This morning’s post is a setting of my own of a Native-American melody. I’ve posted this video before but wanted to let you know I’ll be playing it as part of Sunday’s celebration.
This coming Sunday, Lakewood UCC celebrates UCC’s Native American Ministries. As part of that liturgy, all the music for the service is based on Native American melodies: 2 hymns, 3 songs set by the American composer, Arthur Farwell (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Farwell, https://songofamerica.net/composer/farwell-arthur/, and https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200035729), and one setting of my own. I’ll post my own setting—one I’ve posted before—later this week, but today’s post are the 3 Farwell settings combined into one video.
The Native American melodies (of primarily the Omaha tribe)) harmonized by Arthur Farwell were drawn from the late 19th Century 20 year research of Alice C. Fletcher, holder of the Thaw Fellowship, Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Creative folk (musicians, authors, graphic artists, dancers, etc.) create amid a world of 7,874,965,825 ideas of what we should and shouldn’t do! It’s hard enough discerning what we believe ourselves, but the cultural noise gets deafening and discouraging sometimes. One bit of that cultural noise is the prohibition against “cultural approbation.” To make matters worse—regard that issue—white supremacists have taken up against the issue. One is damned if one does support cultural sensitivity or damned if one doesn’t!
Unless we wish to discard Debussy’s pieces based on the traits of Spanish music, Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, Ravel’s music based on Asian scales, Beethoven’s “Turkish March” in his 9th Symphony, and on and on and on…then, everyone needs to find their own comfort zone as to where the boundaries are regarding the setting of “folk” material. (I realize even the term, “folk,” has a colonialist tinge to it.)
My own feeling is that if a setting of other material is…
respectful,
fully acknowledges the source,
isn’t intended to represent itself as anything other than what it is, and
makes its own contribution to the material artistically,
…then it doesn’t deserve to be condemned for cultural approbation.
I believe Farwell’s setting (and hopefully my own) fall into the “approved” category.
Here’s some info about the UCC’s Native American Ministry. I especially like the first one!
“The 29th General Synod of the United Church of Christ approved a Resolution of Witness calling for the UCC to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, which authorized the genocide of native people and the theft of native lands. In that Resolution we recognize the complicity of the Churches, including the UCC, in the perpetration of these injustices.”
“The Council for American Indian Ministry (CAIM) is the voice for American Indian people in the UCC. CAIM provides Christian ministry and witness to American Indians and to the wider church. Justice issues that affect American Indian life are communicated to the whole UCC by CAIM. “
This is the final tune in my current project of arrangements of tunes from Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion (CD title is Simple Hymns, pairing it with last year’s project, Simple Songs).
The music begins with the piano alone, playing what seems to be the melody of the hymn tune, except it’s not. It’s actually a countermelody. Then the strings come in–first the violins, then the cellos–playing what feels like a counter-melody, but it’s actually the real hymn-tune melody.
Things finally straighten out halfway through the arrangement and the piano plays the real hymn-tune melody by itself, followed by the strings playing versions of the original countermelody.
I’ve finished mastering my current project (https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/songs-from-southern-harmony). Still need to add Nathan’s album artwork and other metadata, then it’s ready to send off. A while back, I mentioned that I’ve discovered over time that the seeds of the next project always seem to lie in the current project. It’s true this time. I want to do more piano-only recordings like these two: https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/salem and https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sweet-rivers. Don’t know yet if they’ll be my own tunes, or more folk arrangements, but I know I want to make more solo piano stuff I can just sit down and play for friends and family. A book I often used to recommend to composition students is Hermann Hesse’s “Magister Ludi.” Its conclusion, where the protagonist discovers, after a lifetime of absorption in the complicated Glass Bead Game, the real joy of The Game is playing a simple flute in the forest, parallels needs I feel compelled to satisfy in my next project. Each project satisfies personal needs and teaches me something (about music…and life).
