December 30, 2003
Superb English hymnody
See the Oremus Hymnal, part of the Oremus site of Anglican liturgical texts.
This online hymnal contains texts and MIDI files of tunes used in much of the English-speaking world, with particular emphasis on the Anglican tradition. Currently, fifty-two Anglican hymnals from the past 140 years have been indexed. These 52 hymnals contain nearly seven thousand distinct texts and over eighteen thousand text/tune combinations.
December 19, 2003
December 18, 2003
December 17, 2003
O Sapientia
The antiphon for this evening's recitation of the Magnificat; it can also be used as the Gospel acclamation in today's Mass.
December 01, 2003
Ama redemptoris mater
It's Advent, so our evening hymn is now Alma redemptoris mater, sung after Night Prayer and/or while heading upstairs with the kids to tuck them in for the night.
November 18, 2003
Fiddle tunes of the old frontier
From the Library of Congress,
iddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection is a multi-format ethnographic field collection of traditional fiddle tunes performed by Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Virginia. Recorded by folklorist Alan Jabbour in 1966-67, when Reed was over eighty years old, the tunes represent the music and evoke the history and spirit of Virginia's Appalachian frontier. Many of the tunes have passed back into circulation during the fiddling revival of the later twentieth century. This online collection incorporates 184 original sound recordings, 19 pages of fieldnotes, and 69 musical transcriptions with descriptive notes on tune histories and musical features; an illustrated essay about Reed's life, art, and influence; a list of related publications; and a glossary of musical terms.
August 30, 2003
Soul food
Fortify yourself before that next wretched meal of On Eagles' Wings, Let There Be Peace on Earth, and I Am The Bread of Life:
- Tomas Luis de Victoria: 1548-1611
- Thomas Tallis: 1505-1585
- Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: 1525?-1594
August 19, 2003
Quiz!
Spotted over at Opinion Journal's Best of the Web:
See You in September
We're going on vacation, and Best of the Web Today is going on hiatus. We'll be back Sept. 2 with more comments, clichés, commentary, controversy, chatter, chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat, conversation, contradiction and criticism. In the meantime, e-mail subscribers will receive selections from OpinionJournal's other columnists and contributors.
Name the band, album and/or tune quoted above. It's been in my car's cassette player at high volume for the last week. Try not to google for the answer, if you can help it.
August 18, 2003
August 15, 2003
Passion Chorale
We've had J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion in the CD player for a few days now. Ordinarily I perceive "opera" as a hideous grotesquerie - so often (in my very limited experience) the singers are arrogant show-offs who will not serve the music; plus, a lot of operas are about, if you'll pardon the expression, shit - not much more than 200-year-old soap operas. Yawn.
On the other hand, Bach's St. Matthew Passion is truly one of the highest achievements of Western civilization. Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. says the same somewhere - Gratitude, perhaps? I can't say much more than that about it - I don't know the technical terms like Nat Tunbridge does - but this stuff is God's own Beauty. When the Passion Chorale, better known perhaps as the tune to "O Sacred Head Surrounded", begins, everyone in our family stops in awe and listens to God with devotion and filial piety and love.
August 13, 2003
Doggerel redux
Inspired, or something, by George Weigel; to the children's tune "Jesus Loves Me":
I am Jesus,
This I know
Suzanne Toolan
Tells me so.
Eat my body,
drink my blood.
I can heal you,
I'm your Bud.
Yes, I am Jesus,
Yes, I am Jesus.
Yes, I am Jesus,
I am I AM, I am!
Ahem. Back to our regularly-scheduled blogging.
July 22, 2003
Sorry folks
Some just surfed in looking for "Lisa (left eye) Lopez's family tree". Move along, there's nothing to see here.
Our folk songs
St. Blog's choir director has linked to an article in Crisis: Twelve Latin Chants Every Catholic Should Know. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that many of them are in our repertoire at home:
- Ave Maria - we sing this during our nightly prayers with the kids. The article's comments on the melody are right on the money; I'd add that it lends itself well to improvised embellishments.
- Adoro Te Devote - I haven't a clue about this one.
