Music Video of the Day - "Romance" for Helen

I wrote this piece during the past week, mainly to set myself a challenge. I can still play a bit with my left hand, and dear Helen Lunt came and played it with me this morning.

Music audio of the day

Romance for cello and piano left hand.

This is a midi. 5 minutes. The piece is not yet as I want it. Too long, and wanders between keys. Work in progress.

Brendan Sadler came to call

Brendan has done so much for local music making, and I have had many hours playing the piano for rehearsals for operas and operettas, and singing in Gilbert and Sullivan and in Bethlehem by Rutland Boughton. It was good to talk at greater length than we have had time to before.

He was kind enough to receive a copy of Gleam Flying Onward, my history of Bruton School for Girls.

We also talked about Gerontius. I reckon that although I may not - or rather, don't - go along with all the theology, there are universal moments in it, like Gerontius' simple statement:

I go before my God.

Music Video of the Day - Gerontius in rehearsal

Saturday's rehearsal of the Dream of Gerontius in Wells Cathedral as I saw and heard it from my vantage point on a garden recliner. Dorothy reminds me that she and I sang in the same CUMS performance in Cambridge in around 1960.

Sorry that I put 'Hail' instead of 'Praise' on the video at one point.

Music Video of the Day - Fiddle Fugue

Bach wrote this for unaccompanied violin, as he wrote the Chaconne that I posted a day or two ago. He also arranged it for organ. I tried playing the original violin part on the piano with my left hand, and this is the result. The playing is poor, I know, but it is a challenge to continue to make music.

The moment of death - by Newman

GERONTIUS:

NOVISSIMA hora est; and I fain would sleep,
The pain has wearied me.... Into Thy hands
O Lord, into Thy hands ....

THE PRIEST:

PROFICISCERE, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo!
Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul!
Go from this world! Go, in the name of God
The omnipotent Father, who created thee!
Go, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Son of the living God, who bled for thee!
Go, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who
Hath been poured out on thee! Go, in the name
Of Angels and Archangels; in the name
Of Thrones and Dominations; in the name
Of Princedoms and of Powers; and in the name
Of Cherubim and Seraphim, go forth!
Go, in the name of Patriarchs and Prophets;
And of Apostles and Evangelists,
Of Martyrs and Confessors; in the name
Of holy Monks and Hermits; in the name
Of holy Virgins; and all Saints of God,
Both men and women, go Go on thy course;
And may thy place to-day be found in peace,
And may thy dwelling be the Holy Mount
Of Sion :—through the Same, through Christ, our Lord.


SECOND PHASE

SOUL OF GEROINTIUS
I WENT to sleep; and now I am refreshed.
A strange refreshment: for I feel in me
An inexpressive lightness, and a sense
Of freedom, as I were at length myself
And ne’er had been before. How still it is!
I hear no more the busy beat of time,
No, nor my fluttering breath, nor struggling pulse;
Nor does one moment differ from the next.
I had a dream; yes: — someone softly said “He’s gone;”
and then a sigh went round the room.
And then I surely heard a priestly voice
Cry “Subvenite;” and they knelt in prayer.

I seem to hear him still; but thin and low,
And fainter and more faint the accents come,
As at an ever-widening interval.
Ah whence is this? What is this severance?
This silence pours a solitariness
Into the very essence of my soul;
And the deep rest, so soothing and so sweet,
Hath something too of sternness and of pain.
For it drives back my thoughts upon their spring
By a strange introversion, and perforce
I now begin to feed upon myself,
Because I have nought else to feed upon.

Am I alive or dead? I am not dead,
But in the body still; for I possess
A sort of confidence which clings to me,
That each particular organ holds its place
As heretofore, combining with the rest
Into one symmetry that wraps me round,
And makes me man; and surely I could move,
Did I but will it, every part of me.
And yet I cannot to my sense bring home,
By very trial, that I have the power.
‘Tis strange; I cannot stir a hand or foot,
I cannot make my fingers or my lips
By mutual pressure witness each to each,
Nor by the eyelid’s instantaneous stroke
Assure myself I have a body still.
Nor do I know my very attitude,
Nor if I stand, or lie, or sit, or kneel.
So much I know, not knowing how I know,
That the vast universe, where I have dwelt,
Is quitting me, or I am quitting it.
Or I or it is rushing on the wings
Of light or lightning on an onward course,
And we e'en now are million miles apart.
Yet… is this peremptory severance
Wrought out in lengthening measurements of space,
Which grow and multiply by speed and me?
Or am I traversing infinity
By endless subdivision, hurrying back
From finite towards infinitesimal,
Thus dying out of the expansed world?

