Episode 492. Mommie Dearest, One Year Later
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Today is the one-year anniversary of my dear mother’s death. Yesterday, in preparing for my own private commemoration, I remembered that almost exactly a year ago, just two days after she died, I recorded the narration for a memorial episode in her honor that at the time I never published. Listening to the raw material for that episode, I realized that today would be the perfect time to publish that episode. I assumed that I would be so choked up with grief that I would not even be able to organize my thoughts, but I think I did a pretty good job of commemorating her in a way that only I could. As I remark, though my mother and I had a sometimes conflicted relationship because of her religious beliefs and conservative politics, we also shared the preternatural bond that mothers sometimes share with their children when they perceive the presence of a kindred spirit. For in spite of all the mutual head-butting in which we partook over the years, we were kindred spirits. And we both had to work extremely hard to keep those channels of love and respect open when, according to all our opposing vantage points, we should have been in enmity. This episode was wrung out of me just as the wave of my grief was cresting, but it’s so much better for that. I supplement my anecdotes and memories with a lot of music, from many different performers: everyone and everything from Bach to Johnnie Ray to “I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb” to Joan Baez to Mabel Mercer to Tom Lehrer to “Danny Boy” to the Brahms Deutsches Requiem and back again. I’m not sure that, after a year as an orphan (what the Germans would call a Vollwaise, , I would have the perspective to delve into my memories in the same way. Please give this episode a listen; maybe it will help you put certain things in perspective as well.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel [formerly attributed Johann Sebastian Bach as BWV 508]: Bist du bei mir. Erika Köth, Gerald Moore [1964]
Traditional Swedish, Carl Boberg, adapted Stuart K. Hine: How Great Thou Art. Shirley Verrett, Sy Mann [1964]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147). Igor Gorin, Orchestra conducted by Carmen Dragon [1955]
Johannes Brahms: Herr, lehre doch mich (Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45). Tom Krause, George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus [live Cleveland 24.IV.1969]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen (Ich habe genug, BWV 82). John Shirley-Quirk, Neville Marriner, George Malcolm, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields [1966]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Ángel de Saavedra]: La vergine degli angeli (La forza del destino). Leontyne Price, Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Michelangelo Veltri [live New York 12.II.1972]
Giacomo Puccini, Ferdinando Fontana [after Alfred de Musset]: Addio, mio dolce amor (Edgar). Renata Scotto, Eve Queler, Opera Orchestra of New York, Schola Cantorum of New York [live New York 13.IV.1977]
Gabriel Fauré: Pie Jesu (Requiem). Elly Ameling, Jean Fournet, Daniel Chorzempa, Rotterdam Philharmonic [1975]
Churchill Kohlman: Cry. Johnnie Ray, The Four Lads [Connie Codarini, Bernie Toorish, Jimmy Arnold, Frank Busseri] [1951]
Henriette Louise von Hayn: I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb. Daniel Gundlach [live May 2011]
Traditional: This Little Light of Mine. Odetta, The Holmes Brothers [live NYC Winter 2005]
John Jacob Niles, lyrics collected by Cecil Sharp: Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair. Joan Baez [1960]
Tom Lehrer: The Vatican Rag [live Copenhagen 11.IX.1967]
George Frideric Handel, arr. Christfried Bickenbach: Tochter Zion, freue dich (adapted from Judas Maccabaeus). Hermann Prey, Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, Tölzer Knabenchor, Symphonie-Orchester Graunke [1966]
Haven Gillespie, J. Fred Coots: You Go to My Head. Norman Luboff Choir [1954]
Harry Warren, Leo Robin: The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat (The Gang’s All Here). Carmen Miranda, Orchestra and chorus arranged and conducted by Alfred Newman [1943]
Traditional Irish, Frederick Weatherly: Danny Boy. Eileen Farrell, George Malloy [live New York 12.II.1970]
Leigh Harline, Ned Washington: When You Wish Upon a Star (Pinocchio). Daniel Gundlach, Lloyd Arriola [live New York 25.X.2015]
Edwin Greene, Clifton Bingham: Sing Me to Sleep. Eleanor Steber, Howard Barlow, Firestone Orchestra [1950]
Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer: My Shining Hour (The Sky’s the Limit). Mabel Mercer, Ensemble [John Barrows, Julius Baker, Romeo Penque, Margaret Ross, Gene Orloff, Sol Shapiro, David Schwartz, Harvey Shapiro, Eddie Safranski] arranged and conducted by George Cory [1958]