I never sang it that year.
Recorded on a celebration of St. Michael and All Angels at Church of the Redeemer:
Church of the Redeemer, Kenmore, Washington.
Published on Aug 14, 2012
St Patrick's Breastplate, from the Cantus Christi (Canon Press) sung at the New Saint Andrews College Convocation 20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Saint_Andrews_College
St Patrick's Breastplate | New Saint Andrews Convocation 2012. 4:24
St Patrick's Breastplate (arranged by Melville Cook), sung by St Peter's Singers of Leeds.
DEIRDRE at 4:00
During his service as Organist and Choirmaster of Leeds Parish Church (as it was then known) from 1937 to 1946, Melville Cook left a number of craftsmanly hymn settings for posterity, most of which survive in manuscript in the Leeds Minster Choir Library. At least one was published and printed locally - a large-scale score of the traditional Irish hymn known as 'St Patrick's Breastplate'. Dr Cook's setting is a real gem, with an organ part of considerably more interest than the 'standard' version by Stanford.
This performance was recorded in Leeds Minster on Sunday 28th April 2013 during the recital of 'Music with Minster connections' sung by St Peter's Singers of Leeds, directed by Dr Simon Lindley. The organist is David Houlder.
Leeds Minster, formerly Leeds Parish Church, has a long and distinguished musical history. The list of organists and past organists of the Parish Church of St Peter-at-Leeds is outstanding. 'Music with Minster connections' celebrated both this heritage and the status of Leeds Minster with music from its famous composers since the consecration of the then-new building on 2nd September 1841, over 171 years ago.
More details about St Peter's Singers, including forthcoming concerts, recitals and liturgical performances, may be found on our website http://www.stpeters-singers.org.uk and on our Facebook group page 'St Peter's Singers of Leeds' https://www.facebook.com/StPetersSing...
UPDATED EDITOR'S NOTE: This post began as an introduction to "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem," which I hoped to introduce April 2 at Clayville. But I put it aside when I realized I wasn't going to be able to tab it out for mountain dulcimer in time. Then, late last night [March 30], I found tab on Shelley Stevens' website and changed my mind for a second time. New links, etc., at http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2016/03/christ-was-born-in-bethlehem_31.html [posted Thursday, March 31, edits from March 29 revisions].
ORIGINAL EDITOR'S NOTE: I decided I'd better learn this song a little better before I try to introduce it at a session, but it's too nice a piece of music to delete. So I'm leaving it up on Hogfiddle, but with edits [posted Tuesday, March 29].
A song I want to introduce at Saturday's monthly jam sessionsooner or later. It's called "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem," and you'd think it's going to be a Christmas carol. But it isn't. Think of it more as a mountain ballad that begins at the stable in Bethlehem but focuses instead on the Easter story -- almost like a southern Appalachian counterpart to Handel's Messiah. It's been around in one form or another for more than a hundred years, and a version got into 19th-century editions of the Sacred Harp. We're doing to do the version that's gotten into the bluegrass gospel repertory.
From 10 a.m. till noon Saturday, April 2, Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music, in the barn Broadwell Inn building at Clayville Historic Stagecoach Stop, Ill. 125, Pleasant Plains.
From 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, Clayville-Prairieland Strings, at Peace Lutheran Church (formerly Atonement), 2800 West Jefferson, Springfield.
Here's "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" as performed by the Smoky Mountain String Band, the house band at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., for a Christmas program there in 2012:
And here's my favorite YouTube clip, a performance by Norm Williams, Amanda Parker and Bob Mallalieu -- and a butterfly -- Aug. 29, 2010, at the Maidencreek Old Time Music Festival in Blandon, Pa.
Says John Hilderbrand, who put it up on his YouTube channel, "Watch the butterfly and listen to the performers during this clip. It's inspirational and funny!" Please note: No butterflies were harmed in this performance.
The folk festival performance is a cover -- of a very fine arrangement by Tim and Mollie O'Brien. It's also available on YouTube, along with a couple of others, at:
The Corries were a Scottish folk band of the 1970s and 80s. Their version of the song sounds more like the traditional Appalachian ballad.
Based on a hymn by American composer William Howard Doane (1832-1915), it got into the oral tradition in the U.S. and Australia, and it was part of Jean Ritchie's family repertory. (They called it "Down Came an Angel," but it's the same song.) It has been widely collected in southern Appalachia -- including by Cecil Sharp in the 1910s. Richard Chase also collected it, in North Carolina.
The ballad is modal -- I have it from the John C. Campbell Folk School's songbook edited by Betty Smith in D Mixolydian, and it appears elsewhere in other modes. Sometimes, as in Chase's collection, the first verse appears as "Jesus walked in Galilee (or Bethany) ... to save us all from sin," no doubt to get around the Christmas-y title.
As an Appalachian ballad, it would have been sung a cappella. Sheet music is available in an
a cappella SATB choral arrangment by Peter Amidon, in
his book "Fifty-five Anthems for the Small Church Choir." Sound file of a performance by Kari Smith and Fred Breunig, soloists. Says Amidon,
We first learned this beautiful Appalachian ballad from the singing of John McCutcheon. This is really a Lenten-Easter carol; the first verse talks of the birth, but the second verse jumps right to 'Judas he betrayed him...'. There are two harmonizations of the melody in my arrangement. I encourage you to try out different ways of using these harmonizations, as we did on this recording.
Probably because of the Ritchie family's interest in the song, the ballad version has caught on with mountain dulcimer players. Here is YouTube user Darren W. playing Larkin Bryant's arrangement from her dulcimer instruction manual of the 1970s commonly known as "Larkin's Book."
Our regular "third Thursday" session of the Clayville-Prairieland Strings at Peace Lutheran Church falls on St. Patrick's Day. So it's a grand occasion to play some of the Irish songs in our repertoire (and anything else you want to play when it's your turn to call a tune). And I'm linking below to a couple of tunes that have been requested -- or that I've been reminded of.
One, a hornpipe called "The Boys of Bluehill" is traditional Irish. The other, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," is as American as corned beef and cabbage or pouring green dye in the Chicago River.
Same time, from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, and in the same place -- but with a new name for the church at 2800 West Jefferson. The new congregation is made up of Lutherans from the former Atonement, Faith and Luther Memorial parishes (ELCA) in Springfield.
Here's some background, clips and links to lead sheets, dulcimer tab, etc., on the songs.
"Boys of Bluehill"
Lead sheet with dulcimer tab at http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/files/tab/boys_of_bluehill.pdf pn the EverythingDulcimer.com website.
Nothing I could say about this standard session tune comes near renowned Irish fiddler Kevin Burke's note-by-note breakdown of how to play it, and ornament it, on a fiddle:
"Boys of Bluehill": Fiddle Lesson by Kevin Burke
Here it is in its natural habitat, a pub performance. Says YouTube user belljarbelfast: "Locke 'O the Irish playing a traditional set of hornpipes, Boys of Bluehill, Harvest Home and the Belfast Hornpipe."
Locke 'O the Irish -- Boys of Bluehill/ Harvest Home/ The Belfast Hornpipe
And Ben Seymour, luthier of Tryon, N.C., plays "Boys of Blue Hill" and "Harvest Home" on the dulcimer. Says Ben:
"Two of my favorite Celtic tunes. I play these on my old "warhorse" dulcimer that goes everywhere with me :) I hope you enjoy ..."
