spiritual music "in the flesh"

There are so many lists, that I am finding I am going to have
to "prune down" a little. (I'm not eating prunes or anything, just
following fewer lists...)

So I will not be available, for the time being, to post on Jeff
Scott's interesting "Spritual Tuning" list. However, I am continuing
to post over here on "Crazy Music..."

There was a question as to which pieces of mine were possibly "most
spiritual." Actually, I feel there is a spiritual element of one
kind of another in virtually ALL my music, but I believe there *IS* a
piece in my oeuvre that fits this dimension more than some.

This piece is called THANATOPSIS and is dedicated to my father who
had a paralyzing stroke that left him a quadroplegic for 13 years
until his death. I found a text from William Cullen Bryant that
related to death and the gradual metamorphosis that we all go through
if we are to accept it "gracefully..." if there is such a thing. In
a sense, this poem is the antithesis of the poem that Stravinsky set
(no composer comparison, obviously, here) of Dylan Thomas...
remember "Don't go gentle into that dark night..." Well, this poem
suggests that we DO go gentle... In fact, perhaps we should carry
both death AND life a big more lightly than we generally do in
practically an Eastern sense.

Since this is the PRACTICAL crazy list, and not the IMPRACTICAL crazy
list, I will keep my comments brief (relatively) but here is the poem:

Poetry by William Cullen Bryant:

To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms she speaks.
She has a voice of gladness and a smile...
And eloquence of beauty and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mild
And healing sympathy that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware.

When thoughts of the last bitter hour come
like a blight over thy spirit
And sad images of the stern agony and
shroud and pall
And breathless darkness and the narrow house
Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart...

Go forth under the open sky and list to Na-tures
teachings, while from all around
Earth and her waters and the depths of air
comes a still voice...

SPOKEN:
Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid with many tears
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
They growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix forever with the elements.

(Sung)
So live that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death

Yhen go not like the quarry slave at night
Scourged to his dungeon but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him and lies down to pleasant dreams...
... ... ...

And here is the piece:

http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/590/590441.html

It's "safe sonority," by the way... lots of glissandos and non-12
equal in it...

___________ _______ _____
Joseph Pehrson

THis is beautiful Joe. I particularly liked the cello part, as well
as the vocals. It certainly does express spiritually.

Mary

--- In crazy_music@y..., nanom3@h... wrote:

/crazy_music/topicId_103.html#108

> THis is beautiful Joe. I particularly liked the cello part, as
well
> as the vocals. It certainly does express spiritually.
>
>
> Mary

Thanks, Mary, for your comments!

Joe