- Regina Caeli - we sang this a lot during our last pregnancy, so it's our youngest child's song. It's a short little song, so it's nice to pause for a moment when things are getting out of hand and calm everyone down by praying to the Queen of Heaven.
- Ave Verum Corpus - haven't a clue
- Pange Lingua Gloriosi - there are two tunes for this, aren't there? I have the impression we use the simpler of the two, the one that starts C-D-E-C, D-E-F-E. I used to make up silly verses about the kids to this tune. One of our former parish priests used to claim that this tune was a marching cadence for the ancient Roman army. Come to think of it, that would be a striking sight: a Catholic army using the text and melody of Pange Lingua as a marching cadence!
- Parce Domine - eh?
- Asperges - hey, you could use that as a penitential song!
- Ubi Caritas - don't know it, but it's in the various chant books
- Attende Domine - ditto
- Veni Creator Spiritus - what a magnificent song! I've taught it to the kids by having them complete a bit more of each line over the months. Our oldest daughter used to sing it "Come O Father of the porch...". See this blog entry for Fr. John Mason Neale's masterly translation that preserves many aesthetic elements of the original Latin.
- Jesu, Dulcis Memoria - don't know it
- Salve Regina - our nighttime anthem as we climb the stairs to go to bed. When I crank this one up, even the 17-month-old knows it's time to grab his blanket and head upstairs. This is also Helen's song - we sang it to her as she lay dying just after her birth and baptism.
When the kids are older I hope to introduce them to Thomas Tallis, Tomas Luis de Victoria and all those other old polyphony guys. With 6 voices (or more) we should be able to do pretty well. Meanwhile, our 6-year-old has discovered the Beatles. I was quite a bit older when I discovered them, and I still remember the moment I realized I could buy Beatles records and heck, even play them over and over! I think my first purchase was Sgt. Pepper's. This being Trivial Tuesday, I'll also note that the first time I listened to the CD version of Sgt. Pepper's, the dog whistle nearly knocked me out of my chair it was so painful. I doubt I could hear it nowadays, but I don't dare try again.
July 18, 2003
Guadalcanal Diary news
Guadalcanal Diary was one of those 1980s Athens, Georgia, bands. I picked up their album 2x4 back in 1987 and I've listened to it so much over the years that harmonies to their melodies just pop out automatically. If Steel Teeth ever gets some recording time again, we really need to cover a song or two from 2x4.
4/26/03 - There are plans in the works to release definitive versions of each of the four original Guad albums in a Deluxe CD reissue. Each CD should include new liner notes with input from the band, bonus tracks, outtakes, live cuts, etc. Hopefully these will come out later this year. The Deluxe Editions will be a must for fans. We will post more news as we get more details about them. (Please Note: The reissues on Collectables do not contain any extra tracks nor a collectors booklet with comprehensive liner notes.)
June 20, 2003
John Mason Neale question
Did John Mason Neale produce an English translation of Lauda Sion? Google has not seen fit to answer my pleas. Perhaps Fr. Neale's Medieval Hymns and Sequences is available online?
June 19, 2003
Zion, to thy Savior sing
We have yet another sequence coming up on Sunday, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (a.k.a. Corpus Christi): Lauda, Sion, written by Saint Thomas Aquinas.
June 12, 2003
Psalm settings?
Does anyone know of some good singable settings for the Psalms? I'm looking for distinctive but "classic" tunes the kids could use for the Psalms. I guess this would also entail metrical settings of the Psalms, huh? For this project I'd like to avoid Gregorian-style psalm tones in which a single tone can be used for any Psalm; the point here is to have a different tune associated with each Psalm.
Perhaps what I'm really looking for are metrical translations of the Psalms, if there are such things. Any suggestions?
Update: that sound you heard was my jaw dropping to the floor. Take a look at this: metrical psalms!
Speaking of metrics, the prayer before meals "Bless us O Lord..." is in 8.8.8; we sing it to the tune of Dies irae with a homegrown psalm tone for the Sign of the Cross. I hope we don't sing it before a meal cooked by someone who knows the words to Dies irae:
Before You, humbled, Lord, I lie,
my heart like ashes, crushed and dry,
assist me when I die.
Full of tears and full of dread
is that day that wakes the dead,
calling all, with solemn blast
to be judged for all their past.