"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"
The Three Rivers Dulcimer Society of Richland, Wash., has dulcimer tab with chords (courtesy of Shelley Stevens) on its website at http://freepdfhosting.com/a322008480.pdf, and Jessica Comeau, a teacher who coordinates the Pensacola Mountain Dulcimer Wildflowers, which she describes as "my volunteer public outreach project for creating awareness about the mountain dulcimer," has a nice finger-picking arrangement at
http://www.jessicacomeaudulcimer.com/lessons-and-tablature.html.
Jessica Comeau and Rhiannon play "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"
Here is the familiar refrain of "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. The lyrics of the song were originally written by the Americans Chauncey Olcott and George Graff, Jr., and the melody was composed by Ernest Ball. The song premiered in 1912 in a musical called "The Isle of Dreams." I am playing this piece on my new McSpadden dulcimer that I named Rhiannon. :-)
The song needs no further introduction. It's hardly Irish, but it's beloved by an entire generation of Irish-Americans, and musicians who play the tourist pubs in places like Dublin and Killarney learn it rather quickly because it's so often requested. Here's Bing Crosby's version of the Irish Folk song, recorded in 1939.
Instrumentets oprindelse og brug knyttes til Skandinavien i 1820'erne. En dansk 'Lieutnant og Skolelærer' Jens Worm Bruun (1781-1836) angives at have opfundet det.[1] En svensk præst og salmedigter Johan Dillner videreudviklede det og bragte det fra omkring 1830 i anvendelse i menigheder der ikke havde råd til orgel. Også i Norge blev det anvendt til indlæring af salmer efter ciffernotation i skole og hjem.[2] Senere i 1800-tallet vandt harmoniet frem som afløser.
„ Hr. J. W. Bruun, Lieutnant og Skolelærer, har udfundet et Instrument, kaldet Psalmodicon, hvis Hensigt er at yde en sikker Veiledning ved Underviisning i Tonestigen, Accorder, Charole, etc.. Det er simpelt, at enhver Snedker kan forfærdige det, og dog kan derpaa udføres Alt, hvad der kan synges, Alt hvad nogetsomhelst Instrument kan frembringe. Man kan lære at spille det i første Time, og i den anden spiller man fra Bladet. Det kan aldrig forstemmes, thi hvordan det end staar, er det dog altid stemt. Det har kun een Streng men derpaa haves alle høilige Toner lige indtil Fugle- og Musepib. Det vil, siger Proffessor Scholl i sin Anbefaling: som et ubekosteligt Børneinstrument vække Gehører og give en ypperlig Forøvelse til videre Fremskridt i Musiken, hvorfor han ønsker Psalmadicon almindelig bekjendt. (Det faaes tilkiøbs i København hos Musikhandler Lohse for 1 Rdr.-Sølv. Her i Aarhuus kan man faae det at se paa Adressekontoiret). “
— Aarhus Stiftstidende 1824-05-01
The instrument's origin and use attached to Scandinavia in the 1820s. A Danish 'Lieutnant and school teacher' Jens Worm Bruun (1781-1836) is said to have invented it. [1] A Swedish pastor and hymn writer Johan Dillner further developed it and brought it from around 1830 in use in congregations could not afford organ. Also in Norway, it was used for learning hymns by ciffernotation in school and home. [2] Later in 1800 won the harmonium up as a replacement.
"Sir. JW Bruun, Lieutnant and school teacher, has devised an instrument called Psalmodicon whose purpose is to provide a safe veiledning by the teaching of the Tone ladder Accords, Charole, etc .. It's simple that any Snedker can forfærdige it and however, can then be performed Anything that can be sung, All anything instrument can produce. One can learn to play it in the first hour, and in the second to play from the magazine. It can never be detuned, for no matter how it stands, it is always voted. It has only one string but then held all høilige Toner until Birds and Musepib. It will, says proffessor Scholl in his Recommendation as a ubekosteligt Children Instrument wake Gehører and provide an excellent Forøvelse for further progress in music, why he wants Psalmadicon plain known. (It is acquired tilkiøbs in Copenhagen at Music Handler Lohse for 1 Rdr.-Silver. Here in Aarhuus can get it to look at Adressekontoiret). "
Carl Bergman. "Sweden: European Intelligence" Evangelical Christendom. June 1, 1859: 204-205. Google Books
Our Swedish people have in these latter times been, more than formerly, a singing people, and (what is to me more precious) a people who at least sing the Lord's praise. Oscar Ahnfelt has contributed much to this; but an old silver-=haired clergyman, Dillner, near Upsala, had also formerly done much. He has invented a simple musical instrument, with a single string, called the [205] Psalmodicon, and which is played with a fiddlestick, like a violin. Instead of musical notes, he uses only the ciphers, 1, 2, 3, &c. On this instrument, which is used throughout the country, the farm-servant and maid-servant can play any melody they choose, and thus spiritual songs come rapidly into use. It is astonishing that an instrument so simple can have produced so general and astonishing a result. May we not in this trace the Lord's hand, who in these days is pouring out hisHis blessing on the Lands of the North?
Da Ole Andreas Lindemans koralbok ble autorisert til bruk i kirkene 1835, fikk Roverud offentlig støtte til å reise rundt i landet og utbre de nye melodiformene i landets skoler og kirker. Som pedagogisk hjelpemiddel benyttet han psalmodikon, et enstrenget instrument som kunne spilles etter et siffersystem. Instrumentet var lansert av J. W. Brun i København 1823, men ble etter hvert tatt i bruk i alle de nordiske land. Roverud forbedret den danske modellen og utviklet en egen siffernoteskrift. Instrumentet var så enkelt i konstruksjonen at det kunne lages av enhver snekkerkyndig. Psalmodikonet, som fantes i flere stemmeleier (sopran, alt, tenor, bass), ble i løpet av 1830-årene det viktigste sangpedagogiske hjelpemiddelet i skole, kirke og hjem. Roverud sørget selv for å utgi samlinger med sanger og salmer som kunne spilles på instrumentet i en siffernotasjon som gjorde notekunnskap overflødig. 1835–37 og 1841–47 fikk han bevilgninger til kursvirksomhet for skoleungdom, skolelærere, kirkesangere og organister. Undervisningsreisene strakte seg fra Kristiansand i sør til Tromsø i nord.
When Ole Andreas Lindeman's chorale book was authorized for use in churches in 1835, got Roverud public support to travel around the country and propagate the new melody forms in the country's schools and churches. As educational aid he psalmodikon, a stringed instrument that could be played by a cipher system. The instrument was launched by J. W. Brown in Copenhagen in 1823, but was eventually adopted in all the Nordic countries. Roverud improved the Danish model and developed its own digits notation. The instrument was so simple in structure that it could be made of any carpenter. Psalmodikonet, which existed in several voting rents (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), was during the 1830s the most important song teaching aid in schools, churches and homes. Roverud even made sure to publish collections of songs and hymns that could be played on the instrument in a numeric notation did note knowledge superfluous. 1835-1837 and 1841-1847 he received funding for training programs for schoolchildren, schoolteachers, church singers and organists. Teaching trips stretching from Kristiansand in the south to Tromsø in the north.
This morning at Clayville, we played our improvised, all-by-ear version of Pachelbel's Canon in D and it sounded good to our ears -- as it always does. And it reminded me of the time several of my friends got together in a pickup old-time/bluegrass band in grad student days. It lasted a few months, if memory serves, and they got a few gigs playing for drinks and tips at bars around the UT campus. One of their songs was a banjo arrangement of "Jesu Thou Joy of Man's Desiring," the chorale from Bach's cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147.
