Melody's Blog

About a year ago I started to have some interest in "night visiting songs." This was inspired by my growing admiration for the work of Jim Moray, an English folk-singer, and of course, my love for the saddest songs possible and songs of this genre are pretty uniformly very sad. Moray has recorded a couple of night visiting songs he wrote, "Nightvisiting" and "Nightvisitor," plus he covered Bella Hardy's beautiful "Three Black Feathers," along with a couple of other trad songs which I may or may not talk about in this post. (For links to performances of these songs, see the list at the bottom.) Well then, a few weeks ago when Miriam and I were hosting a singing at my house , I sang the lovely really sad folk song, "She Moved Through the Fair." It had never occurred to me this was a night visiting song, but it hit Miriam and about the same second as I was singing that it was. I used to sing this song to the kids when they were

Today I'm going to write about one group of songs that all have the same performance group singing them and was I ever surprised a few years or so ago when I found this music. I just happened to see a notice that 2015-16 would be Anonymous 4 's last year of performing together. They started singing in 1986 and have only had one change in personnel, an amazing feat. Then I discovered that, as last projects, they had made a trilogy of Americana. Surprise, because over the years, A4 has forged ahead as a quartet of women singing mostly medieval music, with some newly commissioned works thrown in. They have won award after award for their impeccable style and attention to details of historical research. And it is no surprise that the Americana trilogy has been equally researched and equally praised by classical and folk music aficionados. The trilogy consists of American Angels: Songs of Hope, Redemption and Glory ; Gloryland , with folk artists Darol Anger and Mike Marsh

Another group of songs to reflect a wide range of genres. The first is: " How Beautiful Heaven Must Be " or We Read of a Place That's Called Heaven. The version I love is by George Jones. George Jones, "The  Possum," for you non-country lovers (of which group I used to belong) is possibly (if such a thing can be decided) the greatest country singer of all time. Oh, how I hated him as a child and teen. Now I know better! Two of his greatest hits are, and you should definitely listen to both — your education is not complete unless you know these — " He Stopped Loving Her Today " and " She Thinks I Still Care ." News flash!! Miriam and I hosted a singing at my house Saturday afternoon — I'm really finally just up and about after it as it took all my energy from me, but it was the most fun I've had in ages. Absolutely satisfying in so many ways. We plan to keep doing this. I'll write more about our plan (not that we have one)

It's really odd how several books I've read fell into line with another book that had the same theme or something else holding them together. That has happened to me before (see my blog post on reading about donkeys from several years ago to which I could add one of the books I'm writing about here!) with serendipity making each book even more appealing. The first of the two pairings I'll write about here are Penelope Chetwode's Two Middle-Aged Women in Andalusia and Vladimir Losskey's Seven Days on the Roads of France . Well, in some ways these are miles and miles apart but both books are by committed Christians traveling on backroads; Chetwode traveled ON the other middle-aged woman, the donkey whom Chetwode calls the Marquesa, and Lossky traveled on foot, or hitch-hiked. In alphabetical order, Penelope Valentine Hester Chetwode, Lady Betjeman, was the wife of British poet John Betjeman, and she had become a devout Catholic, perhaps through her ass

Excellent news! The collection of essays on hymns that I edited in 2011 as a festschrift for a colleague in the American Theological Library Association has now been made into an open access book . (See this press release in the ATLA newsletter for more info.) This book honored the ATLA Choir Master (yes, we did indeed have one), Seth Kasten. He was able to take a group of singers (who could sing without vibrato being the main criterion) who only ever possibly sang together one time a year and in one rehearsal (and a half) make us into a really nice sounding choir. A miracle worker! Of course, those of us who were in the choir really wanted to sing. He always chose some anthem, plus for the memorials for those ATLA members who had died during the year, we sang the Orthodox hymn, the Kontakion of the Departed . What a beautiful, hopeful hymn, and why did I never think to add it to my Heaven Playlist ! I will do so right now! (Also reminder to self: see if book has any other possible H

Early in my career, I hesitated to speak in public—lots of excuses—I didn’t like the residue of my Southern accent, others could do it better than me. This was true whether I was asked to be a presenter at a conference or to be a lector at church, reading the scriptures. Over the years, my outlook on speaking in front of people, has revolutionized based on a few epiphanic moments. I discovered that when I gave a presentation and thought of it, and indeed, did “know” that I was proclaiming the word of God, I was fine and even enjoyed it. How did I come to this? I started this movement to proclamation while studying at seminary. The few times I had to “preside” or give a homily were killers, though I realized the more I believed in my homily, the better the experience for me. But my first real breakthrough was when my husband’s dear aunt died—she had been very supportive of my study at seminary and wanted me to plan and preside at several rites of burial that are found in the Catho