On the other hand, the Dies irae Grace might be quite appropriately sung by college students before eating in the dorm cafeteria, or by Dylan in his hospital room. If anyone actually does this, please let me know!
May 26, 2003
Sad to see him go
We had to toss out a CD today: Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. I picked it up somewhere back in the mid '90s and didn't really "get" it at the time; when we played it this morning it was grand! Until the scratches took over. Kids and CDs don't mix.
Next up on the Monday "cleanup around the house" playlist: Miles Davis, Seven Steps to Heaven; not my favorite of the 60's quintet with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter & Tony Williams (+ 1997), but it'll do in a pinch.
May 25, 2003
A universal prescription
Looks like this covers everyone:
What is soilèd, make Thou pure;
What is wounded, work its cure;
What is parchèd, fructify;
What is rigid, gently bend;
What is frozen, warmly tend;
Strengthen what goes erringly.
From John Mason Neale's translation of Veni Sancte Spiritus, also known as the Golden Sequence, which we depressingly mumble at Mass on Pentecost. Maybe you should jump up and sing it this year.
April 24, 2003
Hey hey, holy mackerel
Help! Who knows the complete lyrics to this 1969 Cubs song?
February 20, 2003
January 09, 2003
Steel Teeth
I was in a band from 1983-1991; here's a website with sound samples put together by my friend Rich Wildman, who played keyboards. Biff Brown wrote all our lyrics and the basic structure of most of the songs; he has a real gift for songwriting and rhythm guitar playing (on his Dad's old Gibson ES 335!). I played guitar solos, bass lines and decorative background guitar stuff and Dan Largent put it all together on tape.
December 20, 2002
December 19, 2002
December 18, 2002
December 17, 2002
December 11, 2002
John Mason Neale: Veni sancte spiritus
Here is John Mason Neale's translation of Veni sancte spiritus, also known as the "Golden Sequence"; we sing it on the feast of Pentecost.
Father Neale was kind enough to preserve the meter of the original, so it fits perfectly with the ancient chant melody. Dunno about you, but finding this translation and fitting it to the chant melody makes my spirit soar. I know what I'll be singing on the way home today!
Come, Thou holy Paraclete,
And from Thy celestial seat
Send Thy light and brilliancy:
Father of the poor, draw near;
Giver of all gifts, be here;
Come, the soul's true radiancy.
Come, of comforters the best,
Of the soul the sweetest guest,
Come in toil refreshingly:
Thou in labor rest most sweet,
Thou art shadow from the heat,
Comfort in adversity.
O Thou Light, most pure and blest,
Shine within the inmost breast
Of Thy faithful company.
Where Thou art not, man hath naught;
Every holy deed and thought
Comes from Thy divinity.
What is soilèd, make Thou pure;
What is wounded, work its cure;
What is parchèd, fructify;
What is rigid, gently bend;
What is frozen, warmly tend;
Strengthen what goes erringly.
Fill Thy faithful, who confide
In Thy power to guard and guide,
With Thy sevenfold mystery.
Here Thy grace and virtue send:
Grant salvation to the end,
And in Heav'n felicity.
UPDATE: This is marvelous! When I first read the hymn, the section below caught my eye with its list of adjectives: soilèd, wounded, parchèd, rigid, frozen. Singing the lines brings out something different: each of these lines with its "What is..." captures the sound of the original with its repeated "quod est":
What is soilèd, make Thou pure; What is wounded, work its cure; What is parchèd, fructify; What is rigid, gently bend; What is frozen, warmly tend; Strengthen what goes erringly.
Considered as English poetry, I think I prefer Father Neale's positive rendering here better than Dr. Paul Ford's series of negatives which better echo the original:
Venantius Fortunatus:
Sine tuo numine Nihil est in homine Nihil est innoxium.
If you take your grace away Nothing pure in us will stay All our good is turned to ill.
Fr. Neale:
Where Thou art not, man hath naught; Every holy deed and thought Comes from Thy divinity.
