Because I'm gaining a serious appreciation for his music. He composes the soundtracks for the Studio Ghibli movies, and they are all gorgeous.
"Merry-Go-Round of Life", from Howl's Moving Castle. I actually got the sheet music for the song, I found it so lovely. It doesn't hurt that it's a great movie and an even greater book (there is some disconnect between the two, though). I've had to go and draw Howl already. I plan to draw Sophie as well some time in the sort-of near future, but I don't know whether to draw her with brown hair or silver.
Tumblr has a gif for that.
"Dragon Boy", from Spirited Away. Haven't seen that one yet, but if it ever shows up in my university library I'm definitely checking it out.
The Secret World of Arrietty. Wasn't there a book, or am I dreaming?
Blogger won't even let me upload videos from YouTube onto here. Google is indeed retarded.
Anyway, I just found the song "Frozen Heart" from Frozen in Norwegian and have listened to it approximately 30 times by now (no exaggeration). I don't know what it is about songs in a foreign language that move me so, but they do. Gah.
This is an old (11th century) Icelandic song, transliterated into the Roman alphabet as 'Heyr himna smidhur' (if you don't mind me substituting 'dh' for the curved d-thing with a line through its stem) and which translates to 'Hear, Heavenly Creator'. The group is apparently called Arstidhir (again, me doing my best to write the name when my keyboard doesn't have all the right letters).
This is seriously beautiful. Again, it's a reminder that we Catholics have some of the best music - AND that all of the old music was the really good stuff. What we sing now just doesn't move the soul like this does. Even atheist commenters on YouTube cannot help but acknowledge the otherworldly beauty of this song.
Bonus fact: they are singing it in a German train station. You can see a sign saying 'Ausgang' ('Exit') behind them at one point. They lucked out on the acoustics - the echoing of their voices in that area only adds to the haunting quality of the song.
That's another reason why the old styles of churches were better. The acoustics of the building allowed for beautiful music like this...
Now presenting: 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: An Abridged Edition' in LATIN!
XD This is simply hilarious. It's done in the true Gregorian style, and yet the lyrics (which I can decipher perfectly well, thank you) are the ones we all know and love, if slightly abridged. For instance, the opening lines go like this: 'Rudolph was a deer. He had a red nose. If you ever saw it, you would say it glows.'
Here we have, "Good To Be Alive," by Jason Gray. This is another example of a clever lyrics video done officially, not by some teenaged geek who happens to be good with Photoshop or Windows Movie Maker. (Obviously, I do not belong among said teenaged geeks. I don't even belong among the teenaged crowd anymore. *sigh*)
Casting Crowns regularly has good songs (they're up there with Third Day in my books), so here's, "All You've Ever Wanted" by them:
In fact, let's just go ahead and make it a Casting Crowns sort of day. Here's, "Praise You In This Storm":
Now, to demonstrate why I love Third Day, here is, "Need a Miracle."
Jeremy Camp, "Let It Fade":
Laura Story, "Blessings":
Steven Curtis Chapman, "Love Take Me Over":
TobyMac, "Speak Life":
Another lyrics video that's fun to watch without (hopefully) sending you into a seizure.
And today on the radio I heard, "Breath of Heaven," by Amy Grant. Nothing like a good Christmas song to listen to as you drive home. :)
I have a long list of songs I've been meaning to share, so I'll knock a few off right now, if you don't mind.
First up: 'Starry Night', by Christ August:
Next we have 'Strong Tower', by Kutless:
Here is 'Glory Defined', by Building 429 (honestly, I do not understand the names of some of these groups, but whatever):
And lastly we have 'I Celebrate the Day', by Reliant K. The interesting thing is I actually recognized this group as I heard the song come on the radio, despite the fact that I have only ever heard one song by them before. It was 'When I Go Down', which I heard in (of all things) a video tribute to Boromir on YouTube. I was listening to this new song on the radio and kept thinking (apparently randomly) of lines from that other song, and finally figured out that the voices sounded the same. So I waited until the song finished and its name and artist would be called out, and, sure enough, it was Reliant K.
I love it when my memory doesn't play tricks on me. XD
Anyway, so here is the song. I couldn't find any really good lyric videos, so we'll just have to do with something that looks like I could have made it (my video-making skills are about nil). The song is addressed to the Infant Jesus.
