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Rock on Fathers!

OOOooh yeah.

This particular piece - for a while- there was only one copy of the manuscript. It was locked away in the Vatican while it wasn't in use (duing Holy Week- and to practice, of course). Anyway, the only people allowed to perform it for years and years were the ones in Vatican choir and anyone else who did was punished with excommunication. I suppose this seems harsh. But the point was to keep it alive and mysterious, as something completely unearthly and not an overplayed pop song. I don't *think* anyone tried to reproduce it, so I don't think the punishment was ever actually needed.

And then one year, a family from Austria came to Rome for Easter. One of the members was a fourteen year old kid named Wolfgang. He listened to it twice and transcribed it (completely accurately) from memory. The Pope was so surprised and impressed that he dropped the punishment of excommunication.

So.. thanks to Mozart, it is now on YouTube...




(not all of the Psalm)
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
3My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’



4These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
5Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help 6and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
8By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.


9I say to God, my rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?’
10As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’


11Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

May She Rest In Peace

Catharine Bluhm
September 27 1940 - June 28 2002


I love you, Grandmom.

Randomnity-

I feel much more like myself than I have all year. This is an incredibly random post.

So one day, I was talking to God and I was like, "Hey, why couldn't you have given us an off switch on our brains?" (It had been a bad day and I was thinking about things that were confusing and hard) Anywho, He said "Well, Catherine, you know... the way that you find me is through those thoughts. If I gave you an off switch and you could turn them off, you would be less likely to find me. You'd be able to turn me off." And I said, "oh, well... that makes sense" and He said "Did you expect me to do something that didn't make sense?" and I siad "well, no. I just don't expect to be able to make sense about what makes sense to you." and He said "Well... don't get used to it."

But... I still sometimes wish I could have one. Although, I suppose that it would just provoke the whole "run" thing that I have going.

So tonight and last night, since my mother and father are not here, I have been the one expected to take of meals. I LOVE IT! Like, seriously, not just meals, but since RC works like my dad and is hardly ever home anymore but is home this week, Christina has been... well... a little preoccupied. Plus today, they had to go to Montgomery to talk with Father and do all that stuff. SO... I have had to you know, do everything. Keep the brothers happy; make sure they don't do something dangerous, make sure they don't kill each other, keep them busy because otherwise they get sad because they miss Dad and now mom, too and mom gets to see Dad but they can't, feed them and make sure they eat well, and make sure they do their chores and all that kind of stuff. Part of it I don't like. The part that has to say "no you can't do that" or "no you cannot eat chocolate for lunch" (because seriously, who [unless you are like me and don't actually like chocolate] doesn't want that for lunch - especially when you are five and miss your parents). But... there's nothing better than to hear than "Thank you! You made it for me??! I've been wanting to eat that for like, a month!" (Now, I have no idea if the time frame is accurate, but that's completely irrelevant.) I mean, the gratitude of a hungry eleven year old boy when you fix his favorite food... you really can't get much more gratitude than that. (Not that I do it for the gratitude, I do it cuz well... let's be honest... I have to but also a little because it's fun to see them so happy. But I don't know, there's something about planning well balanced meals and making sure that they eat well balanced meals (whether it is... you know, exactly what you had in mind or not) and such that makes me not be able to wait until maybe one day I have a family of my own to do that for. My favorite book:
Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House . Eh, I'm a weirdo. But I can cook and clean! And my boys love me! And really who cares about anything else.

Pringles has this flavor of chip called Baked potatoe. I am not sure what I think of this. it really does taste like a baked potato. It an odd sensation for one's taste buds. Kind of like cheeseburger pizza (have you ever had that? strange strange stuff, it is). It makes me wonder what is in them. I mean, they are good. But are they toxic? Cuz, seriously, how can they not be?

OH! OH! So... which one's worse: Being 18 (last January) and getting bifocals OR being 19 and correcting most vision problems with contacts BUT having to buy the (lowest strength) generic type of reading glasses? BIFOCALS. They are awful. Yeah, I can see. But my world is split in half! NOW... I can watch a movie! LOL. It was difficult with bifocals, but, I am so freakin' near sighted that I can't see the screen if I take my glasses off. Now... I am free!! I never ever thought I'd wear the things that you have to poke into your eye. But they are great. I wish I'd had them sooner. It's still a little strange taking them out. Putting them I'm ok. But taking them out kinda creeps me out. BUT I CANN SEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sister (who is even more nearsighted than I - though she doesn't have focusing problems like I do yet)has a theory. Monet- great impressionist? No- just a blind dude painting what he saw. LOL.

