The Dying Californian - Lyrics & Chords - The Blue Myself

This is my version of "The Dying Californian," a traditional American folk hymn. It's another homemade demo recording under the name The Blue Myself (a band alternately known as Friends Around the Campfire, Wizard Pit, Sandy Mary, and, very rarely, Pandoraz Kunt - an offshoot of The Manna Tease created for songwriting / workshopping purposes.) I used my Les Paul, my turtleback mandolin, and an ancient Yamaha PSR-500M for the recording.

The melody follows roughly the same shape as the folk hymn (410 in the Sacred Harp, pictured at the very top), but this version is in D minor key (what Nigel Tufnel calls "the saddest of all keys") and in a loping 4/4. 

The chords are basically:

Dmin / / Gmin / / Dmin / /  Bb / A7 / Dmin

In the Sacred Harp, the words are credited to "Ball & Drinkard, 1859" - my favorite lyrics-writing duo since "Koch & Tokup." 

Lay up nearer, brother, nearer,
For my limbs are growing cold,
And thy presence seemeth dearer
When thy arms around me fold.  

 I am dying, brother, dying,
Soon you will miss me in your berth,
And my form will soon be lying
Beneath the ocean's briny surf.  

 Hearken to me, brother, hearken,
I have something I would say,
Ere this veil my vision darken
And I go from hence away,  

 I am going, surely going,
But my hopes in God are strong,
I am willing, brother, knowing
That He doeth nothing wrong.

Please "like" The Blue Myself on facebooks:

Advent Calendar of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs: XVI. Bethlehem & Sherburne

Speaking of sheep, Nahum Tate's "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" is one of the most frequently set texts for carols. (I've always loved the juxtaposition of the mundane "all seated on the ground" with the glory shining all around, but I suppose that's the point.) The common setting in my caroling book is by Handel, and I think there's another old common British church hymn called "Winchester Old." The version I know best is Sherburne from the Sacred Harp, & it's also one of my favorite tunes in that book. This is the great Alan Lomax "field" recording:

Here's that recording on spotify. I found several other decent versions of that on spotify, here, here, & here. I really like this medley by the Western Wind called Three Settings of "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks." The excerpt of Sherburne is in this video:

The other setting in the Sacred Harp, Shining Star 461, doesn't appear to be on Spotify. (Will Fitzgerald has a nice round-up of Christmas tunes from the Sacred Harp here.)
However, William Billings, the great Sacred Harp composer, did set the words also, and the tune Bethlehem is published in the Norumbega Harmony. Here's Anonymous 4 singing it on spotify, & here's the Norumbega Harmony - two pretty tame versions, but still pretty. Here's a the Western Wind again:

I've also set the Tate text several times, here. & here's our incomplete Infinite Playlist of Non-Overplayed Christmas Songs (listen on random!)

What Mary Noticed - The Manna Sustains song no. III

Our Epic Murder Ballad Song Cycle, The Manna Sustains, continues with song no. III, "What Mary Noticed." Here's us singing it on youtube:


What Mary Noticed, Song no. III of The Manna Tease's Epic Murder Ballad Song Cycle, The Manna Sustains!

...wherein Pink Mary, a 12-year-old girl who lives in the sewers, observes secretly the goings on in Arkansas City, including the machinations of Miss Masha, the mayor's mistress. Mary sees her purchasing Rohypnol from a contrabassoon-playing dwarf and surreptitiousness poisoning Young Manasseh & the Deputy Sheriff, Maple Seraph, who are having a lusty romance. That same chilly evening, the mayor mysteriously kicks the bucket, & Miss Masha succeeds him.

Please "like" / follow our band The Manna Tease on facebooks!

The first two songs, Young Manasseh's Stains & On the trail of Young Manasseh, were posted on this blog here. More of The Manna Sustains on itwaslost.

Lyrics:

What Mary Noticed


As black as a galactic eclipse,
And as reactionary as a reactionist,
Is Pink Mary’s filthy face.
She thinks that it’s pretty neat
To live beneath the city street.
And she sees things from her secret space.