Not all the hymns in Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion are anonymous. Far from it. This one was composed by Matilda T. Durham. Her composer page in hymnary.org is https://hymnary.org/person/Durham_MT. From that page:
“A woman of remarkable intelligence and talents; a most colorful personality. She wrote interesting articles for the religious papers of the day, being noted for the witty repartee that characterized her work. She was outstanding as a music teacher and composer of music, some of her songs being “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks”, “Heavenly Treasure”, and “Star of Columbia”. – from http://www.Kletke.com
It’s a little confusing. Her hymn as it appears in contemporary hymnals can be found HERE. Notice there are verses and a refrain. The original shaped note, reproduced HERE as found in Southern Harmony, doesn’t have a separate refrain but the melodic outline of the refrain is the same as the verse. If you’re new to shaped note music, the melody is found in the tenor, or the staff second stave from the bottom.
My arrangement of her tune is of a different character, completely, from the character of the hymn as presented in contemporary hymnals. I prefer more of a middle eastern dance character.
When I’ve completed the project, the album will credit the attributed composers as well as William Walker, the editor. For more information about this hymn, see https://hymnary.org/tune/promised_land_american.
Sadly, the name, Salem, has a bad reputation after the Salem witch hunts of America’s early days, But, it has a good rep prior to that. Here’s a bit of info on the name’s significance from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_(Bible): “Salem, the ancient name for JERUSALEM, is referenced in the following biblical passages:
“And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.” (Genesis 14:18)
“In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.” (Psalm 76:2)”
“The name refers to the royal city of Melchizedek and is traditionally identified with Jerusalem.[1] It is also mentioned in Hebrews 7. Possibly a different place is mentioned in Genesis 33:18: “And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city.” The town of Salim corresponds to that location. It is also mentioned in the Gospel of John 3:23: ‘And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim [Σαλείμ], because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.'”
The titles of the tunes within Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion sometimes require a bit of history even outside of biblical references. Following are several important relevant facts from the Lazy Person’s Guide to the Universe (Wikipedia) about the meaning of the expression, “The New Jerusalem,” to people in the USA who would have contributed tunes during the time of Southern Harmony.
The New Jerusalem was an important theme in the Puritan colonization of New England in the 17th century. The Puritans were inspired by the passages in Revelation about the New Jerusalem, which they interpreted as being a symbol for the New World. The Puritans saw themselves as the builders of the New Jerusalem on earth. This idea was foundational to American nationalism.[24]
That is the most relevant reference for tunes in Southern Harmony: it’s typical of understanding of American protestant congregational denominations. The term, however isn’t limited to them, it’s also important to the Catholic church and, of course Judaism, as per this quote.
“There is a LOT more at the Wikipedia link at the beginning of this post. It’s fascinating reading and I highly recommend taking a few minutes to go to the link and travel down a few of the rabbit holes there. My personal favorite was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jerusalem#Swedenborgian. My father, a Methodist minister, was, nevertheless, an ardent fan of Swedenborg.
During the pandemic, almost all of us have experienced the midnight cry. Awake in the middle of the night worrying, reliving all of our misdeeds, slights, inventing fear after fear, suffering…
I’ve suffered from it, too. That’s why almost all of the music videos I’ve recorded during the pandemic were done around 4 am, sometimes even 2 or 3 am. I can really related to the sentiment of the title of this hymn tune from Southern Music, and Musical Companion. Nothing human is really that new is it.
Another new setting of a tune from Southern Harmony. Several of the Southern Harmony hymn tune names have their source in the Hebrew Bible. Every lazy person’s (like me) guide to the universe (Wikipedia) says “ancient Idumea or Edom, [was] a historical region south of Judea and the Dead Sea. This Wikipedia article on Edom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edom) has considerable information, including a map. A detail about the sources of Idumea (or Edom) is this: “The Hebrew word Edom means “red”, and the Hebrew Bible relates it to the name of its founder, Esau, the elder son of the Hebrew patriarch Isaac, because he was born “red all over”. As a young adult Jacob, Esau’s brother, stole Esau’s birthright by deceiving their aging father into thinking Jacob was Esau. Jacob for ‘red pottage’. The Tanakh [Hebrew Bible] describes the Edomites as descendants of Esau.
“This hymn tune is another that’s new to me. I think it captures the longing for a home and the feeling of isolation in a remote desert.
