My Brain is Full

We learned another Zulu song tonight, Nkosi mdali wethu, a 4-part church chorus. I could imagine it being used at the close of services, like Dona Nobis Pacem or Go Now in Peace at the end of services at MUWOAUU[1] Church. But this is in a rollicking call-and-response mode. The sopranos take the first lead, twice through, then the tune morphs and the basses belt out a big lead. It can go on as long as you want.

Like about half the music (and we’ve done a lot more than I’ve listed yet), this one was learned by rote. The melodic sequences of the lines are different and sound, well, African. Plus there are sounds that don’t exist in English, including various tongue clicks (we’ve learned 3 different types). It was the last song of the evening, and my brain was hurting.

Other songs we covered today:

- Almost Home, by Ralph Stanley. You’ll know him as the fellow who sang “Oh Death” in the “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack. Patty has “lightly arranged” it for four voices. The altos get the lead this time, and there is a call-and-response chorus. Kinda loosy-goosy in a improvisational style, hard to write down so the written notes are just an approximation.
- Roll, Jerden (not a typo). A Fairfield Four piece, a little barber-shoppy.
- Bohang seema. A North Sotho church hymn. This is a great song. We start with a protestant hymn translated into Sotho, very familiar-sounding and churchy to western ears. It morphs into a call-and-response African hymn, and then further into a chant-like chorus. The arrangement illustrates the assimilation of European christian hymns into South African regional vernacular traditions.
- Cabin Hill, by Don Jamison. Don is a contemporary composer continuing the New England shapenote tradition but not ignoring modern compositional influences. Ira from Seattle put it succinctly, “The individual chords are ordinary but the whole piece is really powerful.” This one is definitely a keeper. I think it needs a certain mass of voices, so I could imagine the Mormontarians doing it.
- Providence, a 4-part shapenote by the venerable Isaac Watts.

Is that it? I think so. Good night.
[1] Mildly Uncomfortable With Our Affluence Unitarian Universalist