High Notes & Dance: 2024

Sunday, 15 December 2024

A MEDITATION ON CHORAL HARMONY

THE TABERNACLES

Expressive harmonies

Listening to a choir, and appreciating the music that emerges from the choir, especially when the choir has performed well, is a singular pleasure.

Therefore, listening to The Tabernacles

perform at their annual concert on the 7^th of December, on the lawns of St. Francis College for Women, at Begumpet, Hyderabad to bring in the Christmas season,

was a remarkably enjoyable pleasure.

Fundamental aural concept of a choir

Choir music, or choral music is polyphonic. Polyphony is when two or more melodies, or musical lines are sung or played simultaneously.

Choral music in a mixed choir is usually polyphonic - sung by many women and men who are often divided into four sections of singers according to their voice type, from high to low voices in descending order of vocal range - they are, sopranos, altos, tenors, and bass voices.

And each section of singers is assigned to a different part, or melody, which is sung together as a single voice, harmoniously. The sopranos often sing the main melody, and the altos, tenors and basses provide the harmony underneath.

The conductor
Conducting a choir is not easy, since the singers have varying levels of musical ability and aptitude, they learn their parts at different speeds. And, and on top of that, all members of the choir including the conductor/director have to juggle their personal schedules, earn their livelihoods, manage their careers; their family and household responsibilities, and still make it for choir practices, regularly.

Yet, the conductor, assumes responsibility of the choir and the setting the overall sound and texture of the choir, while training the choir singers.

The conductor keeps the whole choir aware that pitch matters, and rhythm matters, that is, for choir members to reproduce notes accurately, and to keep time accurately. All this while coaching and suggesting how the choir controls their cadence, tone and breathing while they learn to sing their different parts in harmony.

Gloria - Celebrating 57 years of The Tabernacles

The Tabernacles, was founded in 1967 by a gifted musician, Kenneth Gibson, and eight of his friends. And this December, 2024, The Tabernacles celebrated their 57^th year of glorious existence, with this concert named ‘Gloria’.

Zubin Gibson, Kenneth Gibson’s son who now conducts and directs the choir, has done a magnificent job of moulding the choir, keeping it together, and taking care of the musicality of the choir.

The Choir and Orchestra. Playing and singing from their hearts

Now a 57-voice choir (the number is coincidental) of 20 soprano’s, 14 alto’s, 14 tenors, and 9 basses, and for this concert, Zubin Gibson also conducted a 37-member orchestra which included the Genesis Chamber Orchestra from Chennai. The orchestra comprised orchestral instruments of 12 first violins, 12 second violins, 4 viola’s, 3 cello’s, (auto correct has corrected me, the plural for cellos is celli), and 1 double bass. Three pianists played, the main pianist being Samuel Raj David. There were also trumpet, guitar and electric bass.

To those of us in the audience on the evening of the 7^th of December 2024, it looked like the singers in The Tabernacles choir sang from their hearts - out pure love for singing, and for the wonderful experience it is to be part of a community of singers who sing their parts and create harmony with other singers who are singing different parts.

The evening’s performance started off with the Little Rocks Band, a children’s choir, who capably, and with confidence, performed a few songs and set a up a happy foretaste of the evening of music to come.

The main section of the evening which came next, was started off by the ‘The Tabernacles Chamber Orchestra’ and the ‘Genesis Chamber Orchestra’ that together performed W. A. Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in G Minor, under the baton of Zubin Gibson, the performance was rather good, and one didn’t hear those irritating screeches and squeals from the violins. They were much more polished than was expected. So far so good, we thought.

The choir and the orchestra jointly performed the rest of the evening’s programme which was divided into five sections, which were called packages. One of the packages was a few songs by the Men’s Ensemble. And in another one of the packages the orchestra performed under the baton of the founder and director of the Genesis Chamber Orchestra, Keerthan Robert, who brought out good expression from the orchestra while he conducted.

