Reno, erat Rudolphus

A quick one, before the Christmas season ends.  Listen carefully....

"Seattle’s Compline Tradition"

A nice article about St. Marks' Sunday Compline at The Living Church:

Joel Connelly writes for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website:

The pews at St. Mark’s Cathedral fill as 9:30 approaches on a Sunday night, and soon young people are lying on the floors of the cavernous “Holy Box” high atop Capitol Hill.

They are coming, and have been for half-a-century, to hear the chanting of an ancient monastic “office” and fulfill the desire of people to experience the sacred and divine. The crowd is, as always, predominantly young.

“Compline is proof that we are spiritual in this region,” said Austin Rickel, a 17-year-old Center School student who recently completed a video on the service.

Read the rest. The Rt. Rev. Gregory Rickel, Bishop of Olympia and father of Austin, writes briefly about the service on his weblog.

Song for Athene (Tavener)

Sung here by the Westminster Abbey Choir.



From Wikipedia:

"Song for Athene", which has a performance time of about four minutes,^[4] is an elegy consisting of the Hebrewword alleluia ("let us praise the LORD") sung monophonically six times as an introduction to texts excerpted and modified from the funeral service of the Eastern Orthodox Church and from Shakespeare's Hamlet (probably 1599–1601).^[4] The lyrics were written by Mother Thekla (18 July 1918 – 7 August 2011), an Orthodox nun who co-founded the Orthodox Monastery of the Assumption near Whitby, North Yorkshire, and whom Tavener called his "spiritual mother". Tavener had come away from the funeral of Athene Hariades with the music of Song for Athene fully formed in his mind. He called Mother Thekla the same day, and said to her: "I want words." She sent him the lyrics by post, which arrived the next day.^[6]

The music reaches a climax after the sixth intonation of alleluia with the lines "Weeping at the grave creates the song: Alleluia. Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you." Alleluia is then sung a seventh time as a coda. Following the example of traditional Byzantine music, a continuous ison^[7] or drone underlies the work.^[4]

Lyrics	Original texts	Source
Alleluia. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.	Horatio: Now cracks a noble heart. – Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!	Hamlet, Act V Scene ii,[8]c. f. In paradisum
Alleluia. Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom.	O thou who reignest over life and death, in the courts of thy Saints grant rest unto him [her] whom thou hast removed from temporal things. And remember me also, when thou comest into thy kingdom.	Orthodox funeral service,[9]Luke 23:42
Alleluia. Give rest, O Lord, to your handmaid, who has fallen asleep.	Where the choirs of the Saints, O Lord, and of the Just, shine like the stars of heaven, give rest to thy servant who hath fallen asleep, regarding not all his [her] transgressions.	Orthodox funeral service
Alleluia. The Choir of Saints have found the well-spring of life and door of Paradise.	The Choir of the Saints have found the Fountain of Lifeand the Door of Paradise. May I also find the right way, through repentance. I am a lost sheep. Call me, O Saviour, and save me.	Orthodox funeral service
Alleluia. Life: a shadow and a dream.	Guildenstern: Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. Hamlet: A dream itself is but a shadow.	Hamlet, Act II scene ii
Alleluia. Weeping at the grave creates the song: Alleluia. Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you.	Thou only art immortal, who hast created and fashioned man. For out of the earth were we mortals made, and unto the earth shall we return again, as thou didst command when thou madest me, saying unto me: For earth thou art, and unto the earth shalt thou return. Whither, also, all we mortals wend our way, making of our funeral dirge the song: Alleluia.... Ye who have trod the narrow way most sad; all ye who, in life, have taken upon you the Cross as a yoke, and have followed Me through faith, draw near: Enjoy ye the honours and the crowns which I have prepared for you.	Orthodox funeral service
Alleluia.

From the YouTube page:

"Song for Athene is another elegiac tribute, not, as one might suppose, to the mythological goddess Athene, but to a young family friend, Athene Hariades, half Greek, a talented actress who was tragically killed in a cycling accident. "Her beauty," write Tavener, "both outward and inner, was reflected in her love of acting, poetry, music and of the Orthodox Church." Tavener had heard Athene reading Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey and, rather as in the case of the Little Requiem, conceived the piece after her funeral, lighting on the effective ideas, so touchingly realized, of combining words from the Orthodox liturgy with lines from Hamlet. Between each is a monodic "Alleluia", and, following the example of traditional Byzantine music, the whole piece unfolds over a continuous "ison" or drone.

