Thoughts and Discoveries

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Since my 20th century music history class during the fall of my senior year of undergrad I've been following The New Yorker's music critic, Alex Ross' blog, "The Rest is Noise." It's the namesake of Ross' breakthrough book on the music of the 20th century in it's cultural context. Its frequent that I encounter posts that in some form or fashion align with my own studies. This time its from a post about Lincoln Center's White Light Festival in October. The opening night features a free art installation by Janet Cardiff. The exhibit is multidisciplinary. The visual concept focuses on the arrangement of 40 speakers (you might realize where I'm going with this) in a room, each playing something different to invoke the idea of spacial meditation. Each speaker plays one of the voices of the motet Spem in alium (1573) by Thomas Tallis. Read about The Forty-Part Motet exhibit here http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/white-light-2010-the-forty-part-motet

I find that I repeat some ideas a lot in my research. This one in particular keeps poking its problematic little head up. That is the concept this, new music has an uncanny ability to sound and function a lot like early music.
That being said, though early music is more popularly performed now because of an increased interest in musicology and historically informed performance. Perhaps accidentally or perhaps with a real influence or connection, choral music in particular sounds a lot like early music. Arvo Pärt and Eric Whitacre are easy examples of this. Pärt's "Magnificat" is unmetered, with the stress and rhythm dictated by the natural rise and fall of the text. Whitacre specializes in unaccompanied works for choirs with close harmonies that require non-vibrato tone color.

Through the silences of space their soundless music sings, part 1

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Over the past 5 years of being employed as a church musician, I have begun to collect some favorite hymns. Usually, I gravitate towards ones that have beautiful texts, along with beautiful melodies and harmonies. However in a post like this it's difficult to give examples of the melodies, so my focus will be on text.

First is one I grew up loving and the text is "Bí Thusa 'mo Shúile", better known by it's hymn tune name "Slane" or the English title, "Be Thou My Vision."
I grew up with the English translation in the Methodist Hymnal. Translations seem to show some variation in wording, some are a little more traditional and Old English in feel, others have a more modern language appeal. Different hymnals have different numbers of verses, for example the Hymnal 1982 used in the Episcopal church only contains 3 verses. This is the translation by Eleanor Hull from 1912.

#1
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

#2
My second is one originally written in English, a poem by Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) based on Psalm 19.


The stars declare his glory;
the vault of heaven springs,
mute witness of the Master's hand
in all created things,
and through the silences of space
their soundless music sings.

The dawn returns in splendor,
the heavens burn and blaze,
the rising sun renews the race
that measures all our days,
and writes in fire across the skies
God's majesty and praise.

So shine the Lord's commandments
to make the simple wise;
more sweet than honey to the taste,
more rich than any prize,
a law of love within our hearts,
a light before our eyes.

So order too this life of mine,
direct it all my days;
the meditations of my heart
be innocence and praise,
my rock, and my redeeming Lord,
in all my words and ways.

#3
This is one where I like the words better than the tune.
Words by George Matheson: "My hymn was com­posed in the manse of In­ne­lan [Ar­gyle­shire, Scot­land] on the ev­en­ing of the 6th of June, 1882, when I was 40 years of age. I was alone in the manse at that time. It was the night of my sister’s mar­ri­age, and the rest of the fam­i­ly were stay­ing over­night in Glas­gow. Some­thing hap­pened to me, which was known only to my­self, and which caused me the most se­vere men­tal suf­fer­ing. The hymn was the fruit of that suf­fer­ing. It was the quick­est bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the im­press­ion of hav­ing it dic­tat­ed to me by some in­ward voice ra­ther than of work­ing it out my­self. I am quite sure that the whole work was com­plet­ed in five min­utes, and equal­ly sure that it ne­ver re­ceived at my hands any re­touch­ing or cor­rect­ion. I have no na­tur­al gift of rhy­thm. All the other vers­es I have ever writ­ten are man­u­fact­ured ar­ti­cles; this came like a day­spring from on high."

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

Bonus post for the week

Sunny day, chasing the clouds away...

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Yes, this post is about Sesame Street, where the good music goes to relax and educate. Norah Jones and Leslie Feist are among those. I think this probably goes hand in hand with my love of covers.