Um... I think I should I go... I hear my boys singing the song about the ten in the bed and the little one said "roll over"... I should probably go SEND THEM TO SLEEP!

Psalm 121

Some soul comfort



Psalm 121
1I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2My help cometh even from the LORD, who hath made heaven and earth.

3He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.

4Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5The LORD Himself is thy keeper: the LORD is thy defense upon thy right hand.

6So that the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night.

7The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: yea it is even He that shall keep thy soul.

8The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth for evermore.

In Defense of the Sacred (at a Catholic School)

(How to not write a philosphy paper on love and the personalistic norm day 8 because you suck at it [the norm, that is])

The choir has officially been told that it is no longer allowed to sing sacred music. If this is the case, I'm almost certain that will be no real choir to speak of next semester. I know of two people who will not sing and could bank on a third. And of course, they are most musically trained persons we have in the choir. If one of them leaves, then I can almost say with certainty that another person would leave, depleting the choir of an entire voice section. (subtlety, eh?).

For a Catholic school, this seems really dumb. I don't know the reasoning behind it and I'm not even going to try and guess. But really? Banned from singing Sacred Music? Stuck singing "keep your Lamps" and "Didn't me Lord Deliver Daniel"? Please God, no. Is that supposed to be a compromise?


I noticed that on the website, the mission statement (I hate those things) for the choir has been changed. :( Sad.


This is a Catholic college. Our Catholic idenity should not be something that is banned. And Catholic music is not just a treasure of the Church, it's a treasure of the world. Without Palestrina's compositions, there would have been no polyphony. No Bach Cantatas. No Moazart Requiem. Our job not only as Catholics, but as musicians too, is to keep this music alive and to introduce it to and share it with others. But ESPECIALLY as Catholic musicians, our job is to perpetuate this music in the Church.

A genera of music cannot be forced on a group of singers. If they hate the music, they really will not care to make it beautiful. It will be sufficient. But it won't be beautiful. Sacred music is actually easier to learn for inexperienced singers than gospel spirituals. It's all about the math. Spirituals are highly syncopated with weird rhythms. Old polophony is 100 times simpler because the composers were after mathematical granduer in their compositions. They are complex and challenging, but they are simpler than weird rhythms.

Secular choirs sing sacred music ALL THE TIME!

Why can't we?

hehehe

Something I Wrote a While Ago and had a Discussion About Today

Disclaimer:
1.- This was my first "real" paper that I ever wrote. I never had to write anything in highschool (shh), so be merciful please!
2.- I don't think that all rock music nessecarily harms the soul. Yes, there are Christian rock groups that bring many people closer (or even just) to Christ. BUT this is taking the original intent of rock music out of it. It's adding stuff to it that wasn't there. I don't really think anyone can argue that the point of rock music was to train the soul to leash its passions; in fact, I think you have to argue the quite the opposite is true: its original intent was to convince people that they needed to unleash those passions. Putting a Christian message to rock music does- as the person I was talking to (I think) said, though talking about something else- take those passions and show that they need to be ordered and that they are there. But that was not the original intent of rock music and I don't really know if it's 100% true rock at that point.
3.-Even though it was a kind of debate format, I'm really not interested in a debate. I'll read something from the other side, but I'm not putting this out here to start a debate, because I seriously doubt that I could handle that. I've got way too much other stuff to deal with right now.
Like class work which I should be doing doing right now.

I noticed the other day whileI was reading Orthodoxy that I write a lot like Chesterton (and by that, I only mean that I use a lot of parentheticals...) :P


That said, enjoy. Here ya go.

In the chapter of The Closing of the American Mind entitled “Music,” Allan Bloom describes the relationship between music (especially rock music) and the human soul. Bloom suggests that music is what cultivates the soul and either allows it to grow or hampers its growth. Music and the lyrics that accompany it affect a person more than just temporarily and outwardly; its affects can be lasting and deeply imprinted on a soul. Rock music does not allow the soul to grow like it is supposed to; rock music ‘stunts’ the soul’s growth or deforms it.

Music is more than just sound that makes a person feel better; “[m]usic is the medium of the human soul” (Bloom 71). When Thomas Jefferson could not come up with the right words for parts of the Declaration of Independence, he played his violin and was able to express his thoughts (O’Donnell, musicpower.com). Music even affects non-humans. Plants have been shown to respond to music. The same types of seeds were grown in identical environments but in one, classical music was played and in the other, rock music was played. The plants that were exposed to classical music grew and flourished but the ones exposed to rock music withered and died. This reaction can be compared to what happens when a person constantly listens to rock music.

