What color is the water today?

Our house overlooks a bay in Maine. This morning I asked "What color is the water today" and answered myself: "Slate gray." She added "With an undertone of cornflower blue crayon... and putty." 


This really struck me, as it came from a person who makes fun of the descriptions of wines. But a very discerning person. 

The water is indeed a different color each day. And each day is different from the last. Gives you something to look forward to and to appreciate. 

Epiphany: Revealing the Light

Epiphany is a very appropriate religious season for the northern latitudes. It celebrates the revealing of the light of Christ. Yes, with the visit of the magi and the baptism of Jesus by Simeon: the revelation of the "light to enlighten the nations." (We haven't gotten it yet.)


During this season we also celebrate the baptism of Jesus by John, the beginning of his mission, with the voice of God and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove;  and the Transfiguration, where it is revealed to several disciples who Jesus is. (We haven't gotten this yet, either.)


In our part of the world the days are beginning to get noticeably longer (yes, even as the cold get stronger). The darkness begins to part. There is hope. 

Regardless of your tradition, Christian or not, this is a time to celebrate the light that shines through all creation. Realize the light within you. Then, in the words of my brother Roger, "let us be the instrument that God needs to change the lives of others around us. Let’s equip ourselves to be His people where we are and thereby fulfill the purpose for which He gave us life in the very beginning."

Below is a short hymn or chant that I composed some years ago. It is included in my collection, Devotional Chants and Mantras. Here is the audio clip:  Light of Heaven  


   Light of heaven, pure and indestructible, beyond arising and ceasing. 
   Give us your blessing. Purify, transform, awaken us. 
   Shine through our words, deeds and thoughts, 
   That we may give blessings to others. 


  

Do you know what sea smoke is?

On very cold mornings we see sea smoke in the bay. It's a thin layer of condensed water vapor right above the surface of the water. Sea smoke is caused by very cold air coming in over warmer water. The evaporating water molecules condense as they enter the colder air. Sea smoke is quite wispy and incredibly beautiful. As it is often windy here, we enjoy seeing the sea smoke being blown across the bay. 


Recently I observed two crows sitting in their favorite tree down by the water. Like me, they sat and watched. A short work for piano (or flute and piano, or clarinet and piano... oboe would be perhaps a bit melancholy) was the result. Strangely enough it is titled "Two Crows in a Tree Watching Sea Smoke." Here is an image of the first page. I'll post the piece to my web site in a few days. 

  

New Work: Devotional Chants and Mantras

I recently finished the score of a collection of fifty short chants and mantras that have "come to" me at various times over a period of years, from about 1992 to last month. Sample pages of the score and a link to audio clips of some of the selections are at posted at:  


http://www.johnnewellmusic.com/Vocal.html

It was quite a challenge to collect them from various pieces of paper lying about; often a chant would come to me at a time when I was not had no music paper handy, so I would quickly jot it down on whatever piece of paper I could put my hands on. I expect that the collection will continue to grow.  

I composed the texts, unless otherwise indicated. These chants are appropriate for personal devotion; many of them will work also in a group worship setting. Accompaniment is optional, and may be helpful in some cases. In a few of the chants I couldn't resist writing out simple chordal accompaniments; but again, these are not necessary. One may find it helpful to use a one or two note drone; a two note drone should be tonic and dominant notes (e.g. C and G). 

I notated the chants in a voice register that is comfortable for me. You should pitch them wherever it is comfortable for yourself.

Christmas Prayer

Emmanuel, God with us, 
Christ, the anointed one:
You are born, you are here.
Glory in all the heavens, and on earth, peace. 


May we recognize you, may we accept you, 
May we nurture you in our hearts.  
And may we ourselves be born again in you:
So that indeed there is a new creation, 
So that all things become new. 


Thanks be to God.

Advent Prayer

O Lord, You are coming. 
Through the power of your Holy Spirit, 
Help us to prepare. 
Help us, we pray, to recognize You. 
Help us to be ready to receive You. 
Help us to be open to the love and grace which You bring. 
Make still our hearts, make still our minds, 
That you may be born once more in us. 
Amen. 

Another morning prayer

Thank you God for this precious day.
Help me to live it with a peaceful and joyful heart.
Help me to live it with a mind that is clear and undistracted.
Help me to live it with compassion for all those around me.
Help me to live it in service to your will.
Help me to live it in humility, without ego-clinging.
Help me to live it in faith, for in you all things are possible.
Amen.

Another morning prayer

God, You are with me, You are within me.

I sit now in your life-giving presence.

Fill my body, my mind and my heart. 

Grant that I may know your presence. Amen

Prayer for Today and Many Days

O Lord, I place myself in your hands
Tell me what to do, I humbly pray.
Amen.