I wonder a bit about how much a two year old really takes from these cameo appearance by great musicians and actors, but I forget that the target audience of Sesame Street is more than just young children. There are the parents and caretakers who watch too, myself included. I never expected that my nanny job to provide musical material for me to explore. This first video of Leslie Feist singing new lyrics to the hit from her 2007 release "The Reminder." The video for "1,2,3,4" was shot in a single take and featured in an iPod commercial the same year, rocketing her quiet indie status to a mainstream pedestal. I assume that's about where Sesame Street picked her up. She now takes her place among some of the greatest performers of all time, from Little Richard to Marilyn Horne.

When I first discovered these little pieces of pop culture crossing into other pieces of pop culture, I got so excited. I'm fascinated by the creative combinations
Feel free to explore on my new favorite Youtube channel SesameStreet.

"1, 2, 3, 4 penguins that went by the door..."
Just listen and enjoy.





Elmo is so precious.


Another recent sky rocketing from relative obscurity to world wide fame with Jason Mraz and his hit "I'm Yours." Now retitled, "Outdoors"



Marilyn Horne! One of my favorite voices of all time.


One bonus, non musical, celebrity appearance. Love this man.

Sharing the limelight: Ben Sollee

It was brought to my attention that, for a headliner, he shares the spotlight almost constantly. Whether the spotlight is shared with the cause of his choice, or with the musicians he's playing with, there is an air of graciousness about Ben Sollee's playing.

















Everything seems to be handcrafted to make each moment about something more than him. There were beautiful, transcendent moments like Try, Try, Try (featured below) and moments of pure hilarity, thanks to a cover of Tom Waits' of Chocolate Jesus.

Ben Sollee LIVE @ WFPK Live Lunch June 2008: Try (re-mastered in HD) from Keith Robbins on Vimeo.

I'm back! And obsessed with this song

Les Trois Cloches AKA The Three Bells
In it's English words, it's often called Jimmy Brown or Little Jimmy Brown.
I guess I originally heard this song sung by Edith Piaf in French on an Artists Choice disc, favorite songs by Joni Mitchell. It was a beautiful song, and one that introduced me to Piaf. The song never struck me as of importance until I recognized the tune listening to WNCW one afternoon. The English version, recorded by The Browns sounded strangely familiar as I drove. I couldn't place it, so I began to Google. At first I couldn't remember the title, but once I figured it out I realized where I knew the tune from.
Click here to watch Edith and her ensemble Les Compagnons de la Chanson.
You can watch the version by The Browns here, and then my personal favorite by Allison Krauss here

It's a sad song, but beautiful in both languages.
[Originally a French tune written in 1945]
[Original French words by Bert Reisfeld]
[Music by Jean Villard]
[English words added by Dick Manning]

There's a village hidden deep in the valley
Among the pine trees half forlorn
And there on a sunny morning
Little Jimmy Brown was born

All the chapel bells were ringing
In the little valley town
And the songs that they were singing
Were for baby Jimmy Brown
Then the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above
Lead us not into temptation,
Bless this hour of meditation
Guide him with eternal love

There's a village hidden deep in the valley
Beneath the mountains high above
And there, twenty years thereafter
Jimmy was to meet his love

All the chapel bells were ringing,
Was a great day in his life
Cause the songs that they were singing
Were for Jimmy and his wife
Then the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above
Lead us not into temptation,
Bless oh Lord this celebration
May their lives be filled with love

From the village hidden deep in the valley
One rainy morning dark and gray
A soul winged its way to heaven
Jimmy Brown had passed away

Just a lonely bell was ringing
In the little valley town
Twas farewell that it was singing
To our good old Jimmy Brown
And the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above
Lead us not into temptation,
May his soul find the salvation
Of thy great eternal love

SXSE

WARNING: Shameless self-promotion in this post.

In my mind I've been thinking of offering my assistance to my familyfriends (these friends are family too, so henceforth, when i say family or friends i mean they are one entity). I have a small, but growing number of contacts in the Carolina music scene who I could share, along with a hung connection to encouraging my demographic to participate in a wonderful organization.

A brief description and video.

SouthxSoutheast Website

"The South by Southeast Music Feast is a local non-profit/charitable organization formed in 2003 by a group of Myrtle Beach, SC area music lovers and educators to preserve and promote American music not usually heard in traditional venues.

Our mission is to provide assistance and support to local music education programs, with our goal being to offset some costs associated with the musical education of young people in our area. In this time of budget cuts and strangulation of funding for the arts, our goal is to help young people in their pursuit of the joys of music."





