In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, I wanted to hear what music in the Americas may have sounded like before Columbus sailed the Atlantic; before the Doctrine of Discovery led to the calamitous onslaught of European invasion. I was able to find this, among other things in my search on YouTube. Here are two short videos telling something about the music of some of the first Americans.
Two music luminaries were born in the month of May: Pete Seeger (Mat 3) and Bob Dylan (May 24). Typically, I have given a lot of space on my blog during the month of May to celebrate Dylan. This year, I am giving some time to both artists. The video below is taken from the PBS American Masters series "Pete Seeger: Power of Song," broadcast in 2007. As Pete said, when a group of people can find harmony in music, "then they will know there is hope for the world."
And then there's Leonard Cohen. During this political season, pundits abound. Political pundits overall have a very weak track record for telling us how things will play out, but no one is better than Leonard Cohen for telling us how it is.
Photographer Scott Wright has expanded his talents as he plays a Native American flute in his own video from SWP (Scott Wright Productions) along with his own photographs. A beautifully meditative piece!
Here is a brief rundown of a few of the popular posts on Not Dark Yet over the past quarter.
There are two features that occur without fail each week. Every
Monday, I share a musical offering (usually from YouTube). By far, the
most popular Monday Music offering this past quarter was by Nat King
Cole, "When I Grow to Old to Dream." On Saturdays, I post an original haiku. The haiku that received the most views during the last three months was "Inner Woods" (which was accompanied by a painting by e.e. cummings).
Personal
essay is another primary feature on my blog. I try to have a variety of
topics ranging from social commentary to spirituality to human interest
and literary topics. The most widely read essay this time was "On Spiritual Practice, Poetry, and the Inadequacy of Language."
After the tragic shooting in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue, I wrote an essay, "Standing with Friends in Synagogue," in which I recounted my visit to The Great Synagogue in Florence, Italy.
One of my posts from 2012 always gets renewed interest each winter, "Winter Solstice and a Poem for the Longest Night."
That post features one of my poems, "To Zarathustra," and I was pleased
that once again it was one of the most frequently viewed posts this
time.
I re-posted some of my journalistic poems last fall, one of which was "No Time for Weeping,"
which was an appeal to greater care for the environmental. Then I
reworked one of my previous posts on Hildegard of Bingen which I
titled, "The Feminine Voice for a Pivotal Age," and was pleased that it was one of my more popular posts.
A Place of Gratitude
is another re-post that I thought would be a good way to begin the new
year. It turned out to be another one of my most frequently viewed post
for the entire quarter.
In connection with Martin Luther King Day observance, I found a video with King's "I Have a Dream speech."
I shared that 17-minute video because I felt that it was important to
take the time to listen to the entire speech at this time when we find
ourselves hoping for some glimpses of the better angels of our nature.
Last month I included a book review. Bluebird, Bluebird,
by Attica Locke, is a suspenseful page-turner of a novel. A great
story with fully developed characters, but more than that, the writing
is sheer beauty.
Thanks to all readers, followers, and visitors to this blog site. I hope you will continue to stop to peruse my offerings each week!
At the American Writers Museum in Chicago, there is an
exhibit currently showing, “Bob Dylan: Electric.” The exhibit opened on
November 16, 2018, and is set to run until April 30.
According to The
Chicago Tribune:
AWM president Carey
Cranston described the exhibit as “a first-of-its-kind experience,” adding the
museum “is honored to present one of music’s most iconic instruments together
with a unique collection of musical, literary, and cultural artifacts.”
“The world knows Bob
Dylan as a prolific songwriter,” he continued. “’Bob Dylan: Electric’ gives the
public a chance to see how his writing shaped more than just American music but
American literature as a whole.”
You can read the entire Tribune article, “Exhibit looks at
how Bob Dylan 'going electric' influenced American culture, music and
literature” here.
I have not had the good fortune to go to Chicago to see “Bob
Dylan: Electric,” but Dylan fan Steve Meyers posted a fascinating quote on the Facebook
page “Dylanology” after he toured the exhibit:
Morten Lauridsen has written some of the most beautiful choral works in the western musical canon. Two of my favorites are "Sure on this Shining Night," and "O Magnum Mysterium." He often uses poetry as the text for his musical works. "Sure on the Shining Night," for example, uses James Agee's poem for it's setting. As a poet, I was fascinated to hear this brief discussion from Lauridsen about how he sees the connection between poetry and music.