She noticed the Mayor of Arkansas City
Leave the City Hall at about 11:30,
With a woman who was not his wife.
The girl tripped over a napping vagrant,
Who was wafting nasty odors flatulently fragrant,
And out of her satchel fell a small switchblade knife.


The police would love to see what
Mary sees, but unfortunately,
She lives beneath their toes.
She wears a fleece to shield her
From the breeze, she fears that she will freeze.
As the sewer urchins know:
She’s already lost her nose.


The next afternoon outside an underground saloon,
Mary noticed a dwarf with a contrabassoon
Selling flunitrazepam to the Mayor’s mistress.
Then she saw the vagrant & a female officer,
Stumbling arm-in-arm down a dark corridor,
As he fumbled with the straps on her dress.


Mary saw the Mayor’s mistress see the strange pair,
And she watched them in the alley strip into their underwear.
And she slyly slipped on a skier’s mask.
The mistress crept up to the fornicating couple,
As invisible as a heaping rubble of trouble.
And she slipped the rufies into the vagrant’s flask.


The police would love to see what, &c...


That night it was pretty windy,
There was a cold draught slamming shutters all over the city,
And Pink Mary bundled up in her fleece.
In the morning, outside the Mayor’s mansion,
Cops & ambulances clustered neath the Kansas sun.
The Mayor was stone dead… with no sign of disease.


The dwarf took out his contrabassoon,
And played a sorrowful tune to the midwinter moon,
And Mary wept.
She noticed the vagrant & his lover flee town,
And the mistress put on her head the Mayor’s crown,
And Mary snatched the switchblade… from off of the City Hall steps.


The contra-bassoon played: baaah bah bah bah, &c...


©2011 The Manna Tease
"What Mary Noticed" incorporates the traditional folk tune "Sacred Throne," by Hugh Wilson (1800), (public domain.)

UPDATE: How about an illustrated songbook version of this song?

What Mary Mary Noticed, from The Manna Sustains - Illuminated Sheet Music

The Manna Sustains
An Epic Murder-Ballad Song-Cycle
by the Manna Tease


And the Lord said, I brought you into this world, and I can take you out. -Exodus 16.37


Prelude. The Wind & the Rain
Song no. I. Young Manasseh's Stains
Song no. II. On the Trail of Young Manasseh
Song no. III. What Mary Noticed
Song no. IV. First Vision of St Olaf
First Interlude. The Wind & Snow
Song no. V. Wha' Happened in Oaxaca
Song no. VIa. Who are you, Elle Mary?
Song no. VIb. Second Vision of St Olaf
Song no. VII. Pink Mary's Stains
Song no. VIIIa. Banks of Pontchartrain
Song no. VIIIb. Young Manasseh Complains
Second Interlude. The Wind & Mud
Song no. IXa. Arkansas City
Song no. IXb. On the Trail of Pink Mary
Song no. X. Pink Mary's Marriage
Song no. XIa. Chase Scene / The Spatula / Pink Mary's Death
Song no. XIb. The Manna Sustains
Song no. XIc. Pink Mary's Resurrection / Wha' Happened in Oklahoma / Who Are You, Elle Mary? (Reprise)
Song no. XII. Young Manasseh Remains
Hymn. Sacred Throne
Palinode. And I Will No Longer Smoke My Hubbly-Bubbly Solitarily

Three Years Ago: Chronicles: Legendary Costume Designer Asks: Are You a Poet?

Today, on Three Years Ago, our legendary series where we repost a post from exactly three years ago, I've dug up a rare "biographical" blog entrée. Thank heavens this is an unusual occurrence:

_____________________________________________________________

Last week, I was rejected from a graduate school program I had applied to, so I vowed to go on a 48-hour Steve Zissou-style bender, wake up next week, draft a new plan for the next few years of my life, then set out to find the shark that ate my friend & destroy it. Friday Night began with several pitchers of Piña Coladas with my friend Heather from Interlochen. The basic recipe for our concoction is as follows:

Mix in blender:
-Half of a delicious fresh organic pneapple
-Half a handle of clear rum
-The meat of a fine mango
-Pineapple-coconut juice (I used the R.W. Knudsen brand, which conveniently sells this mix)
-About five strawberries
-Ice