My two cents.
I'd like to be the one to tap in to advertising and raising awareness through social media (as it is now being called) such as this blog, Facebook, and Myspace. We have a website, but it's not likely that it gets much traffic. I know that there going to be some changes in the way its run business wise that will hopefully keep us afloat, and Weekly Surge, a magazine in Myrtle Beach, recently published an amazing article telling our story and really promoting us well. View it here.

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Chills

Thanks to Dr. Robbin's American Pop Music class junior year, I've been well acquainted with a version of "Hound Dog" that gives me chills. Yes. I know how could Elvis singing "Hound Dog" give me chills? How could just the song? There's nothing incredible moving or special about the song except for one woman.
The meaning of the song wasn't fully clear to me until I heard Big Mama Thornton sing it. It's incredible. On NPR today I discovered a video of her that I'd never seen before. I started listening and chills just moved through my body.

Check it out.

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Grace like rain

Part of being involved in arts education is being aware in greater detail than usual of the personal lives of those you are working with. And with that, seeing the accomplishments of students who have endured not only their daily artistic struggles but their own personal trials, both their deepest emtions and with their relationships with those around them.

I rarely find myself in tears during a classical music performance. However, when I do, there are is some amount of knowledge that is not obvious about the performer or the situation surrounding the event. Last week when the kids from the Academy program at the summer SC Governor's School for the Arts gave their recitals, I had the privilege of attending 3 out of the 4 music recitals. On Friday, I found myself wiping my eyes as one of the girls in my building sang her sweet, but broken heart out.

Prior to coming to Governor's school she had experienced a tremendous loss in her family, there were multiple deaths, including her mother. I watched her during those two weeks, struggle to find her place between her friends who cared for her and her deep sadness and depression. There were some difficult nights for her, but when the last night of the program came around, it appeared that she had gone through the program with no problem. She gave what was probably the best performance of her life.

My tears were a mix of being so taken by her talent and a level of pride in her victory. I was reminded in that moment of what makes it all worth it. My roll as a residential life counselor is perhaps not as important to her artistic development per se, but I think that the nurturing of the spirit, which falls in the realm of my duties, is essential to the nurturing of the artist. I love my job. I love being a part of the artistic growth of kids. I love working with kids in general, but to see them excell in the arts, and continue to impress me with their passion and professionalism, makes it so worth it.

I'm looking forward to that same feeling as I watch the Discovery program recitals next week.

Music+Camping=The Music Camp

Image credit: John Grubbs

The Duhks, the Belleville Outfit, the Infamous String Dusters, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Boombox, Donna the Buffalo, Casey Driessen, and many others came together for two days of incredible music and beautiful weather in the South Carolina foothills. The crowd braved the heat during the daylight hours finding seeting in the shade and keeping their cooler's close. But at night was when the real heat was turned on. The majority of the crowd, old and young, swelled toward the stage and the energy created by the music fed the crowd's dancing and singing. In turn, the bands truly responded to the excitement and festive spirit of the audience. Bathing suits, body paint, and beers were the name of the game along with swimming with friends in the river to keep cool and rinse of the dirt and sweat of the day after the music was over.

The low-key nature of the festival gave the musicians the ability to relax into the jovial atmostphere of the hot southern hills, frequently making guest appearances with one another during sets and dancing with festival goers during late night concerts. The bands, especially the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, encouraged audiences to be participatory, even calling them up on stage.

I spent the weekend at a fledgling music festival in Spartanburg called The Music Camp. The majority of attendees set up camp in the field and forest that surrounded the festival grounds. Tents and campers created temporary community of individuals dedicated to loving music and the outdoors.

Donna the Buffalo kicked off the night on Friday with their rollicking, exhuberant zydeco and Americana got the crowd dancing. The energy snowballed as The Duhks launched headlong into an incredible set. I happened to meet a little girl named Katie that had been seeing Duhks concerts since their first singer, Jessi. She sang along to all of the songs and new all about the band members. Luckily, her love of music has led her to take violin lessons. I hope to see her again.

After The Duhks played overtime, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band of New Orleans continued the French/American/Canadian/African connections. They invited Ms. Sarah Dugas of the Duhks to sing with them, and eventually several audience members to dance during a call and response style blues jam.

The Infamous String Dusters lead the crowd into the nighttime on Saturday, preparing the way for hometown favorites and organizers of the very special festival, the Belleville Outfit. The band features 3 members who are Spartanburg natives. Rob and Jeff took it upon themselves to use their connections to bring together the people and the bands. The crowd was incredibly appreciative of their hard work and their music. Heartfelt thanks were made and the audience really soaked up their amazing set.