No doubt it was a desecration, but I was learning to play the dulcimer at the time, and Jesu was one of the first melodies I worked out on the dulcimer -- another desecration, no doubt -- at least the first few measures up to where the melody wanders off into a chord progression the dulcimer can't get to.
All of which got me to thinking -- wouldn't it be fun to play "Jesu" at Clayville?
So here, to add to my ever-growing list of projects I may or may not get around to sometime, are some notes on "Jesu Thou Joy of Man's Desiring."
Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring: fingerstyle guitar -- Joseph Sobol. arranged and played by Joseph Sobol on a custom Fylde Falstaff guitar. Thanks to Daniel Santiago of East Tennessee State University for the videography, and to Roger Bucknall of Fylde for the guitar.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesu, joy of man's desiring (BWV 147), The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford
Celtic Woman also have a typically hyped-up schmaltzathon of an arrangement at ... oh, hell, on second thought, if you want to hear it, you can Google it yourself.
• Call to Worship: Made to Worship (Jamie, Adam, & Michele)
• Worship Songs:
You Are Good (we are not going to do the bridge "you are good, all the time" -- sometime we will because it's really cool, but we've not done it before) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUfW3pUUL3E
Mark Gilston - "Planxty Irwin" and "Munster Cloak" (at 1:25) on mountain dulcimer
Blast email sent this afternoon to Clayville and Prairieland mailing lists.
It's (almost) March already, and we have two sessions of the Clayville-Prairieland Academy of Music coming up this week:
-- Tuesday, March 1, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Atonement-Grace-Luther Memorial Church, 2800 West Jefferson.
-- Saturday, March 5, from 10 a.m. to noon at Clayville Historic Stage Coach Stop, Ill. 125, Pleasant Plains.
In addition, our "third Thursday" session, at the church on West Jefferson, will be 7-9 p.m. March 17. That's St. Patrick's Day, and that' s got me thinking about Irish tunes. Let's be thinking of tunes we'd like to play on St. Paddy's (Irish or anything else that strikes your fancy), and make a night of it.
In the meantime, here's a link to "The Parting Glass" in B minor:
Also a standard you may already know by Turlough O'Carolan, called "Planxty Irwin" -- this lead sheet, actually dulcimer tab by Mark Zuckerman) is in D:
(Nobody knows exactly what "Planxty" means. Carolan, the 18th-century harp player who composed it, invented the word in his song titles; it probably means "in honor of," in this case a tune in honor of Col. John Irwin, for whom he composed it.)
Andrea Fanciulli - "Planxty Irwin" -- Celtic finger-style guitar
Mikaela, of HarpKit, plays "Planxty Irwin" on one of their harps
It comes in a poem called "The Old Man Said (One)" by Carroll Arnett, "Gogisgi," a poet of Cherokee heritage who taught creative writing at Central Michigan University for 30 years before his death in 1997. It's the first of several poems distilling Gogisgi's take of the wisdom of the elders -- hence the title. It's short, and to the point.
"[E]very single thing
matters," he says. "And," he adds,
(Hat tip to Chuck Clark, who saw it on YouTube and asked what the odd-looking stringed instrument was.)
Here's the song, from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, as arranged by J.L.Lenoir of the French quartet Boann and and performed by Céline Archambeau (on vocals and harp), Lenoir (crwth), Eléonore Billy (hardingfele), and Gaëdic Chambrier (guitar):
Boann is named for a Celtic goddess associated with the River Boyne in Ireland. According to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/boannquartet/, Boann is "est un quartet dont la musique est tournée vers la mer du nord, à la croisée des cultures scandinaves et celtiques" [a quartet whose music faces the North Sea and the blending of Scandinavian and Celtic cultures]. So "Solveig's Song" is right up their alley.
Solveig, who is named for a Norse goddess, is a character in Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, a Romantic-era bricolage of trolls, dairy maids and other figures from Norwegian folklore. She is Peer's own true love, with whom he unites at the end of the play, and Grieg's song is especially lovely.
So is Boann's interpretation of it, and the odd stringed instruments fit right in.
The hardingfele, or Hardanger fiddle, looks like an ornate violin, but it is a Norwegian folk instrument with four or five sympathetic, or resonant, strings beneath the four strings of a standard fiddle. Played well, it has a distinctive modal sound that's perfectly adapted to Grieg's melody. The crwth (pronounced "crooth") is Welsh, not Norwegian, but it comes out of that North Sea cultural area that Boann interprets.
According to Wikipedia, which has an unusually detailed article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crwth, the crwth was once played widely in Europe, although it was especially associated with Wales. It is similar to Scandinavian lyres of the Viking and early medieval periods. (See Gjermund Kollveit's article at http://www.musark.no/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/The-Early-Lyre.pdf.) Whatever its provenance, it fits right in backing the other instruments in Boann's interpretation of "Solveig's Song."
There isn't much of a market today for medieval Welsh instruments, but there are people who play replicas. They're especially well suited to playing backup, but English luthier Michael J. King, who makes crwths, plays a simple melody toward the end of a video demonstrating one of his instruments.
Lead sheets are attached. We've done all of these at the blended church except "The Wonderful Cross" (and I just sent that out to those singing and playing for the blended service on the 13th).
An original song spoof of Ammon Bundy and the band of patriots that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon in an armed protest about the government, the constitution, ranchers and other things.
Print Email Joseph Rose | The Oregonian/OregonLive
By Joseph Rose | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on February 11, 2016 at 7:27 PM, updated February 11, 2016 at 8:51 PM
The lede:
The Oregon standoff is over, but the surreal cultural zeitgeist born from the 41-day anti-government occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge lives on.
In addition to an Ammon Bundy donut, late-night monologues and thousands of Internet memes, the showdown has inspired a satirical, Johnny Cash-esque ballad.
A group of Portland comedians called "Fit to Print" finished recording the Johnny Cash-esque "Ballad of the Malheur Patriots" on Thursday morning.
Comedians Laura Sams and Garrett Palm perform improv comedy based on news stories at Curious Comedy Theater in Northeast Portland.
Some lyrics:
Patrioooooots, Patriooooooots,
Stormin' a building surrounded by ducks,
They didn't stand down, they vowed to stand uuuuup
Even if they didn't know for what.
Icelandic langspil.
A quick introduction by Chris Foster. He and his partner Bára Grímsdóttir perform as the duo FUNI, have a website at http://www.funi-iceland.com/. They were at Common Ground on the Hill the last time I was there, in 2013.
Michael J. King, luthier of the UK, demonstrates one of his langspils. "This is a little clip of a newer version of the Icelandic Langspil model I make. The melody is tuned to a, the middle drone to f# and the bass to B."
FUNI (Bára Grímsdóttir & Chris Foster) perform an Icelandic love song at the Mystic Sea Music Festival 2012. This song is called Man eg þig mey text by Jónas Hallgrímsson, The tune is a traditional tvísöng melody that would normally be sung by two people singing in parallel fifths. The langspil plays the second voice here.
xxx
Ryan Koons performs the song "Stóðum tvö í túni" on the langspil, a type of zither from Iceland. Langspil built by Ken Koons.
Hildur Heimisdóttir. Langspil and Icelandic Fiðla:
The history, construction and function of the two
Icelandic folk-instruments. Candidate studies in the violincello, 2012, No. 2010122. Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium, Aarhus, Denmark. http://www.musik.is/Paelingin/Langspil_and_Icelandic_Fidla.pdf
Being a string player myself, I thought langspil might be similar to the
cello, my main instrument. I found soon out that there are indeed some things in common but
other things are very unlike. The hand position was the first thing I struggled with. Cello
players use all five fingers on the left hand to press down the strings, and there are no frets to
show the player where the note is. On langspil, the player only uses the left thumb to press
down and the rest of the left fingers support the instrument so it does not move while playing.
