Easter, in its modern form on the left, is a day on which people who hew to pre-19th-century concepts of math, science, and reason trash people of faith for (among other sins) not being as enlightened as they are. What if there's truth to that charge? What if, in fact, I'm even less enlightened than people whose concept of "science" was becoming old hat even as Jefferson was taking office? Yikes.
Science, reason, and all the other nouns on which the "reality-based" community "bases" its views, have long since revealed themselves to be methods first, and philosophies second, if at all. There was a time when science and/or reason might have described a mindset or served as a basis on which to say "no" to superstition and "yes" to the truths about nature, but that was more like 1742 than 2014. Here's to 2014--Easter 2014, to be precise.
This is me, playing my Casio WK-3800. The superb piano and church organ sounds are Casio's; the nimble fingers belong to me. The tune dates back to 1708, a year in which "basing" things on logic, science, and reason might have made sense as a philosophical option. Then came the 19th century.
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today (tune, 1708)
Lee, on the Casio WK-3800.
Lee
3 comments:
Happy Easter, Lee - He has risen; He is risen indeed!
Thank you for providing this classic hymn in two different renderings... Ah-ah ah-ah-ah le-e-lu-u-jah!
Technical question: does your Casio have, in its organ settings, one that replicates... I don't know the technical term; this is your expertise. But I've heard how larger church organs, when the last note has been played, that note doesn't abruptly cease, but fades rapidly, with maybe a teeny echo/reverb... maybe that's from an old organ's air-fed, or steam(??)-fed bellows? It sounds beautiful in large open spaces (e.g., cathedrals), a near-ethereal gentle conclusion, or epilog.
I'm sure you know the effect; can your Casio do that? It would make an interesting way to close off a piece just played, especially one read from your oldest hymnals.
And speaking of old... our friends at Google - ever ready to salute the hudred-fourteenth birthday of an obscure tinker, or thinker - once again have failed to notice and mark that today's Easter (both Gregorian AND Julian), a holiday observed in one form or another by as much as a third of humanity.
Okay, one of the Google O's as a halo behind Jesus, and the other as, say, a gaping tomb, would be tacky... but even just turning both O's into Easter eggs would please even the pagans, and placate at least the superficial Christians.
The roaring silence...
Happy Eastertide, Lee!
Kind regards,
A. Gene Childe
Thanks for pointing it out--I hadn't even noticed Google's annual ignoring of Easter!
Hmm. Let me think about your Casio question. Sounds like something I'd have to use MAGIX for.
Happy Eastertide back atcha!
I just read an article based on an appearance on a mainstream media show yesterday, and the discussion leaned toward the fact public opinion changes over time, but Christianity's view doesn't always follow happily along. I always go back to the account in Acts 17 of "“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." The public opinion keeps the world safely level for those who don't believe. and their science, philosophy, superstition.
And I love your rendition here...thanks.
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