The orchestra and the young and talented pianist who stalwartly and sensitively accompanied the choir, complemented the choir so well that it seemed like a natural partnership. Moreover, the orchestra sounded very good throughout the evening performance.

Two stand-out moments of the evening.
A soloist who was introduced as Mr Chang from Pune, and wore a white tie and tailcoat as opera singers sometimes do, sang Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night) at almost the end of the programme. Mr Chang from Pune, was an exemplar of how classical singers should sing, he was in complete control of his voice and expression, his secure bass-baritone had heft and command, it was full and resonant, and was so musical we really wanted to have heard more of his voice.

G.F. Handel’s Hallelujah canon. The other highlight was The Tabernacles rendition of G.F. Handel’s Hallelujah canon at the very end of the performance. The combined choir and orchestra along with trumpet player Joanna Alfred Michael, rose to the challenge of rendering this beautiful and difficult piece of music impeccably.

A harmonious spread of interwoven voices
As a member of the audience at The Tabernacles concert who has sung in choirs, I simply enjoy harmony whether it is created by multiple vocal parts in a choir or by multiple instruments in an ensemble. So, I appreciated the swells and ebbs in the choir. For those who have never sung in a choir before, these swells and ebbs are called dynamics, when the choir goes loud or soft to express the music. And so, while listening to The Tabernacles it was pleasing to hear the dynamics in the sound of their interwoven voices which spread harmoniously through the venue in good balance.

A soundscape to remember

It appeared to us in the audience, that the choir, the singers, the conductor, and the instrumentalists in the orchestra, took pleasure of being part of an ensemble that is making harmony, and, that harmony was a pleasure for the audience to hear.

All-in-all the choir and orchestra wowed the audience with an excellent performance

Monday, 8 July 2024

POP IS LIKE PULP FICTION. JAZZ IS LIKE LITERATURE

WHY JAZZ IS NOT POPULAR LIKE POP MUSIC

First, we’ll see why most people like pop music. ‘Pop’, is ‘popular’ music that appeals to a broad spectrum of people of all age groups, especially those between eight and nineteen.

We will also get to understand why there are so many pop music listeners and so few that allow themselves to listen to Jazz or Western classical music or Hindustani and Carnatic classical music.

Most people aren’t into music. That’s the sad truth. Most people can do without music during their daily lives. They are nescient to music; it’s of no significance to them. They do not know, nor do they want to know about music. Music to many is like aural wallpaper, like elevator music or shopping mall music. The general listener sort of eavesdrops and overhears a tune which can be listened to without paying it too much attention.

Those who are superficially into music, like their music for what they expect music to do for them: some like music that will make them dance. Others like their music to bring on nostalgia, or make them happy.

So why is pop popular, and why is other music not popular?

Pop is good songs - Pop music is usually simple accessible music with words. People respond well to music that has both melody and lyrics. Catchy melodies are the hook and lyrics or words make it easy to connect meaning to songs.

Simple rhythms -- In addition to lyrics, pop music has rhythmically simple and steady beats, the beat may be fast or slow, and go dum-dum-dum-dum; but then, that’s what makes listeners feel they’re part of the music.

The simple appeal of pop music. The strong beat and the lyrics make pop easy to listen to. It is easy fleeting music. Pop music is not for thinking about, pop listeners don’t want to intellectualise their music. By and large there are no surprises in pop, that’s why among the many genres of music, American Country music is popular, because it ticks all the boxes: good lyrics, simple melodies, simple rhythms, and simple logical harmonies.

Music videos - People are also suckers for visual gratification. People love to gape at music videos. Pop music world-wide, is typically promoted by picturising a song where a video or a movie visually supports the song - creating visual cues along with the melody. This visual entertainment adds another mode of connecting to pop music and lyrics.

To all generalisations there are exceptions - some pop songs are more complex than others, they have interesting chord progressions and harmonies, but these songs are less popular. The more mature music lovers, usually beyond the 13 to 19 age group that pop is aimed at, appreciate these songs. These songs are also appreciated by those who are open to listening to other kinds of music.

