Woody Guthrie at 100 "There's A Better World A-Comin'"

He turned 100 yesterday.







































Happy 100 Woody. From your lips to God's ears.

The Spectacular French Organ

Henry LeRolle, The Organ Rehearsal, first exhibited at the Salon of 1885.  The scene takes place in the church of Saint Francois Xavier in Paris.  The organist is Ernest Chausson.  The singer is one of LeRolle's two sisters.  The other sister was married to Chausson.  His wife sits with her back to us holding a music score in her lap.  LeRolle himself looks out at us on the left.  The shadowy figure behind LeRolle is the young Claude Debussy.  This is my picture from the Metropolitan Museum.

Another weakness of mine is French Romantic organ spectaculars.  These will be familiar to many from church, from concerts, and from ceremonies in colleges and universities.  Yes, these are shameless crowd pleasers, but I'm pleased, and just love these things.  A century later, these pieces still wow the crowds.

Let's begin with the most famous of all, the Toccata from Symphony #5 by Charles Maria Vidor, probably written and first performed on the organ above in the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris.







And of course there are other spectacular works by Widor.






Widor's most famous student was that other composer of organ spectaculars, Louis Vierne, who served as resident organist at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

 He created such exhilarating showpieces for organ despite a hard luck life; he was nearly blind from congenital cataracts, his marriage ended in separation and divorce, he lost 2 brothers in World War I, and he nearly lost his leg in an auto accident.








Here's an encore of a favorite YouTube of my organist friends, a performance of Vierne's most famous and popular work.







And finally, here's something for all the organists out there who read this blog, in the organ loft watching a performance of Vidor's Toccata on the organ at Saint Sulpice in Paris with Phillip Roth, Widor's current successor as resident organist at Saint Sulpice, sitting off to the side giving a running commentary.







EXTRA:

For Paul A.

Happy Bastille Day Grandmere!

Francois Rude, La Marsellaise from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1833 - 36

The distinction between “citizen” and “subject” may only be a technicality these days.  There probably isn’t much practical difference between being a citizen of the Republic of France and being a subject of the Queen of the Netherlands.  And yet, that distinction is still there, and continues to have meaning for some of us.  I think of the distinction between a sovereign monarch and the sovereign people every time a bailiff commands officials and spectators in court to rise when the jury enters.  I would much prefer to be a citizen than a subject.

Happy Bastille Day to all!  LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE!

In keeping with blog tradition, here is Placido Domingo singing the Hector Berlioz setting of La Marseillaise.




I wonder if any other country has banned its own national anthem as much as France.  La Marseillaise was composed in 1792, adopted by the First Republic as a national anthem in 1793.  Napoleon then banned it (Tchaikovsky got it wrong in the 1812 Overture, the French invaded Russia to some other tune).  The kings of the Bourbon Restoration also banned it.  After the July Revolution, the ban was lifted, but Louis Philippe did not exactly encourage it, and neither did the Second Republic which replaced him in 1848.  Louis Napoleon banned it again during the Second Empire.  The revolutionaries of the Paris Commune in 1871 made La Marseillaise their official anthem, but so did their enemies in the Third Republic.  Today, the status of La Marseillaise as the national anthem is written into the constitution of the Fifth Republic.

Other countries banned this song during the 19th century.  Before the Internationale was written, this was the international anthem of revolution, especially left wing revolution.

For my annual indulgence in French gloire, I present a selection of Musique Militaire, some famous French marches, all from the Third Republic and written soon after the Franco Prussian War of 1870.

La Pere La Victoire by Louis Ganne. I have no idea if there is any connection between this march and Clemenceau whose partisans called him The Father of Victory.







Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse by Joseph Rauski ably performed here by an old Soviet band.





And finally, as the Bastille Day parade traditionally ends with the Foreign Legion, so we end with their official march, Le Boudin, a title that refers to a type of blood sausage, a reference to the appearance of the pack rolls that the Foreign Legion used to carry.   Laurel and Hardy in the Flying Deuces make a cameo in this clip. And how many remakes of Beau Geste are there really?








And this Bastille Day, how many of us remember that Josephine Baker was a war hero?.

She was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, the daughter of a washerwoman and a drummer.  She arrived in Paris and became Josephine Baker, singer, dancer, celebrity, and international sex symbol.
During the Second World War, she used her celebrity to gain access to important people in order to gather intelligence and serve as a courier for the French Resistance.  She frequently posed for pictures and signed autographs for German soldiers who never suspected that the sheet music in her limo was covered with secret messages.  She used her fame to gain access to North African leaders, especially to King Farouk to persuade them either to support the Free French forces or to look the other way.  She helped hundreds of refugees to escape Occupied and Vichy France, usually through North Africa.
After the war, she was awarded the Medal of Resistance with the rosette, and inducted into the Legion of Honor.
She continued to resist all her life, urging a boycott of the very high class Stork Club in New York because of its racist employment policies, and publicly taking on the very pro-segregation Walter Winchell.

Josephine Baker not only fought for Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, she lived it.

Here she is at the 1963 March on Washington.  She is wearing the Legion of Honor medal next to the lapel of her uniform.


And finally in the interest of continuing the Franco American friendship, and yes, we are friends no matter how much we hate each other, here is an American adaptation of a French military march.

