RISING UP AND GOING DOWN

Hello Music Lover,
Our first square is for Anne, Rise Up My Love, by Healey Willan. This is a great anthem, beloved of many choirs, as it was with the Elmer Iseler Singers when Anne toured Russia with them. But they were forbidden to sing anything religious, which severely cut into their repertoire. Taken, as it is, from the Song of Solomon (Chapter 2, v 10-13), this would have been a definite no-no. In this chapter, Christ has been speaking to his church, and she answers, repeating the gracious calls He has given her to go walking with him, invited by the "splendours of the returning spring", as one commentator has said. But the text subtly disguises this in the manner of a love song: "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain has come. The flowers appear upon the earth ..." The Russians were enchanted.

They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships, by Herbert Sumsion has been requested and executed by Kathy. This has always been a favourite of hers, and it is particularly appropriate for our quilt, because it was the last anthem to be sung by the Elora Festival Singers this year. Kathy has herself sung it many times, and was reminded again of the drama in its music and its text. "It's great to sing," she says. "All that wave motion, and the storm created by the different parts, and the beautiful chords, and the deep basses." It is also reminiscent of a favourite painting which belonged to her late father, by W.L. Dean, which was used as the inspiration for her square. Here it is!

Our last square today is in memory of the late Robert Evans. He was our good friend, a great composer, and the recipient of the Bach quilt mentioned in the profile to the right on your screen. Robert loved the voice of Cleo Laine, who gave a wonderful concert in the quarry at the Festival in 1997 with Johnny Dankworth. This is My Funny Valentine, by Rodgers and Hart, from the musical Babes in Arms. It's a collaboration between the two of us.

Well, that's all for now! Happy listening,

Susan

REMEMBRANCE, RIVERS AND RAINBOWS

Hello, Music Lover!

September 11th has come round again, and I felt it was appropriate to remember someone who has passed on. Misty has been requested by Marianne, whose parents Harold and Lilian were a happy couple, and who died in the past few years. Lilian followed her minister husband to Africa to do missionary work in Angola, where Marianne was born, one of five children. Her mother always liked this song, particularly the music, which she loved to play on the piano. We’ve shown the mist over Africa here, recalling a time when “I’m following you”, and while Lilian must have been lonely at times, their time in Angola was also, as the song says, a “wonderland” of adventure for both her and the children. The silhouetted couple are Harold and Lillian on their wedding day, and Kathy, who is Marianne's sister, put this one together.

Misty was written as an instrumental by Erroll Garner and has since become a jazz standard. Johnny Burke later put lyrics to the tune, and it became the signature song of Johnny Mathis. 

Like many folksongs, it is impossible to determine exactly when Shenandoah was composed, but by the mid nineteenth century, the song had achieved widespread popularity, both on land and at sea. According to the American Library of Congress, it first appeared in print in an article by William L. Alden, titled “Sailor Songs,” that was published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1882). Since sea shanties were work songs used by sailors to coordinate the efforts of completing chores such as raising the ship’s anchor or hauling ropes, all it needed was a sweeping melodic line, possibly with a solo lead, and a rousing chorus. The text didn’t have to make much sense. Certainly, no-one travelling down the snaking Shenandoah River in Virgina would make his way to the sea down the wide Missouri River, which is half a continent away and originates in the Rocky Mountains!

Some believe that the song refers to the river of the same name. Others suggest that it is of Native American origin, and tells the tale of Sally, the daughter of the Indian Chief Shenandoah, who was courted for seven years by a white Missouri river trader. Still others have theorized it was composed by French Canadian voyageurs. Just imagine – maybe they weren’t singing “Shenandoah” at all, but something like chere naine d’or (my dear little golden dwarf.) Regardless of these textual discrepancies, "Shenandoah" remains an American classic.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow is of course from the 1939 film musical The Wizard of Oz, and it won the Oscar for Best Original Song that year. About five minutes into the film, Dorothy finds herself unable to get her preoccupied aunt and uncle to listen to her relate an unpleasant incident involving her little dog Toto and the town spinster, Miss Gulch. Dorothy's Aunt Em tells her to "find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble", prompting Dorothy to wander off. After a short bit of musing with Toto, she launches into the song about a place she heard about once “in a lullaby”.  So that’s why we decided to have a mother singing to her baby in this collaborative square: the sky is the limit of all things possible, and anything can be for her little baby. The song does make a lovely lullaby, as well.

