Stay tuned for Shickley Mix. It's coming up next. Have a great Tuesday evening. This is IPR Music Radio, WYAA Interlochen and WYCV East Jordan Charlevoix. It's 6 o'clock.
Oddly enough, I am. Here's the theme.
Well, hello there. I'm Peter Shickley and this is Shickley Mix, a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal. Or as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good.
One of my favorite non-musical courses in college was art history. And in a paper I wrote for that course, I said that one doesn't respond to painting as viscerally as one does to music.
When I got the paper back, the professor had written in the margin, speak for yourself. He's right, of course. I shouldn't assume that other people react to things just as I do.
But for me, there is an intensity to the musical experience that is unmatched by any other except perhaps dance. Well, music and dance are the same thing, anyway.
One is the audible manifestation and the other is the visible. Anyway, there's so much great music from all over the world, from all walks of life and from all periods of time. And that's what this program is about.
And a lot of the most intensely beautiful music is religious music. And that's what today's show is about.
The manna from heaven making this program possible is funds provided by this wise and good radio station, which provides me with a lot of information.
It provides me with a home away from home within whose nurturing walls I hatch my intellectual eggs
and whence the resultant birds of wisdom fly to the four corners with the navigational help of PRI, Public Radio International.
There are certain forms of religious worship that attract people who are not part of that particular religion. The mantras being used all over North America and Europe these days is an example.
And another example. Another example is the Mass. There are many composers, and I'm one of them myself, who have written Masses even though they're not involved in a religion that celebrates the Mass.
Now, I suppose this may offend some very strict religious people, but to me there's no disturbing contradiction there. The Mass is an extraordinarily inspiring text in its own right.
And the tremendous historical weight it carries adds a resonance that many composers respond to with great fervor. Some years ago, the Dale Warland.
singers premiered a piece of mine in Minneapolis, and on the same program they put together a composite Mass with each section written by a different contemporary Scandinavian composer.
This idea intrigued me and still does. So we're going to start things off today with a composite Mass, but this one covers a whole millennium of music history, from the middle ages to 1948.
It has the usual five sections, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo. The Sanctus is actually divided into Sanctus and Benedictus, but they're both from the same work. And finally, the Agnus Dei.
It's about 16 and a half minutes long. Now, I feel pretty certain that we'll be doing this again in the future. So let's call our opening suite the Composite Mass No. 1.
The Composite Mass No. 1
began with the Kyrie from the Mesa, by Johannes Ockegim, 15th century composer,
performed by the Pomerium Musicus, I guess that is. That's a beautiful record, by the way, of Ockegim pieces. Then the Gloria was from the Stravinsky Mass,
which he completed in 1948, performed by a section of the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis. The soloists were Doreen Murray, Gene, Alastair,
Edgar Fleet, Christopher Cate, and, as I say, the conductor is Colin Davis. The credo comes from the Mesa Luba, a mass sung in pure Congolese style.
Some of you may remember hearing the Sanctus in the movie If, and according to the notes, a missionary named Father Guido Hazen
came to the Congo in the early 50s, and instead of trying to impose, you know, European music, he encouraged them to set the mass in their own style.
These are very fancy notes here. Let me just find this. And according to the notes, the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo are performed within the same framework as a kasala,
which has existed today among the Nganjika, or Kasai. And according to the notes further, none of the Mesa Luba is written. Certain rhythms, harmonies, embellishments
are spontaneous improvisations. It's a beautiful credo. The Sanctus comes from the Mass No. 2 by Schubert in G major.
That was Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus, Don Upshaw, soprano, David Gordon, tenor, and William Stone, baritone.
And finally, the Agnus Dei was from an anthology of Gregorian chant sung by the choir of monks of the Abbey of Saint Pierre de Sollem. That was the Agnus Dei IV.
The diplomatic relations between religion and humor have always been delicate, but some of us feel sure that God has a sense of humor. Now, I won't go so far as to play the PDQ Bach Mesa
Hilarious here, but I would like to pass along a little story. A visitor is being shown around hell by the devil, and they look into one cave, and the sufferers
are being burned by the eternal flames of hell. And the visitor said, well, who are these? And the devil says, well, those are Jews who ate pork. And they look into the next cave, and there,
the sufferers are being boiled in oil. The visitor said, well, who are these? And the devil says, well, these are Catholics who ate meat on Friday. Then they look into the third cave,
and there, the sufferers are being boiled in oil while they're being burned by fire. And the visitor says, well, who are these unfortunate souls? And the devil says, well, those are Episcopalians
who ate their main course with their salad fork. Be that as it may, my name is Peter Schickelman. I'm Peter Schickely, and the show is Schickely Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
In the church services I grew up with, which were congregational, music was an important part of the service, but it came at very specific places and lasted for well-defined times.
