Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

June 2020

The England Rugby Football Union is undertaking a review into the historical context of ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’, a favourite chant among England supporters, but which has its origins in American slavery.

The song was written around 1865 by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma. He may have been inspired by the sight of the Red River, which reminded him of the Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah being taken to heaven by a chariot (2 Kings 2:11). Some sources claim that this song and ‘Steal Away’ had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the freedom movement that helped black people escape from Southern slavery to the North and Canada.

Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies. He sent the music to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers popularized the songs during a tour of the United States and Europe.

In 1939, Nazi Germany’s Reich Music Examination Office added the song to a listing of “undesired and harmful” musical works.

The song enjoyed a resurgence during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle and the folk revival; it was performed by a number of artists. Perhaps the most famous performance during this period was that by Joan Baez during the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival.

 

Soweto Kinch on Twitter: “This has all the hallmarks of a ‘war on wokeness’ canard, dreamt up in a Cummings laboratory.”

#SwingLow

Make up your own mind.

Now, what about Rule Britannia and The Proms?

 

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Harry Partch

Harry Partch (1901-1974) was an American composer, philosopher, inventor, instrument builder, and much more.

Partch was born in Oakland, California, on June 24, 1901, and spent much of his early years in the American Southwest, where he was exposed to music and sound from a variety of cultures.  He enrolled at the University of Southern California to study composition, but was dissatisfied and ultimately left to work on his own.  After discovering the work of Hermann von Helmholtz, Partch began to explore just intonation, and ultimately settled on this system for his compositional needs.  He invented his Adapted Viola in New Orleans, Louisiana, and began setting poems by Li Po for his new instrument and voice.

While his early work was met with some support and small grants, the Great Depression forced Harry to spend many years as a transient, and only rarely was he able to continue his artistic work.  It was during these years that Partch collected the texts and experiences that would later form the basis for The Wayward.

After the Great Depression ended, Harry again found success with small grants and support from the Guggenheim Foundation.  In the period from 1941 – 1956, he composed and rewrote over a dozen works, invented and built over a dozen instruments, arranged several performances and recordings of his works, and wrote the first edition of his book, Genesis of a Music.

In 1956, Partch began a very fruitful residency at the University of Illinois where he found support for his compositions and performances.  Here he met Danlee Mitchell, composed another five works, and continued inventing and building instruments to meet his increasing compositional needs.  Harry left the University of Illinois in 1962, moving to California.

He spent the last twelve years of his life in various locations near the California Coastline.  These years would see more creative work, major productions of his total-theater pieces, and a greatly-expanded second edition of his book.  Harry Partch died in San Diego, California, on September 3, 1974.

Download Genesis of a Music here …

More about Partch here …

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Splendid Isolation

While I’m following advice on staying at home, I thought it might be fun to plumb my musical ignorance. Ask me a question, any musical question.

Feel free to share this offer and stay well,

Best wishes

David

Extra-judicial Execution

101 years ago today, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered for their political beliefs. On January 15th 1919, paramilitaries burst into an apartment in Berlin and seized the two communist revolutionaries. Although neither had a current arrest warrant against them, they were both taken prisoner. Luxemburg was tortured, killed and her body dumped in the Landwehr Canal in Kreuzberg. Her corpse was discovered months later. Liebknecht was taken to the Tiergarten park in the west of the city, where he was executed with a bullet to his head.

Extra-judicial killing (also known as extra-judicial execution) is the murder of a person by governmental authorities or individuals without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process.

Can you think of other examples of extra-judicial murder, perhaps from the past fortnight? Now, Qassim Suleimani was very different from Luxemburg and Liebknecht, but the principle remains. These executions were violations of democracy and human rights. In time, they undermine the abusers as much as they do their enemies.

This article outlines the history of Western interference in the Middle East, with inevitable consequences for state terrorism countered by terrorism, countered by state terrorism … . How can this destructive cycle end?

Regardless of security imperatives or commerical interest, no democratically elected government should employ, or fail to criticize their allies’ use of, extra-judicial execution.

If you agree, please sign this petition

Predictably, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claims that Britain is “on the same page” as the US regarding their war-mongering execution of Qassim Suleimani. This from a man with qualifications in International Law. Raab doesn’t speak for me. This government is not my government. I refuse to ‘unite’ in order to legitimize their lies, deceits and venality.

Today I shall remember Rosa.

Anti-consumerism

Non-compliance with the capitalist system that controls right-wing politics is crucial to the struggle ahead, for the sake of a reunited Britain and for the future of our planet. A war of attrition is needed, against consumerism, against advertising and against the seducing lies of self-serving politicians. We may not have the money, but we have the numbers.

A US perspective on this can be found here.

Anti-consumerist groups include.