I'm inviting you to listen to the Harvard University Choir sing "Be Still," my setting of Psalm 46:10: "Be still and know that I am God."

People who have sung it or heard it say it calms and centers them.

Why?

It's slow, soft, peaceful and beautifully sung but there is also a technical reason why it calms and centers. Let me try to explain it.

Tonal music has a tonal center, a home-base note; pieces end on that note, making listeners feel they've arrived home safely at the end of a piece. It's the note at the end that says, "Closure." Music theorists call this note "the tonic."

The tonic has a certain feel to it, a musical metaphor expressing centered-ness.

In this piece, the third note you'll hear is the tonic, sung on the word "still." The words go "Be still," the tune starting beneath the tonic on the word "Be" and then rising up to the tonic on the word "still." Next the words go, again, "Be still," only this time the tune begins above the tonic on the word "Be" and then settles down to the tonic, arriving, again, on the word "still."

The third phrase of the piece starts once again beneath the tonic on the word "Be," rises to the tonic and then soars to notes higher than we've heard so far.

See the metaphor? "Stillness," the music is saying, is found on the tonic. The tonic is where the stillness is, musically, just as God is where the stillness is, theologically. And with stillness, the music says as it soars, comes the assurance that God is God, that we don't need to worry or fear, that the universe is not in our control and that is as it should be.

This is a comforting thought. The piece calms me, too. When I am stuck in traffic or standing stock-still in a long line at the post office, bank or grocery, I softly sing this piece to myself, over and over, until things start to move. It works!

You'll hear the tune three times (three = Trinity). First, in unison. Then in canon (half the choir sings the tune a few notes behind the other half). And finally in four-part harmony. That's the part that brings tears to my eyes; pardon the composer for saying so. :-)

To hear "Be Still," click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH

🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶

Today is the birthday of William Shakespeare who figured largely in an extraordinary story we heard Pete Seeger tell during one of his last appearances.

Pete was performing a free outdoor concert in Poughkeepsie, NY, and we were in the front row, not twenty feet from the great man, long a hero to Jo and me. Well into his nineties, Pete sang, danced, spoke up for good causes and told the most intriguing stories.

More or less in his words, as I recall them, here is the story Pete told about Shakespeare.

The translation of the Bible known to us as ‘the King James’ is celebrated for its resplendent use of the English language. Published in 1611, the loftiness of its literary style is considered comparable to that of Shakespeare’s.

The year before the translation was published, 1610, Will Shakespeare was 46 years old. Mark that number: 46.

There is not the slightest shred of historical evidence to suggest that Shakespeare took part in the rendering of that translation. His profession -- a playwright -- was considered disreputable in those days while the men whom King James commissioned to translate the Bible were respected scholars and austere theologians.

Yet, a clue -- richly suggestive -- has been discovered in the text.

Imagine that the scholars, upon finishing their linguistic work, realized its literary failings. One dark night, the scholars concealed themselves in hoods and slouch hats. Making certain they were unobserved, they made their way to the building where Shakespeare lived and knocked furtively upon Shakespeare’s door. The Bard invited them to enter. He listened to their entreaty.

“We have done our best,” they explained, “and the translation is as accurate as we can make it. But it is not beautiful. The language is dreary, dull and flat. This text will inspire no one. You are a disreputable playwright, but you are also, undoubtedly, the greatest literary genius of the age. We have come to ask you to take this text in hand and work your magic upon it. Transform it! Recast our forgettable phraseologies, our listless vers, our pathetic paragraphs. Render our translation vivid and memorable. BUT! No one must ever know that we requested your help, nor that you had a hand in this undertaking. We have all chipped in and you will be paid in the coin of the realm, but you will never be given any credit for your efforts. Scholars and theologians such as we could never bring ourselves to admit to having trafficked with the likes of a lowly playwright such as yourself.”

The Bard agreed. He may have passed several months on the task. History has recorded his 46th year as one of his least productive -- otherwise.

At last he finished the work. With all due fanfare and aplomb, the translation, six years in the making, was published at last. Its deathless prose has been engraved upon the hearts of English-speaking Bible readers ever since.

And Shakespeare never got any of the credit that was his due … because no one ever knew the role he had played …. until, one day, not long ago, an astonishing discovery was made.

Look carefully at Psalm 46 and remember that Shakespeare was 46 years old in 1610.

Count forward from the first word of the Psalm and you will discover that the 46th word in from the beginning is the word, “shake.”

Now count backward from the last word of the Psalm and you will discover, in turn, that the 46th word short of the last is the word, “spear.”

46 years old. Psalm 46.

What do you think? Did Shakespeare deliberately leave us that one clue?

Speaking of Psalm 46, I invite you to listen to the Harvard University Choir sing "Be Still," one of my best choral works, my setting of the tenth verse of Psalm 46: "Be still and know that I am God."

To hear "Be Still," click on this link:

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.