Laguna Beach - shape-note demo

Here (below) is a trial four-part recording of the new shape-note tune "Laguna Beach". I post this only as a demo, to get a feel for what the tune might sound like, with my Yamaha PSR-500M "synth brass" backing it up. Another warning, me singing in four-part harmony may cause seizures or insomnia.

The words are from William Blake's Jerusalem:

I saw a Monk of Charlemaine
Arise before my sight:
I talked with the Grey Monk as we stood
In beams of infernal light.

Gibbon arose with a lash of steel,
And Voltaire with a wheel;
The schools, in clouds of learning rolled,
Arose with war in iron and gold.

'Thou lazy Monk!' they sound afar,
'In vain condemning glorious war;
And in your cell you shall ever dwell:
Rise, War, and bind him in his cell!'

The blood red ran from the Grey Monk's side,
His feet were wounded wide,
His body bent, his arms and knees
Like to the roots of ancient trees.

Titus! Constantine! Charlemaine!
O Voltaire! Gibbon! Vain
Your Grecian mocks and Roman sword
Against this image of his Lord;

For a tear is an intellectual thing;
And a sigh is the sword of an angel king;
And the bitter groan of a martyr's woe
Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow.

Download the MP3 here
Sorry - I can't get the player to work consistently, but I'll fix it tomorrow - download it at the link above.

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