I’m not totally convinced it is possible to “cover” this masterpiece on a single six string instrument, given the expansive sonority created by the sustained orchestration of strings behind a soloist. But I think Enno Voorhost’s arrangement is a significant attempt to do so. Enno is a masterful guitarist and arranger who also teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. I hope to keep working with this piece and try to make it a bit more interesting for the listener (color variation, rubato, etc).

Thanks for listening!

Rick

I was honored to help Marc with a premiere video performance. Marc’s hope, one I share, is that this piece will begin to be picked up by other guitarists along the way.  May Paul’s memory be a blessing to his family and to all who knew and loved him.

Black Cockatoos often fly over my apartment in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs on their way to Centennial Park. They usually mate for life, so upon seeing a lone adult, it led me to admire it, but with a touch of sadness.

I submitted this piece last October as a video performance for Classical Guitar Corner Academy’s annual “Guitoberfest.” Dr. Simon Powis, director of the Academy describes this work as “An intermediate level piece featuring lyrical passages that use the full length of the fingerboard and some nimble slur motifs that recur throughout.”  It still needs more polish with time, but I hope you enjoy it especially if this composition is new to you.

The best historical evidence we have comes from Roman Herodotus who said that the magi were part of a Median tribe in the empire of the Persians. An attempt by the Medes to take power from the Persians failed. The magi gave up their ambitions for political power and became a tribe of priests. They studied philosophy, natural science and religion. Many were holy men and women who saw life as a continual quest for meaning and truth.

I think it is this attitude, this quest for meaning and truth that give the magi their unique place in the Christmas story and why they have such a strong appeal for us. They represent that part of us that longs for something more, for confidence and hope, for a life of fullness and possibility.  The novelist George Eliot wrote,

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are alive.  There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.” —George Eliot

What journey or quest do we find ourselves on in the present season of our lives?  There are a myriad of ways to approach this question depending on age, culture, religious formation, and our own individual convictions. But I wonder if there is not some perennial wisdom that can summarize the human quest no matter our religious or non-religious background. Philosophers and mystics, and we could add magi, have expressed a summary of the quest that points to a universal recognition:

• There is a Transcendent Reality underneath and inherent in the world of things;
• There is in the human soul a natural capacity, similarity, and longing for this Transcendent Reality;
• Humanity flourishes when it seeks union with this Transcendent Reality.

My hope is that we will nourish and give room for this “Epiphany Adventure,” throughout the days of the coming year.  May we honor the importance of caring for our minds and our hearts as much as any other critical responsibility laid upon us. May we recognize the quest unfolding in those we do not normally or only occasionally encounter and discover more common ground than we ever thought possible.

“Once this spirit becomes part of a person’s life, every day is Christmas and every night is freighted with the dawning of fresh, and perhaps holy, adventure.” —Howard Thurman

Mertz’s guitar music, unlike that of most of his contemporaries, followed the pianistic models of Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann, rather than the classical models of Mozart and Haydn. He was active in Vienna (c.1840-1856). As virtuoso, he established a solid reputation as a performer. He toured Moravia, Poland, and Russia, and gave performances in Berlin and Dresden.

In 1846 Mertz nearly died of an overdose of strychnine that had been prescribed to him as a treatment for neuralgia. Over the following year he was nursed back to health in the presence of his wife, the concert pianist Josephine Plantin whom he married in 1842. Some speculation may lead one to the conclusion that listening to his wife performing the romantic piano pieces of the day during his period of recovery may have had an influence on the sound and unusual right hand technique he adopted in his pianistic arrangements such Lob der Tränen (In Praise of Tears).

Schubert produced a vast catalogue during his short life, composing more the 600 vocal works (largely Lieder), and well as several symphonies, operas, and a large body of piano music. J.K Mertz has given us Lob der Tränen among other Schubert songs, to play on the guitar and capture their extraordinary beauty. There are a myriad of outstanding recordings of this virtuosic guitar arrangement on YouTube. This is my humble addition.

I’ve included Schubert’s original text in English below.

In Praise of Tears
English translation by Richard Wigmore

Warm breezes,
fragrant flowers,
all the pleasures of spring and youth;
sipping kisses
from fresh lips,
lulled gently on a tender breast;
then stealing nectar
from the grapes,
dancing, games and banter:
what the senses alone
can obtain:
ah, does it ever satisfy the heart?

When moist eyes
glisten
with the gentle dew of sadness,
then, reflected in them,
the fields of heaven
are revealed to the gaze.

How refreshingly,
how swiftly
every fierce passion is quelled;
as flowers are revived
by the rain,
so do our weary spirits revive.

I’ve previously posted on this site two videos of similar piano compositions arranged for guitar: “Tomorrow’s Song,” and “Saman” by Ólafur Arnalds. I am moved by the simplicity of these compositions and the way they offer the performer a more contemplative form of expression.

Take a quiet moment,

Rick

P.S. If you would like a copy of my arrangement let me know.