{"id":59909,"date":"2018-07-08T15:34:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T15:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=59909"},"modified":"2018-07-08T15:34:15","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T15:34:15","slug":"sunday-surprise-the-selfsame-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=59909","title":{"rendered":"Sunday surprise, the selfsame song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[ by <strong>Charles Cameron<\/strong> &#8212; whether willed by the brain or torn from the heart, the one, same cry for mercy &#8212; in chant, by Bach, and by Ray Charles &#038; BB king ]<br \/>\n.<\/p>\n<p>A stranger in my Twitter-stream just tweeted a link<\/a> to a current Australian report on an opening window for rescue operations for the boys trapped in that cave in norther Thailand, two and a half miles under ground:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Even if you are not the praying kind, pray now<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dadpcXTT6q\">https:\/\/t.co\/dadpcXTT6q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; G??? C??????? (@GrayConnolly) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrayConnolly\/status\/1015795208666034176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 8, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>[ the video in this tweet is from a continually updated news feed &#8212; at time of writing, the rescue op was just beginning ]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fate may be fate, prayer may or may not influence events &#8212; perhaps prayer may only help us, the watching world ouiside that cave, those circumstances, that peril &#8212; the urge to pray is no respecter of particular religions, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, we all may feel the <strong>instinct to pray<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The prayer is the <strong>most basic cry<\/strong>, as we shall see in three versions: the timeless Gregorian chant, the beauty of the <strong>Erbarme Dich<\/strong> from <strong>Bach<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Matthew Passion<\/strong>, and that selfsame song as <strong>Ray Charles<\/strong> sings it with <strong>BB King<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gregorian chant:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kyrie XI<\/strong> [ Lord, Have mercy ] from the choir of <strong>St Pierre de Solesmes<\/strong>, my favorite haunt when I was seventeen, with the greatest chant scholars and choir in the  world:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EjY6WZ9p3YU\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That <strong>floating, swooping<\/strong> melody is characteristic of the chant.<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><strong>Erbarme dich, mein Gott<\/strong> [ \u201cHave mercy Lord, My God, for the sake of my tears\u201d ] by <strong>JS Bach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If we lose <strong>have mercy, Lord<\/strong> from our conceptual vocabulary, we lose a higher octave of hope, of the necessity of surrender.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nZb7FcP84CM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Erbarme Dich<\/strong> may be <a href=\"http:\/\/thelistenersclub.com\/2017\/04\/10\/bachs-erbarme-dich-mein-gott\/http:\/\/thelistenersclub.com\/2017\/04\/10\/bachs-erbarme-dich-mein-gott\/\">the single sweetest moment<\/a> in <strong>Bach<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>The Matthew Passion<\/strong>, itself arguably the greatest piece of church music ever written &#8212; a monumental, gloriously beautiful, grief-stricken work.<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pure blues: Sinner&#8217;s prayer, Ray Charles and BB King:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If neither Bach nor the chant speak to you, perhaps the blues will &#8212; and if all three touch you, how wonderful the variety of expressions of the one prayer:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jla0tNfM0PI\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lord please have mercy .. have mercy if you please..<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><strong>Footnote: Other unforgettable versions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<li><strong>JS Bach<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mSpx-V_scIU\">Kyrie from the B Minor Mass<\/a>\n<li><strong>WA Mozart<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EXYH3xadNok\">Kyrie from the Requiem Mass<\/a><\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lord have mercy<\/strong> on the boys in the cave &#8212; knowing that the rescue task will be arduous, we ask mercy <strong>with hope and a readiness to surrender<\/strong>, to greet whatever outcome <strong>with our hearts flung open to grief or joy<\/strong> as the case may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ by Charles Cameron &#8212; whether willed by the brain or torn from the heart, the one, same cry for mercy &#8212; in chant, by Bach, and by Ray Charles &#038; BB king ] . A stranger in my Twitter-stream just tweeted a link to a current Australian report on an opening window for rescue [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[837,1651,526,497,1585,1647,480,946,1040,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bach","category-blues","category-charles-cameron","category-christianity","category-crisis","category-mozart","category-music","category-sunday-surprise","category-thailand","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59909"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60030,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59909\/revisions\/60030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}