Lenten Prayer Concert: 18 days and counting down!

Hello everyone,

Yabba-dabba-doo, 18 days until our Lenten Prayer concert!

Lugubrious musical admonition (from my personal past)...don't let this be you! BE READY for this concert!

"Precious Lord" choir...this is for you - a beautiful rendition! The song begins at 1:28

Precious Lord soloists: Study Aretha, and you cannot go wrong. Here are a few clips to get you started. I recommend - listen listen listen - then don your headphones, crank up the volume, and SING ALONG!

1. Oh Mary, Don't You Weep

2. "Precious Memories" - with Rev. James Cleveland

3. God Will Take Care of You

4. How I Got Over

5. Climbing Higher Mountains 

"He Watching Over Israel" - Following a whimsical lead ("what if...?") I came upon some interesting material.
Eyes
More eyes.
Everything comes from something, yes?
Interesting stuff here: "night deities" - cultural listing
For those who would like to sink their teeth into some VERY interesting technical, scholarly research regarding "G/god/s who never sleep," look here.

The concept of an unsleeping, ever-watchful God is shared with Islam, another of the Abrahamic religions.
From the Qur'an:
Allah! There is no god but Allah, He is the Living the Self- subsisting Eternal. No slumber can seize him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permits? He knows what (appears to his creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of his knowledge except as He wills. His throne does extend over the heavens and the earth and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them. For He is the Most High the Supreme (in glory).
Surah (Chapter) al-Baqarah (The Cow) Qur-an 2:255
(site is here)

"Miserere miseris"
"Miserere miseris" is a 13th century sequence. What's a sequence? Find out here.
13th century - dang, that's the 1200's! This music has survived 800 years of European history!

In the spirit of  "None Other Lamb" - 
I grew up a "two-toned Baptist." Waaay back in the day, my family joined a huge Southern Baptist church about 10 car-minutes away from the large National Baptist church where my late father (Rev. Murphy H. Peterson) was pastor. Both churches are very near downtown Houston but just the right distance apart to make major religious days (like Easter!) into transportation epics.
For many years, I was privileged with intensive en blanc et noir church music exposure.

Remember a post or two ago, when I shared different versions of "Precious Lord?"
Musical hermeneutics: once a "text" (song, way of doing something, riff, wail, or whatever) has left the barn, it's free-range - and by now, there are as many ways of singing any particular gospel song as there are singers/pianists/organists/congregations!

"There's Something About That Name" - one way...

And, Another Way!

The pianist on this Ann Nesby clip is AMAZING. I doff my plumed hat with admiration and just a bit of green envy. What a beautiful blend of gospel, jazz, and ?! styles.  ;-)

I simply MUST end with this one, an all-time personal favorite. Blessings, everyone, this night.

Duet

A lovely duet!

You're never too young to start singing! JUST-FOR-FUN post

Some people get ga-ga over puppy and kitty YouTube clips.
I love singing babies.

Okaaay, that's enough of that...have a great weekend, all!
I have ONE remaining tchotchke for Mendelssohn blog post question responses. Email me with your answer and it could be yours ;-)

New tchotchkes added every week, stay tuned!

Mendelssohn Goodies!

REINFORCING LAST WEEK'S CHORALE ASSIGNMENT!!!
It's all about Mendelssohn!

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Born February 3, 1809 - Died November 24, 1847

FM's first published composition (a piano quartet) appeared when he was 13. He began piano lessons at age 6 and made his debut as a pianist THREE YEARS later! He wrote TWELVE string symphonies between the ages of 12 and 14.
This fellow was definitely a child prodigy ;-) It's also quite likely that his life was blessedly free of electronic distraction devices, public school athletic functions,  raves, and the internet.

*FM was a talented watercolor painter and illustrated many of his letters.
(Bonus points: FM's love for Britain and things British is well-documented. Fast-forward a bit and find a talented avocational painter (this one British) whose :day job" was, shall we say, in a very different field. Hint: this person and Mendelssohn never met face-to-face)

*How/why did Felix Mendelssohn become Felix Mendelssohn - Bartholdy?

Oh my, this is delightful, indeed!

*Back in the day, it seemed against the law to use anything other than the "Wedding March" from FM's stage music for A Midsummer Night's Dream as the recessional at weddings.
What was (over!)used for the processional? Whose music is it, and where does it come from?!
(Whoa, irony!)
If you have time, do listen to all of AMSD The "Nocturne" is simply sublime, and the "scherzo" will instantly transport you to another world.
Bonus points to Shakespeare lovers - listen to AMSD as you read the play. You'll have to listen to the complete AMSD more than once - that's a problem??!!!