A change of pace came for the last set of the festival. Even when Boombox was setting up, it was clear this would be a differnt set than those before it. Electronic music equipment filled the stage and only one guitar. No fiddles or banjos. The main lights went down and beat rose from an unseen instrument as the color filled the stage. The dancing changed and so did the mood. Everyone danced themselves into exhaustion until just around 2am before everything fell silent for the night.

It's safe to say that it was a hit and I think everyone's looking forward to seeing something just as spectacular next year.

Videos involving friends.

The first is of Ben Sollee's bike tour to Bonnaroo. His travel companions are a set of siblings I grew up with. They both now reside in California and flew out to KY to film and accompany Ben on his Oxfam Bike tour. One of my favorite parts of the clip is towards the end when Katie and Marty try Ale-8 for the first time. I love Ale-8. I was blessed with a roommate from Kentucky that introduced me to it. We had it at our junior recital reception rather than punch. Yum. 

On a more serious note, what Ben is doing should be something other musicians consider following. Taking up a cause to make the world a better place. The Duhks already have their Green Duhks campaign, and I would challenge others to act similarly. It's just as important as making beautiful music.

Ben Sollee bike tour day 1 - Lexington to Frankfort from marty benson on Vimeo.

Continuing with the local connections is a video featuring two guys who have a long time friendship, Jim and Charlie. They both play in a band with my uncle Sam Hannaford called The Chainsaws.  

You can read Randall Hill's blog and watch the video here. The blog is brought to you by our local news paper The Sun News.  

The offshoots of musicians who play in and with The Chainsaws have been instrumental in my development as a musician and as a person. Their passion and talent has inspired me, and it is with thanks that I am writing this blog in the first place. 

Overload

Tonight you can listen to or watch Dave Matthews Band on at least 3 different pieces of technology all at once. Hulu and Fuse have teamed up to bring their concert live online from The Beacon Theater in New York. For those lucky enough to have a large digital cable package, it can be watched on the Fuse channel. And finally for those that pay for radio, it is on Sirius on Dave Matthew's own Sirius Satellite Radio channel. Additionally, if you haven't gotten enough yet, you can get the iTunes Pass for the new album. Comes with lots of extras and automatic downloads. 

Falling off the wagon

I fell off for a bit.  Back now. 

I guess I can talk about what's been happening in my own musical life. 

For starters, I dreaded the day that I had to give a senior recital. An hours worth of music, all by myself. Second of all, I had no idea at the end of junior year what I wanted to be, or if I even wanted to sing anymore.  Over the summer last year I broke my arm working at Asbury Hills. It was so frustrating, not because I broke my arm, but because I felt like I was missing my opportunities of reaching kids at camp. Being away from Asbury made me appreciated being there even more, and then returning and finding myself in roles I had not anticipated, I began to explore my own spiritual growth and mission. In the final weeks I was called on to lead singing. I had only had a few days training and had only been back enough to have 2 weeks of campers.  

In the fall I decided I wanted to approach singing differently. I really learned over the summer, and in reflecting about my four years of experience in my church job, that I don't sing because I want to be a performer. I don't sing because I want to share interesting literature. Those are are just parts of what being a singer is to me. I've long believed that I experience my spirituality through music. And that my faith and my music are inextricable things. This lead me to choose an all sacred recital. 

My recital ended up truly being a culmination of many different aspects of singing. Especially when it came to those that attended. 

From camp there was Karl. He had been my closest co-counselor throughout the summer. 

Both my voice students that I teach were there along with their families, Kelly and Sha. 

Some of the girls from children's choir at church, the Dowlings, Shannon and Kara. 

Also from church were Brennan, my boss, and Rev. Roy Cole. 

Merlefest 2009

A Quick Photo Tour

Please clean filter

This one goes out to my vocal pedagogy teacher, Dr. Macphail. Everyday upon turning on the projector in the room, it always said, "Please Clean Filter" on the screen. So this first paragraph of The Dirty Projectors from SXSW 2009 goes out to here. 

The Projectors, courageously lead by David Longstreth are youthfully avant guard and thought provoking in their approach to music making. At times they are rather raucous and their direction is unclear, but in the moment where you feel you are loosing it, something happens that refocuses your attention. Whether that is a sudden monophonic melodic vocalise backed by a simple beat or a steady ostinato guitar riff The Dirty Projectors are sure to keep it interesting and listen-able. (kind of like drinkability...listenabilty)

NPR SXSW Coverage

This second paragraph goes out to my dear friend, Kristina Lewis, pianist, contralto and hippy extraodinaire. 

