- Today is Domenico Scarlatti's birthday, October 26, 1685 which makes him the same age as J. S. Bach, three hundred and thirty four years old.
- And Kanye West has a new album out--Christian hip-hop. Hmm, the 21st century is not turning out as I expected.
So let's have a couple of pieces. First, one of my favorite Scarlatti sonatas, K. 544, played by Leo Brouwer on guitar:
And a song from the new Kanye West album, Jesus is King, "Closed on Sunday":
And what if you made a song out of the ding you get when you leave your car door open with the keys in the ignition?
Keeping with the religious theme, here is Exsultate Jubilate by Mozart with Regula Mühlemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada:
I've always wondered, did Mozart write stuff like that because he loved sopranos? Or because he hated sopranos?
Christian hiphop has been around for a few decades but, given the way coverage has tended to be about West, I can "almost" see why a gospel album would be a surprise. Since a good chunk of my reading lately has been on the evolution of gospel music in the 20th century by way of books on Thomas Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson; and I read an interesting book by Randall J. Stephens called The Devil's Music that explored how early rock and soul pioneers hailed from specifically Pentecostal backgrounds, I'm not surprised West turns out to have had a gospel album in him.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of Kanye's gospel hip-hop?
ReplyDeleteonly started listening to some of it. It's not my favorite style of music but I blogged a little bit about it this morning. I can hear him drawing on some styles like the Golden Gate Quartet tradition of gospel quartet singing in one of the tracks.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to give it more of a listen over the next week to have a clearer sense what I think of it.
Initial thoughts are over here:
https://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2019/10/kanye-west-has-gospel-album-out-which.html
I was connected to a church scene that went bad in a big way but along the way I learned about gospel hip hop over the last twenty years. I've been reading books on the evolution of gospel as popular music and read a book a scholar wrote about the evolution of Christian rock and rock in connection to Pentecostalism on the West Coast and in the South. In that sense, I'm not the least bit surprised West had a gospel album in him.
Given how much American rock styles evolved from Pentecostal contexts it has gotten me thinking about American rejection of progressive rock or British art rock and David Weigel's book on prog rock highlights something I think could be easily missed--prog rockers were unabashedly drawing on Anglican musical idioms from a high liturgical context and on European folk music via classical styles. Days of Future Past by the Moody Blues was originally intended by the studio to be a New World Symphony for rock ensemble but the band balked at the prospect of ruining Dvorak and so made a concept album instead. Roundaboutly, what many an American rock critic who hates prog rock may not be picking up on is that prog rock might hail from a high liturgical tradition while American rock as influenced by Pentecostalism was influenced by the lowest of low liturgical styles, Randall J. Stephens recorded that an early observer of the "holy rollers" got the sense that Pentecostal services were full of what amounted to dance hall music.
Pentecostalism as a kind of sanctified dance hall music, then, might be something to keep in mind with West's new gospel album. It might seem unusual for those unacquainted with Pentecostal and low-church musical idioms but if a person knows about those traditions over the last century then what West's doing isn't so surprising.
Since I only just found out about West's album this morning via your blog, I'll need some time to give it a listen but I've got a busy weekend so it might take some time.
It was a strange experience yesterday, going through that album (and by 'going through' I mean I listened to three or four songs, including the two you've posted links to, and the first fifteen seconds of the others): at the level of the lyrics, I found it to be rather gratifying (tomorrow is the feast of Christ King of the Universe in the traditional Roman kalendar); the music, eh, well, ding ding ding ding ding, it's not in a playlist on my Spotify today.
ReplyDelete"Rome is the true Silicon Valley of humanity"-- from an interview West gave to someone (was on Twitter earlier): he wasn't referring to the Roman Church but to the Rome of empire and civilisation.
Thanks, Wenatchee for sharing your expertise regarding gospel and Pentecostal music with us!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think Kanye is just about a mile and a half further down the road than anyone else in the popular music world.
I think you have a point about the Pentecostal form of worship, Wenatchee, and its influence on the music. When I did foster care I had to take a person in care to a Pentecostal church in the middle of Sunday afternoons. Once I got over the shock and began to know the people it wasn't a terribly difficult task, just an unwelcome one. I think I'll hope that Mr West converts to the Armenian Orthodox faith of his wife and children.
ReplyDelete(Hadn't realised until yesterday that Kanye is married to one of the famous Kardashians-- have seen the name, I suppose, but it hadn't actually clicked somehow.)