Since this piece is about why people listen to pop and not jazz, we will focus on jazz and not on classical music though we love and listen to classical music too.

What’s with jazz? Jazz is a highly technical art form that is more complex than simple. Jazz is very often instrumental - there are no lyrics or words to relate to, only tunes, and that too tunes with harmonic complexity and quite a bit of dissonance.

Jazz is characterized by improvisation, and an inimitable sound: a swinging rhythm, complex chords, harmonies and chord progressions, pitch deviation (when a musician intentionally leaves the scale but still makes strange but beautiful music), blue notes (certain notes in the scale that are flattened. Blue notes are called blue for the feeling they give that touch our souls),

and dissonant notes (jazz, western classical and even rock music as well as in Carnatic classical music make use of dissonance, that is, sounds that sort of clash with each other. In Carnatic music dissonances are called ‘vivadi’' and skilled musicians use these to enhance a raga's charm).

Jazz is improvisation – To listen to Jazz is also to listen to great technical prowess by the musician and to revel in the creativity of the musician while s/he improvises and innovates on the spot. Jazz musicians use a melody and chord progression of a song as a guide for their improvisation, creating variations and new interpretations of the music.

In Jazz, each piece/tune is full of twists and turns, a story with beginning, a middle and end that travel and take the listener on a journey of exploration and discovery.

Jazz is sometimes discordant - less predictable, and it often strays into extreme syncopation, changing time signatures, syncopated rhythms (rhythms that accent or emphasize the offbeats) and polyrhythms (simultaneous use of two or more rhythms).

Then there is vocal jazz, and surprise, surprise, vocal jazz has swing and blue notes, unique tonality and pitch deviation, dissonant notes, polyrhythms and improvisation too.

Jazz vocalists interpret songs which may be 'jazz standards'* but, to do so, the jazz vocalist should be accomplished enough to keep up with the band and impart the feeling of jazz through phrasing and rhythmic subtlety; through melodic vocal improvisations called scat singing, where the vocalist imitates an instrumentalist's tone and rhythm. In vocal jazz it is the way the song is sung that matters, the same song can be sung in different ways; a jazz singer would invest a song with different subtle emotions.

Listening to jazz, both instrumental and vocal, requires some listening and comprehension skills to enjoy jazz musicians’ aesthetic, their lyrical playing, their rich musicianship, their creative artistic intent and their profound and emotive lyricism.

Pop is popular. Jazz is uncommon and unfamiliar. Before we touch on the analogy of reading page turners and literary novels and listening to pop music and jazz, we must first admit the sad truth: Most people don’t read. Many have never a read a book if it is not work-related, or if it’s not in their academic curriculum. They do not want to read. They have no desire to read. They are quite indifferent to reading; reading is not important to them.

The analogy - Pop music is like pulp fiction, potboilers and page turners. Jazz is like literary novels or literature. Just a small percentage of people read for pleasure and just a small percentage of people listen to music for the pleasure of listening to music. More people read pulp fiction like Mills and Boone romances, and Lee Child’s ‘Jack Reacher’ books, or James Patterson or Danielle Steele novels in preference to books by literary writers like Amitava Ghosh, or Salman Rushdie, or Zadie Smith or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, or Arundhati Roy.

Readers of literary writing love the profound way in which language is used, and how words are used for their emotive and descriptive qualities. Literary writing takes us through many realms of experience that stay with us, feed our souls and our minds ear, and all this while we relish the aesthetic, the lyrical writing and the rich and creative artistic intent. Readers of literary novels, plays, and poems - enjoy the pure, unadulterated, sensual pleasure of reading, and enjoying the craft of the writer. They appreciate well-written sentences, and the way we are transported to an adventure that unfolds and enfolds - where we hear with our eyes and see with our ears – where we are carried away by imagination like it happens while listening to jazz and classical music.

The difference between reading potboilers and literary novels is: you can just give your mind a rest while reading a page turner as one does while listening to most pop music, but jazz and classical music has to be listened to attentively.

