Tag: Music

Corpus Christi Carol

On By cjx07sterIn Sunday Posts, TravelLeave a comment

This as I walked on Sunday morning, in  Foxboro, MA. USA.  Past rocks and springs, and green grass, past houses of wood on foundations of stone, ready for the frozen ground to come, but shining in the light summer air that day. I had a short conversation that morning.

“hello” – said the american woman, as I came by her house.

“Hi”, – I said, the Aussie wondering..

“How are you ?”, the woman answered, digging out a tree in her garden

“I’m well” I said, the stranger walking by,  “looks like a fair bit of work for you”…

“Yes”, “The kids are away …”

“OK well It’s good that it is not raining then” as I continued on past..

Sunday can be like that, far from home, a whole day can be spent with just occasional short conversations.. which take on a significance due to the lack of other conversational noise of the day to day.  As I continued walking I thought I might write something of Corpus Christi, what is it all about etc..

Corpus Christi Carol, I really like the tune, the way Jeff Beck plays it, the way Hayley Westenra sings it, the way Benjamin Britten wrote the music, the way somebody wrote the ancient lyrics some 500 years ago.  I feel there is scope to extend the lyrics a few more stanzas…I guess these stanzas look at the continuation of presence by faith and power in the Eucharist, something relevant to the feast of Corpus Christi.

Corpus Christi Carol – additional stanzas

And this is the method his story is told

not symbolic, but real life fold-ed

Corpus Christi, he gave us to share

Bread and wine Christ made him there

How can it be, that this bread is He ?

How can it be, this wine you and me ?

in our lives, his love transforms

and by our faith, his word informs,

And told the priest that he had the hour

To continue the simplest miracle power

Coltrane – Cotton Club – Ni Hao – Miles Away

On By cjx07sterIn TravelLeave a comment

Two men walk into a bar, it’s Shanghai, the cotton club, few years back.  The songs could have been like My O

ne and Only Love, or Soul Eyes.  Apart from the live house band, the place was full, but quiet and attentive,

listening….a lone trumpeter on stage, playing the harmon like Miles did, I went there with Tom, it was summer time, and hot, humid in the Shanghai days, down Hua Hai Lu. W

e got drinks, Tom knew the owner, which was good, and we got a table at the back, thats all that was left.  A soul black lady got up on stage, and sang soul/blues like the trumpeter, only really black cool, loved it. The drinks arrived, we sat back and commented on the way Shanghai had got cool, and was probably one of the really great happening places around at the time, the tallest building in the world competition was on, and Shanghai was in it to win with the tall building up in their river clouds floating up there. Cool with music and people and the girls were getting much better at the english language.  Coltrane for lovers was the mood, and Miles was the groove, Shanghai style… like imagine a bunch of expat musicians, who like Shanghai who come from countries distant to stay and form a band for a club in Shanghai.  Ni Hao Shanghai..Gan Bei !.

Immediate the lights went out, the sound of the airconditioners stopped, and we were all in a silent surprise, with no music flowing over, we were like dragged back to the new new world where blackouts really did happen occasionally… and this one.. well .. here we were sitting in the dark… one by one candles came out, more drinks, and the place took on a different flavor, like somehow candles everywhere make it shift left in the mind, and music seems more amplified already.. the guitar became acoustic, the singer, the trumpeter, more amplified by the dark and candles and lack of power.. now that is the way to drink scotch… but then the groove was good and the temperature rose,, eventually it just got too hot in there and no air.. just dark and music and the oxygen consumed by candles, untill such time as we left.  I mean it was great, but two men walked out of a bar and said.  How about a beer mate !. Ni Hao !