I
posted the first blog entry for Not Dark
Yet on New Year’s Eve, 2009. Five years later, I had received 100,000 page
views on my blog. Following that milestone, it took just over two years to
reach 200,000 page views on January 26, 2017. On Christmas Day, a little less
than a year later, the blog achieved another 100,000 views to reach 300,000.
For whatever reason, more people are visiting.
To mark that 300,000 occasion, I am doing a brief review of select posts from the past
year in which those last 100,000 views occurred. Each title is hyperlinked, so you can click on the title to see the actual blog post. (Also, if you look to the right-hand column of this site, you will see the top ten posts for the past month)
I. Haiku
I
do an original haiku every Saturday. Here are three from last year:
“Riverside”
– using a painting by Renoir as inspiration, I was able to capture a quiet
summer afternoon sensation.
“Mount Fuji” – probably the shortest haiku I have written, only six syllables in all.
Yet is was one of my most viewed. What I particularly like about it is the
visual effect. The poem itself resembles a reflection of the mountain it
addresses.
“Solar Eclipse” – commemoration of the total eclipse seen by much of the country last
summer.
II. Poetry
“Sufi Tears” was written as a lament in response to the terrorist bombing of a mosque in Egypt.
“The Why of Daffodils” is one of a series of journalist poems I wrote called
“Bearing Witness to the Times.” It asks the question, “why are we comforted by such beauty in the presence of our sorrow?”
“The Government We Get” speaks to the notion that fascism seems to be the default
means of government that people tend to fall back to when times are uncertain.
“Life is a Seamless Garment” was written around 2001, but I did not release it until
this year. It is one of my longer poems that speaks to the varied wonders of
existence.
III. Essay
“Grace in a Time of Hate” is a reflection on a visit to Grace Episcopal Church after
the dismay of watching the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, VA last
August.
“The Windows of St. David’s Church” tells about four unusual church windows
depicting the literary heritage of the Anglican Church. It also recalls my
first remarkable encounter with St. Hilda of Whitby.
IV. Music
“Seven Story Mountain” – Every Monday on my blog, it’s “Monday Music,” featuring a
different music video each week from an eclectic choice of musical styles. One
of the most viewed was a new discovery for me of a new grass Americana group
called “Railroad Earth.” For me, “Seven Story Mountain” brought forth echoes
of Dante and Thomas Merton.
The National Sacred Harp Convention meets again in Birmingham this weekend, starting today. (details here). Today I am re-posting one of my past essays from my own experiences at the annual convention.
Sacred Harp and the Sound of Eternal Essence
In Martin Scorsese’s documentary, George Harrison:Living in the Material World, Ravi Shankar is heard to say that sound is God. Today I made a connection with that concept as I attended the opening sessions of the National Sacred Harp Convention. Sacred Harp is an old acapella style of singing that came to this country by way of the English settlers. It was taught to people by using shaped notes to designate and a "fa-sol-la" method for vocalizing each note. It was kept alive in this country primarily by the Primitive Baptists in Appalachia. Back in 2011, I wrote an essay about my first experience with sacred harp singing.
When I described that initial encounter, I wrote, “I was captivated, stirred on the inside, tears threatening to well up – and no words had been sung yet. It was that bracing harmony of pure notes filling the sunlit space. The sound reminded me of the Bulgarian women’s folk singing that has attracted many listeners since the 1990 recording, Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares. There was a similar directness and exuberance, a hearty primitive and uplifting – even startling – vocal effect.”
Not Your Ordinary Words
As I attended the Sacred Harp Convention this year, I was fascinated by the turn of phrase used in many of the lyrics and song titles. For example, Hymn 112 is titled, “The Last Words of Copernicus.” It speaks of the day when this life is over and the light from the heavenly orbs, the sun and moon, will no longer be needed.
