Happiness Music

I love this so much. N'Kosi Sikelel' iAfrika is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.


For those wishing to sing along: 

(Xhosa) Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika

Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo.

(Zulu) Yizwa imithandazo yethu,

Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo . . .

And this, Stand By Me, is my total favourite of the Song Around the World Playing For Change songs.

In terms of performances, Sung-bong Choi singing on Korea's Got Talent is unforgettable.


There is something about the music of William Byrd that speaks peace to my soul.  I can't find the Agnus Dei from his Mass for three voices (my favourite) online, but here it is from the Mass for four voices - haunting and beautiful.


As to hymns - this never fails to lift my soul - the Gaither Gospel Ensemble singing Revive Us Again. 


And this!  Christ receiveth sinful men - oh, that is such a fab hymn!  Oh - shame!  They sing only three verses :0(  Well, never mind, here's us singing it at home.


It goes like this if you want to sing along:

1. Sinners Jesus will receive;

Sound this word of grace to all

Who the heavenly pathway leave,

All who linger, all who fall!

2. Come, and He will give you rest;

Trust Him, for His word is plain;

He will take the sinfulest;

Christ receiveth sinful men.

3. Now my heart condemns me not,

Pure before the law I stand;

He who cleansed me from all spot,

Satisfied its last demand.

4. Christ receiveth sinful men,

Even me with all my sin;

Purged from every spot and stain,

Heaven with Him I enter in.

Chorus:

Sing it o'er and o'er again;

Christ receiveth sinful men;

Make the message clear and plain:

Christ receiveth sinful men.

I love this too - love it love it - our family sang this at the Badger's and my wedding: Lean On Me.


And this, that I linked you to the other day - if it were humanly possible to have a song actually permanently tattooed on my neural pathways, I'd have this one - No Wait from Plum Village Songs for the Practice. 


I guess my choices are kind of obvious, but I do love this recording of Time To Say Goodbye.


And, just in case these choices are a little exalted for you, one of my favourites of all time has to be The Dubliners singing The Rare Old Mountain Dew, and another is the extraordinary harpist Joanna Newsom singing This Side of the Blue (I have even preached on this!). 


And Bob Marley - how did I live 32 years before I heard of Bob Marley?  What were my parents thinking of when I was growing up??  This song - Don't Worry - was one I used to listen to often in the really traumatic days when our lives were falling apart.  And it always cheered me up.


Ah.  Happy sigh . . . I could go on all day.


So finally - one for the road - Enjoy Yourself!


But - how about you?  What are your favourites?

  

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365 366 Day 110 – Thursday April 19^th 

  (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, see here)   

A boring but useful little item, if you like arranging flowers (you may remember I had brief churchy aspirations to this).   It’s a dark green painted wooden small trough, with a rigid waterproof line of the right size to take a brick of floral foam.  And it is no longer mine.  Oh, good!

We no longer have the table it was standing on, either.