Music, monks and me

It is odd but apparently universal how a piece of music will lodge in one's brain and not go away. No matter what. With me it happens with spectacular clarity. The choice of music can be quite spectacular too. I have no control over it at all. As I was walking around the monastery grounds on my retreat I began to hear one particular musical theme all during my five days there - from "Ilya Mourametz," a symphony by Glière, fourth movement ... the French horns. Well, really, what could be better? Music for a Russian Medieval epic, sounding almost like Orthodox Church music.

The second day a second piece of music with lyrics popped into my head - "Verecruz" by Warren Zevon, the Spanish part. Not exactly spiritual music, but beautiful.

The day after that my internal music machine kicked in as usual with Ilya and Warren, but at the end of the Ilya Mourametz piece I began to hear the reverberation of a theme repeating itself back in my inner ear. I teased it out until I could recognize it -- "Psalm szwedzkie," an extremely ominous version of "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" written by Kazimierz Serocki for the Polish movie "Potop" (Deluge). It represents the evil Protestant Swedes invading Poland. Soon I had the whole thing, or at least the musical part, running through my head. I couldn't remember the lyrics - they're in Polish. Unconsciously I began to make it more triumphal, more joyous, which is probably the way Luther had intended it. As it is in the film it is a frightful dirge.

The last full day I was there one more tune was added - a piece from the Klezmorem album "Metropolis." Maybe that one came from listening to a recorded version of a Yiddish novel about the great Ukrainian revolt that turned into a massacre of the Jews (this happened in 1648, just a few years before the Swedish invasion of Poland in "Potop"). But the music by the Klezmorem is the happiest music I know.

Go figure.