99. Alleluia. John Tavener

On September 22 on Q, Jian Ghomeshi informed us that there were 100 days left in the decade, and suggested that we do something for each of those remaining 100 days: learn a new origami, or write a page of a novella, or wear a different t-shirt, or put 100 bottles of beer on the wall and then take one down and pass it around. I thought I'd try a blog featuring a different song or piece of music, but since I worked late on September 22 and didn't have time to start it, I started on September 23 with 99, which I like better than 100 anyway.

This piece was performed at Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 as her casket was carried out of Westminster Abbey. This is a very cool piece of music. Most of the text is from the Orthodox funeral service, with a couple of lines from Hamlet:

Alleluia. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Alleluia. Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom.
Alleluia. Give rest, O Lord, to your handmaid, who has fallen asleep.
Alleluia. The choir of saints have found the well-spring of life and door of paradise.
Alleluia. Life: a shadow and a dream.
Alleluia. Weeping at the grave creates the song:
Alleluia. Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you.



The basses anchor the whole thing with a drone. Right around "Life: a shadow and a dream," you start to hear the shuffle of the pall-bearers. When they get to the last line, the choir sings fortissimo and goes into a totally major key, and the neat thing is that now the sopranos have a drone on top (I don't know if you call it a drone if it's high, but whatever). After a minute of silence, the recording ends with the bells of Westminster Abbey.

Tavener's stuff is hauntingly beautiful. Another one you should look out for is his setting of William Blake's The Lamb.