It's pretty easy to take that kind of music out of the service and present it as separate concert pieces. But in many kinds of worship all over the world, the music goes on for very long periods of time, sometimes even
hours, and is woven into the non-musical parts of the service in such a way that it's impossible to extract separate pieces. Now, obviously, a program such as this can't represent that kind of music in any breadth,
but I'd like to give a little taste of the kind of long service that gets more obviously into a state of trance than does your typical congregational service.
I guess you can't call something with only two sections of suite, and these are neither separate compact pieces, nor complete ceremonies, so let's just call it a pair of religious worship scenes.
I'll be back in about 14 and a half minutes.
Amen.
I say amen.
Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen.
In the partnership, a long time ago, he told me, I'll be with you.
The world is against you. I'll be with you.
I'll be with you.
Now we're going to end with a 12-minute quasi-religious song cycle. Few people would categorize these three songs as religious in any traditional sense,
but they share a focus, an intensity, a feeling of being beyond the immediate that characterizes most religious art. The words of the last song are enigmatic and even bitter.
Some of them are, well, if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand. I've seen your face before, my friend. But I don't know if you know who I am.
But the musical setting is mesmerizing and transcendent. The middle song is in French, sung by a young boy to a princess who has disappeared. You, the heart of a rose.
You, the perfume of the lily. You, your hands and your crown. Your blue eyes and your bright jewels.
You have only left me like a ray of light, a golden hair upon my shoulder, and fragments of a dream. And the first song of the set is the one I quoted earlier,
and I'd like to take what I said about the mechanics of art a step further. The magic, the religious persuasion in this song, is produced not only by how the sentiment is transformed into poetry,
and how the poetry is set to the melody, but also by the setting of the melody itself, in other words, the instrumental accompaniment. In fact, I would go so far as to say that in this first number,
the religion is in the guitar part.
Love is but a song we'll sing.
Fist we will die. You can make the mountains ring.
Or make the angels cry. Though the bird is on the wing.
And you may not know why. Smile on your brother, everybody get together.
Try to love one another right now. Some may come and some may go.
He will surely pay his.
When the one that loved us yet
returns for us at last. We are but in moments of life.
Fading in time. The grass and the grass. Smile on your brother and everybody get together.
Try to love one another right now.
Smile on your brother and everybody get together. Try to love one another right now.
Smile on your brother together, try to love one
If you hear the song I sing.
Understand. All the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command People now, smile on your brother
Everybody get together Try to love one another right now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now Smile on your brother
Everybody get together Try to love one another right now
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight
Oh Lord I've been waiting for this moment for all my life Oh Lord
Can you feel it coming In the air tonight Oh Lord Oh Lord
Well if you told me you were drowning
I would not end it I've seen your face before my friend
But I don't know if you know who I am I was there and I saw what you did I saw what you did
With my own two eyes So you couldn't wipe off that grin
I know where you've been It's all been a pack of lies
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight Oh Lord
Well I've been waiting for this moment For all my life Oh Lord Oh Lord
Oh Lord
Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord
Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord
Oh Lord
Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord I know the reason why you get this silence off Look beautiful me
The hurt doesn't show
But the pain still grows
Some stranger to you and me I can feel it coming in the air tonight
Oh Lord Oh Lord
Our quasi-religious song cycle began with Get Together.
That's a classic late 60s anthem from the Youngbloods. This is off an RCA album, the Youngbloods' first album.
Then the middle one was a little aria or arietta, you might call it, from Ravel's beautiful, beautiful opera
that's so hard to put on because it's got characters who are armchairs and things like that. L'Enfant et les Sortelages, The Child and the Sorcerers.
And the child, after a princess disappears, just gets folded up by the earth, the child sings that plaintive song. That was a recording with...
Ancermé conducting L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. And the child was sung by Flora Vent. And finally, Phil Collins from his album Face Value. The song was In the Air Tonight.
And that's Phil Collins doing most of the things, the drum machine and everything, and a few other people there on bass guitar and violins. And that wraps up the quasi-religious suite.
You know, listening to some of that music earlier, the middle section there, the Abyssinian Bassoon, the Baptist Choir, I couldn't help thinking about what a secular society my background is.
And of course, this country makes a big point of separating religion and civil affairs. And I was thinking about how a lot of singers I know, there are a lot of singers in big cities who make their living singing in all sorts of different kinds of churches,
synagogues, churches of different denominations. And it has been said of these singers that they're pantheists, pantheists being people who believe in all gods whose churches hire singers.
And I think that's just one of the things that has been said about this show,
Well, that's Shickley Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by this radio station. We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program, with record numbers and everything.
Just refer to the program number. This is Program 6. And this is Peter Shickley saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. You're looking good. See you next week.
If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Shickley Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Shickley Mix.
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