Jazz lovers are attuned to listening carefully/attentively to music and since one gets involved with the music, it evokes deep emotions and passions. Listening to jazz needs time and concentration, and due to this attentiveness to music, hears beauty in all types of music and is especially taken in/up by jazz with its core value of breaking musical boundaries and its improvisation, lyrical playing and its rich and creative artistic intent which stimulates emotions and the intellect as Jazz can be hot, intense and otherworldly, cool and introspective, and at the same time jazz can be joyous, light-hearted and amusing.

To a regular listener of pop, jazz is not easy music to listen to. Pop music does not require an investment in time specially to listen. Since it is easy listening music listeners of pop are not conditioned to listen to music as the only thing to do, whereas listeners of classical music and jazz make time to listen to music exclusively. Just as readers love reading and music lovers appreciate music, it really doesn’t matter whether what one reads or listens to, whether it is mass culture, popular culture or high culture.

All music is music to our ears, and all readers are appreciative of writers for writing pot boilers or pulp fiction, or, literature and literary fiction, all of us who love music are grateful to all creators of music for making music. We are glad to listen to all music – pop, or classical, or jazz.

*Standards are enduring, timeless and well-known tunes among jazz musicians which can be sung and played in a wide variety of styles and tempos. Standards allow musicians to use the melody and chord progression of these songs to provide a framework to fashion variations and new interpretations of the music in their improvisation and put their own unique stamp on the music.

Friday, 24 May 2024

Lyric Poets 3 JONI MITCHELL - THE CIRCLE SONG - BOTH SIDES NOW

Joni Mitchell - Roberta Joan Mitchell, is widely considered the most influential female recording artist and composer to have emerged from the folk scene of the 1960’s

Joni Mitchell's gift of melody and her lyrics, which approach pure poetry brought a new import and seriousness to pop. To my mind she was more than a pop or folk singer, her music traversed the aesthetics of music right across folk, rock and Jazz.

Renowned lyric poets and contemporaries, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen admired her. She was revered by such groundbreaking jazz musicians as Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock.

Here’s what her musician friends say about her – David Crosby: “She's a better poet than Dylan and without question a far better musician. I don't think there's anybody who can touch her”. On another occassion, he said, "She’s the best singer-songwriter of her time. She’s as good a poet as Bob [Dylan], and she’s 10 times the musician Bob is.”

Neil Young: “I love Joni. She’s wonderful. She’s one of the greatest artists of our generation. She may be the greatest artist of our generation.”

Dianne Reeves: “Joni Mitchell's music reaches generations of listeners because it is beautiful poetry set to elegant music”

Herbie Hancock understood something implicit about Mitchell when he said “she was never -- ever -- a folksinger. Her compositions have always walked wildly adventurous rhythmic and harmonic terrain”

“Joni Mitchell exists outside the typical conceptions of modern music as she balances narrative and musical complexity”

Joni Mitchell had a soaring soprano voice in the beginning of her career, her voice dipped to a lower register later, but was equally compelling, and in addition to her expressive singing voice, her guitar, piano and dulcimer playing were innovative, ethereal and refined.

I will feature two of the songs that I first heard by Joni Mitchell that made a lasting impression. Born in November 1943 in Canada, Joni Mitchell was 24 - 25 years old when she performed/recorded these songs. THE CIRCLE GAME and BOTH SIDES NOW.

THE CIRCLE GAME - In this poetic song, Joni Mitchell tells the story of a child's journey to adulthood, expressing the inevitability of time and growing up. She uses a carousel as a metaphor for the years that go by, pointing out how we can look back, but we can't return to our past.

The Circle Game was partly written in response to Neil Young's song about lost innocence, "Sugar Mountain". Young and Mitchell are both from Canada and met in the mid-'60s. Joni Mitchell said: "I didn't write 'Circle Game' as a children's song, but I'm very pleased to see it go into the culture in that way."

