Inspiration from the Psalms

 

Paul Simon, who has consistently crafted some of the most influential and enduring work in the history of music, has announced the release of his highly anticipated musical work, Seven Psalms. Intended to be listened to as one continuous piece, the 33-minute, seven-movement composition transcends the concept of the “album” and will be released in its entirety on vinyl, CD and across digital platforms on May 19.

Recorded entirely on acoustic instruments, and predominantly performed by Paul, Seven Psalms showcases Simon’s craft at its finest and most captivating, simply with his voice and guitar. A stunning, intricately layered work, it’s a record which establishes an engaging and meditative, almost hymnal soundscape, with Paul’s lyrics providing the gravitational center for constellations of sound woven from guitar strings and other acoustic instrumentation – including choral elements from the highly-regarded British vocal ensemble VOCES8, and a beautiful vocal appearance by Edie Brickell.

A limited edition Seven Psalms record featuring seven spoken word pieces by Nick Cave set to music in collaboration with Warren Ellis was released last year. Kitty Empire writes that 'these short tracks ... hark back to the quietened Cave of 2001’s album of solemn love songs, No More Shall We Part. Because these psalms are lovesick prayers – a kinder God than often appears in Cave’s back catalogue. “When will I awaken to your love?” he wonders, pained, yearning for mercy, grace and heavenly succour."'

Roxy Music’s ‘Psalm’ from the album ‘Stranded’ is a song that feels sermon-like in structure and in sound and which is written as a form of testimony with a movement in understanding that goes from trying God out to standing by his gate and on to knowing you’ll be heard by him. It’s a song in which we are taken on a journey, a journey towards God. 

Roxy Music saxophonist Andy Mackay says of his 3 Psalms: "I have long been fascinated by this collection of ancient poetry and song which has permeated our cultural life. I have tried to reflect this by using the original Hebrew and Latin - the language in which they were written - as well as 17th Century English of the Book of Common Prayer. People of faith will find themselves in familiar territory of prise and mystery and worship while atheists and agnostics can join the extraordinary debate in which the Psalmists sometimes turn from a feeling that God is totally absent or unknowable to arguing with Him because He isn’t doing what they want!"

In The Shadow Of Your Wings is a musical exploration of the Psalms from Deus Ex Musica. This ecumenical project celebrates the unique power of the arts to bring together Christians in fellowship and mutual conversation around our shared love for Scripture. For this project, 3 groups of three composers were assigned a psalm to set to music for female voice and piano: Listening to each trio of compositions provides a unique and fascinating way to explore the ways each psalm can be interpreted differently. Originally presented in Boston in 2022, IN THE SHADOW OF YOUR WINGS was the version of Deus Ex Musica’s series of events that use new music to explore the psalms. These include I WILL LIFT MY EYES UNTO THE MOUNTAINS and THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD OF HOLINESS, each of which feature new compositions for voice and piano, as well as SEARCH ME, O GOD: a new album (and live event) featuring new works for solo violin written by Jewish and Christian composers.

For the One Beautiful World Arts Festival we have a related Deus Ex Musica performance at St Mary's Runwell, 3.00 pm, Sunday 14 May. Awake My Soul is a unique event combining performances of new sacred music with discussion. Performed by acclaimed violinist Emma-Marie Kabanova, this interactive event features new psalm-inspired works written by an international collection of Jewish and Christian composers.  

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Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - I Come Alone And To You.

The mystery at the heart of music

Michael Hann writes in The Guardian: 'If it feels as though you can’t move for new music, then books about pop aren’t far behind. This Christmas alone has brought weighty tomes by Bono and Bob Dylan, Nick Cave’s conversations with the writer Sean O’Hagan, Bez’s autobiography, and former GQ editor Dylan Jones’s book about 1995.'

For Surrender, Bono 'chose the title because, having grown up in Ireland in the 1970s, the act of surrendering was not a natural concept to him. Bono, whose lyrics have frequently been inspired by his Christian beliefs, said that “surrender” was “a word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book”.

