Scribal Terror

It's her party

Leslie Gore in 1963 -- top of the charts. I thought it was a dopey song back then, but I sing along with it in the grocery aisles now.

A purr-cussion device

Athanasius Kircher's cat piano, apparently a "hypothetical" device.

Oldest audio -- recorded on soot

The BBC reports:

An "ethereal" 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song has been played for the first time in 150 years.

The recording of "Au Clair de la Lune", recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice.

A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children's song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record.

The new "phonautograph", created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a "virtual stylus" to read the lines.

Audio file at the link.

Amazing Grace -- using overtones

You're listening for the high-pitched flutey sound that is created OVER the sound that he's making with his mouth. Don't focus so much on what he's doing that you miss the actual overtones. You might need to close your eyes.

Russian a capella choir

Basso Profondo, a Russian Orthodox all-male choir, singing "Do not reject me in my old age" by Pavel Chesnokov (1877 - 1944). Enjoy the rumble.

Come thou fount of every blessing

We sang this today as a congregation:

One thing I've noticed is that some of the less familiar verses in familiar hymns often become my favorites, not only as lyrics but as poetry. I was struck by these lines in "Fount":

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for Thy courts above.

Because I know I am indeed "prone to wander." I've wandered in the past and I'll wander in the future. In fact, I'm wandering right now . . .

I also love these lines from "Our God Our Help in Ages Past":

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the op'ning day.

Do you have any favorite third, fourth, fifth, etc., verses?

Surely he has borne our griefs

We're going to be singing this today -- rehearsal is in about an hour. I checked through the You Tube offerings and I really like this Korean choir's performance:

Techno didgeridoo

via Arbroath

And if that's not enough to turn you into an aficionado, it's also a snoring cure.

Hot jazz

Jazz pianist Yosuke Yamashita, 66, plays a burning piano on the beach in Shiga, Ishikawa Prefecture. He was showing his appreciation for his old piano that he no longer uses. -- Japan Today