The first thing I had to do was to train my left hand and get used to the new position of it.
* * *
After using the chop sticks for a while in my playing, I tried to use my spare cello bow
to play the instrument. That bow is unusually light and has little amount of horse hair, and is
therefore not so good for cello playing but more convenient for the langspil. It was however
difficult to control it, since it is longer than original langspil bows. I personally think the
sound from the pin is more pleasant but I want to be able to play with more variety so I will
focus on getting the right bow technique the next days. The bow grip is different from what a
cellist is used to, since the direction to stroke in is not the same. A cellist strokes the bow to
the left and the right but while playing langspil, one has to stroke forward and back.
Therefore, the langspil player has to hold the bow in a hand position that reminds of how
people hold pencils.
Hildur Heimisdóttir and Júlía Traustadóttir in 2013 put up a Facebook event page promoting a concert in Reykjavik: "Júlía (voice) and Hildur (langspil) will perform their own arrangements of Icelandic folk songs, selected so that the delicate and rare sound of this special instrument can be enjoyed." https://www.facebook.com/events/145257275683034/. Wilfried Ulrich commented, w/ pix of a bowed hummel.
Icelandic-language blurb on the langspil on the website for Iceland's national museum looks like it might have some interesting background on hymns, etc.:
Lang card (A-14545) from pine wood and two on top of each other and the strong and a bottom chord. It is often referred to string instruments is best to have the tape, but may not have been such for all households in the golden age long game (from about the middle of the 18th to the mid-19th century). This string instruments on the other hand no table. Two strings are the frets and frets have a router that is mounted on top of the tree. One "drones" or organ tone string is above the one ómstrengur (resónans or string) as the Hardanger fiddle, Indian sitar or the Norwegian instrument lange game often ribbon with string instruments. It would be possible to play two notes against the note bass, not only as the most long games. Moreover, movable frets that must be considered unique among the instruments that have been preserved. Curved with horse hair and the bow compartment of the instrument. The instrument was struck string as received by the string instruments are said to have either had the horsehair strings, messínstrengi or brass strings.
By the mid-19th century was to string instruments throughout the country, many of them home-and of different types, but in the second half of the century seems Gaming decreased. In the early 20th century was hardly the person who knew how to play string instruments. Play music technology and tradition has not survived and it is impossible to say how the music played on string instruments have sound. Find the Election Ere described this however: "And I have seen such unique people in youth my is played so the string instruments, they were finger play a little back and forth on each note, they supported on, and they called it the" let sound wag ". This meant that the singing of these men became little more than a sincere little rings and small boats. "Perhaps this could be related raddtækni employed in poetry law, but there was talk of style the like jerk, jolt or wiggling which was an important part of the style the that was common in at least introduce the rímur Breiðafjörður early 20.öld.
Maybe people have not even long card fine when new music was emerging. In itself the golden age long game in the middle of the 19th century was the clergy at Thorsnes Thing singing in churches to be lacking and would rather send someone teenage abroad to study, to learn singing and preferably also a musical instrument, "if only string instruments." But nowhere would probably be a better place at the time to study string instruments than here.
Langspilið (A-14545) er úr furu og eru tveir stokkar hvor ofan á öðrum og því sterkur og mikill hljómbotn. Oft er talað um að langspil sé best að hafa á borði, en ekki er víst að borð hafi verið til á öllum heimilum á gullöld langspilsins (frá u.þ.b. miðri 18. til miðrar 19. aldar). Þetta langspil þarf hins vegar ekkert borð. Tveir strengir liggja yfir þverböndin og þverböndin eru með beini sem er fest ofan í tré. Einn „drón“ eða orgeltónsstrengur er ofan við og einn ómstrengur (eða resónans strengur) líkt og á harðangursfiðlu, indverskum sítar eða hinu norska hljóðfæri langeleik sem oft er borði saman við langspil. Því væri hægt að leika tvær nótur á móti bassanótunni en ekki eina eins og á flestum langspilum. Þar að auki eru þverböndin færanleg sem verður að teljast einstakt meðal þeirra hljóðfæra sem varðveist hafa. Boginn er með hrosshárum og er sér hólf fyrir bogann á hljóðfærinu. Hljóðfærið var strenglaust þegar tekið var við því en langspil eru sögð hafa ýmist haft hrosshársstrengi, messínstrengi eða látúnsstrengi.
Um miðja 19. öld voru til langspil um allt land, mörg hver heimasmíðuð og af ýmsum gerðum, en á seinni hluta aldarinnar virðist spilamennskan hafa dregist saman. Á fyrri hluta 20. aldar fannst varla sú manneskja sem kunni að spila á langspil. Spilatæknin og tónlistarhefðin hefur því ekki varðveist og ómögulegt er að segja hvernig tónlist spiluð á langspil hefur hljómað. Finnur á Kjörseyri lýsti þessu þó þannig: „Þannig sá ég t.d. einstöku menn í ungdæmi mínu er spiluðu þannig á langspil, að þeir létu fingurinn leika lítið eitt fram og aftur á hverri nótu, er þeir studdu á, og kölluðu þeir það að „láta hljóðið dilla“. Af þessu leiddi, að söngurinn hjá þessum mönnum varð lítið annað en einlægir smá ringir og trillur.“ Kannski gæti þetta tengst raddtækni sem beitt var í kvæðalögum, en þar var talað um stílbrigði eins og rykk, hnykk eða dillandi sem var mikilvægur partur af því stílbrigði sem tíðkaðist í rímnakveðskap a.m.k. á Breiðafirði snemma á 20.öld.
Kannski hefur mönnum ekki þótt langspilið fínt þegar ný tónlist var að ryðja sér til rúms. Á sjálfri gullöld langspilsins um miðja 19. öld þótti prestum á Þórsnesþingi söng í kirkjum vera ábótavant og vildu helst senda einhvern ungling erlendis í nám til þess að læra söng og helst einnig á hljóðfæri, „þó ekki væri nema langspil.“ En hvergi hefði líklega verið betri staður á þeim tíma til að læra á langspil en hér á landi.
Ríó Tríó, Icelandic pop group, has this background --
Sprengisandur is remote part of the Highlands of Iceland between the glaciers Hofsjökull and Vatnajökull. Sprengisandur is a very old connection between the north and the south of the island. It has been known since the times of first settlement. But it always had a rather bad reputation. People had to cross the desert fast with their horses, to "spring" over it, so as to get new grass and water for themselves and the animals. There has also been a lot of superstition about it. Stories about bad ghosts and criminals were told and the old tracks fell out of use for some time.
Here is their arrangement, of two related melodies for the song. (Picture on video shows a man playing a fiðla, another Icelandic bowed folk instrument):
Other arrangements --
By the Icelandic rock band Pelican (note singer riding push broom like a horse:
By a school choir:
By German band "Savoy Truffle," after a lengthy intro in German. (Music begins at 1:00):
The bodhran is a little hyped up (IMO), but soloist Mark Waters has the style and intonation of traditional Irish sean nos singing.