December 06, 2002
Slumming
The Ford doesn't have a rosary, so before I knew it this morning I was scanning through the FM stations and heard a great hook worthy of the Beatles. I went back and found it was the local evangelical "Bible verse of the day" (just one verse?!) radio station playing a pretty good tune. It being the evangelical station, I was dreading the tinkling, saccharine keyboard sound that runs like an itchy rash through most of their music, but this morning I was surprised. I don't know who the singer was, but she'd written a darn good song with a quiet, smart "I got off drugs" alternative sound. Her melodic hooks were somewhere between the Beatles and Tori Amos and she had an attractive breathy falsetto that she used intelligently (that is, sparingly) between some good solid singing.
GGHRRRGGHGHHHHGGRRGGH. That's what I said when I stepped out of the car at the gas station. Thirt-friggin'-teen. It's cold in Illinois this morning. Two cheers for involuntary shivering. Mr. Riddle, does the daily warmth and sunshine in Florida become cloying after a while? That's what I've heard, but I don't believe it.
Some other FM meditations on the way to work this morning:
I wish I could play guitar like David Gilmore. He excels at a quiet sort of meditative phrasing, as if he sings his guitar solos before he plays them. Add a sweet vibrato, good melodic hooks and an intelligent harmonic relationship to the surrounding music, and you have my favorite guitar player.
Does anyone really care about Mick "Geriatric" Jagger and his Rolling Gall Stones anymore? Why are these perpetual losers still staggering around on the radio? The old guys at the barbershop, the ones with stiff white flattops, enjoy the Stones.
The Offspring are a good screaming punk band. I think they're from Goleta, CA, separated from lovely Santa Barbara by the steaming armpit called Isla Vista. I spent two weeks at UCSB for the TUG94 conference, where my friend Mike and I had hoped to present a paper on color separation and page imposition directly from LaTeX. Management killed that idea, being afraid of giving away "trade secrets." The same managers did send us to the conference, though, which was a pretty cool thing to do.
I used to have a decent falsetto, as usable if not as good as Dave Matthews' and Peter Gabriel's, but it's gone now. What the heck happened?
The "oldies" station is for folks who were sentient in 1960 or thereabouts (that's what the stiff white flattops listen to at the barbershop). They occasionally sneak in a tune from those whippersnappers from Liverpool - an early one. Meanwhile, the "classic" rock station is beginning to play songs from my high school days. Hm.
December 02, 2002
Alma redemptoris mater
During Advent we sing Alma redemptoris mater after Compline:
November 04, 2002
By Flowing Waters
Aristotle Esguerra mentions Dr. Paul Ford's By Flowing Waters.
Dr. Ford's By Flowing Waters is one of those books you really do need to buy if you're interested in liturgical music. I don't have much use for the NRSV psalms he uses, but his translations and settings of sequences and Marian antiphons are worth the extraordinarily affordable price of the book.
Hoping this falls under fair use provisions, I've scanned and posted his setting of the Golden Sequence here. Our four-year-old daughter likes to complete each phrase of the chant by shouting the final word; to her, the second phrase runs "Come, O Father of the... PORCH!."
October 30, 2002
Ten Years Already
Ten years ago tomorrow I first heard Nirvana's Nevermind. I wasn't listening to radio in those days and had no idea what had been going on for the last year in music. I remember the precise instant the album started at a Halloween get-together at a friend's house - I just stopped everything and listened awestruck to their sound and melodies. I was 26 and single, and Nirvana was just the thing.
October 02, 2002
Ava Maris Stella
Almost every day, and many times on some days, someone arrives at my Ave maris stella page through a google search. Is there some resurgence of interest in the hymn?
August 18, 2002
Ollie, Who Ya?
Oh boy. It's tempting to rant about the music you hear at Mass, and I shouldn't, but...
Ollie Ollie Ollie
Lou Ooo Yuh
Ollie Ollie Ollie
Lou Ooo Yuh
Ollie Ollie Ollie
Lou Ooo Yuh
Ollie-looyuh, Alleluia.
It's bouncy, don't 'cha know?
Saint Brady :-)
Remember Dan Schutte's little hymn-ditty-thing, "Here I Am, Lord"? Well, you should since you probably sang it this weekend at Mass. Anyway, doesn't it remind you of another song you know by heart?
Here I am, Lord
Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
Here's the story
Of a lovely lady
Who was bringing up three very lovely girls...