Christmas is coming... and today is the feast day of St. Francis Xavier. :)
Courtesy of TheOneRing.net, I have found this amazing cover of J. R. R. Tolkien's famous 'Riddle of Strider'. Of course, it elaborates upon the original lyrics, but it is all very much in the same style. The tune is very gentle and flowing without being boring, and the instruments used to create it blend very well, even the guitar.
I've gotta have something to tide me over until December 13th, right?
Apparently it's a thing now where every so often I share the latest songs I have heard and liked on the radio. It's not my fault that I listen to a Christian station and so the songs that I share are all Christian. If you want weird rap songs, go look them up yourself.
"Help Me Find It", by Sidewalk Prophets:
"Steal My Show", by TobyMac:
"Build Your Kingdom Here", by Rend Collective:
I'll be back in a few more weeks with more songs... not that anyone listens to them, anyway.
Okay, okay, so all I listen to is Christian radio. The music can be quite good.
The refrain in this one really does sound a bit like a heartbeat (oh, boy, that's going to remind me of When We Stand Together, by Nickelback, which is actually a good song), and the imitation heart monitor blue lines going across the screen help.
I like videos with lyrics, since they tend to load faster. Also, they help you understand the song quicker, and they can be quite creative. For instance, check this next one out:
The name stickers work really well for this video. Kudos for the clever idea!
It makes for nice music to listen to when you're doing physics homework. Not that the homework was terribly complicated. All you have to do is resist the urge to try 'shortcuts' and just work it out, logically and in order.
After all, as Pippin says, "Short cuts make long delays." XD
You Are I Am, by MercyMe (a group probably most famous for I Can Only Imagine).
Every time I have turned on the radio the past couple of weeks (granted, it has always been to the same Christian station each time), this song has either been playing or came on as I was listening. And that is no exaggeration. It really has been every time.
I don't think it's a coincidence. I really don't believe in mere 'coincidences'. I believe in Providence.
I'm guessing this roadwork was done in Gotham, and that somebody was looking for Batman to save the day. How this would be more visible than a sign up in the sky, I'm not sure. And while we're on the subject, what do they do when they need Batman and the night sky is not cloudy? Or what happens if they need him during the daytime?
Comic book writers. Their stuff is as full of plotholes as Swiss cheese.
Refrigerators... no longer just stainless steel - they now come in carbonite!! Order now, and get the exclusive Jabba Snack Dish for free!
I am still laughing hysterically over this one, and it's the third or fourth time I've looked at it! Poop on their cats... lol.
I would dub this a hilarious case of 'following the letter of the law, not the spirit'. However, the bathroom was cleaned very well, I must say. The paper flag and the note of, "WELCOME TO AMERICA - enjoy your stay!" are especially nice touches. Harry Potter on the toilet seals it. Lol.
Couch art. Now, that is a new concept. I have written on couches myself, but never to this extent. This is actually some seriously good art. How on earth was it drawn? I don't think you can get that kind of precision with just your finger.
Even so... that is a really good Gandalf. It's just amazing how it could be managed on that kind of material. The injuction on the seat cushion takes the cake, though. "You shall not sit." That meme is up there with, "One does not simply..." Everyone knows of it (or should) by now.
That would be something awesome to try sometime. I can just picture the reactions of the other people in the store... or the headlines in the paper the next morning, lol.
Now this is one piece of fandom merchandise I do not require. However, it is very clever and seems to be quite well-crafted. It's amazing the things you can get with a Middle-earth theme to them nowadays... which I am not complaining about at all!
I'm fairly sure this wins an award for the most awesome nursery of all time. Just sayin'.
S'mores. WIN.
I've never even heard of or seen 'pppp' in musical notation before! Gah! And how can you do a tremolo with only one note? I'm assuming this is not for piano... Even so, what do you call 'pppp'? 'p' is piano, since that's Italian for 'softly' or 'quietly', and 'pp' is pianissimo, and 'ppp' is pianississimo, or something like that, so does that meant that 'pppp' is pianissississimo?
Goodness.
Must remember to bring this up with my music teacher tomorrow.
In honor of organic chemistry, I thought I'd post this. While it's not as stress-relieving as the last thing I posted (what is it lately with me and posting videos, anyway?), it's still certainly amusing for those of a scientific bent of mind. I definitely rank among that number.
I was sitting in class today and realized just how much of the 'magic system' of my fictional universe is based off of science. Serious, my runic system, at least as far as it is deployed in a battle, is somewhere between hieroglyphics and atomic structure. The moment my runes start forming a tetrahedon like methane or something, I will know I have officially lost it.