Published [to YouTube] on Feb 5, 2016
Traditional Irish arr. Desmond Earley
Text by Seán Clárach Mac Dómhnaill
From the album ‘Invisible Stars – Choral Works from Ireland and Scotland’
The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin
Artistic Director: Desmond Earley
Solo: Mark Waters
Bodhrán: Tristan Rosenstock (track) / Brian Garvin (visual)
Released on Signum Records
Available to order on Amazon and iTunes
The UCD Choral Scholars released their debut international recording on Signum Records on 11th December 2015 (USA and Canada – 12th February 2016). The disc, entitled Invisible Stars is an enchanting collection of traditional and contemporary choral music from Ireland and Scotland and features arrangements and new compositions by some of Ireland’s most celebrated composers for choir, including Michael McGlynn, Brendan Graham, Ivo Antognini, Bill Whelan and the group’s artistic director, Desmond Earley.
A song and a schedule for the Prairieland-Clayville Academy of Music jam sessions in February --
Here's our schedule (please note I have to change the date of our third meeting from the third Thursday to Tuesday, Feb. 16, in order to accommodate another meeting at the church -- hope it doesn't inconvenience you). So the revised schedule is:
-- Tuesday, Feb. 2, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Atonement-Faith-Luther Memorial Church, 2800 West Jefferson, Springfield.
-- Saturday, Feb. 6, 10 a.m. to noon, Clayville Historic Stagecoach Stop, Ill. 125, Pleasant Plains.
-- Tuesday, Feb. 16, 7-9 p.m. at the church.
Last spring Dan brought us lead sheets for an old gospel song called "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," and we played it a couple of times. Let's play it again to kick off Tuesday's session, then go around the circle calling tunes.
The video features Bill & Gloria Gaither performing "Leaning On the Everlasting Arms" (joined by Buddy Greene on harmonica, Jeff & Sheri Easter and Charlotte Ritchie).
"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" has become a bluegrass gospel standard, but it has quite a pedigree -- it dates back to the very beginnings of gospel music in the 1800s. According to the fount of all human knowledge (Wikipedia), it was published in 1887 with music by Anthony J. Showalter and lyrics by Showalter and Elisha Hoffman. Showalter Music Co., of Dalton, Ga., was a major publisher of "new book" shape-note gospel tunebooks that shaped the emerging genre well into the 20th century -- and, some would argue, beyond. Adds Wikipedia:
Showalter said that he received letters from two of his former pupils saying that their wives had died. When writing letters of consolation, Showalter was inspired by the phrase in the Book of Deuteronomy 33:27 "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
For all of that, as the Gaithers' session attests, it is not a dirge.
There's something really very cool that didn't make it into the written dulcimer tab. As you listen to the group on the Gaithers' show again, notice how some of the vocalists are singing "Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus" while the others are singing "Leaning, leaning" in half-notes. That kind of thing is sometimes called Arkansas counterpoint, and a lot of people like to sing it that way, especially down South. We can do it too.
Paul Baloche, who wrote "Rise Up and Praise Him" in this week's worship set at Atonement-Faith-Luther Memorial, is a singer-songwriter and worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas. He has several instructional videos out. Including:
Vocal (2:15:29)
Band (1:01:37)
... and in performance -- at Bethel Church, ________(?), 2013
Holden Evening Prayer (or "Vespers '86" as it is still known at Holden Village) was written during the winter of 1985-86 when I was living with my family at Holden. As each part of the vesper service was written. it was prayed with the community as part of evening worship. The final version represents a very real collaboration with the winter community at Holden. I believe that one of the reasons it continues to be used is because it reflects the very real prayer of a particular community.
To mark its 30th anniversary GIA is issuing a new edition of Holden Evening Prayer. I have written three new supplmental psalms that can be included during the seasons of Advent and Lent. There is also a new handbell part, in addition to the keyboard, guitar and C instrument parts. Look for it here or at GIA's website after January 16.
With a hat tip to the "Church Sign Maker" at http://www.says-it.com/churchsigns/, here's my suggested name for the new congregation being formed by the merger, or "blending," of the three smaller ELCA congregations in Springfield:
It's tongue-in-cheek, of course. But churches are in the business of herding cats these days, at least in the western democracies of Europe and North America, so why not?
Besides, I got the idea from an accomplished herder of cats, former night church pastor Mikkel Vale of Helligaandskirken (Church of the Holy Spirit) in Copenhagen. His Night Church was a Friday night service designed to mix and match musical genres ranging from Gregorian chant and early Reformation chorales to Taize, jazz and art music in order to attract the majority of Danes who no longer go to church.
"While the Sunday service puts the emphasis on the forgiveness of sins, we try at Night Church to preach God’s presence at the center of each human life," he told the diocesan magazine Kirken i København (the church in Copenhagen). "This is partly done by an emphasis on personal prayer in worship. It is important for us Christians to learn that God is alive and present. … God goes with us. Always. I hope we can help to convey that to people, so they too can feel it when they leave the church again."
In another Kirken i København article, in 2011, Vale said, "we postmodern people are both misguided sheep and independent cats" and suggested a new role for the church: "We shall be shepherds to cats."
Isn't life grand? Sometimes you go down the rabbit hole looking for one thing, and you come back up with something entirely different.
And that's pretty much what happened when I was looking for tablature for old Lutheran chorales in Iceland and found instead a "classical[,] ... minimalist ... post-rock" band from Reykjavik called Sigur Rós (more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigur_R%C3%B3s). I haven't been this blown away by a new band (showing my age here) since I discovered Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Jefferson Airplane, Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull and progressive rock 45 years ago in a kinder, gentler and perhaps more musically sophisticated era.
Well, Sigur Rós aren't really a new band (showing my age here, too, I guess). They've been around since 1994.
And they don't sound very much like Thick as a Brick, either, but I haven't heard very many bands as interesting musically since punk, metal and other genres took over the airwaves in the 1970s and 80s.
Here they are on a tune called "Hoppípolla" (which apparently is an Icelandic word for hopping around in puddles). It was shot live on location in Iceland, and the production values on the video also blow me away.
Sigur Rós - "Hoppípolla" - live from Heima DVD
Sigur Rós would mean "victory rose" in English, and it is the name of frontman Jón Þór Birgisson's sister. The clip of "Hoppípolla" shown here is from Heima, which means "at home," or homeland. It is a two-disc documentary and music video set from a home-country tour in 2006. Here's a trailer:
Personnel on the DVD : Directed by Dean DeBlois, with Jón Þór Birgisson / Georg Hólm / Kjartan Sveinsson / Orri Páll Dýrason / Hildur Ársælsdóttir / María Huld Markan / Sigfúsdóttir / Edda Rún Ólafsdóttir / Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir. Venues and track list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heima. (Those odd extra letters -- Þ and ð -- have a "th-" sound in English. I try not to worry about them too much.)
One of my favorites so far is "Olsen Olsen." At first I thought it's a name, but it isn't -- it's in a made-up language called "Volenska" (a nonce word made up of the Icelandic word roots for hope + land + the suffix -ic) or "Hopelandic" in English, and it carries no meaning beyond the sounds of the words. Birgisson, who more commonly goes by Jónsi, sings it in a haunting falsetto:
"Olsen Olsen" - live from Heima DVD
But those gorgeous vocals on the video clip don't mean anything -- other than the playful, lilting, ethereal meanings suggested by timbre and melody, and there's plenty of that.
Says Eren Livingstone in a track review on a blog called al niente dal niente, "An interesting note about this invented language is that it doesn't have words, meaning or any context, but instead a focus on sound, syllables and melody. This really brings to light one of the best things about this band: how Jónsi Birgisson's vocals are really more like an instrument itself than a method to portray a message ..." I'm not sure I even want to mention this, but an internet troll on the Mudcat Cafe discussion board apparently took advantage of that ambiguity to claim the lyrics were satanic. They are not.