Song for Athene perfectly exemplifies that inner serenity, purity and radiance which gives Tavener's music its consolatory attraction in troubled times. " Richard Steinitz

John Tavener (1944-2013)

I've loved John Tavener's music ever since the first time I heard one of his pieces.  This was Funeral Ikos, sung at a commemoration for 9/11.  Here it's sung by the Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge; the words are taken from the Orthodox liturgy for "The Order for the Burial of the Dead (Priests)" - and they are stunningly beautiful.

Funeral Ikos (1981)

Why these bitter words of the dying,
O brethren, which they utter
as they go hence?

I am parted from my brethren.
All my friends do I abandon,
and go hence.

But whither I go, that understand I not,
neither what shall become of me yonder;
only God who hath summoned me knoweth.

But make commemoration of me with the song:
Alleluia.

But whither now go the souls?
How dwell they now together there?
This mystery have I desired to learn,
but none can impart aright.

Do they call to mind their own people,
as we do them?
Or have they forgotten all those
who mourn them and make the song:
Alleluia.

We go forth on the path eternal,
and as condemned, with downcast faces,
present ouselves before the only God eternal.
Where then is comeliness?
Where then is wealth?
Where then is the glory of this world?
There shall none of these things aid us,
but only to say oft the psalm:
Alleluia.

If thou hast shown mercy
unto man, o man,
that same mercy
shall be shown thee there;
and if on an orphan
thou hast shown compassion,
that same shall there
deliver thee from want.
If in this life
the naked thou hast clothed,
the same shall give thee
shelter there,
and sing the psalm:
Alleluia.

Youth and the beauty of the body
fade at the hour of death,
and the tongue then burneth fiercely,
and the parched throat is inflamed.

The beauty of the eyes is quenched then,
the comeliness of the face all altered,
the shapeliness of the neck destroyed;
And the other parts have become numb,
nor often say:
Alleluia.

With ecstasy are we inflamed
if we but hear
that there is light eternal yonder;
That there is Paradise, wherein
every soul of Righteous Ones rejoiceth.
Let us all, also, enter into Christ,
that all we may cry aloud thus unto God:
Alleluia. 

Later, I heard As One Who Has Slept, and suggested using it to our choirmaster; to my delight, we sang it one year for Easter.  Again, this is a liturgical text, from the Liturgy for Great and Holy Saturday:

"As one who has slept the Lord has risen
And rising he has saved us. Alleluia."

Again, just remarkably beautiful; the man was really a genius.  The piece is sung here by the Westminster Cathedral Choir.




Here's an excerpt from a piece from today in the Guardian.

Tavener's is an essentially spiritual music, but in a much more intellectually fearless way than his detractors think. He wanted his music to tap into a region beyond conventional understanding – "I wanted to produce music that was the sound of God. That's what I have always tried to do" – but increasingly, his music offered doubt and darkness in its evocation of that unknowable vastness instead of a comforting musical palliative.

In 2007, Tavener suffered a heart attack in Switzerland that almost killed him. When he recovered, he was living in a new world of constant pain and shortness of breath. He found himself responding instinctively to music of terse difficulty that had previously not attracted him – late Beethoven, Karlheinz Stockhausen – and rediscovering the music that had inspired him to become a composer as a child, Stravinsky and Mozart.

When I last saw him, Tavener spoke of his recent music, such as his version of Tolstoy's nihilistic The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which was premiered at this year's Manchester Festival, as epiphanies of pain transfigured into music.

"Suffering is a kind of ecstasy, in a way. Having pain all the time makes me terribly, terribly grateful for every moment I've got," he said. But Tavener seemed to find a joy in that difficult truth.

At its best, Tavener's music is a cathartic confrontation with the biggest of all life's questions. Yet, like the man who wrote it, the music invites you into its world with charm, gentleness, humility, and a twinkle in the eye.

"Song of the Angel" is not liturgical, but is beautiful:


Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.

The Staple Singers - Sit down servant

I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers (1972)

The Swingle Singers - "Lady Madonna"

This group first formed in France in the 1960s; they sang backup for French singers Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour - and I believe they did a lot of movie soundtracks during the era, too.  My parents had a couple of their LPs, so I remember the original group.

This is a different bunch, mostly from the UK, who've re-formed the group; they're good!

