“Retro” is a word you hear a lot these days – taking something old and clearly dated and making it fashionable again. Bell bottoms, vinyl records, lumberjack beards, thick plastic glasses, mullets (someday, I hope!)

Many people have said to me how much they enjoy the sound of older instruments – since I’m a keyboard player, I usually hear it about the harpsichord. It looks like a piano, but its sound has a bite to it that is not unlike the electric guitar; it’s gentle and elegant, but has a real edge to its sound. I think we are attracted to the older instruments because they remind us of something we already know, but are different enough to really catch our attention (our “beginner’s mind“). The fact that the instruments are recycled from the past (as opposed to newly invented) gives an added benefit of transporting our imaginations to an idealized time in history.

The Crumhorn could be called the lovechild between a bagpipe and an oboe. It is a double-reed instrument with fingered holes (like an oboe), but the player’s mouth doesn’t touch the reed – instead it is contained in a box, giving it a growling sound while severely limiting its range. It was a popular instrument in the renaissance, but its lack of range made it fall from favor as newer instruments were invented. The sound will put you back in the 16th century – as you can see by this extremely talented performer who is playing all 4 crumhorn parts, all 4 viol parts, as well as the drum. It’s slightly surreal, but completely awesome, and yes, I’m totally jealous of this guy’s abilities.

Make sure you pay attention to the video, especially the artwork. Yeah.

“What is this? Now there is something one can learn from!” That’s a huge compliment, especially as it was uttered by the arrogant Mozart when he heard the music of J. S. Bach.

The six motets of Johann Sebastian Bach are beautiful beyond measure, perfectly composed, and fiendishly difficult to sing. “Der Geist hilf unser Schwachheit auf” (The Spirit gives aid to our weakness) was composed for a funeral, but the text is equally perfect for the Christian day of Pentecost – the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and the birthday of the Church. The piece begins with the double-chorus singing back and forth to each other, like the biblical “rush of wind” that occurred on the first Pentecost. A fugue follows, as a sort of response to the fiery opening section – listen for the constant hissing of different s’s, again, giving the effect of rushing wind, or perhaps speaking in tongues. The motet closes with a sweet setting of a hymn which Martin Luther wrote for Pentecost, and would have been well known by any 18th century German Protestant.

0:00 – double-chorus singing in dialogue
The Spirit gives aid to our weakness, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

We all have different music we seek out when we are in a particular mood. When you’re itching for a certain song, piece, or genre, take a second and think: what is driving you to that music? Nostalgia, passion, love, sadness, joy, weariness?

What a piece of music means to one person might be completely different to another. One person finds a song to be deep, meaningful, and sacred to his/her soul; another enjoys the same song because it is “hummable”; another person finds it shallow and trite. Can one be right, and the others wrong? Can two, or all three be right at the same time? Does the composer of a piece, or the performers, have any say in what is being expressed, or is beauty simply in the ear of the beholder? Is there a universal beauty? Does it even matter what the composer or performer is expressing? Does it matter what the audience response is? If a composer’s intention doesn’t evoke the correct response in the listener (even if the response is a positive one), is the piece a failure? Does the composer even matter, or is s/he just a random collection of carbon-based molecules that happened to arrange dots on a page in a way that causes musicians to move their limbs in a certain matter which causes air to vibrate which tickles some weird nerves in our ears?

I could go on, but I’ve said enough. Being a human is confusing at times. At some point, we need to let go of all that, embrace our humanity, and just dive into what lifts us out of the muck and mire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7etjqZmAGs