Antony & the Johnsons playlist on YouTube, starting with Fistful of Love, River of Sorrow and You are my Sister. It’s a blue grey morning and post-summer tristesse is upon me.
Tag: music
Oasis – DVD commentary highlights
This is hilarious.
W.A. Mozart between the lines
From: Coronation Mass in C-major (K317)
Rome, St. Peter in Vatican
Herbert von Karajan conducts The Vienna Philarmonic and The Vienna Singverein
Soprano: Kathleen Battle
Altus: Trudeliese Schmidt
Tenor: Gösta Winbergh
Bass: Ferruccio Furlanetto
I suppose Mozart himself introduced the repetitions, no need for a librettist here. There is a subtle difference between saying “who takes away sins” and instead saying “who takes away sins, sins of the world”. It distances the narrator further from the sins and adds a bit of side to the statement, a space where sarcasm could easily fit. If you think about each of the repetitions in that sort of way, you might imagine you can glimpse some thoughts originating from the composer rather than from the working text.
In the transition to the repetitions of “give us peace”, there is a complete stop after the last “who take away sins”. Then, and I don’t know but I presume this is from the instructions of the composer, there is an “aaaah” before “give us peace”, which is so exquisitely beautiful. It follows the “a” at the end of “peccata”. But if you think about it in this other way, it’s really saying “Ah give us peace!” To me that’s like a Dublinesque “Would you ever give us peace”, “Give my head peace!”
There is one line, only one I can spot, where the words are “Dona nobis, nobis, pacem”, “Give us, US, peace”. It’s the line Kathleen Battle sings right after the first line the bass sings, right before the others join in, which gives it another “come on!” sort of feeling as well. While all the other repetitions might be for purely musical justification, though that still doesn’t exclude meaning, but this one seems to have none. It is slipped in where it might easily have been omitted.
The ending is thunderingly loud, which does not fit with a sort of meek supplication. It might be either anguished or perhaps angry. I wonder if anything has been written about that? So, I have spaced the words the way I think I hear them. Note: the subtitles in the video don’t show the repetitions at all.
Lamb of God, Lamb of God,
who takes away sins,
sins of the world,
have mercy, have mercy on us,
have mercy on us,
have mercy, have mercy
on us.
Lamb of God, Lamb of God,
who takes away sins,
sins of the world,
have mercy, have mercy on us,
have mercy on us,
have mercy, have mercy
on us.
Lamb of God, Lamb of God,
who takes away sins,
sins of the world,
Lamb of God who takes away sins,
Ah
give us peace.
Give us peace.
(Bass)
Give us peace.
(Soprano)
Give us, to us, peace.
(Soprano, Bass, Alto, fugue)
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
(Choir and all, in fugue)
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
Give us peace.
(lost count!)
Give us –
give us –
give us peace!
Give!
Give!
Give us peace!
Give us peace!
(Lost count, but you see? And that is the end of the entire Coronation Mass, “Give Us Peace!!!”, not once but drummed out many times with ever more power.)
This is the most sublime performance by the conductor and Kathleen Battle, especially, who makes it seem effortless. At times you wonder does she breathe at all.
Dylan favourites
All My Trials
10 tracks not to slash your wrists by (on YouTube)
There is a cd called “Tracks to slash your wrists by” (apparently). So I thought why not an opposing list? Just from a quick browse through my YouTube favourites:
1. Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran
You don’t have to be tall.
2. Eloise – Paul and Barry Ryan
You don’t have to be cool.
3. My Perfect Cousin – The Undertones
You don’t have to be intelligent.
4. Itchycoo Park – The Small Faces
You don’t have to be able to dance.
5. Anthem – Leonard Cohen
You don’t have to be perfect.
6. Angel Flyin’ Too Close to the Ground – Willie Nelson and Shelby Lynne
You don’t have to be with someone.
7. For My Lover – Tracy Chapman
You don’t have to be sane.
8. The Harder they Come – Jimmy Cliff
You don’t have to be rich.
9. I Dreamed A Dream – Susan Boyle
You don’t have to be young and beautiful.
10. Baby I Need Your Lovin’ – The Four Tops
You don’t have to ask.
Antony and the Johnsons-You Are My Sister
…and here’s another glorious bit of music:
Anyone remember The Perfumed Garden* pirate radio?
“And now on the Perfumed Garden, going out to all lovers in the cars along the Shoreham seafront, flash your lights across at our pirate radio ship, if you’re digging this mellow groove with your ladylove…” [or some such twaddle]
* Not the book, which I vividly remember too, and about which much could be said. If you really think about it, it’s funny what the radio station was calling itself. I think they thought it was something horticultural.
So effortless
This sort of record, of which there were so many in the US, obviates most of “the British invasion”, I think. Much as I loved John Lennon’s singing and I think he said that he was copying, or at least trying to emulate Arthur Alexander (another US singer), Otis Redding just goes into “another gear”. From the first phrase in this recording, which sounds almost folksy, the sheer mastery of both the singing and the accompaniment, makes most of the British/Merseybeat/The Animals etc records seem laboured and fussy by comparison. Just take the drumming, for example, the perfect explosion of the high hat (isn’t that what that cymbal type sound is?) which is like a firework going off in the distance, and the mellifluous guitar picking, all going to show that it’s not just hitting the notes it’s how you play them…
Short story event in Piccadilly
I was one of the readers at the first Costa Short Story Café event. The highlight was Helen Simpson reading a very funny story called “I’m going to have to let you go”. There was a good turnout, standing room only. A pleasant hour. (Link: Fiction Espresso)
I made this little video outside the venue.
Stephen Moran's Museum of Illusions 
You must be logged in to post a comment.