The march Sambre et Meuse has long been popular with American marching bands.  The marching band of Ohio State University made it part of their tradition.  Here they are performing their remarkable adaptation of Sambre et Meuse while doing their trademark "dotting the i" drill.




Wasn't that amazing? That drum major should be headed for Broadway. I'd like to see the Garde Republicaine in Paris do this (or even better, The Household Regiment in London).


EXTRA:

Today's military review on the Champs Elysee complete with President Hollande not getting rained on for a change in pictures.  Sent in by Susan H.

Friday the 13th

So far, for me a busy stress filled summer of insomnia and exhaustion.  I'd be happy just to be unconscious for 24 hours.

Remember This Guy?

Remember how we all demanded that the Episcopal Church get off its duff and take a stand?

Well, they did.

The 77th Convention of the Episcopal Church passed this resolution in both houses as amended:

Rpt. #24 on D061
(Condemning Threats Against Sexual Minorities ) recommending Concur;
Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, That the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church adopt the following statements:

The Episcopal Church rejects and condemns all use of violent rhetoric against sexual minorities. by Christian clergy lay and ordained leadership.

We stand in solidarity with lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders persons, and all other sexual minorities who are threatened or persecuted in the name of Christ.

We oppose calls for execution, imprisonment, and for any official or unofficial violence against sexual minorities as contrary to the word and spirit of the Gospel of Christ.

We are committed to the inclusion of all God’s people, including lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders persons, and other sexual minorities, in the full life of the Church.

We believe that these same people should be fully protected by the civil laws of every society, enjoying the protections of law against violence and living under society’s common obligations.

Special thanks to Paul Ambos, a reader of this blog, and a delegate from New Jersey, for doing the necessary work to get this done and for refusing to let anyone forget about this initiative.

Paul is hereby inducted into the Williamsburg/ Greenpoint Legion d'Honneur

The Episcopal Church Votes To Bless Same Sex Unions

Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom, circa 1826 - 1830

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church voted by large margins in all houses to draft a blessing for same sex unions.  As IT points out, this is short of full marriage equality, but it's a huge step in that direction.  The Episcopal Church becomes the largest and the oldest Christian congregation to officially bless same sex relationships including civil marriages.

The Episcopal Church now stakes out a clearly progressive position on the Gospel.  I think it would be unjust to claim that progressives like myself view the Gospel in the light of our politics.  I view politics in the light of the Gospel, and it is that Gospel proclamation that made me a progressive.  I remind readers that I started out as a libertarian conservative (still too far left for today's right wing).

It is that Gospel proclamation of "Peace, Good Will to All People" that cut through all the tangled bigotry to show me that I was included in that greeting, and no, that I did not have to "choose" between the Gospel and my sexuality.

Locked away in the hard amber of doctrinalism beats the revolutionary heart of Christianity, a faith that proclaims a new heaven and a new earth for the old heaven and earth have passed away.  Such a proclamation will never fit comfortably with the traditional role of religion to legitimize established power.  No faith that makes such a proclamation can call itself conservative.

"Behold, I am making all things new."

"The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone."

With this act, the Episcopal Church moves the world a tiny step in the direction of Isaiah's vision of the Holy Mountain of God.

EXTRA:

The actions of the Episcopal Church may not be enough for some of us, but for others, it was way too much.  The South Carolina delegation at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church walks out.

MORE EXTRA:

The 12 bishops who voted against the same-sex rite issued a statement at the Convention.

As far as they are concerned, this rite IS marriage by another name:

The liturgy entitled “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant” is for all practical purposes same-sex marriage.  It includes all of the essential elements found in a marriage rite:  vows, an exchange of rings, a pronouncement, and a blessing.  We believe that the rite subverts the teaching of the Book of Common Prayer, places The Episcopal Church outside the mainstream of Christian faith and practice, and creates further distance between this Church and the Anglican Communion along with other Christian churches.

I actually agree with the bishops.  This really is marriage by another name, and it is time for the Church to come clean and to quit trying to distance ourselves from what this really is for the sake of political expediency.  Our opponents are not appeased, and we've not earned any more credibility with the larger gay community.  Half measures never work.

Of course, the dissenting bishops want nothing but the best for their gay-lesbian parishoners, and we certainly would not want to accuse them of being homophobic, heaven forbid!

 We are committed to the gay and lesbian Christians who are members of our dioceses.  Our Baptismal Covenant pledges us to “respect the dignity of every human being” (BCP, p. 305), and we will continue to journey with them as together we seek to follow Jesus.

Sorry your graces, but no sale.

Tips of the fedora to Grandmere Mimi and to IT.


EVEN MORE EXTRA:

This decision is half a loaf.  But which is better?  Half a loaf or starvation?

After 50 Years, She Still Doesn't See

One of the sexiest of songs is 50 years old this year.

Supposedly, the composer of this song, Antonio Carlos Jobim, based it on an actual 17 year old girl who used to regularly stop by the Veloso bar-cafe on the beach to buy cigarettes for her mother.  She was strikingly beautiful and her regular visits were a highlight for bar patrons.

That girl was Helo Pinheiro.

And here she is, the original Girl From Ipanema.