*FM completed two oratorios. One might say that the subject matter of these two oratorios expressed something very important about FM's personal upbringing and background. What might that be? 

*Who was this?


 Read about her here.


*The illustrious Bach family has been studied by scholars and geneticists - why might this be? In my opinion, the Mendelssohn family also merits study by physicians and geneticists. Why might that be?

I remember a more than mildly acrimonious conversation in graduate school - my "opponent" was a Doctoral Person Studying Musicology, who roused my ire by berating (and worse, discounting!!!) Mendelssohn's music. This person felt that one couldn't call Mendelssohn a truly great composer, one who truly expressed the height and depth of human emotion - and why?!!  In my (NOT!) friend's opinion, Mendelssohn wasn't great because he didn't suffer enough!

I was socially timid in those days, but I remember indignantly thinking. "You arrogant, IGNORANT bone head! Just look at Mendelssohn's piano music alone: solo, chamber, songs, Songs Without Words - MENDELSSOHN DID SO SUFFER. BUT, HE WAS A HAPPY PERSON WHO HAD MOMENTS OF SUFFERING - NOT A SUFFERING PERSON WHO HAD MOMENTS OF HAPPINESS. YOU KNOW NOTHING. ROBERT SCHUMANN WOULD CORRECTLY IDENTIFY YOU AS A PHILISTINE AND HAVE NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO WITH YOU. AND NEITHER SHALL I, FROM THIS DAY FORWARD. GOOD DAY, SIR."
I'd say that stuff now, without second thoughts or embarrassment.
(Where's that guy anyway? I wish for him a long career as a family and marriage therapist. Or a divorce lawyer.)

Me - I thought FM was aptly named.  After years in my field, I have ceased to be titillated by trauma/drama/Sturm/Drang/indigence/mental health issues/social disease/general scandal in accounts of a Famous Music Person's life... ;-) I did, however, have more fun that any reasonable person should have had, prepping for the Music History classes I've taught.
Biographical materials I've consulted suggest that Mendelssohn was a kind, thoughtful, decent man who liked people and who was liked by them in return. He had the ability to disagree without being incorrigibly disagreeable - one of life's most treasured personality traits.
But! what about the ubiquitous "tortured artist" meme? Your thoughts!

If all of this still doesn't convince you, know that Mendelssohn's music is frequently performed on Vulcan. 
I know this because I have a second doctorate in Star Trek fan fiction. I am speaking of the One True Trek here - The Original and Only Trek.

AND NOW
Okay, everyone!
I have THREE GLORIOUS TCHOTCHKES, which I will award to the first three people to answer questions marked with * - Please email me through SU email and put "Lee's Lessons" in your subject header.

PS. I don't know about you, but these Very Famous And Important Musical People become most real to me if I find out how they departed this mortal coil. I can't help it - I'm Southern! ("He's dead? Bless him - what did he die of? Did he have a big funeral?")
If you have this in common with me, you might find the following volumes of interest.
This one
And this one
And this article
And...this one!
If you like, check one or more of these through ILL (Inter-Library Loan). Or, ask Uncle GOOGLE to lead you to "deaths of composers." The list I'm posting here is minute, compared to the amount of published research and popular writing on the subject.
One more thing -

Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I 

Kreuzberg
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Berlin, Germany

Felix Mendelssohn is buried under the central white cross. His sister Fanny (tall brown stone) is buried between her brother and her husband, William Hensel.

All of the notes in "She Weeps Over Rahoon"

Hello Women's Chorale noon section!
Here are ALL of the notes in "She Weeps Over Rahoon," with double identification:
Solfeggio
Actual pitch/note names

Also a bit of reinforcement for the metrics:
12/8 - Four main beats in each measure. Each beat divisible by 3 or some multiple of 3
Term: "Compound quadruple"

Compare this to another, very familiar meter, 4/4:
4/4 - Four main beats in each measure. Each beat divisible by 2 or some multiple of 2
Term: "Simple quadruple"

How about these meters?
3 / 4
2 / 4
6 / 8
9 / 7
5 / 4
5 / 8
Link all the meters on this page with particular choir rep for WQ and SQ

Have fun!

LL&P,
Lee