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Uplifting Thoughts for the Isolated and Depressed in Times of Plague

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Tom Lehrer with a tribute to Alma:

The first one she married was Mahler
Whose buddies all knew him as Gustav.
And each time he saw her he'd holler,
"Ach, that's the fraulein I must have!"
Their marriage, however, was murdah.
He'd scream to the heavens above,
"I'm writing Das Lied von der Erde,
And she only wants to make love!"​
 
Tom Lehrer with a tribute to Alma:

The first one she married was Mahler​
Whose buddies all knew him as Gustav.​
And each time he saw her he'd holler,​
"Ach, that's the fraulein I must have!"​
Their marriage, however, was murdah.​
He'd scream to the heavens above,​
"I'm writing Das Lied von der Erde,​
And she only wants to make love!"​
Not a great beauty, even in her youth, she must have something more than looks.
alma2.jpgalma1.jpgMahlerGustavAlma.jpg
 
1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters5 at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, this is the way we preach and this is the way you believed.
 
Christus factus est (Christ became obedient) from Paul's Epistle to the Philippians 2:8. In the Catholic liturgy, it was sung at mass on Maundy Thursday (this coming Thursday). After the new rite was promulgated in 1969, it has been employed instead as the gradual on Palm Sunday (today). Anton Bruckner put it to a heavenly setting, here performed by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, conducted by the much-missed, Sir Stephen Cleobury.

And so do I.
A fine documentary for those interested in the history
 
“Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies”
Yes, it was an obscure and deeply buried pun.
The quote comes from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2 scene 3. Benedick responds to Balthasar's song. Shakespeare buries a pun that many at that time with classical backgrounds might catch, fidēs (a gut-string for a musical instrument) and fides (faith, loyalty). This refers in turn back to the structure of the play as Benedick symbolizes fidelity in his conflict with Don John, who represents discord.
However, Shakespeare is doing much more in this little line. There has been a commonplace in music that sheep and wolf gut strings wound together on the same instrument are inevitably and inherently discordant - as re the faithful sheep (Benedick) and the discordant wolf (Don John). Finally, the idea of guts haling out men's souls would inevitably cause the Elizabethan audience to think of the traitor's punishment, hanged, drawn, and quartered (look it up if you don't know it).

Once again, in just 14 words, the Bard has casually dropped a marvelously multifaceted concept.
 
I have fond and uplifting memories as a boy of five or six, hearing my father singing this to the family, accompanying himself on ukelele.

And a wonderful instrumental version by Spike Jones.
 
While our beloved Eul is away selfishly spending her time on RL responsibilities, here is something for those who can't go long without the pleasure of a bonnie Scot lassie. Very Scottish - Scottish violinist, Nicola Benedetti playing a Robbie Burns song, "Ae Fond Kiss," accompanied by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra · Scottish Rory Macdonald, conducting.
 
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