I guess this is less a trick, and more like a technique that needs to be built in to almost every rehearsal so that the singers become accustomed to taking on the responsibility for really focusing on the ‘Now’. They all breathe together – and are listening so hard that every facet of their singing is now much more unified. When I feel this, I then simply say ‘go’ and let them do it all themselves. Then wait again till you feel that electric, crackling silence. I find this technique works really well – especially once the song to be sung has been memorized – and nobody’s mind is fussing with what notes to sing.īlow the pitch for the song and wait…till there’s absolutely no movement or sound. In any group of singers unless we can find a way to create that fully charged silence there will always be a number of minds focused on something other than the phrase that’s about to be sung (…I still have to do laundry when I get home….wonder if the liquor store is open late tonight….my daughter should have texted me by now….) It wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually experienced the type of hyper silence that I think he meant. Years ago when Murray Schafer was writing about music education he referred to this as an ‘envelope of silence’ around a piece of music. There is a moment or two when the audience is frozen in time and there is no applause yet – because no one can tell whether or not the choir has actually stopped singing. The effect here is very like listening to a choir performing an exquisite diminuendo at the very end of an unaccompanied piece. From that day until this, I have never failed to pray in the morning, on my knees, asking for help, and at night, to express gratitude for my life and, most of all, for my sobriety.On one of his CD’s, Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now) uses a Tibetan bell to draw our attention into the ‘Now’. Within a few days I realized that … I had found a place to turn to, a place I’d always known was there but never really wanted, or needed, to believe in. I had no notion who I thought I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether … and, getting down on my knees, I surrendered. “In the privacy of my room, I begged for help. La Sallet provides the passage: “I was in complete despair,” wrote Clapton. In this recollection, Clapton explained that the song came to him while he was in rehab for his alcoholism. I had no idea who he was, it was like a bolt of lightning! In the middle of my depression, and the dreadful state of the music culture at that time it gave me hope, he was like a light in the darkness … I went back to my hotel, and surrounded by empty beer cans, wrote Holy Mother.”Ĭlapton opened up a little more about the spiritual moment he wrote “Holy Mary” in his memoir, The Autobiography. He wrote: “In the ’80s, I was out on the road in a massive downward spiral with drink and drugs, I saw Purple Rain in a cinema in Canada. According to a Facebook post from Clapton’s page, provided by Songfacts, the classic rock legend was inspired to write this hymn after he saw Prince’s Purple Rain. “Holy Mother” was originally released as part of Clapton’s 1986 album, August. Clapton’s signature guitar solos are interspersed with belted high notes from the illustrious vocalist. Clapton’s lyrics delve into the core of desperation, stating the need for Mary’s presence in his life before exclaiming in lilting tones “I can’t wait any longer.” The urgency of the song is made all the more intense by Pavarotti’s roaring tenor reaching up to the high notes. The song is a heartfelt plea for Mary’s intercession. The pair were joined by the East London Gospel Choir for the touching Christian hymn, penned by Clapton himself. In 1996, Eric Clapton took the stage with Luciano Pavarotti to sing this beautiful song to the Blessed Mother. Clapton penned this touching hymn to the Blessed Mother when at his lowest.
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