Another marvel; someone has me fast
Within his ample palm; ‘tis not a grasp
such as they use on earth, but all around
Over the surface of my subtle being,
As though I were a sphere, and capable
To be accosted thus, a uniform
And gentle pressure tells me I am not
Self-moving, but borne forward on my way.
And hark! I hear a singing; yet in sooth
I cannot of that music rightly say
Whether I hear or touch or taste the tones.
Oh what a heart-subduing melody!

Clouding over?

When I opened the curtain at 6.50 the sky was blue and almost cloudless, although the forecast for Glastonbury on computer had darkish cloud. Now, well, it could go either way.

My plan this afternoon is to attend the final rehearsal of The Dream of Gerontius by Elgar in Wells Cathedral. The concert is too late, starting at 7 pm, but we'll catch a lot of superb music in the afternoon, from the Wells Choral Society.

There's a synopsis of Gerontius on the BBC website. (Don't be put off by grocers' inverted commas.)

The first time I heard the work was in Monkton Combe School chapel during Lent. We heard wonderful music during Rest Music after lunch, but too little introduction. So when we were told about the great chorus "Praise to the Holiest in the height" I expected a familiar hymn tune. Elgar's masterpiece slipped by me.

My second encounter was a close one of a different kind. I was singing it with CUMS, the Cambridge University Music Society, in King's Chapel. There's no better way of learning a work than by singing it. After the performance I found myself sitting listening to the recording next to Sir David Willcocks himself.

More when we've come bac from the cathredral. But it's a treat in store.

I can no more; for now it comes again,
That sense of ruin, which is worse than pain,
That masterful negation and collapse
Of all that makes me man; as though I bent
Over the dizzy brink
Of some sheer infinite descent;
Or worse, as though
Down, down for ever I was falling through
The solid framework of created things,
And needs must sink and sink
Into the vast abyss. And, crueler still,
A fierce and restless fright begins to fill
The mansion of my soul. And, worse and worse,
Some bodily form of ill
Floats on the wind, with many a loathsome curse
Tainting the hallowed air, and laughs, and flaps
Its hideous wings,
And makes me wild with horror and dismay.
0 Jesu, help! pray for me, Mary, pray!
Some angel, Jesu such as came to Thee
In Thine own agony....
Mary, pray for me.
Joseph, pray for me.
Mary, pray for me.

I am beginning see a pattern to how poets imagine the process of dying. It includes a letting go and a falling. For Christian believers that fall is a fall into the loving hands of God. If the love of God includes glorious music like this, then I shall find the letting go even easier.

What should I say about Bach and the St Matthew Passion, though? Does Bach make all the other composers seem shallow by comparison? I believe God has a place for us all. Verdi's Requiem helps us at one time, the St John Passion at another. And PT Forsyth asked for Gerontius to be read to him on his deathbed.

I was very privileged to be asked to sing the little parts, Pontius Pilate, St Peter and Judas, in the Cathedral St John Passion one year, As I think I wrote elsewhere I learned a great deal about solo singing during the very course of this performance, just by listening to the professional soloists who stood next to me.

Lutherans call Bach 'The fifth evangelist,' apparently, and you can tell why. So pure, so straight, so joyful, so true.

Music Audio of the Day - John Smart plays Bach and Schubert

Here is John Smart introducing and playing unaccompanied Bach

And here John and I play a Schubert sonatina in D major.

The concert was given in Street Parish Church three or four years ago.

Music Video of the Day - Three in One and One in Three

I wrote this simple setting for the choir of Holy Trinity, Street, to sing on Trinity Sunday 2008.



THREE in One, and One in Three,
Ruler of the earth and sea,
Hear us while we lift to thee
Holy chant and psalm.

2 Light of lights! with morning shine,
Lift on us thy light divine;
And let charity benign
Breathe on us her balm.

3 Light of lights! when falls the even,
Let it sink on sin forgiven;
Fold us in the peace of heaven;
Shed a holy calm.

4 Three in One, and One in Three,
Darkling here we worship thee;
With the saints hereafter we
Hope to bear the palm. Amen.

Gilbert Rorison, 1849

Music Video of the Day - Tell me, little shepherd boy

I wrote this tune to some mediaeval Latin words, and then wrote a Christmas carol to the tune.

