After Antonio Vivaldi, “Le Quattro Stagioni – La Primavera: II. Largo” Creator God, whose praise and power are proclaimed by the whole creation: receive our morning prayers, we pray… (A Prayer Book for Australia) Consider how the lilies open – Watch them enter into light… Solomon in all his splendour wasContinue reading “Psalm: Lilies (The Cornucopia of Heaven)”
Category Archives: Music
Psalm: Birdsong (The Cornucopia of Heaven #4)
Psalm: Birdsong After Olivier Messiaen, “Catalogue d’Oiseaux” O praise the Lord from the earth… Beasts of the wild, and all cattle: creeping things and winged birds… (Psalm 148:7a, 10)
Canticle (The Cornucopia of Heaven #3)
Canticle After Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, “Venite Exultemus Domino” So lift – lift high the horn of praise O praise – O come to praise the One who made the dawn and made the stars and gave the dawn to brighten hearts and praise the morning star of Truth, praise Him who hurls! the hailContinue reading “Canticle (The Cornucopia of Heaven #3)”
The Cornucopia of Heaven – Prayer of Preparation
Prayer of Preparation After Gustav Holst, “Psalm 86: To My Humble Supplication” Teach my dullness, guide my blindness (Joseph Bryan) We begin small – a seed, a pod, a bud, soon bursting, soon breaking out into light. Hear strings rise. Hear spirits lift their weary, slowing hands. See the sun open up the day. SeeContinue reading “The Cornucopia of Heaven – Prayer of Preparation”
From Ashes 10: Søren Kierkegaard – Original Sin and the Fear of Possibility
“When you’re absolute beginners,” folk singer M. Ward tells us, “it’s a panoramic view, from her majesty Mount Zion, and the kingdom is for you.” What he seems to suggest here is that, at any beginning point, there appears an infinite potentiality to life, stretching out like a majestic panorama before us. W.H. Auden, in hisContinue reading “From Ashes 10: Søren Kierkegaard – Original Sin and the Fear of Possibility”
Psalm 131: Humility and Submission
Yesterday I posted a poem based on the beautiful Psalm 131. It is one of the shortest psalms in the Bible, yet one which I have found particularly comforting at times of emotional and psychological distress. Today I am posting a recording I have made of a new musical setting of Isaac Watts’ hymn basedContinue reading “Psalm 131: Humility and Submission”
Lay this body down… – Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day Three
What now? Death takes the best; the body droops upon the Cross. We look; the sting in eyes declares that all is done. It is finished. What? Are we done for, Lord? Where the hopes and fears of all the years, once met in You? Where now? All done? All done for? What next?Continue reading “Lay this body down… – Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day Three”
Go to Dark Gethsemane: Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day 2
First the garden. And this first betrayal: friends asleep when most needed; then – another in the wings, a kiss at the ready; a sword, the sternness of armies come to slay a spotless lamb. O Christ – I have not even a sword; only betrayers’ kisses heaped withContinue reading “Go to Dark Gethsemane: Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day 2″
Concerto No.4 (After Rowan Williams’ “Bach for the Cello”)
Bach’s ‘Cello Suites are for me the supreme example of contemplation in music. They don’t deal with the emotions very much, there is nothing spectacular but just a single line unfolding itself. And I always see it as a kind of silver line in the middle of darkness… Rowan Williams As a child, I adoredContinue reading “Concerto No.4 (After Rowan Williams’ “Bach for the Cello”)”
“Shriven” – Streaming Page CXVI Day 7
Today is Shrove Tuesday, a day simultaneously associated with pancakes and confession of sin. It is also the day before Lent begins, with Ash Wednesday’s focus on repentance: a day of feasting before the fast begins. Today’s song, the final track from Page CXVI’s “Lent to Maundy Thursday”, is a beautiful reflection on the loveContinue reading ““Shriven” – Streaming Page CXVI Day 7″
The Consolations of Writing 