In Hymn 450 (Elder) the lyrics include:
Life’s an ever varied flood,
Always rolling to its sea:
Slow or quick, or mild or rude,
Tending to eternity.
Hymn 504 (Woodstreet) is an account of Psalm 137 in which the psalmist mourns the Babylonian captivity saying, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.” Poems and songs have been written about “The waters of Babylon,” but this hymn phrases it:
When we our wearied limbs to rest
Sat down by proud Euphrates’ stream
We wept with doleful thoughts oppressed,
And Zion was our mournful theme.”
I don’t think I have seen references to the Euphrates or to Copernicus in other Christian hymnals. The lyrics to Hymn 450, in spite of the typically conservative orientation of sacred harp, are beautifully reminiscent of the Buddhist or Hindu concept of all of life returning to its source.
Experiencing the Sound
Yet in spite of the fascinating words in the text of those sacred harp hymns, it is the sound that is the most impressive thing. The singers are arranged in a square with sopranos, altos, tenors and basses each seated on the sides of the square. The one leading the song stands in the open space in the middle of that square. Sacred harp singers call this space “The holy of holies” because they say it is the absolute best spot to be in to get the full effect of the music. At this point, I can only imagine what the sound must be like in that holy of holies, because simply sitting in the congregation hearing the music is enough to lift me into a divine presence. The effect of that powerful sound brings me back to the words of Ravi Shankar, that sound is God.
I found a fuller quote from Ravi Shankar that elaborates upon the concept of sound and God:
“Our tradition teaches us that sound is God- Nada Brahma. That is, musical sound and the musical experience are steps to the realisation of the self. We view music as a kind of spiritual discipline that raises one’s inner being to divine peacefulness and bliss. We are taught that one of the fundamental goals a Hindu works towards in his lifetime is a knowledge of the true meaning of the universe - its unchanging, eternal essence….The highest aim of our music is to reveal the essence of the universe it reflects, and the ragas are among the means by which this essence can be apprehended.”
Of the hymns I heard today, there were many glorious moments. One of those hymns whose lyrics and musical sound converged quite beautifully was Hymn 178 (tune: Africa)
Now shall my inward joys arise,
And burst into a Song;
Almighty Love inspires my Heart,
And Pleasure tunes my Tongue.
God on his thirsty Zion-Hill
Some Mercy-Drops has thrown,
And solemn Oaths have bound his Love
To shower Salvation down.
Why do we then indulge our Fears,
Suspicions and Complaints?
Is he a God, and shall his Grace
Grow weary of his saints?
The words are by the English hymnist Isaac Watts. The tune is by the American choral composer, William Billings. To hear sacred harp singers render this beautiful hymn, go here. [To hear 504 (Woodstreet) about mourning by the proud Euphrates, go here]
For our sacred harp finale, here is a recording of “The Last Words of Copernicus.” The recording was made my Alan Lomax, the ethnomusicologist who recorded and preserved so much of American folk music.
Note: The Thirty-sixth Annual National Sacred Harp Convention will convene in Birmingham, Alabama at the First Christian Church (at 4954 Valleydale Road) June 18, 19, and 20. In anticipation of that event, I am reposting this account of my first encounter with Sacred Harp in 2011
I have heard of Sacred Harp, or “fasola” singing for most of my life. I knew something about the shaped-note tradition of musical training used in days gone by, and I once saw a documentary on Sacred Harp on PBS. I had never experienced sacred harp in person until today. The 32nd annual National Sacred Harp Singing Convention opened in Birmingham today, convening at the First Christian Church. It is a three-day event with all day singing and “dinner on the grounds.”
Growing up in Tallapoosa County, I had been to a few Gospel Singings where Stamps-Baxter and Southern Gospel quartets reigned. But those were nothing to compare to what I heard today. The sound that filled that space was full-throttled and soul-awakening. As the opening session began, a man stood up in front of the crowd and announced the page number for the opening song. A “fa-sol-la” interval was intoned. The entire gathering then burst forth with “fasolas” sounding out the music of the hymn.