Chris Foster, an Englishman who has moved to Rekyjavik and sings Icelandic folk music with his wife Bára Grímsdóttir, dispatched the troll on the same thread ("Sigur Ros - meaning?" http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=117854): "The B.S. above about the band´s religious inclinations is exactly that, B.S." He also noted, "you'll catch a glimpse of some genuine Icelandic kvæðalög (that´s traditional singing to you and me)" on the Heima videos. I wish I knew enough about Icelandic music to recognize that, let alone catch it, but it's more testimony to the complexity of Sigur Rós's music.
"Oh and by the way," Foster added, "they are 4 very nice, ordinary blokes (I´ve met them and drummers Dad is good friend of mine) their down to earthness also comes across in the film."
Not much written about them in the commercial media, but a Google search will turn up some decent advance stories on their tours in Europe and the United States.
Le plus souvent, la furie semble contenue et l’eau s’écoule en formant de jolis ruisseaux qui serpentent au coeur des vertes pâtures islandaises. On est alors saisi par des ambiances musicales subtiles, éthérées, et par la voix magique de Jonsi (Jon Thor Birgisson). Parfois le feu jaillit et la glace se métamorphose, en forçant les ruisseaux à devenir des fleuves impétueux que rien ne peut arrêter ... /
Most often, the fury seems contained and the water flows forming beautiful creeks that meander in the green pasture Icelandic . It is then seized by subtle musical atmospheres , ethereal and magical voice of Jonsi ( Jon Thor Birgisson ) . Sometimes the fire springs and ice metamorphosis , forcing the streams become raging rivers that nothing can stop ...
Allt eins og blómstrið eina is a traditional Icelandic funeral hymn. Words by Hallgrímur Pétursson, who lived in the 1600s and has a good claim to be Iceland's national religious poet -- at least since saga times -- or, as Wikipedia has it, Iceland's answer to Lutheran chorale composer Paul Gerhardt (bio and bare-bones details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallgr%C3%ADmur_Pétursson).
Wikipedia has an important note for non-speakers of Icelandic: "This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Hallgrímur."
Hallgrím's funeral psalm was appended to his Passion Hymns, or psalms, which are still read on Iceland's state radio during Holy Week.
Beautiful solo arrangement by Ragnheiður Gröndal on the rom the album Þjóðlög
Sung by
Kór Langholtskirkju (choir of Langholts church) in Rekjavik
I can't find sheet music on line, but here's the melody as it appears in Ari Sæmundsen, Leiðarvísir til að spila á langspil (1855; see blog post immediately below on Jan. 5). Sæmundsen's tab is similar to sifferskrift (although, since it uses letters instead of numbers, I guess it would be something like bokstaverskrift in Norwegian. Since the letters reflect the note values of standard notation, I wonder how it would compare to today's ABC notation.
Editorial note, September 2016: I can no longer find the the passage quoted below about the 2014 Nordic Harp meeting on line, but there is a discussion of Ari Sæmundsen's book and its possible relation to the psalmodikon on pages 9-10 of Hildur Heimisdóttir's study of the Langspil and Icelandic Fiðla cited below. Her conclusions are properly tentative for a graduate conservatory student, but I think she's right that the psalmodikon "almost certain[ly]" influenced Ari Sæmundsen's notation for the langspil.
I'd been more-or-less aware of this already, but it fairly jumped off the page at me this afternoon ...
It was in the description of a breakout session at the Nordic Harp Meeting in 2014 on the langspil and fiðla by Icelandic folk musicians Bára Grímsdóttir and Chris Foster:
One part will be to look at the book ‘Leiðarvisur til að spila langspil og til að læra sálmalög’, published by Ari Sæmundsen in 1855 and try out playing some of the hymns from the charts in the book. This book was really an Icelandic version of the psalmodicon idea. It is also, as far as we know, the only book ever published about and for the use of the langspil. Albeit, the instrument was already on its way out at that point. The book is digitised on google books and people can look at it here.)
The other thing Chris would like to do is to get together a group of langaleik, hummel, langspil etc. related instrument players (and anyone else who is interested) to see what we all do and to share information, ideas and so on to see how our instruments connect with each other, or not. Chris will bring powerpoint slides with info about langspil and fiðla to feed into the discussion, but it is very much intended to be just that, a discussion with our instruments.
The Nordic Harp Meeting is "an annual gathering of people who play, build or simply like the harp, lyre, kantele, langeleik, hummel and related string instruments in the Nordic countries. We meet to get acquainted with each other, learn and teach tunes and play music together" (http://nordic-harp-meeting.se/home/). Bára Grímsdóttir and Chris Foster, of Rekjavik, have a duo called FUNI that does vocals and "accompaniments using the traditional Icelandic langspil and fiðla, guitar, kantele and hammered dulcimer as well as singing in the old two part harmony style called tvísöng."
(In the for-what-it's-worth department, I'm pretty sure they were at Common Ground on the Hill in 2013 and I bought one of their CDs. I'll have to look for it in the basement.)
Please see also tab for Allt eins og blómstrið eina in post above on Jan. 8.
Hildur Heimisdóttir has this:
In the year 1855, Ari Sæmundsen published the
treatise Leiðarvísir til að spila á langspil, or A manual to
learn to play the langspil, in Akureyri, the principal town
of North Iceland. It is not only the first book ever that had
the purpose of teaching langspil playing to beginners, but
also the very first music teaching material ever published
in Iceland. The work may have been influenced by the development of the instrument
Psalmodikon. (I think it is almost certain that it was) The psalmodikon was invented be J. W.
Bruun in Copenhagen the year 1823, but the prototype for that instrument was the medieval
monochord. Psalmodikon became very popular in Scandinavia, especially in Norway and
Sweden, and was mostly used for singing in the church and at schools. The psalmodikon was
developed and spread specifically to teach people the tunes in a new hymn book that was
published in Sweden in the early 19th century. Scandinavian musicians wrote teaching
material to help the public to learn to play the psalmodikon and these books may have
inspired Ari Sæmundsen to write his extended treatise on the langspil. Ari’s work provides
specific information about the fret design of the instrument and how to tune it in different
ways, and acceptable bow technique. He also gives the reader ground knowledge in music
theory.
Ari Sæmundsen’s book quite possibly made a big impact on the preservation of the
tradition of the langspil, since very precise guidance to how to build a langspil appeared in the
book as well. Many people tried to use it to build their own instruments. However, the
drawing of the fingerboard was not printed correctly and the frets were not completely in the
right places according to the book. When people used the guidance to build a langspil of their
own, the results would be an instrument that was quite out of tune. In the north of Iceland, two
men in the north of Iceland, Benedikt Jónsson and Sigtryggur Helgason, found a solution to
that problem by building a portable fingerboard for other people to use in order to correct
their own langspils.
Hildur Heimisdóttir, Langspil and Icelandic Fiðla:
The history, construction and function of the two
Icelandic folk-instruments. Candidate studies in the violoncello, 2012. Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium, Aarhus, http://www.musik.is/Paelingin/Langspil_and_Icelandic_Fidla.pdf.