Antiphons for Advent

Yes, it is Advent, the season of expectation, preparation for the birth of the Messiah. As part of my own Advent celebration this year I have completed new musical settings of the great O Antiphons. They are for unison voices, in a chant style. 


The O Antiphons are brief prayers that are recited or sung during the daily office of Vespers on successive evenings from December 17 - 23. In the liturgy they precede and  follow the singing of the Magnificat. 

The precise origin of these texts is unknown.  However, by the 8th and 9th centuries they were in wide use by the church in Rome and monastic communities throughout western Europe. Sometimes called the Great O Antiphons, they have held a special place in the Church’s Advent tradition for centuries. The texts were adapted  in possibly the 12th century to form the basis of the hymn Veni veni Emmanuel. This hymn was translated into English in 1851 as O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.  

  

Each of these antiphons addresses the Messiah (thus the beginning word “O”) by one of the different titles found in the prophecies of the Old Testament, especially those of Isaiah. Each concludes with a  plea for the Messiah to come. 

The first letters of the titles for the Messiah (Sapentia, Adonai, Radix Jesse, Clavis David, Oriens, Rex Gentium, Emmanuel) in Latin are SARCORE. Read backwards, these form the expression EROCRAS, which means "Tomorrow I come" (or "shall be").  Traditionally, feasts were said to begin on the eve of their celebration, so Christmas began at sundown on Christmas Eve. 

I personally feel that tradition needs to be renewed from time to time, so that it continues to speak to us and remain meaningful. We forget what the words of hymns and other commonly used texts are actually saying. That is why I decided to make a new English translation of the original Latin texts. I was surprised at the strength of the original imagery of the texts and how relevant they are for us today. They carry a “punch” that we would be wise to heed. 

This setting of the antiphons may be sung a capella or (as I prefer) with simple chordal accompaniment, e.g. keyboard, harp or guitar. 

Below are the Latin texts of antiphons. Click here for an audio file:  


                             Seven Antiphons for Advent.mp3

Please Note: I am not a professional singer! The score is available on my web site:


                              johnnewellmusic.com  

O Sapientia                                        

quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,

attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter,

suaviterque disponens omnia:

veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.                 

O Adonai 

et dux domus Israël,

qui Moyse in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,

et ei in Sina legem dedisti:

veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

O Radix Jesse 

qui stas in signum populorum,

super quem continebunt reges os suum,

quem gentes deprecabuntur:

veni ad liberandum nos,

jam noli tardare

O Clavis David
et sceptrum domus Israël,
qui aperis, et nemo claudit,
claudis, et nemo aperuit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,
sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Oriens
splendor lucis aeternae,
et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina
sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Rex Gentium
et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.

O Emmanuel
Rex et legifer noster,
expectatio gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.

My training in composition

What was my training as a composer? I've tended to think that it was pretty traditional (I mean, traditional for the time). Was that true? Actually, no. Was I self taught? In some ways, yes.

The most traditional academic part of my training was as an undergraduate at Duke, where I studied theory, history, piano; but with only a semester of orchestration and two semesters of conducting. I really don't remember if I formally studied composition with Iain Hamilton. Upon reflection, I think that the answer is no. I was on my own, and completed a couple of pieces as an undergraduate, a piano solo work and a piece for brass quintet, inspired by Stockhausen's Momente.

Instead of pursuing the Ivy League (Yale, Columbia, Princeton -- post-Webern) or the Conservatory (Eastman, Juilliard -- more traditional craft-oriented) paths, I went to CalArts, then in its second year of existence. California… that was a different experience. Interestingly, my composition teacher was Mel Powell, from Yale and a member of the Ivy League school. I rarely had lessons. Mel was too involved as Dean of the School of Music in organizational issues. I have great respect for him, but remember mostly his classes in analyzing Webern works. I do remember hearing for the first time music of Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Phillip Glass at CalArts. "California" composers Harold Budd and Jim Tenney were also on the faculty, but I didn't formally work with them. In fact, I didn't formally work with anyone -- just absorbed a lot. Students were pretty much on our own. It was tough for the undergrads, but having gained the basics in theory, piano, etc. it was much easier for me as a grad student, especially as I was fairly self-directed. I have always felt that, at its heart, education is about growth, exploration and learning, not about preparation for a career.

Then SUNY at Buffalo. Mel was evidently a friend of Morton Feldman, one of the ultimate non-academic composers. Morty had just been named Edgard Varese professor at SUNY. The piece that got me into SUNY, I believe, was what one might term a "minimalist" piano piece - it was a study in changes of register and density, based on a simple scale and chord set. Morty was what I consider my only real teacher. What I learned from him:

listen, and trust your ear. (The "urgency of now." I'm not sure where that phrase comes from, but it is on my mind this morning.) One of the very profound things I remember him saying about composition: "choose your poison."