I was captivated, stirred on the inside, tears threatening to well up – and no words had been sung yet. It was that bracing harmony of pure notes filling the sunlit space. The sound reminded me of the Bulgarian women’s folk singing that has attracted many listeners since the 1990 recording, Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares. There was a similar directness and exuberance, a hearty primitive and uplifting – even startling – vocal effect. Yet these were regular folks, local people from Alabama and others traveling from points near and far who were producing that fantastic harmony. The visceral effect was also similar to being in the presence of bagpipes as they are played. It grabs your attention and stirs you on the inside.
I saw two friends at the gathering. Tim Cook is a member of the Sacred Harp Convention. He grew up in Michigan and told me that when he and his wife moved to Alabama in 1995, he looked for a singing group because of his life-long interest in singing. He found Sacred Harp and has been involved ever since. I asked Tim why the singers used “fa-sol-la” in their music but not the entire do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do that I associated with the names of the notes. He explained that the older English music used a six-note interval, therefore those notes were represented by fa-so-la which was then repeated for the upper notes as well. The seven-note musical scale was a concept developed later by the Italians who added the other names for the notes.
My other friend, Tommie Willis, said he grew up Primitive Baptist and heard Sacred Harp all his life. “My mother was a leader in Sacred Harp singing,” he told me, “but none of it rubbed off on me.” He was there to listen to that sound that had been familiar in his childhood.
Sacred Harp came to this country by way of the early English settlers. It was first established in New England before the American Revolution, but gradually died out in that part of the country. For years it was kept alive in the hills of Appalachia, particularly among the Primitive Baptists. Nowadays it continues to be preserved by Sacred Harp gatherings and conventions.
To read an account of the National Sacred Harp Singing Convention in The Birmingham News, go to http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/06/national_sacred_harp_singing_c.html . If you view their photo gallery, you'll see a picture of my friend Tim Cook leading a hymn. Below you will find a video of some Sacred Harp singers. It will give you a flavor of the music, but there is nothing like experiencing it live and in person.
Alabama Shakes, another local group making quite a splash in the music industry. Their new album, Sound and Colordebuted at number 1 last month. The group was featured recently on CBS Sunday Morning: The Soulful Alabama Shakes.
If you look on the right hand panel of this blog page, you
will see a running tally of the top ten most viewed posts for the month. I
thought it would be interesting to go back and see what the top ten posts for
2013 were. I have my own favorites, but
what I prefer does not necessarily reflect what others are most interested in.
Here are the top ten most frequently viewed
posts for Not Dark Yet in 2013:
Writing Haiku During the month of
April, I always pay special attention to poetry since April in National Poetry
Month. This past April I posted an entry with information about writing haiku,
the Japanese poetic form with three lines and syllable allotment of five, seven, and five. I thought it would be a good way to
get people involved in writing poetry who might not otherwise think of themselves
as poets. I was amazed that this one
went ballistic, with well over 900 views.
Seeing that kind of interest in haiku motivated me to start a weekly
feature on my blog, Saturday Haiku, in which I write a new haiku each week.
Are Our
Lawmakers Capable of Passing Humane Laws? I had already posted several pieces on
immigration in 2012. This brief commentary was one I wrote after reading about
an encounter that Alabama’s Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III had with
some Latinos on the issue of immigration reform.
Where Love and Reason Dwell is a photographic essay I wrote after visiting
the historic First Universalist Church of Camp Hill, Alabama. It was a
wonderful visit to a place near my own hometown, although I had never
encountered the grand old church until this year.
Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen) was one of the Monday Music features with a
video of Leonard Cohen from a concert in London. “Everybody knows the deal is
rotten/ Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton/ For your ribbons and bows…”
On the Waging of War is an essay presenting my anti-war stance. The
essay was prompted by the increasing use of drones in military conflict.
By the Waters is from my Saturday
Haiku series. With each haiku I post, I always include a photograph from
nature. This one featured a beautiful photo by Scott Wright. A lot of Scott’s
friends saw this one which bumped it up to the top ten list.
An Evening with Garrison Keillor is my review of a very entertaining evening
when Garrison Keillor came to Samford University with an event that was billed
as “Garrison Keillor: A Brand New Retrospective.”
Recipes My Daughter Likes: Falafel I posted several vegetarian recipes this year
that are among my daughter’s favorites. This one got the most hits of all the
recipes and was number ten on the most viewed posts for 2013.
