One thing I like enormously about traveling is having little scars and wounds that exist on both sides of the surreal thing that is an overnight flight. I cut my finger making dinner in New York last week, and feeling the cut helped me focus when I woke up at 6:00 in the morning in Iceland. It was so windy at the airport that I physically couldn’t leave the terminal to get to my rental car until it calmed down. Then, when I did, I had to walk against the wind for ten minutes while banked snow whirled around: Very Dramatic Hertz Rental Situation.<\/p>\n

There is totally economic drama here:
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

I got sent this very pleasant and soothing track by a band called Kyte:<\/p>\n

[audio:01 Boundaries.mp3]
\nKyte Boundaries<\/em> from a self-titled album<\/small><\/p>\n

Who are put out by a label called Erased Tapes<\/a> who seem to be Consistently Excellent.<\/p>\n

<\/a>It’s almost time to start thinking about Christmas Music! I have been listening obsessively to Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of the traditional carol “The Holly and the Ivy”. Now, this is a very well-known tune and there are a bunch of very famous arrangements of it, but for some reason this Britten really hits the spot for me. When you get a really plummy recording from England, too, they really lean in on the last word of the chorus, that being, “choir,” and somehow compress it into a one-syllable loaf. I just adore the pagan universe described in these lyrics:<\/p>\n

The holly bears a berry
\nAs red as any blood
\nAnd Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
\nTo do poor sinners good
\nO the rising of the sun
\nAnd the running of the deer
\nThe playing of the merry organ
\nSweet singing of the choir<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This particular recording has the MOST PINCHED AND DELIGHTFUL KUMAMOTO OYSTER of a countertenor solo in the third verse, too. Check it out.<\/p>\n

[audio:12 arr. Britten _ The Holly and the Ivy.mp3]
\nThe Holly and the Ivy (Traditional, arr. Britten)
\nKing’s College Choir, Cambridge<\/small><\/p>\n

Curiously, I can’t seem to find a source for Britten’s lyrics. The third verse (the one the kumamoto countertenor sings) seems to go on about Tree and Setting Sinners Free and such. I love these tight little protopagan rhyme schemes! Another good example of that is one of these Rhyming Numerologygasms, called “Joys Seven.”<\/p>\n

[audio:18 Joys Seven (Arr. Cleobury).mp3]
\nJoys Seven (arr. Cleobury)
\nNine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge<\/small><\/p>\n

This arrangement is perfectly English: efficient and sentimental without being too outrageous. There is, however, a completely over-the-top descant at the end that performs a little trick. The organ rises up the scale, and the trebles sing aah aah aah on the top four notes of an A^{b<\/sup>-major scale. Then, when they repeat it immediately afterwards, the G is flatted, followed by the F, and then a G-natural: it’s very subtle, but it lines up perfectly with the text below “…to see her own son Jesus Christ to wear the crown…” “\u201d what you expect is, of course, the crown of thorns, but the word that you get is “heav’n” (to rhyme with Seven). That little turn in the trebles is precisely the Tart Joy of Christmas: you have to make sure that you advance the clock to Good Friday, looming just a few months later. See:<\/p>\n}

<\/a><\/p>\n

There are several little galling moments, specifically in the sixth cycle, at the words:<\/p>\n

The next good joy our Mary had,
\nIt was the joy of six;
\nTo see her own son Jesus Christ
\nUpon the Crucifix.
\nUpon the crucifix, good man: And blessed may he be,
\nBoth Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
\nTo all eternity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mmm. This is one of my favorite lyrics EVER, because a little digging reveals some alternate words. Check out the first verse the way it’s sung these days:<\/p>\n

The first good joy our Mary had,
\nIt was the joy of one:
\nTo see the blessed Jesus Christ
\nWhen he was first her son.
\nWhen he was first her son, good man…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and now an alternate:<\/p>\n

The first good joy our Mary had,
\nIt was the joy of one;
\nTo see her own Son Jesus
\nTo suck at her breast bone;
\nTo suck at her breast bone,
\nGood man, and blessed may he be…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ooh, see, isn’t that so much better? Then, dig deeper:<\/p>\n

The forte joye, in good fay,
\nWas upon halewyn thursday,
\nHe stey to hevene in ryche aray,
\nWith Fader and Sone and Holy Gost.<\/p>\n

The fyfte joye, withoutyn dene,
\nIn hevene he crownyd his moder clene,
\nThat was wol wil the eyr a sene,
\nWith Fader, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now we’re talking! Mm, crownyd his modr clene. I wonder if this is an error (Queene is prolly what is meant, here) or if really we’re talking about “clene” in its Middle English use as a noun<\/a>, meaning, “(a) Guiltless or excellent person; also, purity; (b) = clene Lenten; (c) clear path,” in which case, she, as a Pure Virgin or whatever, can properly join the “sene,” (here, from the root that brings us Synod – sort of a holy gathering) of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Inneresting.<\/p>\n

Two final things. I got a comment in my Comment Space saying, “your meat talk is relentless. i find it a bit dull,” to which I respond, “Sorry! I am just a big flessh enthusiast.” Second thing: anybody who wants to witness a particularly ugly argument online about the staging of Opera should check out this website<\/a>. It’s interesting and nasty: the basic premise here is that Patrice Ch\u00e9reau directed a production of Wagner’s Ring<\/em> Cycle a couple years ago that got stuck on DVD and is a kind of mainstream example of a wacky production (the whole thing is set in, like, the industrial revolution). Now, I am somebody who thinks that operas (especially great ones) can bear the weight of totally crazy productions with, you know, elephants and gas masks and gender reversals and piles of syringes or whatever. But I don’t really “care” in that same way that a lot of people do. And some people hate the whole idea of applying a production to an opera (rather than letting the production come from within, if that makes any sense). Anyway, read that nasty argument and feel glad that you don’t have to fight with these people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing I like enormously about traveling is having little scars and wounds that exist on both sides of the surreal thing that is an overnight flight. I cut my finger making dinner in New York last week, and feeling the cut helped me focus when I woke up at 6:00 in the morning in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4627,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions\/4627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicomuhly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}