This morning, I woke up to a question, a question asked by my song writer colleague at dining table last week.
“Don’t you want to write a song?”
“Yes, after the song writing workshops, it’s getting serious now, to write a song.”
“I’m very glad to hear this!”
I mentioned about the idea of writing song come into my mind for the first time in year 2019 in my previous blog : A new beginning where it all began. However, I have forgotten about it until last week, when I attended the song writing workshop. It is still very strange to see myself writing songs, but it was a sincere answer to the question.
Now back to my usual life, preparing organ recitals, worship services and in general, organising my life, I realized I have no space to nurture this new idea. But this morning, the question struck me again. I was like time travelling back to Leipzig in the workshop, where Michael Hunter Ochs was sharing about his song writing process. Where his lyrics are coming from when he was writing the song “A Mourner’s Song”.
The lyrics rooted in the traditional Jewish prayer – kaddish, Psalm 23 and Song of Songs.
For love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. – Song of Songs 8:6-7
“A Mourner’s Song” lyrics:
Like the waves upon the sea are separate and connected, you are gone and still by my side. As the seasons must change, to dust we must return again, but love, love, love…never dies
A transcendental beautiful song, in Hebrew also in English, you can listen to it here:
https://michaelhunterochs.com/single/30499/a-mourner-s-song-studio-recording
The Song of Songs is the key. Not long ago I compared a German poem with the Song of Songs, about the restoration of paradise. You can read it here: https://thejourney-writing.com/2022/10/does-the-13th-month-exist-reading-erich-kastner-and-song-of-songs.html
I think, the song I’m going to write may be rooted in Song of Songs. And what is the content of the Song of Songs? Love. The perspective of love as in paradise, before Adam and Eve believed the lie. How wonderful is the Song of Songs? Let me share with you a quote from a book:
“Song of Songs” (shir ha-schirim) is the title of the little book. The expression is to be understood in the sense of a superlative, the highest form of intensification: “Song of Songs” means the most beautiful and significant of all songs, the “song supreme”.
“Lied der Lieder” (schir ha-schirim) so wird das Büchlein in der Überschrift bezeichnet. Der Ausdruck ist im Sinne eines Superlativs, der höchsten Steigerungsform zu verstehen: “Lied der Lieder” meint das schönste und bedeutendste aller Lieder, das “Lied schlechthin”.
From the book Das Hohenlied der Liebe by Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger
I really do not know how my song writing journey will go on and how long it takes to write a song. It is definitely worth to take time, to make space to nurture the idea.
Der Mond ist aufgegangen (Excerpt)
Text by Matthias Claudius
English translation by Margarete Münsterberg
My Advent calendar has made my day today. It is a song, the most popular evening song in Germany among young and old. I heard the most beautiful performance ever of the song in a concert exactly a year ago, my fondest memory.
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