I just gave her Neko Case's new album, Middle Cyclone and I told her about The Decemberist's new album The Hazards of Love. So... she should check it out. 

The Hazards of Love made me think about my recent studies in music history, both classical and popular. 

I want to talk about concept albums, song cycles, rock operas, rap operas, and finally folk operas. 

Origins:

In Italy in the 1500s there were a group of artists, philosophers, and musicians that got together to promote their causes. As a result they created a dramma per musica event called and Intermezzo that was intended to be preformed in between a larger event. It was a hit, and the form eventually expanded into what we now know as opera. 

This concept of dramma per musica, the telling of story through song, has permeated Western music ever since.

The term "concept album" have been thrown about in pop music since The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. They produced the first concept album in 1966. This meant that all the songs were meant to go together in a particular order due to the story or images they portray. Like a song cycle or an opera. Later examples were to follow with The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, and most notably the "rock opera" Tommy by The Who. 

We have Beethoven to thank for the first song cycle. 

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down

Thao was a favorite from the moment my roommate played a song that was a Song of the Day on Minnesota Public Radio last year. 

I miss the set today as it was played live because I was in class, but luckily the performance is now archived on NPR.org. 

You can catch the show there, or when the All Songs Considered podcast is posted. The set is quite short, and full of energy and quirkiness. 

Photo from NPR site. Joel Didriksen kingpinphoto.com

"Bob Boilen is boiling hot" -Thao Nguyen

She's right. I love him, but I want his job when he retires/dies/looses his voice. 

I started my application for internships at various places today including NPR. It would be a dream job to work there. I'm also applying to Smithsonian Folkways and Oxford American. 

In other SXSW news, my friend Ross is there, and I'm so jealous I could strangle him. Follow the man on Twitter. 

I had a good time networking a bit last night in the chat room for the live performances on NPR. I'm going to work on my networking skills as much as possible in the next few months. 

Brain Overload

Tonight i listened to the Avett Brothers and The Decemberists live from SXSW in Austin streaming on NPR. I also got up to the minute Twitter feeds, and chatted in the NPR chat room. I loved listening to the commentary from Bob and Robin after the double encore. They played the entirety of their new album, and then 2 encores. The crowd just wouldn't let them go, and the chat room folks listening online didn't want the show to end either.

Awesomeness.

Thoughts and anticipation: "4 days of total sensory overload"

The folks at NPR put together the Austin 100. A list of their favorites, of songs they would listen to again. It's part of a new continuous mix of 100 favs they'll keep current. What a great time and event to launch the initiative. Beautifully, some of the songs are also available as MP3s on the SXSW website!
Bob Boilen and Stephen Thomas rock my socks. I love how excited they get when they talk about it.

(on a random note, I just noticed that NPR Music and iTunes have almost the same color background.
A list of old favorites, new interests, and names I like.

Personal Old Standbys (some new-ish folk that have been on my radar much longer than others)
The Decemberists
The Avett Brothers
Thao Ngyuen with the Get Down Stay Down, surprisingly discovered by my roommate when one of their songs was a song of the day on MPR (minnesota)
Phosphorescent one of Eric's recommendations last year
Okkervil River
Beach House
M. Ward, caught my eye while working with another favorite, the beautiful and talented Zooey Deschanel

Been around a while, but not as familiar with
Laura Gibson
Nellie McKay

It's that time of year...

South by South West!!!!!!!

This is the who's who of new music. I'd love to have a press pass one day for this festival.


Although SxSW is a series of interactive multimedia festivals, the big even for me is obviously the music festival. Since I'm an almost religious follower of NPR music, and a fan of Bob Boilen and his radio show cohorts who host a special every year on NPR.org I'm more diligent in listening and scoping this year.

So I'll be reporting on my favorites that are coming through the tube.

If he has to reach way down...

Upgrade!
I'm learning to be internet and computer savvy bit by bit.
Todays lesson is adding audio to a blog.


We'll see how this goes.


Jesus Will Pick You Up | Upload Music


Ok so now that we have successfully embedded music, I'll tell you a bit about it.
This is a group of ladies, including my friends Nell, her daughter Hasee, my sister and myself. But the bulk of the group, including the leader consists of the Bellamy Sisters. A group of 9 sisters born and raised write where I was. They belong to a family of 14 all told.

I posted this because southern roots music has been on my mind. And this is a fine example that it is still alive and kicking just as much as bluegrass is.