Day 40: August 24 - It Takes A Pilgrimage
Music about journeys, from Marty Stuart to Pandharpur Wari chants.
Franz Liszt - Annees de Pelerinage, Vol. 3 No. 1: Angelus! Priere aux anges gardiens (Angelus! Prayer to the Guardian Angels)
A later work for Hungarian composer/pianist/sex-god Franz Liszt, the Annees de Pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) are a set of solo piano works inspired by his travels and Romantic literature. Much of the first two volumes comes from earlier works, but the third volume, which this piece opens, is very much his later style: simpler and direct in texture but complex harmonically. In this piece, translated as Angelus! Prayer to the Guardian Angels, there is a clear line to follow through the piece, with the melody never being swallowed in massive arpeggiations, but instead guiding you through disparate harmonic regions, building or meandering (depending on your mood) into a grand, chordal climax. A very lovely piece, powerful in its restraint, performed wonderfully here by Ksenia Nosikova.
Kanye West - Homecoming (feat. Chris Martin)
This bopper here by Chicago rapper and Presidential candidate Kanye West is about returning to Chicago after making it big and feeling love, but also some backlash, from the city he grew up in, Chicago. Written before his mother passed away and he went darker in style (not necessarily worse), Homecoming came as Kanye was really, properly becoming a superstar. There is a history of rappers anthropomorphizing hip-hop, as in Kanye’s Chicago mentor Common’s I Used To Love H.E.R.. Kanye tells the story of how the Chi inspired him, but then those ambitions lead to the city turning cold against him for leaving without giving back to the city. In hindsight, this looks a bit like the kind of self-serving victimhood Ye uses more and more regularly (and preposterously). With a great hook and infectious piano riff by Chris Martin, this is still a classic bopper. 10/10, would anthropomorphize again.
Vilasbua Patil - Gyanba Tukaram Bhakta Sathi To Jagtechi
Every June-July for the last seven to eight hundred years, billions of Hindus have made Pandharpur Wari, the annual pilgrimage to the town of Pandharpur, the seat of the god Vithoba, a Hindu god and also the sole focus of a few monotheistic religions in the region. Pilgrims carry padukas, an ancient sandal and a representation of the deity’s foot prints, to the town while performing acts of charity along the way. Music is important during this journey and especially when arriving, singing and chanting Mauli Mauli and Gyanba Tukaram, texts which venerate saints. Sant Tukaram Maharaj, namesake of the chant, was a poet who fostered community worship, especially with kirtans, a call-and-response type of chanting. This Gyanba Tukaram is incessantly rhythmic, with the percussion driving us forward and articulating textual moments and breaks. I honestly can not get enough of that high metallic percussion (and they are so good with the muting and letting ring, I’m lowkey obsessed).
I will admit that I had trouble finding any information about this particular song other than what it is supposed to be, so no lyrics or anything beyond references and suggestions. It is possible that the particular song linked is not what I am talking about here and I would be happy to find a different one if anyone has a better recommendation!
Marty Stuart - The Pilgrim (Act III)
Country legend Marty Stuart’s 1999 album The Pilgrim was a true story from his hometown about a gorgeous woman, Rita, who marries cross-eyed loser Norman, surprising the whole town. Norman grows possessive and Rita looks elsewhere, to a man called The Pilgrim, who came from a town 40 miles away. They start an affair, but The Pilgrim doesn’t know. Norman confronts them with a gun, saying he’ll kill Rita, the Pilgrim steps in, unaware, and Rita confesses. Norman then gives her a letter, says ‘I loved you more than life itself,’ and kills himself on the spot. Both Rita and The Pilgrim are traumatized. The Pilgrim starts wandering and drinking his way to the Pacific coast, where he realizes that the love they had was true, even if the circumstances were incredible. He tracks her down and they live happily ever after.
This track, the emotional exposition of the album, waxes philosophical about how, even though pilgrims may wander, they have a sort of guiding star and inner strength, as ‘Pilgrims wander, but not alone.’ Fleshed out with some great guitar chops.
Joby Talbot - Path of Miracles: !. Roncesvalles
British composer Joby Talbot based this massive work for chorus on the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, a pilgrimage made by many Christians in Spain to venerate St. James the Great, who preached the Gospel in what is now Spain and is buried in Compostela in Galicia. The piece is stunning and enormous, itself a pilgrimage. This opening movement, detailing the life and burial of St. James, begins with the lower voices glissing slowly upwards, not unlike the Pasibutbut of the indigenous Taiwanese Bunun people, until they are met by the higher voices with glorious chordal masses. These are articulated by bright percussion, which just is like salt to this choral sound. In the middle, an ostinato (repeated figure) appears, which will be woven through the rest of the piece and which seems to reference the continual walking of the pilgrims. This is a stunner and performed impeccably by Tenebrae, who commissioned it.
BONUS: Marty Stuart + Johnny Cash - Outro
Little bonus, the outro of Marty Stuart’s The Pilgrim, a raucous little number which moves into Johnny Cash reciting Alfred, Lord Tennyson on pilgrims. Gotta love when country is extra.