So I went to
hear Garrison Keillor last night. He was at Samford University which hosts the
Tom and Marla Corts Distinguished Authors Series. Garrison Keillor has a way of
drawing you in. He is a writer who tells stories laced with humor and insight that
reflect Americana. He appears to be talking about himself, but then you realize
that you have been there, too. You laugh out loud at times, you are gently moved
at times, and you know he is telling our story
as well as his.
“Garrison Keillor:
A Brand New Retrospective” That’s how the event was billed. Keillor, the host
of A Prairie Home Companion, is a
writer who also loves music and he likes to sing. He had described the program
earlier in a press release: "A man
at 70 relives the good times - and the music that brings it all back: hymns,
jingles, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, pop tunes, limericks, rock 'n roll, Beethoven,
love sonnets, rags, blues, rousers, with Richard Dworsky, Rob Fisher, and
Christine DiGiallonardo."
The evening
began with some jaunty piano music from Richard Dworsky and Rob Fisher. Then
Keillor walked onto the stage singing a jingle that he made up talking about
how things were “back in the day” when there were no gadgets such as iPods and cell phones and
a man could leave the house and actually be alone. He continued with a long
list of “how things used to be,” and even worked into the number a bit about
how he first came to Birmingham in 1993 when the big snow storm hit “and made
us feel right at home.” After the light incidental music, he was joined onstage
by Christine DiGiallonardo who accompanied him in some duets. When he
introduced the young lady he said that when picking a duet partner, it is
always helpful to pick someone who is younger, more talented and knows music
better than you do. “Always pick a superior partner,” he added, “as I look out
at the audience I see that that is what most of you have done.”
Here’s What
You Need to Know about Life
After a
couple of more songs, Garrison began to rattle off a list of ten things. They were
ten things that he felt like we should all know, most of them were
laugh-out-loud bits of insight. For example, he said, “Make sure you marry
someone with a good sense of humor,” he paused briefly as he examined the thumb
and fingers of his left hand, “because they are going to need it! After all,
this is the person who will have the most access to the details of your life.”
He went on with his list, until he got to the notion that we should lighten up
and be cheerful. Keillor turned 70 this year. He told us that when you reach
the biblically allotted number, you learn that it’s best to accept life and be
cheerful. You learn to be grateful.
With that
Keillor told a story of his trip to the Mayo Clinic for an MRI to try to figure
out why he was having headaches. He described in great detail a near accident
on the snowy drive up to the Mayo Clinic. After the medical tests, “they were
able to see that there was no tumor – which was great news, I was elated. But I
would have missed out on that wonderful news if I had died in an accident on
the highway, which could have happened – you learn to be grateful.”
The
storyteller then went on to describe meeting an elderly couple when he was in
the cafeteria of the Mayo Clinic. The wife was in a wheelchair and the husband
had obviously suffered a stroke as some point, his right arm hanging downward
like a dead weight and his face drooping so that he looked constantly displeased.
His wife was saying things like “you just have to take one day at a time; you
gotta have faith; doctors don’t know everything, you know, my uncle lived
longer than his doctors said he would.” Keillor then said the audience, “That’s
the problem with surviving catastrophic things like a stroke – you have to
endure words of encouragement from other people. They mean well, but you want
to just shoot them…except you don’t have the coordination in your right arm to
handle a gun.”
Reminiscence in Story and Song
As the
evening continued, we heard the host of A
Prairie Home Companion tell about events throughout his life. We heard
about his witnessing a baptism in the creek near their house when he was five
years old and his father had just come back from the war. He told of not being
allowed to play football in the seventh grade because his doctor noted his
mitral valve prolapse and how that led to his first job as a writer when he
began to report on the games for the local paper. We learned of the first girl
he fell in love with in high school, and how she so casually left him the night
of the school prom, thus giving him understanding of what those blues songs
were about that he had been singing, but didn’t really understand until that
moment.
Christine
DiGiallonardo and Garrison Keillor
We heard
many songs from Keillor and his small troupe of musicians: gospel, blues,
American standard, rock and roll. At 70 years of age, I was impressed that Mr.