THE CIRCLE GAME

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like when you're older must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him take your time it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round

In the circle game
© March 22, 1966; R. Joan Mitchell

Listen to Joni Mitchell sing The Circle Game -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9VoLCO-d6U
Musicares tribute to Joni Mitchell 2022- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AikTwSXdKrQ

BOTH SIDES NOW is another wonderful song. This is how Joni introduced the song when she first performed it: "This is a song that talks about sides to things. In most cases there are both sides to things and in a lot of cases there are more than just both. His and a hers. His and theirs. But in this song, there are only two sides to things… there’s reality and I guess what you might call fantasy. There’s enchantment and dis-enchantment, what we’re taught to believe things are and what they really are."

At another performance she said she was inspired by a certain idea while reading Saul Bellow’s book ‘Henderson the Rain King’. She said, “there's a line in "Henderson the Rain King" that I especially got hung up on, that was about when he was flying to Africa and searching for something, he said that in an age when people could look up and down at clouds, they shouldn't be afraid to die. And so, I got this idea 'from both sides now.'”

BOTH SIDES NOW

Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
© June 19, 1967

Listen to Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcrEqIpi6sg
Dianne Reeves & Caecilie Norby - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tne9onzuqDU

Joni Mitchell has put wondrous poetry into music. The lyrics of these two songs transport the listener to a very high place, way beyond the ordinary. Joni Mitchell's lyrical stories of love, loss, hope and transformation sing to the soul.

She sings pictures and paints music.
For one who never wanted to be a pop star. Joni explained she was nothing more than “a painter derailed by circumstances”

She says, "I am a painter who writes songs. My songs are very visual".

All I can say is, I consider myself lucky to have lived in a time of poets who wrote stories and put them to music.

Saturday, 6 April 2024

Lyric Poets 2 Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen had many nicknames, 'pop icon', 'folk icon of the 60's', 'Lord Byron of Rock 'n' Roll'. 'Poet of Pleasure and Pain'. 'Legendary Ladies Man', 'Maestro of Melancholy', 'Canada's High priest of Poetry'.

Leonard Cohen was dedicated to being a songwriter, though he wrote two novels and several books of poems, to me, he is the quintessential lyric poet. The poet of song, the 'lord of song'.

Cohen's poetic lyrics or his tunes didn't fit into any genre of music or recognisable format ever since his debut in 1967 with 'Songs of Leonard Cohen', which came out in the same year as the first albums by the Doors, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie, his work stood apart and was different from everyone else in the world of Rock and roll, folk, country music, skiffle or anything else. The depth of his lyrics, his care of the language, the philosophies he drew upon and his poetic craftsmanship were absolutely unique. Though one did hear in his music plenty of Spanish guitar, and Spanish Oudh and references to the Spanish poet whom he revered, Frederico Garcia Lorca.

Alan Ginsberg coined the term Lyric poet, to describe Bob Dylan’s songs which he admired, Ginsberg felt that poetic songs bring poetry to a great number of people who would otherwise never have voluntarily strayed into reading poetry.

Writing a lyric is a different discipline from writing poetry, it is the marrying of poetry and melody. And unlike poems, lyrics of songs usually look bland on a page without the structure or the musical form holding them in place. Lyrics are not meant to be read like a poem, but to be heard, they're to be sung. Even so, many of Cohen’s words, like those of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Paul Simon and Tom Waits, among the rocking, folk, or other genre bending lyric poets I’ve come across, can often, but not always, be read on a page without the brilliant music they write, and still be considered poetry.

The beauty is that in addition to his spare, elegant and precise words, Leonard Cohen wrote attractive and sometimes catchy melodies that just fitted the words so well that one can't imagine the words separated from the melody.

A fitting description of the craft of a lyric poet is - the merging of language with melody.

Leonard Cohen’s songs Suzanne, So Long Marianne, Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye, Sisters of Mercy, Famous Blue Raincoat, Dance me to The End of Love, Everybody Knows, Bird on A Wire, I'm Your Man, If It Be Your Will, Take This Waltz, Chelsea Hotel, Joan of Arc, Democracy, The Stranger Songs are just a few of my favourites from his 'Tower of Song'.