Of course, look what Terry Pratchett did with the Discworld. There, magic is basically the equivalent of nuclear technology, complete with a background magic field - a concept I also use.
So maybe it's not a bad thing, having a scientific bent of mind. At any rate, it'll be amusing if a work of fantasy turns out to be more scientifically accurate than your average sci-fi thriller or comic book. It always amuses me how superheros get their powers, anyway... A spill in a chemistry lab? Oh, no, you have super speed! I mean. really... XD
Reading his acknowledgements at the end of the little lyrics booklet is always funny. I don't know why, it's just the comments he makes to various people who've helped him.
Also, Meav ni Mhaolchatha (sp?), formerly of Celtic Woman, did "She Moved Through the Fair" much better. Sorry, Josh, but it's the truth.
Lisa Kelly may have also done "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress" better. That, or I'm just used to hearing a lady's voice singing those songs. Also, David Downes did the piano for that version of it. He's good with a piano. I admire good piano playing.
A birthday card I got a few years ago played this song. I loved it then, and I still love it now. Interestingly enough, it sparked one of my random poetic moods (I get hijacked by them about every three months), and this resulted, with a religious and philosophical bent to it:
Do I believe in magic?
Well, I have stood still in silence
And seen the Sun at it rises,
And an eagle as it flies.
I have seen the belt of stars
Glitter on a dark sea before my eyes.
And I have seen a King lifted up,
Bleeding and bright, on the world’s heights.
I confess the power of the Word.
I confess the Blood that made me.
Do I believe in magic?
Absolutely.
Of course, that was a few years ago, so I'm not surprised, looking back upon this now, that it's a little... scattered. However, most of my poetical hijackings do result in disjointed ramblings upon religious and philosophical subjects, so this is typical.
This would also be a good point to say that it all also depends on how you define 'magic'. I generally avoid the usage of the term in my original fiction (and have correspondingly developed a bewildering array of terminology that I prefer... in English and in my original langague(s)... in order to discuss it intelligently, since I like magic systems that actually WORK in fantasy literature). However, sometimes in English conversations there is no way to avoid it.
I would like to indicate that I always use the word 'sorcery' to denote magic with infernal origins. And, yes, I do believe that can happen. The students in the Latin class I attended one lecture of may have laughed when the teacher made, jokingly or not, the comment that, "Latin is good for many things. Ah... exorcisms are one of them." But I wasn't laughing. Exorcisms may be the subject of horror flicks, but in real life they can be very Serious Business.
It is not against the powers of this world that we strive, but against principalities...
Since I'm in a bit of a nostalgic mood at the moment, here are some more songs that I like:
I prefer videos that contain the lyrics because they load much faster. Also, if I cannot understand what the singer is saying, the words are right there. Yep. Part of the reason I haven't been able to really get into the music the Civil Wars do/did is because I cannot understand what they are saying most of the time. Shame on me and all that, I know. Maybe I should swipe the CD case from my sister and read the lyrics. Maybe I should find YouTube videos that have the lyrics.
However, it's just not the type of music I prefer. I'm ashamed to say it, but I can't change the truth. I really don't have one specific genre of music that I prefer. I tend to handle it on a case-by-case basis instead. Which allows for a very wide and eclectic variety, I can tell you.
That does not mean that I consider the Civil Wars in the realm of 'bad' music, because I most certainly do not hold that opinion. I recognize that there are many types of music I do not personally like that are still good. However, there is music that I do not like that I consider inherently inferior due to its non-music-like qualities (i.e., a good deal of rap, which is more akin to noise rather than actual music).
A good deal of modern church music could be thrown into that category as well. Grr. :[ I had to play one this weekend - a hymn, mind you - that SHIFTED KEYS halfway through for the refrain! Additionally, the words did not rhyme or follow any sort of meter. The melody had no discernible pattern; it merely repeated itself occasionally.
In short, the song had no sort of internal coherence. Pure and simply, that song is a wreck, and whenever it comes up on the list I cringe. I just... Gah. Playing it is even worse than merely singing it, because it insistently gets stuck in my head. Why do all the bad songs turn out to be earworms???
I mean, even "Gather Us In" rhymes and has a catchy beat. This one, "At the Table of the World", fails in both respects. To boot, it's just another insipid song about social justice. Really, by the songs we sing, you'd think we came to Mass to sing about how we help other people, not to worship God.
Sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine.
I still believe in what is going on at the altar, after all. If anything should be labeled as magical or miraculous in this broken world, it's the Mass.
