Piano, 2020
Sleep thou in the bosom
Bliss Carman, ‘Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics’
Of the tender comrade,
While the living water
Whispers in the well-run,
And the oleanders
Glimmer in the moonlight.
2020
The Trust of the Tried (Winkworth)
Words by Paul Gerhardt, translated by Catherine Winkworth.
To God’s all-gracious heart and mind
My heart and mind I yield;
In seeming loss my gain I find,
In death, life stands revealed.
I am His own whose glorious throne
In highest heaven is set;
Beneath His stroke or sorrow’s yoke
His heart upholds me yet.
If happy sunshine be Thy gift,
With joy I take it, Lord;
If o’er dark stormy seas I drift,
I hear Thy guiding word;
If lengthened life, with blessings rife,
Before my feet be spread,
So Thou my Guide wilt still abide,
With joy that path I tread.
But must I walk the vale of death
Through sad and sunless ways,
I pass along in quiet faith,
Thy glance my fear allays;
Through the dark land my Shepherd’s hand
Leads to an end so bright,
That I shall there with praise declare
That all God’s ways are right!
Yes I shall there with praise declare
That all God’s ways are right!
Catching up with Catherine Winkworth
I made some fuller recordings of a couple songs:
Thousand Thousand (original version from October)
O Wouldst Thou in Thy Glory Come — this one from way back!
The Deliverer (live, December 2020)
Sort of a Christmas song!
Redeemer of the Nations Come
New recording of one of the earlier Catherine Winkworth songs.
flowers ~
Kind of on a roll after Cloud Smiles … Earlier I finished up a piece that I’m not posting quite yet as it might be part of something bigger, and then I did a couple of ‘warm up’ sketches. This is one of them arranged two ways, with the FFVII soundfont again. (Yes, exactly like Aerith’s Theme and Flower Blooming in the Church.)
Cloud Smiles
An honorary addition to my FFVII Remake Demakes series… This piece, ‘Cloud Smiles’, plays at the end of the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children movie from 2005. I transcribed it and put it on the original 1997 sounds.
I guess people may wonder why I would do such a thing… mainly just because I want to, but I guess 1) because I enjoy the ‘warmth’ of the old sound samples, and this is a project to make the newer tracks ‘fit’ in the old game 2) it’s practise transcribing and quite a nice way to really get to know a piece and pick up some arrangement/orchestration tips !
I’ve been realising with the Remake Demakes and also I’ve been making some sheet music of Taylor Swift songs, been doing more transcribing/arranging lately — if I think back to ten years ago how much more confident I’ve got with it..! yay!
Pianowrimo days 22-25
A real mix of slow/pretty and fast and upbeat these, I just realised.
Back to Winkworth
I started to fear I was going to run out of suitable Catherine Winkworth material, but then I had a proper look at Christian Singers of Germany, her book of biographical sketches of Luther and others around the same time together with hymn translations, not all of which I’d seen elsewhere. Hooray!
Today I sketched out five songs, all on ukulele. One of them is actually……….. very famous. Ein feste Burg / A Mighty Fortress is our God………… The translation is a bit different than the most used English one, and I’ve taken a very different direction than Bach here however.
…As Thy beloved, soothe the sick and weeping, And bid the prisoner lose his griefs in sleeping; Widows and orphans we to Thee commend them, Do Thou, do Thou befriend them. (Evening Hymn – Bohemian Brethren)
…The world around is passing With all its pomp and pride; What men are here amassing Can never long abide; We die–and it is gone. But fear not, Christian sleeper, God is our mighty Keeper, And we shall wake anon…. (From God shall nought divide me – Louis Helmboldt)
…And were the world with devils filled, All eager to devour us, Our souls to fear should little yield, They cannot overpower us. Their dreaded Prince no more Can harm us as of yore; Look grim as e’er he may, Doomed is his ancient sway; A word can overthrow him… (Stronghold – Martin Luther)
…Ah Jesus Christ, my Lord! So meek in deed and word, Didst Thou not die to save us, Because Thou fain wouldst have us, After this life of sadness, Heirs of Thy heavenly gladness?… (In God my faithful God – Sigismund Weingartner)
…Ah! never can I praise enough The mercy Thou hast shown! When days were dark and storms were rough Thou mad’st Thy kindness known, Thy miracles of goodness then Thou sufferedst me to see; O Bread of Life! my heart again Cries, let me cling to Thee!…. (Burning Love, holy Flame – Anon.)