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In The Highlands By and By
World Music Star Emmanuel Jal Featured at Global Forum for Media Development
Bridging a Faith Divide
Shining light on terror of darkness MUSIC REVIEW-Los Angeles Times - Daniel Variations
Bridging a Faith Divide
By Tom Carter THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Mr. Pearl says “I have not forgiven [what they did to my son]. I am not going to forgive. I am dialoguing as a soldier. Dialogue is my weapon. … I am fighting the hatred that took Danny’s life. We don’t have armies, but we have the good will of millions, the coalition of the decent.”
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Bridging a Faith Divide
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World Music Star Emmanuel Jal Featured at Global Forum for Media Development
Jal is a young rapper from southern Sudan, who for five years was involved in the bloody
civil war in Sudan. He was adopted by British aid worker Emma McCune at the age of 11,
and taken to Nairobi, Kenya, where he got the chance to change his life and get an
education.
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World Music Star Emmanuel Jal Featured at Global Forum for Media Development
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Shining light on terror of darkness MUSIC REVIEW-Los Angeles Times - Daniel Variations
“Daniel Variations” is compelling, lofty, universal and very powerful.
The second movement is remarkable. “My name is Daniel Pearl” is the text. These are
the reporter’s last words, but they also take us back to the biblical Daniel. Here Reich
creates the chilling sense of ritual by repeating the words over and over in long tones,
hesitating each time after “Daniel.”
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Shining light on terror of darkness MUSIC REVIEW-Los Angeles Times - Daniel Variations
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In The Highlands By and By” by Charles Williams
I started a family tradition in the early 80s when I was in
music school and too poor to afford a Christmas gift for my mom,
who was also a musician. So instead, I would compose holiday themed
song, manipulate other musicians to sing and play on my recording,
and then give it to my mom. I did this yearly until her death in
1996 from breast cancer. This particular song was one of her and my
favorites. Every year I kept trying a different style setting for
the annual composition. That year I decided to make it a
celtic-tinged tune. My mom was a big fan of Broadway musicals, so I
conceived the idea of a George Cohen style piece. The idea is a
setting in an Scottish pub on a Yuletide night after a hard day’s
work at the local factory. Working class men are sitting and
drinking while a tin whistle begins playing a tune….Then I
imagined a fiddle joining in and the festive level rising. After
the statement of the melody, a character enters. A lusty waitress,
tough as nails in her right, and begins singing about the promise
of the holiday season, but with a rough edge. I was trying to
visualize a scene from musical.
So I called up Danny and asked him if he would do it and he said
sure. He came over to my house where I had recording gear stacked
in a corner of my living room. The song is actually a little
challenging to just read and play in the moment, so when I put the
music on the stand in front of him and gave him the tempo, he
looked up at me and said, ” you tricked me!” We both laughed. He
said, ” OK, put some coffee on, this may take awhile…” An hour
later when we were done, Danny said, ” hey, don’t you pay the
musicians around here?” I said, ” Of course, what’s your rate?” He
answered, ” How about a bagel?” So we went out for a bagel…..
After his death, I found the recording in my pile of stuff and
listened to it. The lyric seemed strangely foreshadowing in
retrospect. Almost like a message from him….It’s odd how that can
happen. I wrote it for my mom, but it has come to represent, to me,
Danny in a larger context. Almost a calming voice to me now….Here
is the text. (I used the Scottish ‘dinna kin’ which means of
course, “I don’t know”.)
In The Highlands By and By
Oh lend me your ears, my brothers
Lend me your ears tonight
I’ve a message of Hope from the Highlands a yonder
A message from the King of Light
I dinna kin if the fight be over
I dinna kin if the King has won
I only know that the message from the Highlands a yonder
Is a message of a newborn son
Hallelujah, hallelujah
It’s the song I’m singing
And the bells are ringing
In the Highlands by and by
I’m glad to be able to share a slice of my life’s intersection
with your dear son with you. I’ve been meaning for the last four
years to get this to you and his son.
I have an acoustic jazz group these days and when we did a CD in
2002 I wrote and recorded a waltz that I dedicated to Danny. It’s
called ‘In Lieu of Flowers’…I will send a copy of that along to you also.
I treasure my memories of him and consider him a singular human
being that I was blessed to know as a friend. You must be very proud of him.