Saturday, Heather, who was singing in the pit orchestra for the San Francisco Ballet's piece Eden/Eden, with music from Steve Reich's Three Tales (the one about Dolly the Sheep, robots, & cloning), was able to get three free tickets to the ballet. As a tangent, did you know that Dolly the Sheep was named after Dolly Parton because the gene from which they cloned her was from the host's mammary? As Parton said, "I hope people realize that there is a brain underneath the hair & a heart underneath the boobs." There's interesting moments in Reich's score, but the ballet orchestra lacked the intense drive to keep the motion forward-propulsing for a full half hour. However, the original video opera was pretty mediocre, & rescuing the music & replacing the imagery with some amazing dancing & choreography is a great service.

Coincidentally, our friend Mr Golden was working next door at the Veteran's building repairing a model buffalo for an exhibition of ballet costumes designed by Willa Kim. After the ballet & some St Patrick's day beer, we crashed the art opening (as "volunteers", which we indeed ended up being.) One of my friends was free-wine-inspired to get herself a sugar-daddy in the guise of an rich older SF ballet alum. We missed the lecture, but when nonagenarian Willa Kim was being escorted out, the volunteers stopped her to tell her they had enjoyed working on her costumes. After some flattery, she turned to me & said:

Willa Kim: You look like you must be a poet!
Your hero: Well, uh, yes, I am.
Sycophantic escort: My, Ms. Kim, how prescient you are!
Willa Kim: He looks like a poet!
Your hero: It's all nonsense, tho. I mean, my poetry is nonsense.
Mr Golden: We're working on an epic with illuminations.
Willa Kim: Well, best of luck to you, &c.....

According to the imdb, Willa Kim is known by the nickname "Willa Killa". We then hit some schwanky downtown bars, & escorted my sloshy friend to the BART. The night ended by Mr Golden cleaning my clock at put-put golf at his Ingleside apartment.

Sunday Morning, I had arranged (despite a dead mobile phone) to meet a blind date at a famous Mimosa Bar in the Castro, The Lime. As a co-founder of the dogmatic evangelical religious cult, The Mimosa's Witnesses, I was morally bound to investigate this mecca of Mimosa transubstantiation, which has bottomless flutes for $7 at Sunday Brunch. The place is ridiculous & perfectly over-the-top, with a bright-green nightclub decor, thumping music, packed with revelers at 11 A.M. Many of our fellow witnesses looked far more L.A. than S.F., with plastic breasts, &c. We should tithe them.

Waiter: Hello, I haven't seen you here for awhile!
Your hero: I've never been here before. This is my first time.
Waiter: Really!? You look just like one of our regulars.
Your hero: No, perhaps I have a Doppelgänger? Or perhaps you're mistaking me for Ralf from Kraftwerk.

As for my blind date, she had enormous false eyelashes & drove an orange Mustang sports car! Anyway, we must plan an official service with the regular Mimosa's Witnesses at this bizarre Castro day-club. As I explained to my date, just like there are hippie Christians & conservative Christians, these fake-boobed coked-up proselytes were worshipping under the same, broad tent as the Tahoe Mimosa's Witnesses & the Berkeley Mimosa's Witnesses.

My day proceeded by sobering up at Philz Coffee in the Mission & having my clock cleaned at chess with Mr Golden. The San Francisco semi-regular Sacred Harp singing was at an episcopal church on Fair Oaks (one of the cutest streets in that neighborhood), & was well attended, including two members of the awesome group Anonymous 4 (who, with their background in St Hildegaard, now have two excellent albums of American harmony, & are working on continuing that project. Listen to them!) Singing exultantly, mission accomplished, & I'm now accepting suggestions for what to do next with my life.

Happy 2011, song number 1: Plenary

The first of two New Years songs we've youtubed for you in celebration of New Year! Plenary, page 162 in the Sacred Harp, also known as "Hark From The Tomb", takes its melody from the Burns-ian folk song & lyrics from Isaac Watts.

Hark from the tomb a doleful sound;
My ears, attend the cry.
Ye living men, ye living men, come view the ground
Where you must shortly lie,
Where you must shortly lie.
Ye living men, come view the ground
Where you must shortly lie.