The refrain is in Latin: Omnes qui audiverant / pastores narrantes / Deum magnum laudabant / conglorificantes. All who had heard the shepherds telling their story were praising the great God, glorifying him together.

Music Video of the Day - Chaconne part 3

The last section of Bach's magnificent Chaconne.

Music Video of the Day - Chaconne part 2

Music Video of the Day - Bach/Brahms Chaconne

My right arm will no longer raise itself, so normal piano playing is out. Fortunately my left arm is OK, so I have got hold of a great piece of music that can be played with just the left hand. It is the Chaconne (a stately dance based on an ever-repeating sequence of chords) from Bach's D minor Partita for solo violin, arranged by Brahms as a study for left hand.

IT is a long piece, so this is the first part, running exactly to YouTube's 10 minute limit. I hope to have part 2 ready soon. I believe that the original violin piece is one of the world's great bits of music. I'm sorry that I haven't had longer to study this version. I offer my performance 'as is'. I take it as a meditation, and find spiritual depth here.

Music Video of the Day - Album Leaf for John

When I heard that John Smart was coming to visit, bringing his violin, I tried to think what we could play. The piano part needed to be very simple, so I wrote this tiny piece for John, and you can hear how attractive he has made it sound. Reminiscent of Grieg, he thinks.

So this is to show my appreciation, John.

Wells Cathedral on a sunny afternoon

Choral Evensong in a cathedral only eight miles away is an experience that I have neglected. Today my sons helped me put that right.

It all went very well, Charlie drove us to Penniless Porch and Trevor wheeled me into the church and up to the choir, where a friendly attendant saw us to a spot just by the lectern with a good view of the pulpit.

The setting of the canticles was new to me, and we don't know the composer, [Helen Lunt has just emailed that it was Kenneth Leighton's Second Service] but it was almost certainly 20th century. The "world without end" in the Gloria was repeated over and over again, most effectively.

The first lesson was read by the precentor, who was also preaching. It was from Exodus chapter six, and he introduced it well and read it almost in a whisper, clearly well acquainted with the possibilities of the cathedral's amplification system.

The second lesson was Romans chapter five, which I shall post separately.

The intercessions were carefully chosen and sensitively introduced. There was a theme of imprisonment and injustice, arising out of the first lesson. Among others, we prayed for people in Myanmar/Burma and Tibet. After a brief word on praying for one's enemies, we even prayed for Osama Bin Laden, misled as he is.

The sermon, arising out of Romans five, was about the contemplation of the cross. The preacher faced head-on the possibility that gazing on the wounds of Christ was an unhealthy practice, but he said that if it was anybody else that would probably be true -- as we gaze on Christ we see how we ourselves are wounded and it all becomes a healing experience. He made comparison with images from revered figures from other religions -- the dancing Shiva and the contemplative Buddha -- and remarked that the image of the cross was unusual for representing suffering.

His closing words were: "What did Jesus first show the disciples in the upper room after his resurrection? His wounds."

At the end of the service, the choir walked around the east end singing a recessional chant, a prayer for forgiveness, and in so doing walked and sang a full circle around the congregation. When the choir is great, as it was here and in King's a fortnight ago, there is often a focus on them as performers. It was wonderful to be surrounded by their prayerful song, but not to see them.

Music video of the day - Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

I have a version of this, sung by the quartet in Street Parish Church, but am posting this home version till I get the better one sorted.

Music video of the day - God's Rainbow Promise

A very simple setting of words by Rachael Hackney, a young poet in Downend, written for a flower festival with the theme of the promises of God. There was a wonderful Noah's Ark in the church, and a rainbow over the East Window. The main musical event was Britten's Noe's Fludde. This little piece was sung by the church choir at Sunday service.

So many pictures taken!

So many pictures taken! Here are cousins getting on like a house on fire. Nicolette is wonderful with her cousins. We heard last night, by the way, that she did very well in her GCSE mocks, and when I rang she was playing Chopin on the piano. What a star!

Bach Musical Offering

For my brother Robert's 60th birthday and to celebrate 90 years in the life of one of his churches, Trevor and I joined him in a concert, This is some Bach that we played, the Trio Sonata from the Musical Offering.

Listen.

The mp3 file is about 47mb

Music of the day 2 - 'England is, in Somerset' streaming version

A streaming video version of the video linked in today's first posting.