Bernie Langs
In the last two years or so, I composed and recorded a thematic work of music, “Sacred and Profane Love.” The piece is eighteen minutes long with shifting musical structures centered on rock and pop stylizations. Several extraordinary vocalists perform on the recording, each of whom has improved the melodies of the original score. Without these artists, the finished product could not have expressed my intention as a composer. Gretchen Farrar magnificently handles the largest role, and my cousin, Matt Murphy, sings the other lead with his typical brilliance. The quality of the work was dynamically enhanced by their complex emotional idealizations and interpretations of contrasting musings on “sacred” and “profane” love.
Bill Millard’s vocals as “Greek Chorus” and “Omniscient” provide one of the invaluable revelatory keys towards unlocking the philosophical intentions of the song. I’m awed by each of his performances. Peter Weidman wonderfully took on that exact same role (Chorus and Omniscient) and sang the only section of the score that directly addressed the listener while simultaneously singing to “specters” of both principals. He later returns to present a mysterious pause in the central mythic tale, a dreamy, brief retelling of the story of Jacob’s Ladder from the Torah. Bill, Peter, and I performed in a rock band decades ago, and we enjoyed this magical reunion, even with Pete singing virtually from Pennsylvania.
The lyrics proved to be difficult to craft with many early attempts discarded. As they stand now, the listener hears a mix of my own lyrical phrases bundled with targeted quotes or allusions and nods to works by Dante, Shakespeare, Ovid, James Joyce, and many others. The music and lyrics gently allude to a multitude of rock and pop songs from the 1960s and 1970s as well. There is only one very close borrowing of chords and texture that I perform from a song composed by David Bowie, “Heroes.” Bill sang that song with our band in 1980, so naturally he takes on the Bowie homage in the new piece.
I was very fortunate that Gretchen Farrar, a beautiful and versatile opera singer, readily agreed to the time commitment required to learn and record the lead vocal. It is simply an honor that she appears on this recording and she “kills” it—and completes it. Some of the varying emotional qualities of the character of “profane love” are abstractions of my own ideas and struggles as well as at times an extreme representation of my cousin Matthew Murphy’s suave “gentleman adventurer” personality, in the best sense of the notion (aunt Claudia, I did not say “sophisticated rogue”!). Matt is without doubt the greatest and most talented rock and roll vocalist I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with since I started strumming a guitar at age fourteen in the mid-1970s.
The composition is dedicated to Merle Langs, my aunt, an extraordinary musician and composer who taught piano to countless young students for over half a century, and continues to do so to this day. Sincere, heartfelt gratitude goes out to the following individuals for their encouragement and continued artistic inspiration: Brett Gingold, musician, sculptor, and painter; Izzi Ramkissoon, musician, educator, and composer; and the late Roland Kohloff, timpanist extraordinaire of the New York Philharmonic orchestra.
The Players:
“Sacred and Profane Love” Lyrics:
Gretchen (Sacred Love):
You give me life
Mais tu es ma mort
Love has been our wine
Flowing like the river of heaven
Remember me as you walk by,
As you are now so was I,
As I am now,
Prepare yourself to follow me down.
Render to me what in love’s my due
Lover, do unto me as I do unto you
Dark is your soul tonight
Should I be a Beatrice would you see the light?
I was once as you are
Will you be as I am now?
Was I blind and can you not see?
What becomes of one, if not two, three—how much ‘til you let it be?
Matt (profane love):
Your name’s a summons to my foolish blood
There’s no word tender enough, to be your name.
Drunken Joyce Beckett sits in a pub.
As I obliterate all memory of your love
To be your name.
Down to the river goes I,
Drowning in Guinness, O’Hara’s, and rye
Beamish, Egans, Teeling—aye.
River Jordan, Sea of Galilee
Easier to walk across
Than to swim to thee,
You can raise the Dead Sea
But you can’t raise me.
I’m drunken Dylan Thomas on a White Horse.