Princes, this clay must be your bed
In spite of all your towers.
Ye tall, ye wise, ye tall, ye wise, a reverent head
Must lie as low as ours,
Must lie as low as ours.
Ye tall, ye wise, ye reverent head
Must lie as low as ours.

Great God, is this our certain doom,
Or are we yet secure?
Still walking down, still walking downward to the tomb,
And yet prepare no more,
And yet prepare no more.
Still walking downward to the tomb,
And yet prepare no more.

Sawyer's Exit - Demo mp3

After the Bacon in Gold song, I still had that tune stuck in my head, so I just did a quick recording with the lyrics from the Sacred Harp, 338, called "Sawyer's Exit." Now I see these other temperance lyrics, in the image at the top, for "The Washington Badge," which I wish I had discovered before I recorded "Sawyer's Exit" this morning. I may have to record a version for every set of lyrics. The usual disclaimer, these are just trial recordings for me to play with my old software & synthesizers, all amateurity aside. Still, if you wanted to download the mp3, do that here.

Demo Mp3 of "Ortonville" on electric guitar

I've been singing this hymn from the Sacred Harp with guitar for a few years. I recorded it yesterday to practice recording with electric guitar at home, which I can never get to sound very good. I'm not that satisfied with the results, but for anyone who wants a homemade recording of my version of this song, I'll put it up.



(I sung the same song into youtubes a year or so ago.) "Ortonville", 68b in the Sacred Harp, was written in 1837 by Thomas Hastings. The text is from John Newton (who also wrote "Amazing Grace"):

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
and drives away his fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole
and calms the troubled breast,
is manna to the hungry soul
and to the weary rest.

Dear name! the rock on which I build,
my shield and hiding place,
my never failing treasury, filled
with boundless stores of grace:

ODE ON SCIENCE: Arrangement of this old patriotic tune for voice, two pianos, & percussion

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

"Ode on Science" is a patriotic tune in the Sacred Harp (Page 242) - written in 1798 by Jezeniah Sumner. I've always felt the folk hymn arrangement left something to be desired. I made this arrangement rather quickly last year & for no real purpose: scored for high voice (soprano or tenor), two pianos & some abstract percussion. ("Drum" sort of drone, which could be elaborated upon, & "hit". which in my MIDI playback is a synth "orchestra hit", ala Miles Davis' Tutu. It could also be a kettledrum.) Since there is no likely premier performance of this ever upcoming, I'll post this little home recording I made with the MIDI playback - remember it's just a demo, MIDI playbacks are always robotic & unsatisfying, & my singing is, merely a demo. (The two piano arrangement could be a sketch to possibly orchestrate it someday, if any specific ensemble wanted an extraction.) OKAY: shout, Long live America!


Download that mp3 here. I love the anachronistic young-country nationalism in the lyrics:

The morning sun shines from the east,
And spreads his glories to the west,
All nations with his beams are blest,
Where’er the radiant light appears.

So science spreads her lucid ray
O’er lands which long in darkness lay:
She visits fair Columbia,
And sets her sons among the stars.

Fair freedom her attendant waits,
To bless the portals of her gates,
To crown the young and rising states
With laurels of immortal day:

The British yoke, the Gallic chain,
Was urged upon our necks in vain,
All haughty tyrants we disdain,
And shout, “Long live America.”

The score can be downloaded on Scribd. My arrangement is in the public domain:
Ode on Science - Arrangement for Voice, Two Pianos, Percussion

Melancholy Day 419 - Tiny Ambiguity in the 1991 Sacred Harp

Visiting singer & teacher Tim Eriksen held a singing school in Berkeley the Saturday before last Sunday's Golden Gate Sacred Harp Convention. For most of the class, we listened to the fundamentals of music & a brief history of folk hymns in America, with a few songs taught part by part. There was a fairly reverent & glad feeling in the room. Then, near the end, after we had sung a bit, he asked if there were any specific songs that confused people. He began going over the parts to page 419, Melancholy Day (composed in 1859 by H.S. Reese to an especially dark text by Isaac Watts. I love this song & try to conduct it super slow, in four. Mr Eriksen said something about how it proves you can make a lot of music without a lot of chords - this song's harmonies are more modal than chordal.) But then the class disintegrated around two ambiguous measures, with everyone arguing & talking over each other - in that special way a well-behaved classroom can combust.