"Arvo Pärt in Conversation"

 From All Manner of Thing, a discussion of a new book about the composer.  Here's an interesting quote-within-a-quote, on the topic of spiritual struggle and metanoia:

[Pärt] makes it clear that the quest for a musical voice was not only a musical challenge: it was deeply personal and spiritual as well. He was dismayed by the manner in which musical composition in the mid-twentieth century was politicized: the use of western-style methods was considered “capitalist” by the Soviet authorities, and that same music was often considered “anti-capitalist” by western commentators. Part grew tired of this conflict, and his remarks are worth quoting at length:

“Do you want to know why I distanced myself from this music? It did it because for me by this time these conflicts had lost their power, and with it their meaning. One might say that I had come to terms with myself and with God — and in so doing, all personal demands on the world had receded into the background…

I have come to recognize that it is not my duty to struggle with the world, nor to condemn this or that, but first and foremost to know myself, since every conflict begins within ourselves. This does not mean that I am indifferent, but if someone wants to change the world then he must begin with himself. I am absolutely convinced of this. If one does not begin with oneself, every step towards the world will be nothing but a big lie and at the same time an attack, and this hidden aggressiveness tends to go on spreading. How to do this is quite a different story, but if one starts off with this idea, everything else appears in a new light.”

Anne Sofie von Otter sings "Marietta's song"

Achingly beautiful:

"Glück, das mir verblieb" from Die tote Stadt (E. W. Korngold)
Recorded live at the Théâtre Musical De Paris - Châtelet, 2000

Here are the lyrics, in German and English:

Glück, das mir verblieb,
rück zu mir, mein treues Lieb.
Abend sinkt im Hag
bist mir Licht und Tag.
Bange pochet Herz an Herz
Hoffnung schwingt sich himmelwärts.

Wie wahr, ein traurig Lied.
Das Lied vom treuen Lieb,
das sterben muss.
Ich kenne das Lied.
Ich hört es oft in jungen,
in schöneren Tagen.
Es hat noch eine Strophe --
weiß ich sie noch?

Naht auch Sorge trüb,
rück zu mir, mein treues Lieb.
Neig dein blaß Gesicht
Sterben trennt uns nicht.
Mußt du einmal von mir gehn,
glaub, es gibt ein Auferstehn.


Happiness that has stayed with me,
move up close beside me, my true love.
In the grove evening is waning,
yet you are my light and day.
One heart beats uneasily against the other,
[while] hope soars heavenward.

How true, a mournful song.
The song of the true love
bound to die.
I know this song.
I often heard it sung
in happier days of yore.
There is yet another stanza -
have I still got it in mind?

Though dismal sorrow is drawing nigh,
move up close beside me, my true love.
Turn your wan face to me
death will not part us.
When the hour of death comes one day,
believe that you will rise again.

About:

"Glück das mir verblieb" (German for My happiness that remained) is an aria from the opera Die tote Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. It is written for aspinto soprano. The aria appears in act 1, approx. 25 minutes into the opera.

The 'dead city' in question is Bruges, identified in the opera with Marie, the dead wife of Paul. At the start of act 1, Paul confides in a friend the extraordinary news that he has seen Marie, or her double, in the town and that he has invited her to the house. She arrives, and Paul addresses her as Marie, but she corrects him: she is Marietta, a dancer from Lille. He is enchanted by her, especially when she accepts his request for a song, "Glück das mir verblieb". The lyric tells of the joy of love, but there is a sadness in it also because its theme is the transitoriness of life. Their voices combine in the verse which extols the power of love to remain constant in a fleeting world.^[1]

HT RSM, who continually points to the most exquisite music.

(Perhaps German was originally a sung language....?)

Didn't It Rain?

That's Mahalia Jackson, baby....:




HT RSM.

"Space Oddity"

Love this....

A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

With thanks to Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran, Andrew Tidby and Evan Hadfield for all their hard work.

Captioning kindly provided by CHS (www.chs.ca)

Find out more:

Twitter: twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AstronautChrisHadfield?­­fref=ts
Google+: plus.google.com/113978637743265603454/po­­sts/p/pub

"Happy World Organ Day"

Today at the Chant Café:

Today, hundreds of concerts will take place around the world to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the founding of the Paris Cathedral. This one in Boston is among them.