This weekend we celebrate Epiphany. Scripture is Matthew 2:1-12 (story of the wise men). We are going to focus the worship set on giving the gift of ourselves, our worship to Jesus, the King. Here is the plan:
As luck would have it, the first piece of music I heard this year was one of my favorites. It's called "The Parting Glass," and it dates back at least to the 1700s. It has both Scottish and Irish antecedents. It's known today chiefly as a trad Irish song, first popularized in 1959 by Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers, but according to the fountainhead of all useful knowledge at Wikipedia, it was said to be the most popular song of farewell in Scotland before Robert Burns wrote "Auld Lang Syne."
Which no doubt has something to do with how I came to be hearing it the first thing in the morning on New Year's Day.
[*If you're interested in knowing more about the tune, see FOOTNOTE below.]
In Irish music circles, it's associated with partings, from wakes and funerals to closing time at pub sessions, with its lovely refrain,
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all.
The same events and transitions, in other words, as "Auld Lang Syne." So yesterday evening on New Year's Eve, my old dulcimer-playing buddy Ryan Reeves posted a very fine arrangement by the High Kings to his Facebook feed. You can link to it here or watch this stunning a cappella arrangement by the UCD Choral Scholars of University College Dublin:
Ryan was an adjunct English instructor at Springfield College in Illinois before it got absorbed into Benedictine, and he played with the old Prairieland Dulcimer Strings when his schedule permitted (he was an adjunct teaching night classes, so his schedule didn't permit very often), but he bought one of Steve Endsley's dulcimers and got to be quite good at it. He moved on to greener pastures in Arizona several years ago.
(Tangent: There's something about that phrase "greener pastures in Arizona" that makes me wonder if I ought to find another cliche. But there's something in my sense of irony that enjoys this one very well, thank you. At least the high Sonoran desert country doesn't have a governor hell-bent on shakin' it up these days.)
Anyway, when I saw Ryan's link from New Year's Eve, opened it and played it, I sent him this one in reply. It's amateur footage from Liam Clancy's funeral in Co. Waterford in 1969, and I get a lump in my throat every time I hear it (which is fairly often, because I love the music -- they also sing a verse of "Wild Mountain Thyme" at graveside):
Which got me to thinking -- why don't we play this at the latest reincarnation of the Prairieland dulcimer group? We have two sessions coming up this week:
At Clayville Stagecoach Stop Historic Site, Ill. 125, Pleasant Plains, Saturday (tomorrow), 10 a.m. to noon.
Our "first Tuesday" session in the narthex (lobby) at Atonement-Faith-Luther Memorial Church, 2800 W. Jefferson, Tuesday, 7 to 9 p.m.
Plus I found dulcimer tab in what seems like a reasonable key for singing.
Dave Holeton has it in B minor -- which is a variation on "D for dulcimer" since Bm is the relative minor for the key of D -- at http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/files/tab/parting_glass.pdf in the Everything Dulcimer website's tab collection. His tab is for an instrument tuned to DAD, which is most often used to play tunes in Dmaj, but from looking at the notes on the page (OK, OK, the notes on the computer screen), I think it should work out all right. If you get some funky discords, just flat-pick the melody note.
And, just to prove you never know what you're going to find in Wikipedia, I just learned that the melody got into the American shape-note tradition, by way of William Walker's Southern Harmony.
Stands to reason. So many of Walker's folk hymns were in an Anglo-Celtic oral tradition (for lack of a better word for it) that came to American with the Scots-Irish immigrants of the 1700s. It's in the Sacred Harp, too, where it's known as No. 42 CLAMANDA. In the Sacred Harp tradition, the tempo and dynamics are very different to what we know from trad Irish music. Here's a video of CLAMANDA being sung at the First Ireland Sacred Harp Convention, held in 2011 at University College Cork:
__________
* A FOOTNOTE (really): Everything you've ever wanted to know about the song is available on line in Jürgen Kloss, "Some Notes On The History Of
'The Parting Glass'." 30 March 2012. ....Just Another Tune:
Songs & Their History. http://justanothertune.com/html/partingglass.html.
Heard tonight on WUIS-FM while returning from Galesburg, "Christmas in the Ashram" by singer-songwriter Chris Rosser of Ashville, N.C., covered here by Tom Prasada-Rao and Cary Cooper, two other accomplished singer-songwriters, at a gig in Dallas. The one I heard on the radio had a couple of Ravi Shankar-like riffs on a sitar -- or a Western instrument tuned and played to sound a little bit like a sitar. This one is awfully nice, too.
"Christmas in the Ashram" performed in 2012 at Center for Spiritual Living Dallas
The indispensible Mudcat Cafe forum has lyrics, etc., at http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=74945. It's clearly a satire on Western seekers after Eastern spirituality -- who travel from "California to Bombay," in Rosser's words, "in search of peace" and get homesick at Christmas time. But the satire is gentle -- to my ears, at least -- and I think there's a lovely sense of the nostalgia so many of us are prone to at this time of year.
It seems well informed on Eastern religions, too, at least to my inexpert years. The chorus mixes and matches them with ecumenical abandon:
Singing Om Alleluia - Hare Hare Krishna
In Excelsis Deo - Rama Bolo Rama Bolo
Gloria Gloria - Govinda Gopala
Om Noel - Jay Siya Ram
And the verses are full of images of Eastern spiritual practice and California-style holiday cheer, of "tinsel in Vishnu's crown," of Christmas "egg nog in the black spice tea" and "red /
Santa hats on shaven heads."
The last verse:
They sang Gospels and Upanishads
Psalms and Vedas praising God
Maybe Christ and Krishna are amused
When humans get a little bit confused
The song was first recorded to Rosser's 2000 album "Holy Fool." I don't know who recorded the arrangement I heard of the radio -- I think it was Rosser.
Prasada-Rao has also made the song his own, recording it as the title cut on a CD called Christmas in the Ashram in 1998. He's of Indian heritage himself, born in Ethiopia of Indian parents and raised in Washington D.C. According to his website, he now spends much of his time on the road.
Here is the worship plan for this weekend. I tried not to incorporate anything new this weekend since we have a good chunk of music to work on for Christmas Eve. We are doing a jazzed up version of "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee" -- please listen to the YouTube version by Michael W. Smith that I've attached. I'd like to try to replicate the feel of that one (I'm trying to find the actual sheet music for the band so we'll have the actual version, but I've not found it yet -- I'll not give up!!).
Music kind of runs in my father's family, and my grandmother used to say we were descended from a 16th-century German musician named Johann Walther, or Walter in modern German, who was a cantor (choir director) in Wittenberg and arranged the music for Martin Luther's first hymnal. So when I was asked to play during the offertory at the contemporary worship service in our new "blended" ELCA parish in Springfield, I thought a moment and decided on "From Heaven Above," a Christmas carol that Luther wrote for his family.
When I mentioned it to my cousin, who is also kind of a church music geek, he emailed back, "I noted with pleasure your inclusion of Vom Himmel Hoch (the German tune name) into the Service. Good show! ... That hymn was written by Luther for his children to sing as they acted out the Christmas story. My understanding is that Walter convinced him to modify the hymn for congregational usage."
Which means my great-great- (I counted it up once and there must be nine or 10 "greats") grandfather could have collaborated with Luther when he first set the carol to the tune of a popular love ballad of the day. That arrangement, first published in 1535, didn't last long. The text is a first-person account of the Nativity story, and apparently Luther's congregations thought it was a little too risque for the Christ child to be singing a love ballad. So in 1539 they switched over to the melody we now use in 1539.
I guess contemporary worship music has always had its ups and downs!
Anyway, my cousin wrote:
Don't know what's in the ELCA hymnal, but LCMS uses all of the original 15 verses in their hymnal (even the new one). That hymn was written by Luther for his children to sing as they acted out the Christmas story. My understanding is that Walter convinced him to modify the hymn for congregational usage.