Well, that's it for today. Happy listening!  Susan

BLESSED MEN

 Hello, Music Lover,

My first square is about Cwm Rhondda, by John Hughes. There is a glorious recording of this hymn by Harry Secombe and the Treorchy Male Choir on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=dm93QW08yZQ.There is nothing quite like the sound of a Welsh male choir singing this, whether it is made up of rugby supporters or miners. I chose to paint a miner with coal dust on his face, over a photograph of a closed pit in the Welsh valley of Rhondda. This one is a gift for Stan, who has liver cancer, and who would like the hymn played at his funeral.

Beatus Vir, by Monteverdi. I had a lot of fun with this one. The text of “Blessed Man” is taken from Psalm 112, so David the Psalmist is presumed to have written it. King David must have had a pretty good opinion of himself; it’s pretty clear he was writing about himself - the God-fearing man whose seed will be mighty on earth, who is full of compassion and righteousness, until he gazes on his enemies, and whose house is full of wealth and riches etc! So I thought I would make this square about him. The background is a photo of the Valley of Elah, recorded in the Bible as the site of Goliath’s slaying. The road which appears to the left of the statue is supposedly the road the Philistines fled down after the death of their leader.

It also occurred to me that Monteverdi probably saw Michelangelo’s mighty statue of David – perhaps even was inspired by it. He was born just three years after Michelangelo’s death, and while I have found no record of his ever living in Florence, and the city states kept pretty much to themselves except when they were fighting, I am sure he must have visited the city at some point. If so, he could not have missed it, positioned as it was to defend the city against all comers.

Since 1873, The statue of David has been housed in a specially built room at the Accademia Gallery in Florence; I went to see it when I was in Florence exhibiting at the Biennale. It is placed in a kind of niche, with the full frontal view facing out, and its position doesn’t allow a full view all around it because of the columns beside it. There is now a theory that Michelangelo never intended the first look to be the full frontal view, but rather where David is looking - at Goliath perhaps, or any other threat to the beloved city which commissioned the statue. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it; like a pitcher standing sideways on his mound about to throw a baseball, his right leg is tensed while the left one juts forward. His right hand is tensed around the stone. Here is what you perhaps should see, as you enter the special gallery, (because of the column involved, this has to be a digital re-creation) and beside it, I have placed two photos of baseball pitchers winding up on the mound.

Sorry, but just before I shut up about this – I can imagine the movers struggling in with the gigantic 17 foot statue 140 years ago, plonking it down and saying – “this where you wanna put it? Okay – d’you think it goes this way?” And then the curator’s assistant comes along, checks that it's in the middle of the space, but no-one stops to look at the statue and think what it's about!

For those fibre artists reading this, you may wonder about how I painted the fabric on these two squares. I used Pebeo Setacolor, opaque black and white, and a Premier 705 No. 4 brush. It is a superior student quality brush and will stand up to a certain amount of dry “scrubling” to do the shading.  I also diluted the paint for larger areas, (even though you are not supposed to do this with opaque paint) and of course it tends to bleed at the edges. The trick is to do this well within the boundaries you are covering, so it doesn’t bleed further than you want, and then tidy up with a dry brush after the fabric is dry. There is also a little more control on the ink jet prepared Jacquard cotton that the background is printed upon, especially if you leave it on its backing paper. Don’t forget to iron the square carefully when you are finished, to set the paint. Otherwise it will not be washable when you place the piece in a quilt.

The Sound of Silence, by Simon and Garfunkel is the final square today: 

Nothing is ever truly silent, but in the hush of water falling off the edge of an infinity pool, in mediation, it comes pretty close. This one is for Leigh. Peace and quiet are very important to her, after a busy day at her executive job. This song was also played at her wedding, and hearing it reminds her of special times with her husband.

See you next time - happy listening!
Susan