{"id":314,"date":"2013-02-18T07:30:15","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T20:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catesings.org\/?p=314"},"modified":"2013-02-18T07:30:15","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T20:30:15","slug":"music-for-a-monday-ach-arme-welt-brahms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/2013\/02\/18\/music-for-a-monday-ach-arme-welt-brahms\/","title":{"rendered":"Music for a Monday: Ach, Arme Welt (Brahms)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">Since we are now in Lent, and we&#8217;ve been operatic for a few weeks now, I thought I would share some of my favourite Lenten music.\u00a0 This turns out to be harder than expected, because apparently I really like <em>obscure<\/em> Lenten music.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">But this anthem, by Brahms, while not much recorded in English, does seem to be quite popular in its original German.<\/p>\n<p>[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fkGeBKv32i8&amp;version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><!--more-->We sing this anthem most years, and I love it for the lush harmonies, especially the thrilling rising harmony lines in the final verse &#8211; that alto line is just glorious.\u00a0 In fact, I know the alto line so well that it&#8217;s really strange to hear this sung with the soprano line dominant and the alto line not much in evidence.\u00a0 (And such a waste, because it is a *spectacular* alto line)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">It is a bit counter-intuitive, though.\u00a0 I find this music rather glorious, and yet it&#8217;s all about how worldly things are really just dust and ashes. We tend to sing it as an introit, and thus quite briskly, but apparently nobody else does, which is a pity, though perhaps more in keeping with the words.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LUQUSe-uLxM\">This recording, by Cantorum Franciscana<\/a>, seems to be the more standard speed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">Really, it&#8217;s all about that third verse.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">English lyrics (as best I can recall them) below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">Ah, thou poor world, thou cheatest me -Thus I confess, unshamedly<br \/>\nYet in thee seek my pleasure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">Thy worth is but an idle show \u2013<br \/>\nThy glories fade as well I know<br \/>\nThy joys have briefest measure<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">Thy wealth, thy riches manifold<br \/>\nIn sin, in death no comfort hold<br \/>\nThy gold is naught but tinsel gold:Be thou, O Lord, my treasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since we are now in Lent, and we&#8217;ve been operatic for a few weeks now, I thought I would share some of my favourite Lenten music.\u00a0 This turns out to be harder than expected, because apparently I really like obscure Lenten music. But this anthem, by Brahms, while not much recorded in English, does seem [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,135,366,430,540],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ach-arme-welt","tag-church-music","tag-johannes-brahms","tag-lent","tag-o-thou-poor-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}