I got the Pastor at Messiah to incorporate verse 13 into every Advent and Christmas Service - in most cases the choir sang it - as the last prayer within the structure of the Prayers for the Church. As children, we were taught it for our evening prayers.
Traditional translation
Ah, dearest Jesus, Holy Child
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber, kept for Thee.
Particularly at home, but even in a small church, Luther used the lute to lead the singing, so strum away.
Of the origin of the German hymn, Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 21, thus speaks:—
"Luther was accustomed every year to prepare for his family a happy Christmas Eve's entertainment.. . and for this festival of his children he wrote this Christmas hymn. Its opening lines are modelled on a song, 'Aus fremden Landen komm ich her;" and throughout he successfully catches the ring of the popular sacred song. It is said that Luther celebrated the festival in his own house in this original fashion. By his orders the first seven verses of this hymn were sung by a man dressed as an angel, whom the children greeted with the eighth and following verses."
We may add that Luther took the first stanza almost entirely from the song, which begins:--
“Ich komm aus fremden Landen her,
Und bring euch viel der neuen Mahr,
Der neuen Mahr bring ich so viel,
Mahr dann ich euchy hier sagen will.”
From the rest of the song Luther did not borrow anything.
In Klug's G.B., 1535, it is set to the melody of “Aus fremden Landen,” or rather, as F.M. Bohme, in his Aldeutsches Liederbuch, 1871, No. 271, gives it “Ich komm aus fremden Landen her.” In the Geistliche Lieder, Leipzig, V. Schumann, 1539, this was superseded by the beautiful melody still in use, which is sometimes ascribed to Luther, and is set to this hymn in the Chorale Book for England, 1863 (set also to No. 57 in Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1875).
Before I close this study with a survey of Christmas poetry in England after the Reformation, it may be interesting to follow the developments in Protestant Germany. The Reformation gave a great impetus to German religious song, and we owe to it some of the finest of Christmas hymns. It is no doubt largely due to Luther, that passionate lover of music and folk-poetry, that hymns have practically become the liturgy of German Protestantism; yet he did but give typical expression to the natural instincts of his countrymen for song. Luther, though a rebel, was no Puritan; we can hardly call him an iconoclast; he had a conservative mind, which only gradually became loosened from its old attachments. His was an essentially artistic nature: “I would fain,” he said, “see all arts, especially music, in the service of Him who has given and created them,” and in the matter of hymnody he continued, in many respects, the mediaeval German tradition. Homely, kindly, a lover of children, he had a deep feeling for the festival of Christmas; and not only did he translate into German “A solis ortus cardine” and “Veni, redemptor gentium,” but he wrote for his little son Hans one of the most delightful and touching of all Christmas hymns—“Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her.”
[extended quotation in German omitted]
“Vom Himmel hoch” has qualities of simplicity, directness, and warm human feeling which link it to the less ornate forms of carol literature. Its first verse is adapted from a secular song; its melody may, perhaps, have been composed by Luther himself. There is another Christmas hymn of Luther's, too—“Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar”—written for use when “Vom Himmel hoch” was thought too long, and he also composed additional verses for the mediaeval “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ.” ...
Swedish psalm for epiphany to the tune of the medieval German carol A child is born in Bethlehem/Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem/Puer natus in Bethlehem -- melody is perhaps best known to Americans through Praetorius' setting ... old, old medieval German and Latin macronic hymn. Details at http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Ein-Kind-geborn-zu-Bethlehem.htm on the Bach Cantatas website. It was one of the first hymns, beginning as early as the 1200s, in which the congregation played a role.
In Sweden, it was moved from Christmas to Epiphany. Words attributed to Johan Olof Wallin, who compiled the hymnal and translated many of the hymns from the German.
En stjärna gick på himlen fram är en trettondagspsalm, ursprungligen latinsk julsång från 1300-talet. De två sista verserna (nr 6 och 7) är "ståverser". Psalmen bearbetad av Laurentius Jonae Gestritius och trycktes efter hans död första gången 1619. Psalmen översattes troligen eller bearbetades av Jesper Svedberg 1694, till en psalm med tolv verser och titelraden "Ett barn är födt af jungfru reen, af jungfru reen" för 1695 års psalmbok. Bearbetning inför tryckningen av 1819 års psalmbok har ingen angiven upphovsman, men i 1937 års psalmbok uppges att Johan Olof Wallin bearbetat texten 1816 till en psalm med sju verser och ny titelrad. Inför 1987 års psalmbok bearbetades den av Anders Frostenson 1977 och medverkan av tidigare upphovsmän anges inte längre.
[Google translation:] A star was in the sky until a Epiphany hymn, originally Latin Christmas songs from the 1300s. The two last verses (No. 6 and 7) is "ståverser". Psalm processed by Laurentius Jonae Gestritius and printed after his death the first time in 1619. The hymn was translated likely or processed by Jesper Svedberg, 1694, into a hymn of twelve verses and the title line "A child is born of the virgin reen, of virgin reen" the 1695 Act hymnbook . Processing of printing of the 1819 Act hymnbook has no specified originator, but in the 1937 hymnal stated that Johan Olof Wallin processed text 1816 to a hymn with seven verses and a new title bar. Prior to the 1987 hymnal was processed by the Anders Frostenson in 1977 and the participation of previous authors no longer sets.
This Christmas hymn was especially popular during the ancient period. Its author is unknown. The oldest Latin text found so far is contained in a Benedictine book dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century. The Latin text, which is found in many different redactions ranging from six to twelve stanzas, has, very likely, been composed by several authors. Consequently, it has undergone many changes due to omissions, revisions, and additions. “Puer natus” was translated into German in 1439 by Heinrich von Laufenberg. Later on a number of German versions appeared. In the old German, Danish, and Swedish hymnals a translation in the vernacular was inserted immediately after each Latin stanza. It has been surmised that the choir sang the Latin and the congregation sang translations of the same. The German rendering most extensively used was that found in Val. Babst’s Gesangbuch, 1545: “Ein Kind geboren zu Bethlehem.” This contains ten stanzas with the German translation inserted after each stanza except the second. The English version included in The Lutheran Hymnary was made by Philip Schaff and was printed in his Christ in Song, 1869. There are at least eleven other English translations.
In regard to the third stanza, Skaar quotes from the hymnological works of Daniel: “On many early medieval paintings representing the nativity of Christ, as well as in Christmas hymns, are found an ox and an ass. This practice has been ascribed to a faulty rendering of the passage, Hab. 3:2: ‘In the midst of beasts make known’; for ‘In the midst of the years make it known.’ They concluded from Is. 1:3 that the two ‘beasts’ referred to were the ox and the ass: ‘The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib.’ These passages are taken to be the Biblical basis for the old Christmas stanza: ‘Cognovit bos et asinus, quod puer erat Dominus, Halleluja’ (The ox and the ass knew that the Child was the Lord).” Nutzhorn claims that the expression is rather. an “innocent desire for free poetic representation of the circumstances surrounding the nativity of Christ.” [Dahle, Library of Christians Hymns]
Praetorius (Montiverdi Choir and Monteverdi Ensemble, dir.
Matthias Beckert, Neubaukirche Würzburg, 2010) ...
Bach (Cantata BVW 65 -- Camerata Vocal "Bella Desconocida" & Orquesta de Cámara, dir. Jorge L. Colino Sigüenza, Iglesia Conventual de San Pablo, Palencia, Spain, 2004)