So yesterday I went to the music store and browsed through the sheet music. (Well, what else did you expect from a title like that?) I picked out three.
(1) "Believe" from The Polar Express
(2) "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (minus the words, sadly)
(3) And then, on a whim: "American Pie"
I love inflicting music I like on people. I'm just evil that way. XD
The services in the Roman Catholic tradition for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil on Saturday evening are referred to collectively as the Easter Triduum, or the 'three days', approximately. The congregation is not officially dismissed on Holy Thursday or Good Friday, and it is not officially welcomed at the Easter Vigil, in order to emphasize that they are a continuous whole.
Of course, they are long services (last night for Holy Thursday it actually took a little over a whole hour, but then we have a very speedy priest who normally gets us out of there in about 40 minutes... how could you possibly object to a priest who loves to give short sermons??? XD).
The Passion is read on Palm Sunday and Good Friday- if memory serves me correctly, the Passion according to the Gospel of John is always read on Good Friday, while the one read on Palm Sunday alternates from Matthew, Mark, and Luke depending if the liturgical readings are in Year A, B, or C. (I think we're in C right now... It's terrible that I can't remember, but then I haven't been playing the responsorial psalms for the past couple of Masses, and that's when I see the little marker.)
Today there are actually two services: the Stations of the Cross around 3:00 instead of the usual late in the evening, and then the Veneration of the Holy Cross later. That one takes forever because there is a period where various intentions for various groups of people are read and the congregation has to kneel and pray, then stand up for the next intention to be read, then kneel again... It goes on and on seemingly ad infinitum.
Oh, well. I've been going for as long as I can remember, so it's become unthinkable for me not to go. I hope the choir sounds as good tonight as it did last night, because last night they rocked. (Sounded kind of sketchy on Palm Sunday; only a few of them turned up apparently... Of course, it was the Vigil Mass, but even so...)
For Stations earlier today I had to play the Stabat Mater, which I've never done before. However, I was pleased that it went off well, without me flubbing it horribly or something. It's a really beautiful song and if you start me off on any verse I can finish it for you. I can't sing it all the way through necessarily, but so many years of attending Stations has paid off...
I should find a video of it and post it. Because I feel like posting things today. Posting-itis it is, then!
No singing, but it gets the tune across. If it works. Google hates me, you know. I want to strangle it on a regular basis.
I should also mention the beautiful hymn Pange, Lingua that is traditionally sung on Holy Thursday. The last two verses out of the six are better known as the Tantum Ergo/Humbly Let Us Voice Our Homage. Humorously, I know the Pange, Lingua in Latin (all six verses! This is what happens when I am bored and am playing the piano...) but not in English, so I was left fumbling around for the book and trying not to finish a verse with, "Rex effudit gentium."
Lol, the problems of a Latin nerd.
Ooh, I should post a video of Pange, Lingua as well!
Basically I've been singing that song, all six verses, in Latin, throughout Lent this year! Whenever I'm just doing dishes or helping cook or something else in the kitchen, I don't know why but I just start singing stuff, and it's usually Latin songs. I just love the sound of them so much (I honestly love Gregorian chant; it's so soothing and I don't find it creepy in the least). Luckily, most Latin songs are also pitched low enough for me not to have a problem with them, since my voice doesn't really go high... at all...
The fact that I do actually know what I am saying when I sing them helps, too.
Semi-amusing story: I went to Midnight Mass for Christmas last year for the first time (yay!) and the opening hymn was Adeste Fideles. They sing it in English as O Come, All Ye Faithful for the children's Mass, but keep it in Latin for Midnight Mass. I was delighted and was happily singing it along with the choir while the rest of the congregation was fumbling around for the books, messing up the Latin words, or having other similar issues.
Oh, and then after Communion one of the choir members sang Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (in German, naturally). I knew it (at least the first two verses, and that's all he did), so I was pretty much the only member of the congregation who was singing along that time!
The weirdest thing is that I don't find this unusual in the least... I've been taking German and Latin for so long that when I realized today that sooner or later I might as well slap the label "trilingual" (especially as I think I'm going to shoot for a German minor) on my forehead I was actually surprised.
Lol.
I really don't know where I'm going with this blogpost; I'm just sort of celebrating Latin stuff and my faith and having fun along the way.
Oh, and just to prove that Catholics have a better sense of humor:
I just think that picture is hilarious. I giggled like anything when I saw it. From the fact that Dwalin is staring off at nothing to the fact that Gloin is Judas... just, you name it.
