#4970, Songs Without Words
There’s music from the great blues guitarist, Blind Willie Johnson - his most famous theme “Dark Was the Night.” Also, hear some of Phil Kline’s millennial mass “John the Revelator,” written for the early/new music vocal group Lionheart and the quartet ETHEL. Listen to atmospheric sounds of the Mellotron (as well as its precursor, the Chamberlin), in work by American musician Ross Goldstein where the sounds of a choir combine with droning strings, wind instruments, and baroque tidbits (Pop Matters).
Also, hear wordless vocals in field recordings from Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan, made in the Parchman Farm maximum security facility in Mississippi. There were twelve men, ranging in age from 23 to 74; three are serving life sentences and six of them were newer arrivals or not on the debut album. In the last song recorded that day, “Six of the men huddled together and improvised a sublime, wordless expression of their pain and longing,” (Bandcamp liner notes). There’s also music from a Dust to Digital collection, and an improvisation from Bobby McFerrin and his Circlesongs Ensemble, as performed at WNYC in 1997. That, and more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4970, Songs Without Words (First aired 1/23/2025)
ARTIST: Bobby McFerrin & Circlesong Ensemble
WORK: Improvisation No. 3 [1:00]
RECORDING: Live at WNYC, 1997
SOURCE/INFO: https://www.wnyc.org/story/best-wnyc-live-volume-one
ARTIST: Blind Willie Johnson
WORK: Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground [3:22]
RECORDING: The Complete Blind Willie Johnson
SOURCE: Columbia/Legacy
INFO: Available at Apple Music, Amazon.com, Spotify, YouTube
ARTIST: Lionheart & ETHEL
WORK: Phil Kline: Dark Was the Night [5:50]
RECORDING: John the Revelator
SOURCE: Cantaloupe 21047
INFO: cantaloupemusic.com
ARTIST: Tonu Kaljuste, conductor; Swedish Radio Choir
WORK: Schnittke: Psalm XII [8:25]
RECORDING: Psalms of Repentance
SOURCE: ECM Records
INFO: https://ecmrecords.com
ARTIST: Ian Brennan/ Parchman Prison Prayer
WORK: Parchman Prison Blues [2:27]
RECORDING: Parchman Prison Prayer: Another Mississippi Sunday Morning
SOURCE: Glitterbeat
INFO: https://parchmanprisonprayer.bandcamp.com/album/another-mississippi-sunday-morning
ARTIST: Deacon Tommy Tookes & Congregation
WORK: The Lord Is Risen [5:19]
RECORDING: Art of Field Recording Volume I: Fifty Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum
SOURCE: Dust to Digital
INFO: https://dusttodigital.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Bobby McFerrin & Circlesong Ensemble
WORK: Improvisation No. 3 [5:49]
RECORDING: Live at WNYC, 1997
SOURCE/INFO: https://www.wnyc.org/story/best-wnyc-live-volume-one
ARTIST: Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble
WORK: Astronaut Anthem [4:56]
RECORDING: Meredith Monk: The Recordings
SOURCE: ECM Records
INFO: https://ecmrecords.com
ARTIST: Ross Goldstein
WORK: Obsidian Cat [3:44]
RECORDING: Timoka
SOURCE: Birdwatcher Records
INFO: https://rossgoldstein.bandcamp.com/album/timoka
ARTIST: Gary Lucas, Dean Bowman
WORK: Dark was the Night [3:17]
RECORDING: Chase the Devil
SOURCE: Knitting Factory Records
INFO: Available at Apple Music, Amazon.com, Spotify, YouTube