Music does not need lyrics to make an impression upon a person. The rhythm of the music is enough for the meaning to be conveyed. The lyrics of songs are influenced by the beat and rhythm of the music. “Even when articulate speech is added, it is utterly subordinate to and determined by the music and passions it expresses” (Bloom 71). If someone hears a sad song, he can tell it is a sad song without having heard the lyrics.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, a Roman statesman in the fifth century said “Music is so naturally united with us that we cannot be free from it even if we so desired.” This statement is especially true today but with an entirely new significance. Anywhere at anytime music is accessible: in houses, in cars, airplanes, and on the street (Bloom 68). One can access any music that he wants to hear from a computer and even a mobile telephone. This is why Allan Bloom says: “[t]his is the age of music and the states of soul that accompany it” (68).

Since music is linked so closely to the soul, it is one of the things that most affect a person’s education. Education is defined as “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life” (dictionary.com). Bloom says: “Civilization or, to say the same thing, education is the taming or domestication of the soul’s raw passions- not suppressing or excising them, which would deprive the soul of its energy- but forming and informing them as an art” (71). No other music has formed the souls of so many young people as rock music has. Children naturally imitate what they are told is good. If children listen to rock music, it is only natural that they would imitate what the lyrics praise as good: sex, drugs, rebellion, selfishness, and violence. One would not give an elementary school child a college level test. Why would anyone present to children something that they are not mature enough to understand? Rock music does exactly that:

It acknowledges the first emanations of children’s emerging
sensuality and addresses them seriously, eliciting them and
legitimating them, not as little sprouts that must be carefully
tended in order to grow into gorgeous flowers, but as the real
thing. Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the
public authority of the entertainment industry, everything
that their parents always used to tell them they had to wait
for until they grew up and would understand later. (Bloom 73)

Just as a baby will get sick if it is fed solid food too soon, the soul will be perverted if it is fed the “solid food” that rock music is. A ten year old is not mature enough to constantly listen to songs like Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” or Green Day’s “86” without being affected by the messages of sex and violence. “This is the significance of rock music….it has risen to its current heights in the education of the young on the ashes of classical music, and in an atmosphere in which there is no intellectual resistance to attempts to tap the rawest passions” (Bloom 73). Lots of young people think that what was considered moral and right fifty years ago (no pre-marital sex, non-violence, man and woman marriages) is now old just fashioned and backward because no one has taught them otherwise.

Bloom says “The first sensuous experiences are decisive in determining the taste for the whole of life” (79). Rock music deprives the young of naturally discovering the world and all its beauty. It shows it to them in an almost mutilated fashion and tells them that it is the best, most beautiful, and most fulfilling thing before they are ready to know completely. If an athlete is not physically ready for an activity and tries to accomplish it too early, his energy is going to be spent and he could possibly hurt himself. The same thing happens to the soul. If a person is too premature for something and is exposed to or experiences it anyway, his energy will be spent and he will very possibly be emotionally hurt, sometimes without ever knowing that he is hurt or at least not knowing why he is hurting. Because it exposes the soul too early to things that should withheld from it, rock exhausts the energy of young people and does not allow the soul to grow; rock corrupts the soul. (80)

The mass perversion of a society by music can be seen even more clearly today than when Allan Bloom wrote The Closing of the American Mind. The generation that Bloom talks about are now adults. Bloom said that “the Michael Jackson costume will slip off to reveal a Brooks Brothers suit beneath.…But this life is as empty and as false as the one they left behind,” (Bloom 81). This is evident in the increase of divorces, sexual chaos, and general decline of society since rock music became the music of the people, especially young people.

Children are now being indoctrinated by rock music instead of being educated by parents and teachers and now they do not know how to think. Rock singers tell children and teenagers things about the world that aren’t necessarily true or they portray one way of looking at something as the only way to look at it and teenagers and children accept this without ever even questioning why they should believe such ideas are true. Young people no longer want to search to find the right answers; they have the answers handed to them through their music.

Plato argues that if you listen to decent music, then your soul will train your body to do decent things. It would seem that the opposite is also true. If you only listen to music that is not decent, then your soul will not, indeed, cannot train your body to do decent things. Most rock music does not exemplify decent things. It is no surprise, then that younger people, who are almost constantly immersed in rock music (and other genres like it) do not know decent things. Rock music does not supply the soul with the means to know decency; it denies decency and things that are good and replaces them with sex, drugs, and violence. Children need to be taught by someone who can explain without harming, express without violence, and love without selfishness. Rock music is not this teacher.

Brothers

:D.