I had lessons at his apartment. My strongest memory is of him hunched over the piano (his eyesight was very poor), looking at the music paper in front of him, playing and listening intently to chords and single notes at the piano. He lived in the world of each piece as it unfolded. As he completed a page of score he would tape it to a bedroom wall, in sequence with the previously completed pages, so that he so he could stand and "walk through" the piece, looking at it closely, to see it unfolding. His trust in himself was terrific. As he completed composing a page of music he would immediately copy it (in ink and on vellum). Actually, I now do somewhat the same in many works. When I trust what I have done, which is usually pretty quickly, I begin "copying" it. Today that means putting it into my notation software. And yes, I still have my ink pens and black ink, even many pages of blank vellum that I will probably never use (never say never).

I have never belonged to any "school" of composition. There are so many these days. In our world it is almost impossible to escape the multiplicity of styles and approaches. Yes, I was influenced by Morty's style for awhile; my own style evolved, though I think that my works still reflect his intuitive approach, of using the ear. It may be hard to pin down my "style" if you listen to more than one of my works, or even more than one movement of a given work. There might appear to be different styles being used in the same work. But it is always a question of my intent, my inspiration, and using what I need in order to accomplish my intent at a given moment. The variety in my works displays different aspects of my sensibility, identity and experience.

If one asked, I would say that these are the composers who have made the greatest impression on me:

Stravinsky

Debussy

Schoenberg

Feldman

Hildegard von Bingen

Beethoven

And now Schubert

There are of course many more.

Watching the stars move

While lying on my side in bed at night I can see out of the top half of one of our bedroom windows. It faces the northeast. Last night at 2:10 am I noticed two bright stars, on above the other (not quite directly above, but a little to the right), about (what appeared to my eyes) 3/4 inch apart, if I held my fingers up to it about three inches from my eyes. A few minutes later a third fainter star appeared from the top of the left side of the window. A beautiful triangle.

I watched the star triangle move, upwards and to the right, slowly. A slow, quiet drama. I couldn't go back to sleep for watching it, visually trying to calculate the exact angle the triangle was moving. At 2:59 the upper right star of the triangle finally disappeared behind the top of the window frame. An impressive disappearance, and satisfying to observe. The triangle was gone.

Somewhat later I returned to sleep.

Prayer from Sacred Space

I highly recommend this web site: http://www.sacredspace.ie. It is run by Irish Jesuits and features prayers for every day. Here is a recent one:

O Lord, I remind myself that I am ever in your presence.

I will take refuge in your loving heart.

You are my strength in times of weakness.

You are my comforter in times of sorrow.

In the section Prayers for Peace on Earth are writings by Pope John XXIII from the encyclical Pacem in Terris. An example:

The world will never be the dwelling place of peace till peace has found a home in the heart of each and every person, till every person preserves in himself the order ordained by God to be preserved.

And on the same page I found this prayer from the Buddhist tradition:

Evoking the presence of the great compassion, let us fill our hearts with our own compassion – towards ourselves and towards all living beings.

Let us pray that all living beings realise that they are all brothers and sisters, all nourished from the same source of life.

Mindfulness

O Lord, help me to develop mindfulness. Help me to practice mindfulness.

Perhaps it is even more difficult to act with mindfulness when there is nothing that HAS to be done. It seems almost a relief, now to have tasks that have to be done at or by a certain time: mow the grass before it rains, meet the student at 2:00 pm stack the wood before tomorrow.

Our minds can so easy be like puppies: cute but distracted, chasing from one thing to another. Sit, mind, Sit!

And mindfulness is not merely about "organizing" or "managing" your time, as in the incredible number of books written, or consultants paid to consult, on the the subject. Yes, it is about determining priorities, paying attention to what is important. Ah: what is truly important? I want to go much deeper, beyond what is to be done, or what I intend to do. How do I want to be?

Some Buddhist teachers use the term "recollection" in place of "mindfulness." "Reaching samadhi, or stillness of mind, is only possible with proper recollection." This sentence is from a chapter by Bhikku Mangalo in the book Entering the Stream. The discussion that follows is about the practice of recollection, an indispensable practice; and yes, it involves breathing exercises and letting go of distractions.

And what do you think of this line, which challenges a very big assumption for many in the Christian tradition of faith and belief: "Above all the mind must be starting to turn away from the old patterns, which is the true meaning 'repentence' - metanoia." (the original Greek term).

I digress.

Sit, mind, Sit. "Bring the mind home," in the words of another teacher, Sogyal Rinpoche.

Sea gull

After working on my music I walked down to the cove near our house. The song I had been working on was still in my head. I was singing it to myself over and over. A sea gull sat nearby on a large rock. He looked at me (or so I imagined) and squawked once.

My song, his squawk. What's the difference?

Nature sings.