Keillor still has a vocal range from tenor all the way down to bass. After one of the
hymns that he and Ms DiGiallonardo sang, he told the audience about how his
mother had died not long before at the age of 97. He and his siblings had sung that
hymn along with others to their mother while she was on her death-bed. Keillor said that his mother believed the
message of those songs, and his sister who sang them along with him believed
them. He said he had tried to believe them, but he wasn’t at that same place
that some people in his family were. “I tried to believe them. I also tried not to believe them, and that’s even
harder than trying to believe them.” He added that he was more inclined on
certain days toward belief than he was on other days. I think everyone knew
exactly what he meant – even those who claim belief would know deep down what
he meant. Thus Garrison Keillor was once again telling his story which was
really our story as well.
All in all, it was a delightful evening. We
were given some insight into life, but not so much as to get either bummed out
or overly elated. Mr. Keillor kept any insight balanced by humor and the simple
fun of sharing music together. As we were walking out of the performance hall,
I heard a lady humming the tune of the last gospel hymn that had closed the
evening. What is that they say in show business? If they leave humming the
tunes, the show has been a success.
Today’s Monday Music feature is a little different.It’s a brief three-minute documentary “about people transforming trash into music” in Cateura, Paraguay. It is a statement “about love, courage, and creativity.” I found this short film amazing and inspiring.
I found this George Negus interview of Bob Dylan online. It took place as the singer was kicking off his 1986 Australia/New Zealand tour. I found this interview to be very interesting. The folks in the United Kingdom have had a great appreciation for Dylan from the beginning. Perhaps it is that fascination that brings such energy to this interview. Negus questions the songwriter about his religious phase and Dylan replies that maybe he wrote those songs because they were what people were needing to hear, that perhaps he was tapping into that collective longing. I do think that part of what makes poetry and art speak so deeply to people is artist's ability to tap into that collective unconscious. Perhaps it was that poetic sensitivity to "tap in" to that collective energy and awareness that has made Dylan so appealing through the years and which caused him to be dubbed "the voice of a generation" back in the 1960s.
So today, the day after Bob Dylan's 71st birthday, enjoy this interview from 1986.
I remember watching this 20/20 interview when it first aired in 1985. I was so excited to see it. Bob Dylan was at the peak of one of his most creative periods, in my opinion. Others will disagree, but I thought Infidels and Empire Burlesque showcased the height of the songwriter's skills. Others have talked about how they did not care for his music from the 1980s, but to me he was at the top of his game. Of course, the recording artist has had a number of high points in his career. The 1960s protest era when he was dubbed "the voice of a generation," for his work as a folk artist. Then he set new standards for rock with albums like Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks. Later he would shock his fans and introduce himself to a new audience and a new generation with his "born again" religious themes in Slow Train Coming and Saved.
At the time of the 20/20 interview he had yet to produce another masterpiece that would emerge in a few years with Oh Mercy which capped off his very productive 1980s period. There would be other Grammy-winning recordings in the decades ahead with Time Out of Mind in 1997, Love and Theft in 2001, and Modern Times in 2006.
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In Martin Scorsese’s documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Ravi Shankar is heard to say that sound is God. Today I made a connection with that concept as I attended the opening sessions of the National Sacred Harp Convention. Sacred Harp is an old acapella style of singing that came to this country by way of the English settlers. It was taught to people by using shaped notes to designate and a "fa-sol-la" method for vocalizing each note. It was kept alive in this country primarily by the Primitive Baptists in Appalachia. Back in 2011, I wrote an essay about my first experience with sacred harp singing. 
I was captivated, stirred on the inside, tears threatening to well up – and no words had been sung yet. It was that bracing harmony of pure notes filling the sunlit space. The sound reminded me of the Bulgarian women’s folk singing that has attracted many listeners since the 1990 recording, Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares. There was a similar directness and exuberance, a hearty primitive and uplifting – even startling – vocal effect. Yet these were regular folks, local people from Alabama and others traveling from points near and far who were producing that fantastic harmony. The visceral effect was also similar to being in the presence of bagpipes as they are played. It grabs your attention and stirs you on the inside.
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