Thinks he’s so clever
Exactly what’s the cost?
Gretchen:
Ah my man, ah, you men—ah, men—amen
Apollo’s first love was Daphne of old
Cupid’s arrow striking hard and bold.
Tavern drunk Apollo that is you
Opium smoke hazing cloudy and blue.
Matt:
Halfway through the journey of my life
I found myself in a gloomy wood.
Chanced upon a stranger
He sang to me,
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
Gretchen:
And, as one handling skillfully the harp,
Attendant on skillful songstress’ voice
Like the accordant twinkling of two eyes,
Beamy circlets, dancing to the sounds.
Gretchen (con’t):
Hear me, my love,
My eyes they speak
Clearer than thought or word
What is that rain knows or dew feels in the morning calm
But of what I say
Matt:
Resistance!—is life!
Revolution!—am I!
Never a man betray a true cause
I’ll kill the king
I’ll nail him to the cross
You!!!
Notes from the underground
Invisible man.
The Molotov cocktail blows up in your hand.
Bill (Greek Chorus and Omniscient):
And I—I must step back
And–and you—you came in a harsh dream—
The undiscovered dream,
Aye—that’s the rub
Perchance a-towered sharpshooter’s nest
As my arms grasp and grope
Towards your love!
And I—will I step back?
To allow my Queen
To pass me by blind
Throw off the misty cloak, courtier
You have nothing to lose save muddy boots.
Sheath your dagger
The king’s lost his head
You’ve got no excuse—you’ve nothing to lose!
Peter with Bernie (both Greek Chorus and Omniscient):
I was once as you are
Will you be as I am now?
Peasants and Lords create the fruit of the vine.
But there’s no prayer for the thoughts
Running through my mind!
Remember me as you walk by,
As you are now so was I—
As I am now,
Prepare yourself to be
Follow me down, follow me down
Gretchen:
Turn thee, and list’
These eyes are thy only Paradise
Matt:
A memory that became you
Drunk I remember my blues
Where are your gibes now you merciless jester?
I watched the angel fall from the sky
As birds oe’r Dottie’s rainbow high
Clever boy never know when yer sinking
Gretchen:
Come walk with me a while
Row a boat Sunday-park style
Ah, you men—amen
Bernie:
Robin Hood choked on his cigarette
The hookah opium resin left
Peter:
From that I dreamed and behold a ladder
Set up on the earth its top reached to heaven
And there—there—you angels were ascending and descending on it…
Bernie:
Opium heaven
Gretchen:
I look at you all there
Darling mystery of mine
My heart breaks it beats
Your world is spinning
Round, round, round
I look at you all there—here, everywhere
Gretchen:
At long last
I grasp you
I feel you
Feeling me
Matt:
I grasp you—I grasp you
Gretchen:
O comfortable friar! where is my lord?
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
Bill:
He’s Drunken Joyce Beckett in a pub
Tryin’ to obliterate memory of her love
To be her name.
Down to the river there he goes
Drowning in Guinness, ‘pill his lows
To be her name
Bill:
The River Jordan, Sea of Galilee
Easier to walk across
Than to swim to thee,
Doesn’t believe that she can raise the Dead
No Lazarus he
Won’t be easily led.
Gretchen:
I was once as you are
And you will be as I am now
I was once as you are
And you will be as I am now
Gretchen (con’t):
Como el manzano entre los árboles del bosque,
Así es mi amado entre los hijos.
Me senté bajo su sombra con gran alegría,
Su fruto era dulce a mi paladar.
Translation (from the Biblical “Song of Songs”):
As the apple tree among the trees of the forest,
So is my beloved among children.
I sat under its shadow with great joy,
Its fruit was sweet to my palate.
Bill with Matt:
You will never be lovelier than you are now
We will never be here again…
Gretchen:
Ah, my man,
Ah, men”
Amen
Sacred and Profane Love can be heard online at https://soundcloud.com/bernie-langs/sacred-and-profane-love.