I had to run out the door & go to work at that moment, & I was a bit confused that we were dwelling on this, I don't know how it resolved. But when Mr Greg Freeman led it the next day, it threw me. Look at the way the text is printed for "To those who have no God." The text lines up differently below the treble, alto, & tenor. (In vocal music, when notes are slurred together, it generally means they're sung on one syllable.) We've been singing the tenor lining up incorrectly with the words below it, even tho the way it's slurred lines up with the alto perfectly. In the next edition, they should put the correct words below the tenor. This recording of Alabama's United Sacred Harp Convention in 1959 corroborates the correct way:


Mr David Wright of Seattle, Washington, (in the comment below) tells us that it's an Alan Lomax recording, released in 1977. "To those who have no God" is at 1:07, (the first time thru they sing the shaped-notes.) This short essay about an extremely subtle detail was mainly an excuse to post this excellent song. Here's the lyrics:

Death, ’tis a melancholy day,
To those who have no God,
When the poor soul is forced away
To seek her last abode.

In vain to heav’n she lifts her eyes,
For guilt, a wearing chain
Still drags her downward from the skies
To darkness, fire, & pain.

Isaac Watts' Hymn 123 - Funeral Hymn-Death Dreadful, or Delightful can be read in context HERE. Looks like there's other American folksongs that use the other verses, I'd like to hear them if anyone knows where they can be found!

Magical Elixir Recipe

Thank you for staying loyal to this website during our necessary furlough. The true reason wasn't a budget deficit (altho it wasn't not a budget deficit), but that there was the Golden Gate Sacred Harp Convention. And very little time for sleep - on Saturday Night I was mopping up the floor at a cathedral at 2 am after a wild catering event, early Sunday Morning I was working the registration desk for the big sing.

How did I do it? My recipe for magic throat elixir - not that creative, but it does allow you to sing strong for two days straight:

-Boil a pot of water with a bunch of cut-up ginger.
-Brew tea. I recommend making it strong, with Good Earth tea & Lemon Throat tea.
-Add lots of honey & lemon. Also, maple syrup is delicious.
-Pour it in water bottles with some ice & drink all day.

From the first photos to come in from yesterday's convention, Miss Beer is leading & Tim Eriksen is on the front bench (he held a singing school in Berkeley on Saturday & had a great gig at the Freight & Salvage Sunday night.)

METATRON'S CUBE - Shape-Note Score & Demo Solo-Quartet Recording

Here is a new folk hymn with shaped-notes, written this winter for the Western Harmony. A tune about Enoch, it draws on several sources - first, Genesis Chapter 4, which describes how Enoch "walked with God"; second, the Metatron's Cube (Enoch became Metatron, the highest angel, in Jewish mythology), which is a "flower of life" in sacred geometry; in the Sacred Harp, the quote above the song "EXIT" is from Job, "He comes forth like a flower & is cut down", which I use & also echo the first few notes of the fuging section in Exit; & lastly the "round & round" bit in the circular fuging section is also a nod to the circles in Metatron's Cube. Download this demo mp3 here, there's a pdf of the score here.
Here's the lyrics:

METATRON'S CUBE

Mahalaleel lives eight hundred & ninety five winters,
He comes like a flower & is cut down.
Methuselah for one thousand years, dies among sinners,
Arise my soul & leave the ground.

Oh, but Enoch, old & holy Enoch,
Walks with God, & he is not,
For God takes him, takes him round & round.

Up on a little hill, Calvary, three trees bear blossoms,
He comes like a flower & is cut down.
And am I born to die, or can I fly from my tomb?
Arise my soul & leave the ground.

Oh, my Jesus, young & blessed Jesus,
Son of Man, & is cut down,
For God takes him, takes him round & round.

Murillo's Lesson

Here are the lyrics to the Sacred Harp song Murillo's Lesson, number 358 (lyrics credited from the Sacred Melodeon) a hymn especially popular (I just read) in Cleburne County, Alabama.