Here's what Pico Iyer wrote about Leonard Cohen in 1998. "Cohen has always made a practice of defying every category--he's a community of one--even as he has moved from poems to novels to songs: the only writer I know who managed to become an international singing sensation, the only #1 performer who's also been a prize-winning poet. He tops the charts in Norway and Malaysia, and you hear his spirit behind every new generation of poet-songwriters (there are 12 tribute albums to him worldwide). He defined the Sixties for many of us, with songs like "Suzanne" and "Bird on a Wire"; he caught the bravado of the Eighties ("First We Take Manhattan"), and, having already plunged deep into the time out of time ("Night Comes On"), he then summarized the Nineties ("The Future"). ~ Pico Iyer

But this essay is not about Leonard Cohen, it's about a song he wrote in 1984, ‘Hallelujah’, one of the songs in an album called 'Various Positions'.

The lyrics of the original version of Hallelujah from ‘Various Positions’ was culled to four verses at the last minute before it was recorded, from the 80 verses that Leonard Cohen had written over the course of ten years.

‘Various Positions’ was not a commercial success, nor was the song Hallelujah, noticed at the time. The producer said the album was a mess, especially after hearing Hallelujah, which he didn’t like at all, and reluctantly released Various Positions to limited markets in Europe in 1984 and America the following year (I got the cassette Various Positions from Rhythm House, Bombay in 1988 and couldn't get enough of all the songs in the album - 1. Dance Me To The End Of Love 2. Coming Back To You 3. The Law 4. Night Comes On 5. Hallelujah 6. The Captain 7. Hunter's Lullaby 8. Heart With No Companion 9. If it be your Will)

Hallelujah didn’t make an impression on the radio or the pop charts where Cohen was competing against the music of Michael Jackson and Madonna. Not even when Bob Dylan who liked the song when he heard it and sang it at a few concerts in 1988. John Cale performed his own version of the song in his tribute album to Leonard Cohen ‘I’m your Fan’ in 1991, and then Jeff Buckley sang his version of the song in the 1994, when it was noticed, but the song really took off when Rufus Wainwright sang it, modelled on the John Cale version of the song, in the animated movie ‘Shrek’.

Though the song and its title, to me, is confusing with its uncommon mix of images and thoughts, it still somehow holds together as a song.

"Hallelujah" in modern English, is a shout of praise or thanksgiving to express happiness that a thing hoped or waited for has happened.

Salman Rushdie would many years later note that “only Cohen would rhyme ‘Hallelujah’ with ‘what’s it to ya?’” In fact, every verse is built around the central not-quite-rhyme of “you” and “Hallelujah,” as if the pronunciation of “you” that’s necessary is a recurrent punch line built into the rhythm of the song. Cohen has said, “They are really false rhymes,” “but they are close enough that the ear is not violated.”)

The original version of the song in Various Positions has some biblical references, suggesting the stories of Samson and Delilah from the Book of Judges ("she cut your hair") as well as King David and Bathsheba
("you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you").

Cohen has always been ambiguous about what his "Hallelujah," with its sexual scenery and its religious symbolism, truly "meant." When asked, Cohen has said, "This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled,". "But there are moments when we can ... reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah." “I wanted to push the Hallelujah deep into the secular world, into the ordinary world,” he once said. “The Hallelujah, the David’s Hallelujah, was still a religious song. So, I wanted to indicate that Hallelujah can come out of things that have nothing to do with religion.”

Canadian singer K.D. Lang whose effortless, version of Hallelujah Leonard Cohen liked, said in an interview shortly after Cohen's death, that she considered the song to be about "the struggle between having human desire and searching for spiritual wisdom. It's being caught between those two places”

Now this brilliant and beautiful song, with its inspired ascending melody, has been recorded, arranged and reinvented countless times and performed by every type of singer, and sung on all occasions. It has become a secular hymn. A modern standard.

Here are the lyrics of the song

Leonard Cohen’s 'Hallelujah'

Now, I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah