Avulekile Amasango

The students of ALApella sang this Xhosa song for the memorial of Mr. Sani, the Nigerian teacher who sadly passed away in the summer of 2009. "Avulekile amasango" means "the gates are open."



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Can't Hurry Love

Each term, I have the students do presentations for biology class. This term, they presented on science news articles. To kick it off, I did two sample presentations, one normal one about new potential evidence of life on Mars, and one creative one for the article "Game Theory Explains Why You Can't Hurry Love" (see the original article here). I decided to write a song, a science-teacher-version of the old Supremes classic.

When Valentines came along and passions were raging, I decided to do a quick recording and send it out to the kids as a fatherly reminder :)



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Verse 1
Let’s set up our equations
Try to model this thing called love
Let men be good or bad in the lady’s view
If she chooses well, she’ll make a gain
But a bad one will lead to a loss
The man wins either way
He just wants to know what the equations say . . .
And what do they say?

Chorus
You can’t hurry love
The Supremes they got it right so long ago
The equations show
That when the lady waits
She’ll find a guy worth her time
Can’t hurry love

Verse 2
In a stable equilibrium
Where the guys and girls both win
A good man sticks around for a long courtship
This lets the lady screen her man
And see if he’s up to par
Sure, time is lost, but it’s worth it
Just to find the perfect match
And why is that?

Bridge
So take my advice and take your time
Don’t argue with the math

idea

I have some of my favorite poems up on my wall, poems from Hopkins and Eliot and the like, and one called "idea" by my friend Ben. One night in the dorm, I was sitting at the desk playing my guitar and looking at the poems, and I began putting a tune to "idea." This is what came out.

Words by Ben (originally posted here). Music by David.



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i have an idea -
let's put the top down and drive to a place where
we've never been before and lay

in grass and leaves that aren't yet
dead, they still have colors -
red, yellow, orange, and brown.
autumn, please don't count your dead before
winter's darkness buries them.

until then, i have an idea -
let's grow our hair and shout our secrets from
the bottom of thick-trunked trees

whose bark is cold to the touch when
we climb into its carousel of
twisting arms and forgotten fingers that
we give names to and make remembered as the
southern wind bends them in its shivery chill.

i have an idea -
let's drink steamy coffee and tangle limbs when
you can't hear me whisper words

of love into your untrained ear
that never senses growing weeds where
travelers stop to catch a breath and wrap their hands
and brush their cheeks and cover up when
no one cares to build a fire.

hey, i have an idea -
let's gather jackets and vests and scarves
and pack our bags for a trip where

we don't know where we're going until
the train stops screeching in the central
station of some great city with soft-white windows,
like bearded men with newspaper sleeves,
who ride coattails through fluorescent streets.

i have an idea -
let's learn to dance before december arrives
so we can foxtrot through the wintertime.

Deserted Kingdom

This song is based on a journal I wrote at Trinity Forum Academy about a walk through Central Park after a Tim Keller sermon on how the Gospel story is the true tale that all other stories point to (I've got it up on my blog here). I originally conceived it as a song, which I started writing at the Academy but never finished - I finally finished the lyrics on a long flight from Asia. This a demo recording I did on GarageBand.

Words and music by David



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Verse 1
Down the forgotten grand stair
Empty stone courtyards, snow in the air
The wind rips across the expanses where we walk alone.
Gargoyles stare out, empty of will
From towering fountains, now silent and still
There's a majesty but also a sadness
To this deserted kingdom of stone

Chorus 1
It's as if a bright living scene
Full of sounds of the people so busy existing
One moment was there, and the next, found itself suddenly turned
To a painting that pleases the eye,
But it's silent and frozen and none of the people
Remain, and the question that hangs is whether they'll ever return

Verse 2
We pass to the underground hall
More whispers of grandeur escape from the walls
Where faded frescoes and intricate patterns astound
Here played the band, here the dancers twirled
As music enfolded this light-flooded world
But now the darkness has captured the hall
And only our echoes resound

Chorus 2
And I'm lost in the tale of this place
What spell locks the realm in the silence of winter?
What caused it to fall from a height so great I cannot discern?
And I long for a day yet to come
When the wrong is set right and this land is restored
And the glory now veiled is revealed when a king of old shall return.

Bridge
Then we step from the borders of Central Park
Out into the turmoil of the streets of New York
And we stumble through puddles and piles of lead snow
Lights and horns blaring in cacophonous show
And the story is lost, just another ideal
Dropped on the way. This is fact. This is real.
It's all silver-gray buildings piled up to the sky
And flashes of yellow as the taxis dart by
And the pulsating colors standing on high
Screaming, "Buy! Buy! Buy!"

Verse 3
Why does this story stir me so deep,
Great heroes and realms in an enchanted sleep?
Oh why do I yearn for this tale to be true?
For the king of old to return?

Chorus 3
Could it be that the legends are real?
Could the resonance point to a tale still unfolding?
Is ours a land that can only be saved by a love that's unearned?
Is it true there's a new reign at hand?
Did a foretaste come in a prince who was slain?
Will the trees really clap and rejoice when the king of old does return?

I still long for a day yet to come
When all wrongs are set right and this land is restored,
And in hope I will patiently wait for the king of old to return.

Hymns and Such

This is a collection of hymns and folk songs arranged and performed with my friend Martha (with appearances by Kristen and the Stanford RUF worship band). Martha and I played together for four years in the RUF worship band, a group which plays a number of old hymns arranged in folk style with acoustic guitars and fiddle. After taking Stanford's Music 181 class with Marsha Genensky, we began to work on arrangements of our own, seeking to bring a new sound to the rich poetry of the old hymns. This is a set of recordings made primarily with the built-in microphone of Martha's laptop.

1. By The Mark
2. Amazing Grace
3. Jesus, Lover of My Soul
4. O Sacred Head Now Wounded
5. Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

By the Mark

This was the first song that Martha and I performed together, for Music 181, a folk-music class at Stanford. It is not a hymn per se, but it was written in the music tradition of folk spirituals. The first recording is from our original performance with Music 181 at Stanford. The second version is a live take recorded on Martha's laptop.

Words and Music by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

Live at Stanford, 6.5.06


Live


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Verse 1
When I cross over
I will shout and sing
I will know my savior
By the mark where the nails have been

Chorus
By the mark where the nails have been
By the sign upon his precious skin
I will know my savior when I come to him
By the mark where the nails have been

Verse 2
A man of riches
May claim a crown of jewels
But the king of heaven
Can be told from the prince of fools

Verse 3
On Calvary Mountain
Where they made him suffer so
All my sin was paid for
A long, long time ago

Amazing Grace

After playing together with Music 181, Martha and I decided to meet weekly to continue playing. This is one of the first songs we played together, a new tune of "Amazing Grace," written by Martha several years earlier. We recorded both a multi-track and a live version on Martha's laptop.

Words by John Newton, 1779 and John Rees (verse 4), 1790. Music by Martha.

Multi-track


Live


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Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
’Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.