Well-Traveled

A song for the day. A friend of mine who is a singer had learned this last year, and I was smitten with it. The composer is an American; he wrote this setting to the Paschal acclamation in the style of an Appalachian folk melody. It's one of those deceptively simple tunes that uses only exactly the notes it needs, if I might describe it that way. I have a great admiration for compositions that can balance a strong melody with extreme simplicity--this one is wonderfully satisfying in that regard. And the choir here seems to me to sing it exactly as it should be sung.

(It seems perhaps a bit unmannerly to post this when the composer and the choir here are Orthodox, and Orthodox Easter is quite a bit later than ours this year, meaning that they are still in fasting season. I hope I might be forgiven for my precipitous enthusiasm in regards to a lovely song.)

In Sorrow

I think Easter week was barely over last year when I discovered the Lebanese hymn "Wa Habibi" (O My Beloved). There are quite a few lovely settings of it to be had from YouTube, some of which have translations. But at the moment, my favorite of them is this, which I have run out of time to track down a thorough translation for. I only know that the song is written as if sung by Our Lady, who is crying out to her Son in his passion:

It's not a far step from that one to one of my oldest favorites, the Irish "Caoineadh Na dTrí Mhuire" (Lament of the Three Marys). Typing that, I'm not entirely certain that I ever knew why the title refers to three Marys; though there is certainly a reference in the Gospel to three Marys being by the cross, the dialogue in this song seems, like "Wa Habibi," to be written entirely from the point of view of Jesus' mother. (If you click on the video and come to its page on YouTube, you will find a transcription and a translation of the lyrics).