Laura Nyro: "And When I Die"

From the YouTube page:

Here is Laura Nyro's earliest recording of "And When I Die" in 1966, age 18. Also afterward is a short spoken clip of Laura in 1995.

"It’s Been Building Up In Brian Wilson For Oh I Don’t Know How Long...."

Dave Zahl has been writing these great posts about The Beach Boys and in particular about Brian Wilson for a couple of years now.   I have never really followed the band closely, although I did sort of know about Brian Wilson's mental breakdowns and attendant personal problems.

Dave writes something terrific today about the song "Don't Worry Baby" - something I'd never really picked up on:

Some of us consider “Don’t Worry Baby” to be the definition of a perfect song and recording, as beautiful as anything “America’s band”, or any other, ever released. ... What accounts for its greatness? First, and most obviously, “Don’t Worry Baby” boasts one of the most memorable opening couplets of all time, the immortal “Well it’s been building up inside of me for, oh, I don’t know how long/ I don’t know why but I keep thinking something’s bound to go wrong.” Given their Mad Men-like context, one would have presumed that the song was written from the perspective of a confident man reassuring a hysterical woman. But Brian and his lyricist Roger Christian flipped that convention on its head (I’m sure they didn’t give it a second thought), producing a tune about an insecure, anxious man recalling all the times his uncommonly demonstrative girlfriend has reassured him.

Well its been building up inside of me
For oh I don't know how long
I don't know why
But I keep thinking
Something's bound to go wrong

But she looks in my eyes
And makes me realize
And she says "Don't worry baby"
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Everything will turn out alright

Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby

I guess I should've kept my mouth shut
When I started to brag about my car
But I can't back down now because
I pushed the other guys too far

She makes me come alive
And makes me wanna drive
When she says "Don't worry baby"
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Everything will turn out alright

Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby

She told me "Baby, when you race today
Just take along my love with you
And if you knew how much I loved you
Baby nothing could go wrong with you"

Oh what she does to me
When she makes love to me
And she says "Don't worry baby"
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Everything will turn out alright

Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby

More from Dave:

But look at the guys perform the tune in 1964 (above) and how can you not love them? Gangly and pudgy and balding and so clearly nervous, it’s one of the deep ironies of the early 60s that these guys came to represent fun-in-the-sun American athleticism, when, with the exception of Dennis, not only could they not surf, none of them even looked remotely beach-ready. Such sublime music coming from such strange vessels. The melody is pure prettiness and the arrangement watertight Californian perfection....

Strange vessels would become, in a few short years, broken ones. When Brian quit touring in 1964, his brother Carl took over lead vocal duties on “Don’t Worry Baby”. It wasn’t until Brian hesitantly rejoined the touring group fifteen years (and several nervous breakdowns) later, and Carl went on a solo tour, that he sang the tune in front of people again. Here he is in 1981, and you almost have to look away, it’s too much:



The juxtaposition of such an immaculate musical creation with Brian’s ravaged voice/soul–at the risk of proving Bagge right, I have a hard time thinking of another performance as moving. The gift is so out of proportion with its recipient/vessel, you can’t help but hear G-O-D written all over it.

And then there's this amazing song, too:



Dave has an "after" version of this one at the post, too....

"Laura Nyro Is Worth Remembering"

By April Brem Patrick in HoustonPress.com:

"I'm writing about Laura Nyro. What should I say?"

"Who?" This was not the answer I wanted or expected from my mother. After all, I had spent my single-digit years rifling through my parents' old vinyl and found Nyro's pen to be behind many a childhood favorite.

 Laura Nyro was born into a forward-thinking and musically gifted Bronx family. She went from singing on street corners to selling out Carnegie Hall on a weekend that she just happened to have three of her compositions recorded by other artists in the Billboard Top 10. To top it off, she turned down Blood, Sweat & Tears when they thought she had what it took to step into Al Kooper's shoes.
Wildly imaginative and conscious of her connection with the world around her, Nyro's arrangements, lyrics and phrasing were altogether unheard of and unique, yet universal and eternal. Mixing her much loved Doo Wop and jazz with the emerging pop sensibilities of the sixties, she drew listeners in with the sheer joy of sound while whispering ethereal truths into their subconscious.

So, for my mom to not immediately recognize her name, I knew that there was a criminal level of underappreciation afoot. Sure, Nyro was finally inducted, posthumously, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year; but even then her endof-life work as an animal-rights advocate was ignored in her tribute. I guess she was always one step ahead of what the greater whole of society was comfortable with confronting.

