Now I've heard there was a secret chord
But you dont really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
We have a neighbour on the street behind us who enjoys warbling away in her backyard in the summer, usually singing along to tunes she's playing too loud. Fortunately her voice is quite good, unlike the woman at the gym who howls off-key with her earbuds in -- there must be a special level of hell for those people. Our neigbour's favourite this year is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and she tucks into it with gusto. Hallelujah is a fascinating, enigmatic song which tells the biblical story of King David and Bathsheba - sort of -- before the lyrics meander on the other things.
What is the "secret chord" (also the title of a novel about the life of David by Geraldine Brooks)? Does it refer to the musical comfort the young David brought to the troubled King Saul? What was Cohen, a practicing Buddhist for many years drawing upon from his Jewish upbringing in Montreal? Cohen also included Christian imagery in songs.
Nearly forty years after if was written there is a documentary about this song which one writer suggests has become an anthem, the way Bridge Over Troubled Water was a generation earlier.
There is also an interesting take on Cohen by Adrienne Clarkson, journalist and Governor General, in a documentary from the late 80s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgwQPydLSIw
I am more inclined to Cohen's fascinating late song You Want it Darker which seems to anticipate his death. The recording includes the wonderful choir from the synagogue of his early years.
If you are the healer, it means im broken and lame
If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker
I'm ready, my Lord...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/leonard-cohen-hallelujah-live-1988-1365116/
Cohen and Marianne
2 comments:
As always your column is food for thought....indeed "Hallelujah" is an anthem. Many different messages are drawn from it by different vocalists, and it evokes a variety of emotions. It's been covered by a vast number of people and used at a range of occasions including funerals. I've heard it sung in a number of other countries and said to myself that"Leonard belongs to the world."
Another anthem is John Lennon's "Imagine." I find that it's sung in some pretty benign settings, though I believe that its actual lyrics and message are profoundly radical. I thought that as the children's chorus sang it at the Tokyo Olympics......"imagine there's no countries?...." KB
Thanks Kathy. Perhaps a study group on secular yet quasi-spiritual anthems? Explore how they came to prominence over the years and how people actually perceive them? Hallelujah is enigmatic enough that it doesn't seem to offend, but some of the lyrics of Imagine has been polarizing.
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