As down a lone valley with cedars o’erspread,
From war’s dread confusion I pensively strayed,
The gloom from the face of fair heaven retired,
The winds hushed their murmurs, the thunders expired.
Perfumes as of Eden flowed sweetly along,
A voice as of angels enchantingly sung,
Columbia, Columbia to glory arise,
The queen of the world and the child of the skies.

Fair science her gate to thy sons shall unbar,
And the east see thy morn hide the beams of her star.
New bards and new sages unrivalled shall soar
To fame unextinguished when time is no more.
To Thee the last refuge of virtue designed,
Shall fly from all nations the best of mankind;
There grateful to heaven with transport shall bring
To Jesus, the author of nations will sing.

I just found this amazing recording of Murillo's Lesson at this website, bee mp3, performed by Jimmy Wofford & the Churchmen. They have a pretty impressive website format, making tons of recordings from WFMU & old 78s free online, easy to download, & easy to embed:

	Jimmy Wofford and the Churchmen - Murillo's Lesson
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

He sings the shapes first, as custom with shape-note songs. There's several videos on the Youtubes of the Sacred Harp version:

OEDIPA - Demo Solo-Quartet Recording

Here's a four-part shape-note new tune for the Western Harmony, loosely based on No. 449 in the Sacred Harp (which according to the fasola.org statistics, is one of the most infrequently led songs, probably due to a vaguely fascist resonance. I've attempted to correct that.) These recordings are just meant as demos to test the harmonies & play with my new microphone. Download this mp3 here - I'm sorry, I thought I had scanned this score, but I promise I will soon & get it up as soon as possible.

I've murdered my fatherland, wed my motherland,
Now I must build a bigger mansion.
We'll get twenty maids & we'll sweep up this sand,
This paradise needs an expansion.
Let's get twenty maids, wouldn't it be grand
To clean up this beautiful land.

I can't hear the song of the hallelujah band,
Angels muffled by din's eruption.
My eyes are blurry, I'm too weak to stand,
I am the chaos & corruption.
My eyes a blur, but wouldn't it be grand
To clean up this beautiful land.

So beat up your sword, put your plowshare in your hand,
Nations shall not learn war anymore,
Our land is rotten & forgotten, and,
My Lord has asked me to sweep the floor.
Learn war no more, and wouldn't it be grand,
To clean up this beautiful land.

MULTNOMAH - Illuminated Shape-Note Score & mp3 of a read-thru

I wrote this song after I had been singing in Multnomah County, Oregon. & many Portland Singers came down to San Carlos, California, for the All-California Sacred Harp Convention Convention. & afterwards to a new music reading at Mark Miller's house in Berkeley, which was the first time this song has been read thru. Only the first & last verses are in this mp3 of the reading. The first, third, & fifth verses are from Isaac Watts. The illumination on the score is by Pele. Download a pdf of the score here.

MULTNOMAH

Fools never raise their thoughts so high
Like brutes they live, like brutes they die
Like grass they flourish till thy breath
Blasts them in everlasting, lasting death.

And congressmen who feign their faiths
Elected, spread the empty grace,
Like eggplants, poison till their fried,
They are forgotten past the last divide.

But I shall share a glorious part
When grace hath well refined my heart
And fresh supplies of joy are shed
Like holy oil, to cheer, to cheer my head.

All twelve dimensions will collapse!
Perceptions read omniscient maps,
My savior on Columbian soil
Will swap our peasant rags for garments royal.

Then I shall see & hear & know.
All I desired & wished below
And ev'ry pow'r find sweet employ
In that eternal world of, world of joy.

♥♪♪♫♪♫♫

The All-California Sacred Harp Convention was all day today & tomorrow, at San Carlos just south of San Francisco. The turnout was great & the singing was loud & the weather was hot. I'm sure tomorrow will be great too, & there'll be an after party with a new music sing, including some tunes from the Western Harmony.

Obama arrived by Amtrak in Washington today, I love these photographs: WHISTLE STOP.

I also love Olaf Mary's photographs of Goats & Deserts.

Quotes: William Billings' Numb-Skull, & inharmonic Caverns

Kind Reader, No doubt you (do, or ought to) remember, that about eight years ago, I published a Book entitled, The New-England Psalm-Singer, &c. And truely a most masterly and inimitable Performance, I then thought it to be. Oh! how did my foolish heart throb & beat with tumultouos joy! With what impatience did I wait on the Book-Binder, while stitching the sheets and putting on the covers, with what extacy, did I snatch the yet unfinished Book out of his hands, and pressing it to my bosom, with rapturous delight, how lavish was I, in encomiums on this infant production of my own Numb-Skull? Welcome; thrice welcome; thou legitimate offspring of my brain, go forth my little Book, go forth and immortalize the name of your Author; may your sale be rapid and may you speedily run thru ten thousand Editions, may you be a welcome guest in all companies and what will ad tenfold to thy dignity, may you find your way into the Libraries of the Learned.

Billings also included a dissonant song called Jargon in response to "critics of the harmonic vocabulary of his first tune book." He includes a long discourse, addressed "To the Goddess of Discord":

DREAD SOVEREIGN,
I have been sagacious enough of late, to discover that some evil-minded persons have insinuated to your highness, that I am utterly unmindful of your Ladyship's importance; and that my time, as well as my talents, was wholly taken up in paying my divoto to your most implacable enemy and strenuous opposer, viz. the GODDESS OF CONCORD, which representation is as false as it is ill-natured; for as your Ladyship may believe me without hesitation, when I assure you on the word of an honest man, that knowing your Ladyship to be of a very cautious disposition; I have always been very careful of trespassing on your grounds for fear of incuring your displeasure, so far as to exite you to take vengeance (which is well known to be your darling attribute.)

I have likewise been informed, that some of my most implacable enemy's are some of your Majesty's privy council, and that your Majesty's Secretary at war, viz. Lord Jargon, was about to send some of your other Lords in waiting, viz. Lord second, Lord 7th, Lord 9th, alias 2d, junior [i.e. dissonant musical intervals], with some others, to beat a tattoo apon the drum of my ear, with so great a number of contra-vibrations without the intervention of a single coincidence, and with so much Forte as to dislocate my auditory; upon which was, to repel force by force, and we had even proceeded as far as to order Lord Consonance, our Secretary at peace to furnish our life guard with an infinite number of coincidences, without the intervention of one contravibration; and altho we have the majority on our side, yet we held it in scord to take any advantage from our numbers, therefore we had selected an equal number of those who had attained unto the first three, viz. Lord Unison, Lord Diapente, Lord Octave, alias Lord Unison, jun'r, and for their Aid de camps, we had chosen two twin brothers, viz. Major and Minor Trio, together with Major Sixth, &c we had proceeded thus far when in turning over a very antient history I met with the following passage, viz. "by wise council thou shalt make thy war, and in multitude of cousellors there is safety." [...]

This goes on for several more pages, & continues with a response from the goddess herself:

FOUNDERS ROCK - New Shape-note tune with Demo Solo-Quartet Recording

Hello, & here is another shape-note tune from The Western Harmony! The shape-note score, unfortunately, is not quite up, but will follow shortly. The text is from the Bishop George Berkeley's 1726 poem "On the Prospect of Planting Arts & Learning in America". Apparently, this poem is the reason Berkeley, California, is named for the Irish philosopher - - According to the Centennial Record of the University of California, "In 1866…at Founders' Rock, a group of College of California men were watching two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings, was reminded of the lines of the (Irish Anglican) Bishop Berkeley, 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for the eighteenth-century Irish philosopher and poet." As the Sacred Harp has several grand patriotic songs, with sometimes antiquated notions ("...to crown the young & rising states", &c), I attempted to keep the music for this song appropriately conservative. Once again, I warn & apologize that the "solo-quartet" recording is merely a demo, to sort of test the harmonies, & it will sound cooler with real singers, when I make some friends.

The Muse, disgusted at an age & clime
Barren of every glorious theme,
In distant lands now waits a better time
Producing subjects worthy fame;

In happy climes, where from the genial sun
And virgin earth such scenes ensue,
The force of art by nature seems outdone,
And fancied beauties by the true:

In happy climes, the feat of innocence,
Where nature guides, & virtue rules;
Where men shall not impose for truth & sense
The pedantry of courts & schools.

There shall be sung another golden age,
The rise of empire & the arts,
The good & great inspiring epic rage,
The wisest heads & noblest hearts.

Not such as Europe breeds in her decay;
Such as she bred when fresh & young,
When heavenly flame did animate her clay,
By future poets shall be sung.

Westward the course of empire takes its way:
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time's noblest offspring is the last.

List: Songs We Sang

I am in Portland, at their lovely huge old library with tall pink walls. Last night, I met my friend Mrs Smith & hiked for most of the afternoon in the country where those tall waterfalls go into the Columbia River. It's nice round there. It threatened rain, but we decided to put up our tent & be optimistic. No veggie dogs were roasted on no campfire. We hid in our tent with a box of wine for the entire night while impossible amounts of water fell from the sky. At one point, we made a dash to get the capo & the ukulele. If the omnipotent gods of music are curious & read blogs, here are some of the songs we sang:

-Longer boats are coming to win us (Cat Stevens)
-Where do the children play? (Cat Stevens)
-Indiana (David Yazbek)
-TOXICODENDRON
-EL CERRITO (coming soon to http://www.itwaslost.org/!!)
-some of our old Shakespeare numbers
-A la clare fontaine
-Dancing with the Mountains (John Denver)
-Others I forget about

Tonight, there will be some Portland Sacred Harp, followed by fire twirling at Reed College. Outward! Stop, drop & roll!

Sam Amidon's blog Speak, Peppery points us to these existential Garfield Without Garfield comics:

Apologies: First Weekend in September & Baseball Metaphors

And speaking of processed beverages & community gatherings in the American South (to which many local California singers travel for the many August & September singings), the Santa Cruz Organic (produced in Chico, California) makes the best sweet tea I've ever tasted, & it's saving me from surely wilting on this hot day in Berkeley. I had heard that it was against the law to sell tea in a restaurant in certain counties in the south without also selling Sweet Tea, but looking at Sweet Tea's wikipedia entry, apparently that was just an April Fool's joke. Well, who's laughing now, Georgia House of Representatives? God, I can't handle some of these hot days, tho - I become very inertial.

Which brings us to what's missing. I apologize that politics & live-blogging have immoderately usurped itwaslost.org, but we're taking steps to remedy this. We plan on live-blogging one or two of the debates, & of course not completely ignoring the next two months of this "close" election--; but noticeably missing are the gaps in the narrative from Bulgaria, Morroco & Indonesia, the latest new tunes from my microphone, the completion of several unfinishable epic nonsense poems, every & any words from our traveling ice-climbing correspondent, & reports on this website's progress & ongoing projects. This post should do something about that last category, & I'll report about this post's report in coming days. In the meantime, a few quotes from the convention:

"George W. Bush came into office on third base, & then he stoled second."

-Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio), 26 August 2008,
Democratic National Convention

“I’m sure you remember a girl from Kansas who said there’s no place like home. Well, in John McCain’s version, there’s no place like home & a home & home & home."

-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kansas) 26 August 2008,
Democratic National Convention

And please note the following links:
-Brains' blog about World Soccer & German Literature.
-Pele's travel narration.
-The link to today's Doonesbury strip, in case any of you haven't been following America's national epic.
-Mortified: These are excellent staged readings of people's teenage writings, including teenage poetry, diary entries, plays, movies, & the one I went to in San Francisco was intensely funny.
-Elisa Lopez's arctic travels & beyond.
-Post Secret: anonymous post cards of people's secrets.
-Looks like Sam Amidon will be featured on a compilation cd of hip covers of Sacred Harp songs, you can hear it at this myspace.
-Unfortunately, the excerpt from John Adam's upcoming memoir in the Aug. 25th New Yorker isn't online, but this interview with him is here. I like his genial & nostalgic mockery of the Cage-esque pieces he wrote in his 20's.
-Miss Daisy Press sent me a link to someone who proposed that Michael Palin was as qualified as Sarah Palin to be a "heart-beat" away from the comfy chair & soft cushions: http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2008/09/that-other-pali.html

Good Night, Ringo.