To celebrate the life, talent, and beauty of the one-of-a-kind Laura Nyro on the anniversary of her death from ovarian cancer in 1997; I'm offering this list of pop-culture moments to help clarify the impact that her words and voice have had on arts of all kinds, even if we weren't so sure of the source.


5. "Desiree'/It's Gonna Take A Miracle," A Home at the End of the World

Michael Cunningham's critically acclaimed novel is the story of fractured souls finding comfort in open hearts. When recently orphaned Bobby Marrow is taken in by the straight-laced Glover family, he does not shy away from showing who he really is.

His willingness to live is contagious. When mother Alice, played in the adaptation by Sissy Spacek, is entranced by the lilting tones of "Desiree'" she eventually let's her guard down, sharing both a joint and an unforgettable moment with her son and his friend.

There are four more "pop culture moments" - plus video - at the link.

"The story of fractured souls finding comfort in open hearts" was Laura Nyro's major theme, in every song.  She wrote about the last, the least, and the lost - who are all redeemed through love.  Sound familiar?

I'm not sure "pop culture moments" really explains it all.  I'm going to do some thinking about this, but I do believe one major difference between then and now is that the last, the least, and the lost - that is to say, all the best and most interesting people (that is to say, all of us) - are no longer thought worth talking or singing about.

Nor does anybody seem much interested in "the sheer joy of sound" for its own sake, or in "whispering ethereal truths into the subconscious" - let alone combining these things.  Does anybody sing about God the way she did - as if everybody could get it, whether or not you'd "accepted Jesus as your personal savior"?

I'm still not sure who "the Captain" is, though; the character appears fairly often in the songs (i.e., he's "Captain St. Lucifer" and "Captain for Dark Mornings").   It all has something to do with love and loss and the strange wildness of sexuality, and with adulthood - the letting go of childish things.  Something to do, too, with the glory of living on the fringes of the world, and as islands in the shipping lanes. 

The sound really was joyous and exalted.  There is a group of people who were moved deeply by her music - see this Facebook Group for a great example! - and who will love Laura Nyro until the day we die, in gratitude.

Laura Nyro: Lu (demo)

This one's really old - from "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession." I never realized how often she used religious terms and imagery, although I knew that stuff was there. It's in almost every song, though!  No wonder I loved her so much.

 And who, I wonder now, is "the Captain"?  Ah, no matter....

Silver was the color
Winter was a snowbell
Mother of the wind boys
Livin' off the lovewell

[Chorus:]
With Lu
And everybody's callin' Luie
Luie, Luie
You got a thing about you
Keep the light goin' for Luie
And Luie keeps on pushin' through
Through
Keeps on pushin'

Amber was the color
Summer was a flameride
Cookin' up the noon roads
Walkin' on God's good side
I was walkin' on God's good side
God's good side

[Chorus]

Through
He keeps on pushin'

I will always be fair
Be there for Lu
Forever and ever more
Everybody
Everybody everybody
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

And everybody's callin' Luie
Callin' Luie
Everybody's callin' Luie callin'
My man
My man Luie

Callin' Luie
My man Luie
Callin' Luie
Callin' Luie
Luie
People and the captain
Callin' my man Luie

Laura Nyro: Upstairs By A Chinese Lamp

Laura Nyro: Captain for Dark Mornings

Laura Nyro and Labelle: I met him on a Sunday

One of my favorites, all-time:

Laura Nyro and Labelle: Gonna take a miracle

Loving you so
I was too blind to see
You letting me go
But now that you've set me free
It's gonna take a miracle
Yes, it's gonna take a miracle
To make me love someone new
'Cause I'm crazy for you

Oh, didn't you know
It wouldn't be so easy
Letting me go
You can be sure that now
It's gonna take a miracle
Yes, it's gonna take a miracle
To make me love someone new
'Cause I'm crazy for you

Though I know I can't forget you
I'm gonna try to show how much
You're turning me around, destroying me
I'll never be the same anymore

You must realize
You took your love and left me
Quite by surprise
You can be sure that now
It's gonna take a miracle
Yes, it's gonna take a miracle
To make me love someone new
'Cause I'm crazy for you

Yes, it's gonna take a miracle
Yes, it's gonna take a miracle