two English anthems included in the list, though I could find no substantive information about either arrangement or recording. Ralph Vaughan Williams named the first tune Kingfold when he collected it near a town by that name. The melody may be hundreds of years old. “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” is Wesleyan, and the rendering here is straightforward until we reach the final, stunning measures. Wait for it…

Almost 200 years separate the two instrumentals, from Bach to Satie. But they share a contemplative spaciousness, melancholy, and unease. In the Satie, this mood is created by the frequent modulations, and in the Bach, by the minor key, though note the final resolution in the major. Again, a remarkable ending, but this time, in peace rather than astonishment.

Sunday Playlist - August 16

We begin and end  this week’s selections with hymns for communion. The first will be known by everyone at Clinton Avenue, and among the dozens of recordings on YouTube, I was taken by the bass choir director from Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. The last is a setting of O Sacrum Convivium by Olivier Messiaen. In the challenging key of F sharp major, Messiaen’s piece offers a wondrous interplay of dissonance and harmony. Note two moments in particular: at the third “sacrum” around 1:35, how it melts back into the major; then the breathtaking “alleluia” that begins around 2:38. Here are the lyrics (trans. from Wikipedia): 

O sacrum convivium!
in quo Christus sumitur:
recolitur memoria passionis eius:
mens impletur gratia:
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.
Alleluia. 

O sacred banquet!
in which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given.
Alleluia.

In the middle is an archival recording made by Alan Lomax. Boyd and Ruth May Rivers recorded several gospel tunes for Lomax, and in this first of the set, they talk about their relationship to each other and music. Then Iris Dement, along with an all-star cast of folk musicians, gives us a traditional hymn that includes the story of the Good Samaritan and the words of promise, “he reached down and touched my pain.” Third in the center set is an intercultural ensemble featuring Kayhan Kalhor, an Iranian virtuoso on the kamanche, or spiked fiddle. Elsewhere, Kalhor describes the nature of his improvisatory style. He says that he gives himself over to the spirit of the music, and he never truly knows where it will take him. I recommend listening to some of his solo improvisations for a study of inspiration.

Listen Here.