“I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist,” he added, describing the book as “the story of one pilgrim’s lack of progress … With a fair amount of fun along the way.”'

Kitty Empire writes, 'The real eye-opener throughout is the depth, breadth and idiosyncrasy of his faith, a non-sectarian Catholicism that’s not strictly church-y.'

Wesley Stace begins his review of The Philosophy of Modern Song by pointing out that: 'In a 1997 Newsweek interview, Bob Dylan told “the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music . . . I’ve learned more from the songs than I’ve learned from . . . rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that.”

He made the point again in 2020’s “Goodbye Jimmy Reed,” his valediction to the man he calls “the most country of all the blues artists in the fifties,” one of whose songs is under consideration in “The Philosophy of Modern Song”: “Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed indeed; / Give me that old time religion, it’s just what I need.” Dylan’s religion, his philosophy, his code, is the music.'

In The Philosophy of Modern Song Raymond Foye writes 'Dylan finds profundities where others find ditties ... [in] chapters [which] take the song as a jumping-off point for stand-alone meditations on art, money, war, religion, etc. ...

Dylan’s view of life seems to be a lot of horror and a little bit of joy, which is where the songs come in: they are a source of comfort and hope for the downtrodden. They “take the sting out of life.” ...

Dylan sees the world crowded with angels and demons, with songs as the intercessors. Songs also represent a better life: you get there by wishing, hoping, and dreaming. For three minutes you too can be a king, a lover, or an outlaw.'

In Faith, Hope and Carnage Nick Cave 'explains his personal crossroads of rock and religion: “All my songs are written from a place of spiritual yearning, because that is the place that I permanently inhabit. To me, personally, this place feels charged, creative, and full of potential.”'

Lyn McCredden writes that 'One of the chastening effects of grief, for Cave, is registered in the experiences and expressions of religious faith. The conversation between Cave and O’Hagan leaves us in no doubt about Cave’s deepened religious beliefs. These have always been a part of him, through his post-punk, drug-fed years, but they are taking new turns.

To his strengthened Christian faith, Cave, often to O’Hagan’s bemusement, attaches a suite of moral human values he would now, through living with his grief and doubt and fear, like to nurture in himself: values of empathy, humility and vulnerability, mercy towards others, openness and tolerance, and acknowledgement of his need for atonement.'

Trailblazing saxophonist Albert Ayler, who remains an important influence among jazz and experimental musicians long after his death, is explored in an important new biography, Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler by Richard Koloda. 

'Ayler's turbulent, often polarising, music career and life, which lasted a brief 34 years, has been subject to myth and rumour right from his debut free jazz recording, Witches And Devils in 1964, through his 1964/5 dates for ESP (including the highly acclaimed, landmark album Spiritual Unity, which featured at No.28 in Jazzwise's The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World book) to his recordings for the Impulse! label, which signed him following a recommendation by John Coltrane. These included 1967's avant-garde extravaganza Live in Greenwich Village, Love Cry and 1969's Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe, which saw Ayler's music moving closer to spiritual redemption and R&B (the latter a return to the music he started out playing with bluesman Little Walter in the early 1950s), before his mysterious death in 1970.'

Ayler 'had a sound that was as big as a house and a way of improvising at times that blended tones into one big mixture that disregarded individual notes. He was as free as they come in avant-garde jazz, yet his themes were at times a mixture of gospel, folk and even simple nursery rhymes.'

'Ayler's work eerily recalled the ragged polyphonies, street-march beats, gospel songs and spirituals of the earliest African-American music.'

Nick Cave says that he believes 'that there exists a genuine mystery at the heart of songwriting' that 'Through writing, you can enter a space of deep yearning that drags its past along with it and whispers into the future, that has an acute understanding of the way of things.' In different ways, these books and the music they describe inhabits that space.

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Nick Cave - Spinning Song.