I just found this remarkable short film on YouTube, a wonderful blend of music and N&W’s “Mighty 611.”
It’s called “Be Glad Then, America.” Glad indeed, check it out!
I knew there would be a reason to have a 27" monitor.
“The Continental Harmony” by William Billings! I know that name, he’s the composer of “Chester,” the “Battle Hymn Of The Republic” of the Revolutionary War.
“Let tyrants shake their iron rods, and slav’ry clank her galling chains.”
“We fear them not, we trust in God. New England’s God forever reigns!”
What the hell, these folks sing it better than I do…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7S_07E-9CA
Thanks Mod-man!
My own response to your powerful musical contribution to the spirit of the season.
You do know the melody:
'TIS THE GIFT TO BE SIMPLE HAMATTANAH LIHIYOT PASHUUT ILHADIYYA TSIIR BASITTE
'TIS THE GIFT TO BE FREE HAMATTANAH LIHIYOT HOFSHII ILHADIYYA TSIIR FADIYYE
'TIS THE GIIFT TO COME DOWN HAMATTANAH LESHEVET ILHADDIYA TUQgUD
“Simple Gifts,” the Shaker classic.
Thanks David!
And this is for you, I’m not Jewish but I love this old song, “Rock of Ages,” or, “Ma’oz Tzur.” Very appropriate for this time of year!
Lovely arrangement, everyone else should hear it too!
What can I say? Bombastic music and streamliners go together like apple pie and vanilla ice cream! [C=:-)]
I prefer chocolate but I get where you’re comin’ from! [dinner]
I love you guys sharing, especially this piece! This is the best timing to sharing it since we are already fighting against another tyrant who is threating millions of follower of the way.
I am not familiar with American’s early hymns, even though I probably have sung a lot of them in the church.
I am a Baroque music lover since I was a kid, I sang this piece in a small singing competition before my voice changed (was it?[:O] ):
Beutiful aria from the Bach Cantata “Wachit Auf,” Sleepers Awake.
Also a Bach fan. Most often wake up with organ Trio Sonatas.
To be honest I much prefer Hana’s version:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ve-64Qt8VNo
Something I could never stand is those screeching bel canto art songs. I think it may be one of those things, like how I hate country but love bluegrass, abhor most rap but love funk, and have a terrible psychophysical problem with how at least half the world’s famous violinists seem to perceive tempered pitch of the chanterelle.
If they’d just sing the songs like hymns, in plain honest normal intonation instead of weird Italianate vowels and excessive ‘expression’. The same goes double for typical ham Shakespearean overacting…
Well, I for one am glad there is a version you like. It’s Bach’s music that is important to me, not a particular version.
Like you with romanticized Bach singing to make it more like Italian opera arias, I prefer Bach’s keyboard music on instrumenets he knew and played, organ, harpsichord (cembalo) and clavichord. Not the modern piano.
But 2-1/2 weeks ago at Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (known locally as “The Mormon U.”) glass-walled concert hall, I heard a 16-year old pianist give his debut major recital, with starting with Bach’s Sinphonia from his C-minor Partita, and I was boaled over. I had to admit to enjoying his performance.
So do keep an open mind!
And Hana’s version is worth keeping and hearing over and over again.
I thought ‘If God is for us’ was Handel, from the Messiah.
On the subject of Bach, my very first exposure to him was via Switched-on Bach in the days it was still by Walter. And my introduction to that greatest of Debussy piano pieces the Cathedrale Engloutie was via Tomita (I think on Snowflakes are Dancing). (Here is the piece itself, played by a somewhat unexpected pianist, thanks to one of the ten best machines ever built in Europe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=levGISzDmjs
Look up the legends of Ys, and then see if you don’t agree with me how wonderful this is…
In a somewhat more relaxed (shall we say) interpretation of ‘Bach’ I have loved the peculiar institution that is Peter Schickele (or perhaps the place he should be confined) since before I understood half the musical jokes.
I just don’t like shrieking and intentionally distorted language, I suppose, especially when it is pretentious. I have a particular dislike for the intentional (mis)use of Autotune in many contemporary songs for what are probably similar reasons. You won’t hear me claim there is anything wrong with liking the bel canto schtick - it’s just really, really not for me.
Funny that the one time I met Arthur C. Clarke (at a book signing) what we talked about was a mutual love of Bach, not science fiction.
You know, Hana’s version is better, and probably much closer to the actual 18th Century interpretation. Which is the way we’re supposed to hear it.
Overmod, you do mean J. S. Bach, not his only forgotten son, P.D.Q., do you not?
I’m a Mozart fan. [:-^]
Well, if I said Schickele, you could answer that on your own… without having to score a stint on Opera Whiz. [:)]
The other stuff does refer to J.S., “the original and best”.
Isn’t everyone?? <cue laugh from many scenes in ‘Amadeus’>
Then you must like K231; for ‘convenience’ I provide its MIDI here. (Pity the embed feature isn’t working thanks to Kalmbach IT.)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Leck_mich_im_Arsch.mid
Pity K233 (K382b as revised) turns out to be by somebody else*. It had an even better text, as well as a somewhat more comprehensive title.
Quickly, now, quickly!
*I say this for two reasons, first because the music (what is what Mozart is renowned for) turns out to be by someone with a name like an electrical short, and second because while the words appear to be undeniably Mozart, I doubt Penny or other devotees of Wolfgang Amadeus will find them as much the product of genius as his music…
[(-D] Yes, listen to the bargain counter tenor.