I haven’t read the book Cold Mountain, nor have I seen the movie, but I do know that its soundtrack has some great Sacred Harp music on it!

In a nutshell, Sacred Harp is the degenerate, revolutionary child of English choral music. It’s raw, it’s rough, and it’s definitely not cultivated. But it’s beautiful in its own way, and the passion in which it’s sung makes it powerful to hear.

Cold Mountain is set in the heyday of Sacred Harp singing, the American Civil War. Some musicians criticized the movie soundtrack because it uses trained singers instead of the “authentic”, untrained amateurs that are associated with this tradition. Authentic or not, the music and text have the strength to really hit home.

When I began this blog, I vowed to do it for at least one full year. I’m doing it for myself, but let me say how much I appreciate you, the readers, for your feedback, responses, and your support.

I made a long list of pieces I wanted to present and write about. I’m slowly chipping away at that list. But every once in a while, I stumble across something new and fascinating – you know, like when you go past page 2 of your google search?

Seriously though, among the vast wasteland of trash, you can dig up some real gems. Here’s one I click on because, well, it had a cool picture. And it ended up being a really cool piece of music … and a very interesting story.

Before this post, I had never heard of Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens. He is the third musician named Eugene Goossens, all from the same family, who lived in the same house, in London. Goossens conducted the British premiere of Stravinsky‘s Rite of Spring, and was the conductor of the Rochester (New York) Philharmonic and instructor at the prestigious Eastman School of Music. Sounds pretty normal, right?

So now it gets interesting. Goossens had an colorful affair with Australian Rosaleen Norton, an artist, occultist, and witch, at a time when Australia was socially conservative. He was stopped at the Sydney airport and searched; his bags had some curious photos, masks, incense, and other objects – enough to cause a huge scandal at the time, and ending Goossen’s musical career.

Here is Goossen’s 1913 “The Eternal Rhythm”, which I had never heard before; I quite like it. It sounds very much like the post-romantic works of the time, and smacks especially of Scriabin.

… And if you don’t know how, Anitra will be happy to teach you.

Anitra is a character in the Norwegian play Peer Gynt, written by Henrik Isben. The play is a satire of Norway and Norwegians, their peculiarities, their mythology, and their humor (if you can call it that.) Isben asked Norway’s composer poster-child, Edvard Grieg, to write music for the play. Later, Grieg created two suites using music he wrote for the play, which have become orchestral favorites the world around. Not too shabby for a country of fishermen, whose total population today is less than 6 million.