Music from Divinity Dispatches – A Spotify Playlist
This playlist has been curated by colleagues at the Faculty of Divinity, with music chosen to console and inspire through these difficult times. It is a work in progress, so if you would like to add a track, please forward a link to Charity Green (crg42@cam.ac.uk). You can either contribute anonymously or say a sentence or two about your choice and why it means something to you.
Dr Peter Harland, Faculty Administrator
J S Bach, ‘Prelude and Fugue in E Flat Major’ - some might say that this was the greatest piece of organ music ever written, and it is thought that the Fugue is based on the Trinity with three parts in three flats.
NB - Peter chose a performance by one of the greatest organists Peter Hurford, which isn’t available on Spotify, but you can listen to it on YouTube:
Dr Safet Hadzi Muhamedovic, Research Associate – Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme
Flory Jagoda, ‘Abraham’ - remembering the voice of her grandmother and the Jewish lives in religiously plural Bosnia before the Holocaust, Flory Jagoda revives the heritage of Sephardic music in Ladino language. You should check out her wider opus, perhaps starting with this song from the Arvoliko album, which shifts the tenor of ‘corona’.
Ljiljana Buttler, ‘Imam jednu želju’ ('I have but one wish') - this is probably my favourite song, performed by the Yugoslav-Romani chanteuse par excellence, Ljiljana Petrović-Buttler, who ‘disappeared’ during the 1990s war and worked as a cleaner in Germany, only to be ‘re-discovered' with her divine voice for a brief time before her death.
Usnija Redzepova, ‘Zivote moj’ ('O, life of mine') - lately, I’ve been returning to this song by Usnija Redzepova, an amazing Serbian-Macedonian-Yugoslav-Turkish-Romani singer. Only the song knows how unfortunate lonely days are, she sings. I get lost in the trumpets.
Dr Ankur Barua, Lecturer in Hindu Studies
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, ‘Sanu Ek Pal Chain’ - a Sufi song popularised by one of Pakistan’s greatest singers, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan recently reworked for a Bollywood movie entitled ‘Raid’. Here is a translation of the Hindi
Charity Green, Administrator – Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme
George Harrison, ‘My Sweet Lord’ - a song by the former Beatle which appeared on his album ‘All Things Must Pass’ (how apt!). It was also the biggest-selling single of 1971 in the UK - coincidentally the year I was born, so I remember it from my childhood. Harrison wrote the song in praise of the Hindu god Krishna, while intending the lyrics as a call to abandon religious differences through his blending of the Hebrew word ‘hallelujah’ with chants of ‘Hare Krishna’ and Vedic prayer. It speaks to me about longing to see God when He seems remote.
A Winged Victory for the Sullen, ‘We played some open chords and rejoiced, for the sun had circled the earth yet another year’ – a modern ambient classic I heard on the radio one day whilst driving home from work after a rainstorm. I pulled over and listened, watching the drama of the weather play across the sky – a sublime moment that has stayed with me.
Dr Tim Winter, Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies
Mohammeds Berufung by Rainer Maria Rilke - Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem describing the Angel Gabriel’s appearance to the Prophet Muhammad in the cave. Arranged for two male voices by Habib Dunne.