I also loved this – very poignant. I have often felt the same way, too, about singers and writers. That’s a great song, too – How Great Thou Art, if that is what you were referring to. Many goose bumps to be had.
Paul Robeson, what a voice. When I hear him sing “Old Man River”…oooh, that voice goes right through me. Do you know of Brian Stokes Mitchell, he used to play the character “Trevor” on “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”. Well, who would know the voice he has from that character. What a wonderful voice, he has this great jazzy cd that came out a while ago. He’s more a Broadway singer. Did Don Quixote from Man of La Mancha. When he sings “The Impossible Dream” and Dulcinea, I think I have died and gone to heaven. What a voice.
There are so very many. And then there is Pavarotti. Perhaps he and Robeson are singing somewhere together.
I think Paul Simon is a genius – my favorite song of his is “The Sounds of Silence”.
I loved the way your musical “journey” progressed.
I am sorry to say that I don’t know Brian Stokes Mitchell, but I think it is my loss.
I was happy to see your reference to my journey.
While this piece should stand on its’ own, it was primarily intended as an allegory to creation myths, both public and private, and their ensuing odysseys.
An example of this is in the text “I was blinded by the light…” and the lyrics immediately following which read something like “of God and Truth and Right. And I wander in the night without direction.” Here I have been born.
You were right to assume that the Boberg verses were from “How Great Thou Art”.
The beginning lyrics read:
“O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.”
For me this is the struggle to put our world in context - make our models - and be stunned by their insignificance.
The words “then sings my soul” no longer are Boberg’s, they are mine.
Further:
“sings” is no longer a simple verb. I too get goose bumps.
It takes over my being and I am captured by it and it becomes the subject of the phrase.
I probably could have written that line a number of more times, but eventually it simply becomes another line of a song.
Relative to the public creation myth (currently the big bang) hopefully you can see some literal verbaige in the mention of strings and the ever deceasing energy levels.
Unfortunately, as our models become more sophisticated, including our concepts of God, I can become content, and slip into the belief that I actually know what’s going on.
Dylan tends to let me know that I missed the point.
P.S. I truly enjoyed your comments, and I would encourage you to feel free to do so again at any time.
As an allegory, this paints such a beautiful picture. I wonder, if somewhere, the vision of the creationist myth has not been put into music or into a painting. Can you even imagine if the creation of the universe was put to music or into words (such as your beautiful creative words) in a way that could give it justice, what it would truly sound like? There are wonderful geniuses who might be able to give us a glimpse of what that might sound like but can it be any more than just a taste.
I don’t know musical notes but I can imagine the musical instruments that would be there, probably all of them, right. Take the drums for instance, there would have to be quite a continual drum roll, and then imagine that deep explosion, many many drums in unison, then violins (the strings), creating the ever slow expanding universe, we can’t forget the sax and the clarinet (I love slow soft jazz) there would have to be that playing as the different worlds slowly swirled into existence and found their place; and the piano notes creating wave upon wave of chaotic motion and energy skipping across that magnificent void, yet a void so full not to be a void. And the music still must go on as the universe is every changing.
I don’t know if you are familiar with Rachmaninoff. I love all of his compositions and I really feel his music. I think he could have probably put the big bang to music. When I listen to him, I am sometimes transported into deep dark haunting space (hee hee). His music is beautiful.
We sometimes sing How Great Thou Art at Sunday mass and I know exactly what you mean. I get the goose bumps too because the words and the reality become mine and the beauty of the universe is so driven home to me – a universe which for me at least could only be created by Something or Someone so much greater than the universe itself. That kind of beauty becomes a part of us – we can feel it in every fibre of our being.
When we consider the universe – when we can look up at the stars or see everything that surrounds us, everything can be put into its proper perspective – we can then see ourselves as so much less than we think of ourselves, and at the same time so much more and we find our place in this eternal world. It is a continual journey. I pulled these Bob Dylan words…
Leave your stepping stones behind,
something calls for you.
Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who’s rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue."
– Bob Dylan
I’d say that Dylan was a philosopher. Here I think he was inviting us to “let go” and move on and that there is another life for us to live and about “living life in the moment” When we consider it, isn’t this all we have. Really poignant wise words. The words also speak of a continuing journey.
The words also remind me a little in part of William Butler Yeats’ last few lines of “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”…. such beautiful words that I love…
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.