Modern Hymns 2

The two previous songs, Murderer (performed by Low) and I'll Be Glad (performed by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, but written by Shannon Stephens) are among my favourite songs of the last five years or so. They represent quite contrasting perspectives on a personal relationship with God.

Low originate from Duluth, Minnesota. Key members, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker are married and are practising followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. While they've never marketed themselves as a 'Mormon Band,' their personal religious beliefs have informed aspects of the band's lyrical content throughout their career. Murderer appeared on their 2007 record, Drums and Guns.

Shannon Stephens is a Seattle singer songwriter, whereas Bonnie 'Prince' Billy hails from Louisville, Kentucky. B'P'B covered I'll Be Glad on his 2008 record, Lie Down In The Light. 

Modern Hymns

Murderer

One more thing before I go
One more thing I ask you, Lord
You may need a murderer
Someone to do your dirty work

Don't act so innocent
I've seen you pound your fist into the earth
And I've read your book
It seems that you could use another fool

Well, I'm cruel and I look right through
You must have more important things to do
So if you need a murderer
Someone to do your dirty work

Low/Mimi Parker, Alan Sparhawk, and Matt Livingston



I'll Be Glad

I'll go anywhere that you do
And if you don't go before
Lord, I don't want to go without you anymore

Meet me in a pillar of fire
Shade me with a big white cloud
Lord, wherever you go, you'll always have me around

You will give my body rest
And never let me thirst
So I'm not going anyway if you don't go there first

And when I see you beckoning me
That's how I'll know
Lord, following your lead is the only way I'll go

When you get your flock together
Please take me along
Lord, I'm too weak to travel
I'll be glad you're strong

And I'll lean on your arm.

Shannon Stephens, Will Oldham

The New Age

The individualist nature of the typical form of marketed spirituality, that is, a collection of selected beliefs from a variety of religious sources, further entrenches a shallowness and lack of respect for established traditions in the modern consumer society.

At its worst, it echoes the recent trend of 'slacktivism,' an easily opted in-to (or co-opted) cause, where the individual is motivated not by the cause itself, but rather how it reflects on them in the eyes of their peers. More than ever, via social media, an individual's personality and beliefs are things to be constructed and shown off, creating an image for outsiders to see.

This public character construction is unsurprising, as it is a product of the individualist culture we live in. Choice and the market are the twin drivers of our society, and as such we are targeted as consumers from an early age. The individual is lauded.

Everything is for sale, including Religion and Spirituality. The individual can subscribe to whatever belief system they like, and all are equally valid, regardless of their relative merits, because the individual must be affirmed.

Beast & Man

The Human as one who suffers, plays, pleads, needs, uses.

The Beast as one who fights, works, takes, survives, ignores.

We are split and equal, though we may suppress and hide.

An animal bone, lying weathered, recycled and given new life.

Teeth pulled, and skin flayed.

If Pain Persists

3 Poems.

Capricorn

Horned head
And yawning maw
We Scream as we awake
In touch with the earth
On all fours

Camelopardalis

Born as crawling animal

We now stand, though require
Our hands to lift our feet
attached by strings
And with beastly head
And with beastly heart

We evolve and regress

Damian and Cosmos

Twin headed
four arms
dead child

we are grotesque
they are as strong as us
we are as frail as they.


Conor Macdonald
13th March 2013

What We Make of The Wold

We believe that God is already in the world and working in the world. We recognise God's indefinable presence in music, film, arts and other key aspects of contemporary culture. We wish to affirm and enjoy the parts of our culture that give a voice to one of the many voices of God and challenge any areas that deafen the call of God and hence constrain human freedom (Sanctus1, 2002 as quoted in Graham, 2007 p67).

While the above is written from the perspective of a modern Christian movement, the concept of finding traces of God in the Arts is by no means a modern one. Artist Warner Salman spoke of a 'sudden and revelatory mental visualization' that led to his portrait of Jesus, The Head of Christ. David Morgan suggests in The Lure of Images, that 'the image drew its origin from a higher source, not made by human hands' (Morgan, 212).

This indefinable presence or sudden and revelatory experience seems to describe the transcendent potential of art, yet despite the theological beliefs of the Sanctus movement and Warner Salman, this potential is not restricted to Christianity.

Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, won a Nobel Prize in Literature for Gitanjali, (Git - songs, Anjali - offerings) a collection of devotional poems /songs in 1913. The following is the second in the book, and my particular favourite. It too, describes the transcendental potential of art.

When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.

All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweet harmony---and my adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flight across the sea.

I know thou takest pleasure in my singing. I know that only as a singer I come before thy presence.

I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing of my song thy feet which I could never aspire to reach.

Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call thee friend who art my lord.

I am fascinated by the thought of God as an immeasurable force of nature, existing on the edge of conciousness and able to be glimpsed or felt through art. There is a spiritual feeling associated with a chord change, or a written phrase that makes the hairs on your skin stand up, that cannot be explained. These are moments played or written by mortals, but they retain a timelessness to them that exists outside of what we can touch. Perhaps God lies within, existing as our senses, and our ability to recognise and to feel such things. In transcendence we are actually connecting with our inner selves.



References



Sanctus1. (2002). 'Who we are.' (online), available at: http.www.sanctus1.co.uk/whoweare.php


Graham E. 2007. “What We Make of the World”: The Turn to Culture in Theology and the Study of Religion. In G. Lynch, Ed., Between Sacred and Profane: Researching Religion and Popular Culture. London & New York: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ebook.


Morgan, D. (2007). Facing the Sacred: Image and Charisma. In D. Morgan, Ed., The Lure of Images. A History of Religion and Visual Media in America. London & New York: Routledge.


Tagore, R (1913). Gitanjali http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tagore/gitnjali.htm

Having finally returned home, I've turned my attention to creating this blog. I'm not sure how it will go. I may yet try a tumblr. We'll see. In the meantime I'm having a beer and listening to a record called What The Brothers Sang, an album of Everly Brothers songs, performed as duets by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Dawn McCarthy. It's lovely. Will Oldham, the man behind the B'P'B pseudonym sings often of the transcendental  nature of music, and indeed of the life-force within songs themselves. It's a wonderful thing to experience, either through being part of an audience, enthralled at a show, or as performer, alone with your voice and guitar intertwined as instruments. I tend to believe that the most fulfilling experience occurs as part of a group, where when things are going well, be it for periods as small as seconds or minutes, you all exist on a higher, separate level from the audience, outside of time.