I have had interesting discussions lately with friends on the subject of love and of our paradigms and world views of what that is. My journey has been both wonderful and painful. In the process a friend from the Great White North sent me this song which is new to me. I hope you love the lyrics as much as I do.

I will tell you two things that came up in discussions on the subject of love that interested me:

• We use words to describe what things are. But in different cultures those words carry different connotations. The thing itself has not changed, but the word we use to describe it can cause miscommunication. And as most of us know it’s our perception that is king. A thing does not necessarily have an inherent quality; it’s what we project on it. So two people might see something the same, but use different words to describe the same thing.
• Are there many loves or just one? I had always had the understanding there were different types of love like Agape and Eros. But one person I talked to said “No! There is only ONE love”. This is a new way of thinking for me.

And this ties back into the Nickelback song posted here. Would your actions on love be different if it was your last day?

Composed by John Bartlet, “Of all the birds that I do know”, from “The King’s Singers, Madrigal History Tour, The England”

Lyrics:
Of all the birds that I do know,
Philip my sparrow hath no peer;
For sit she high, or sit she low,
Be she far off or be she near,
There is no bird so fair, so fine,
Nor yet so fresh as this of mine;

For when she once has hath felt a fit,
Philip will cry still: yet yet yet yet.

Come in a morning merrily
When Philip hath been lately fed;
Or in an evening soberly
When Philip list to go to bed;
It is a heaven to hear my Phipp,
How she can chirp with merry lip;

For when she once has hath felt a fit,
Philip will cry still: yet yet yet yet.

She never wanders far abroad,
But is at home when I do call.
If I command she lays on load
With lips with teeth, with tongue and all.
She chants, she chirps, she makes such cheer,
that I believe she hath no peer.

For when she once has hath felt a fit,
Philip will cry still: yet yet yet yet.

Stephen Sondheim talks about the writting of Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music – with excerpts of the rehearsal with Sally Ann Howes. Insight into Sondheim’s composing process – he says he does not let lyrics or melody get too far ahead of each other during the writing process.

Sondheim says he likes to know how a song will end when he starts it.

The song ‘Evening bells’ in russian (Вечерний звон – Vecherny svon – Abendglocken – Les cloches du soir) by Ivan Rebroff.

This song brings back memories. My father used to endlessly play a record of Ivan Rebroff singing “Evening Bells”. One of my favorite Russian songs.

Lyrics :

English
Those ev’ning bells those ev’ning bells,
How many a tale their music tells
Of youth and home and that sweet time,
When last I heard their soothing chime…

Russian
Вечерний звон, вечерний звон!
Как много дум наводит он
О юных днях в краю родном,
Где я любил, где отчий дом…

German
O Abendlied, o Glockenklang,
Wie rühret mich dein holder Sang.
Weckst Sehnsuchtsdrang in meiner Brust
Nach Jugendzeit und Liebeslust…

“DRINK! DRINK” from THE STUDENT PRINCE with Mario Lanza.
Book & Lyrics by DOROTHY DONNELLY Music by SIGMUND ROMBERG
Originally Staged by J.C. HUFFMAN
First produced at the Jolson Theatre on December 2, 1924, with Ilse Marvenga as “Kathie” and Howard Marsh as “Prince Karl Franz”.

German drinking songs follow:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOfCJuDTNng

Medieval musician Thomasius Larchensang sings a rousing drinking song at the LutherStude in Eisenach, Germany

GERMAN DRINKING SONG

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io9ZBnLM2Gk

Men’s Chorus – Classical Harmonies

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYt6IL0WM1M

College Party – German Drinking Songs

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S19OBT9gP9s

Drunk Germans Singing in Munich