Oh, awesome! The Mail in England has a headline, “Boozy Britain’s bloody New Year: A 999 call every seven seconds in alcohol-induced mayhem.” And! An amazingly strange<\/a> article with genius pictures. Look at this:<\/p>\n

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Their caption is, “Officers stop and question a drunken male about his facial injuries in Newcastle.” His hair is sort of perfection, and I am really feeling his grey shirt. How great is this:<\/p>\n

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\nAn [sic<\/em>] young woman helps a friend who has almost certainly had too much to drink.<\/p>\n

Almost Certainly. Right before Christmas, I had a piece played and sung in the R\u00f3tunda of the Guggenheim Museum: a new Christmas carol setting two texts: Senex Puerum Portabat and Hodie Christus Natus Est. A live recording (complete with coughing and a fire alarm, and too much time at the end) is below.<\/p>\n

[audio:01 Senex Puerum Portabat Edit.mp3]
\nVox Vocal Ensemble & the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, George Steel, Conductor
\nLive Recording 12\/21\/08<\/small><\/p>\n

Text & Translation<\/p>\n

Senex puerum portabat:
\npuer autem senem regebat:
\nquem virgo peperit,
\net post partum virgo permansit:
\nipsum quem genuit, adoravit. <\/p>\n

Hodie Christus natus est:
\nHodie Salvator apparuit:
\nHodie in terra canunt Angeli,
\nlaetantur Archangeli
\nHodie exsultant justi, dicentes:
\nGloria in excelsis Deo.
\nAlleluia.
\n*
\nAn old man carried the child,
\nyet the child ruled the old man.
\nHim whom the virgin had borne
\n– after which she remained for ever a virgin –
\nshe herself worshipped.<\/p>\n

Today Christ is born:
\nToday the Savior appeared:
\nToday on Earth the Angels sing,
\nArchangels rejoice:
\nToday the righteous rejoice, saying:
\nGlory to God in the highest.
\nAlleluia. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My basic scheme was that the first part (Senex Puerum Portabat) was a series of pulses anchoring the texture, and then at the second part, we encounter an ecstatic brass band which then explodes into free-form speaking-in-tongues at “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” I like Christmas music very much, although I’m somewhat saddened that a lot of the standards are Really Majestic (O Come All Ye Faithful) or Really Still (Silent Night “\u201c more on this in a second). There is an ecstatic mania about Christmas too that you get in some Sweenlinck but not really ever in audience participatory-settings. It would be unseemly, maybe, to have a whole church filled with people doing some (highly controlled!) babbling. In any event, I think Silent Night is just about the worst thing that ever happened, or, at least, singing along to it is. The worst part is:<\/p>\n

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It’s too high for people! It’s out of control! And to try to do it quietly “\u201c it’s just not gwine happen. This moment always reminds me of that moment in Angels in America<\/em> where Belize says:<\/p>\n

The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed. Also this is pretty amazing:<\/p>\n