Toadfish Monastery

Voltaire - Brains!

Musical Sunday Riddle on the radio

Korn - cameltosis

Steeleye Span

The tenor aria from the Bach cantata No 134 (I'm supposed to sing it this Sunday with English text which I've been adjusting given that the part available online only had the German version [as it should be] but the church wants me to sing in English).

Do you have to provide your own translation?

BWV 134
Rise, ye of faith, sing ye the songs of rejoicing
Upon you now glorious a new light doth shine
The living redeemer bestows times of blessing;
Rise, spirits, ye must now a sacrifice offer
And pay to the Highest your duty with thanks.

Or is it CKN 134 (BWV 116)?
Beloved Jesus, thou alone
Shalt be the treasure of my soul.
We will before all other riches
Within our faithful heart enthrone thee,
Yea, when the thread of life shall break,
Our spirit shall, in God content,
Again with lips most gladsly sing:
Beloved Jesus, thou alone
Shalt be the treasure of my soul.

Stalin- the Court of the Red Tsar

Once again through the Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior albums on my mp3 player

Quote from: Swatopluk on November 10, 2010, 07:59:14 PM
Do you have to provide your own translation?

BWV 134
Rise, ye of faith, sing ye the songs of rejoicing
Upon you now glorious a new light doth shine
The living redeemer bestows times of blessing;
Rise, spirits, ye must now a sacrifice offer
And pay to the Highest your duty with thanks.

That's the one, and the thing isn't the translation itself (I found 3 plus one in Spanish) but that the text fits the music. I finished last night during the general rehearsal (in the breaks of course):

Rise up oh ye faithful ones
up faithful ones sing delightful airs
upon you shine a glorious light
the living redeemer brings times of salvation
spirits rise up, ye must an offer make
and pay to the Highest your duty with thanks.

It's similar but I had to fit the agogic with the accents of the words, plus try to be faithful to the original German when possible (ie: highest goes in the same place as höchsten because the musical intent is clear).

There are worse things than Bach in English (or Händel in German ), e.g. Mussorgsky in Italian* or Italian Belcanto in Russian**.

*I have spotted a CD edition of Boris Godunov in Italian
**Glinka tried it

Dad's Army on the radio

After a suggestion from my son a technical metal band called Atheist. A fusion between progressive rock, jazz and death metal.

It's... different.

Just finished enduring the mp3 edition of the Koran.
I often felt the urge to shout: You have told that same story now for the umpteenth time and the part about the infidels and the companions and the lies is not new either for it comes up at least twice in each and every chapter. Do you think your audience has Alzheimer or do you suffer from it yourself? Cut and paste ad nauseam does not great literature make!

Don't you know that repetition makes things true? (ask Karl Rove)

I guess that is the theory. But according to tradition the revelation took 22 years. Maybe one does not notice the repetitiveness so much, if one takes as much time to read the whole book .