Category: Music

Music from the Consortium: Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory Students Perform Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”

Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee students perform Pedro Osuna’s arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” with vocalist Shalyah Fearing and cellist Nathaniel Taylor.

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you dont really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Well, maybe there’s a God above
As for me all I’ve ever learned from love
Is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
But it’s not a crime that you’re here tonight
It’s not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the Light
No, it’s a cold and it’s a very broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Instrumental
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Well people I’ve been here before
I know this room and I’ve walked this floor
You see I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
But listen love, love is not some kind of victory march, no
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And I remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove she was moving too
And every single breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Now I’ve done my best, I know it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didnt come here to London just to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand right here before the Lord of song
With nothing, nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah
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Sheldon Mirowitz: Dreyer’s The Passion Joan of Arc—Everything is infinitely meaningful, miraculous, and beautiful

Sheldon Mirowitz , Berklee Professor of Film Scoring,  is the prime composer of the new score for Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) premiered by the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra June 6, 2019 at the Coolidge Corner Theater. Professor Mirowitz developed and directs the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra.

Below are remarks he delivered at the world premiere of the score.

Like all great pieces of art, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is about everything.  Religion and Authority, Power and its abuse, Belief and its costs, Truth and Lies, Women and Men, Innocence and Experience, and the responsibilities of action and human choice – this is the subject matter of the film.  And all of this is particularly resonant now, when all of these issues are playing out in our own time.

But before we watch I want to think about a single, small thing.  I want to think about framing – in particular the way that Dreyer frames his shots in the film.  In many ways, art is fundamentally about framing.  In fact, if you put a frame around any thing, if you hang a frame around any space on the wall, we will think that the thing inside the frame is a work of art.  Because, of course, it is.

The first thing that you will notice in the film is how austere the frame is in general, how empty it is of things, how EMPTY it is.  This is essential to Dreyer’s attempt to move us OUT, out of our world, out of THE world, and into a different sphere. The world he is conjuring is a world which is not anywhere, or that is everywhere. It is world in which everything is very very particular, and therefore very universal, so that the film seems very stylized, while at the same time being very “realistic”. This is quite tricky, and it was essential to our understanding of the film and how to score it. Continue reading →

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Literary Traditions: A Midsummer Night’s Dream…It’s Midsummer 2018!

OBERON

Through the house give gathering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire:
Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,
Sing, and dance it trippingly.

TITANIA

First, rehearse your song by rote
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.

Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1

Music: Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21: Overture (Boston Symphony Orchestra with Kathleen Battle)

Video: Gerst

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Visiting Professor Paul Bempechat, Knighted by the Republic of France

String Trio No. 1 (Jean Cras)

Upon his recognition as a Chevalier de la France, Paul-André Bempechat remembered this:

Just as the instinctive performer can find her- or himself thunderstruck at the discovery of a new work – the arresting slow movement of Schubert’s String Quintet; Gustav Mahler’s Lied, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen; the prophetic slow movement of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata or the heart-wrenching final movement of Schumann’s C major Fantasy – so can the historian become overwhelmed upon reading the manna-from-heaven which is the correspondence and archives of a near-forgotten composer.  In this case, Jean Cras, composer, physicist, a patented inventor, a multi-decorated Admiral for his service to humanity during the Great War, a loving husband and father corresponding daily from afar during lengthy tours of duty.   Continue reading →