The Princeton Nassoons are the oldest a capella group at Princeton University and the fifth oldest collegiate a capella group in the United States.

The Nassoons take their name from Nassau Hall, a U.S. National Historic Landmark building which was the site of an important British surrender to General George Washington that ended the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. This building served as the nation's capitol and the meeting place of the Continental Congress in 1783. The news of the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783 that ended the Revolutionary War was first delivered to Nassau Hall.

The Princeton Nassons first performed at Princeton University in 1941 and are one of the world's greatest collegiate performance ensembles.

Nassau Hall today holds the administrative offices of the President of Princeton University and is the meeting place of the faculty and Board of Trustees,

Tigertown Blues is probably the Princeton Nassoons greatest Princeton University themed song. Tigertown Blues was written by Dick Armstrong '47.

I think it is a great thing when a group of men sing together. It rarely happens outside performance groups and I think it should happen more often. However, male singing ensembles like Glee Clubs and a cappella groups are often filled with faggots. The ones at the particular university I attended were full of them.

The Princeton Nassoons are the oldest a cappella group at Princeton University and the fifth oldest collegiate a cappella group in the United States.

The Nassoons take their name from Nassau Hall, a U.S. National Historic Landmark building which was the site of an important British surrender to General George Washington that ended the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. This building served as the nation's capitol and the meeting place of the Continental Congress in 1783. The news of the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783 that ended the Revolutionary War was first delivered to Nassau Hall.

The Princeton Nassons first performed at Princeton University in 1941 and are one of the world's greatest collegiate performance ensembles.

Nassau Hall today holds the administrative offices of the President of Princeton University and is the meeting place of the faculty and Board of Trustees.

Arthel Lane Watson was born in the town of Deep Gap, North Carolina in 1923. He lost his vision as an infant due to an eye infection. Watson, who acquired the performance nickname “Doc” due to the awkwardness of his given name Arthel, played guitar and banjo, and other minor instruments like the jew's harp.

Doc Watson was paired by musicologist (((Ralph Rinzler))) with Appalachian folk musicians Fred Price, Clint Howard, and Clarence Ashley. Clarence Ashley (1895-1967) had a brief recording history dating back to the late 1920s with his band The Carolina Tar Heels that was cut short because of the Great Depression.

The group of musicians created a landmark folk music recording during the height of the Folk Music Revival in 1961-- Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. This recording is replete with traditional Appalachian folk songs reflecting the Anglo-Saxon and Scotch-Irish musical heritage of the Appalachian people played in the Old Time Mountain Music style with songs expressing the full range of human emotions and narrative stories about the human condition that extend from human love to the spiritual, to songs about work reflecting the times of the Industrial Revolution as well songs containing the humor and wit of man. This album, published by (((Moses Asch's))) Folkways Records, was followed in 1963 by Old Time Music At Clarence Ashley's - Part 2, which in my opinion is even better than the first album.

Doc Watson, along with Clarence Ashley, were truly some of the greatest modern American folk musicians that ever lived. The quality of their singing and ability to play this music is extremely impressive. They not only know and perform the songs but they have lived the songs as well. These are songs and tunes they knew since childhood and to hear them sing and play them is to hear the emotional part of the soul and heart of Western European Man expressed in music created by common European people.

Doc Watson passed away at the age of 89 in 2012 at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Georgia Buck is originally a humorous Negro song about death and dying (Georgia Buck is dead / The last words he said / were: don't put no shortening in my bread) but in Doc Watson's masterful hands and voice, the song is performed as a serious song and mortality itself seems present as Doc sings the story of Georgia Buck.

As far as I know, the photo of Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, and Gaither Carleton used in the thumbnail is part of the Federal Goverment's collection and is in the public domain.

Roger Whittaker was born in British Kenya in 1936. He became an officer in the Kenyan Regiment and served during the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s. It was while serving as an officer Whittaker started performing as a folksinger to raise his men's morale and entertain them.

Whittaker studied biochemistry, zoology, and marine biology at the University College of North Wales in 1959 and continued to perform music in campus pubs and clubs. He began his recording career with Fontana Records in 1962.

Whittaker is best known for his 1969 hit song Durham Town and his biggest hit song The Last Farewell, a Napoleonic War themed love ballad from 1975. His music became popular throughout the Anglosphere except in the United States where it failed to catch on. Whittaker sings a contemporary form of folk music known in Germany as schlager music which is known for its contemporary sound, use of orchestra, and features mainly newly written songs and music,

Whittaker's estranged parents (his parents were extremely disappointed over his choice of career as a musician despite his commercial success and never attended one of his concerts) were robbed and subject to torture for hours at their Nairobi home by rampaging Kenyan bandits in 1989, and his father was murdered.

Roger Whittaker was one of the most successful commercial pop folksingers to emerge from the 1960s and sold over 11 million records alone with his song The Last Farewell. Whittaker had an active concert touring schedule and conducted concert tours throughout the world in countries like the United States, Canada, Germany, etc.

Here on his 1979 record album entitled Wishes, Whittaker sings a cover version of New Zealand folksinger Dave Jordan's Remembrance Day song Goodnight Ruby.

Roger Whittaker passed away on September 13th, 2023 at age 87 at a hospital near Toulouse, France.

Goodnight Ruby--written and composed by New Zealand folk songwriter Dave Jordan in 1973. Performed by the late Roger Whittaker.

Lyrics:

C F G C
Heading home on Remembrance Day
Am D G
Slowing down in the autumn cold
C G C F G Am
In your scarf and your green beret
Em F Dm G C
And you can't help but wonder how you've grown so old

F G C
Called away by a waking dream
C/c C/b Am/a C/g D G
Brave old soldier running out of steam
F G Am
Blows a kiss to the evening skies
F C D G C
Good night Ruby with the stars in her eyes

There's a face in a photograph
That you've treasured the long years through
Just a trace of her distant laugh
And you pray there's a heaven and she waits for you

Called away by a waking dream
Brave old soldier running out of steam
Blows a kiss to the evening skies
Good night Ruby with the stars in her eyes

(And then an instrumental interlude here ??)

Set 'em up for the whole damn crew
Raise a glass to your absent friends
Just a ghost of the gang you knew
And you can't help but wonder will you meet again

Called away by a waking dream
Brave old soldier running out of steam
Blows a kiss to the evening skies
Good night Ruby with the stars in her eyes

(Repeat chorus at end, as indicated in melody of mp3
with final lines
'Goodnight Ruby, Goodnight Ruby,
Goodnight Ruby with the stars........in her eyes'

This English soldier's song, which probably began as a barrack room ballad, dates back at least to the late 17th century. A printed version of "Over the Hills and Far Away" first appeared in Irish playwright George Farquhar's (1677-1707) drama The Recruiting Officer in 1706.

The version sung and performed by English folk group Treebeard is a contemporary version of the song with lyrics written by English folk singer and musician John Tams for the 1990s ITV Napoleonic Wars miniseries Sharpe (which was broadcast as Sharpe's Rifles on PBS in the United States) starring Sean Bean. Tams plays the role of one of the British Army's 95th Regiment Riflemen in the TV series.

It's up, lads! And it's over the hills and far away!

Lyrics:

There's forty shillings on the drum
For those who volunteer to come,
To 'list and fight the foe today
Over the Hills and far away

[Chorus]

O'er the hills and o'er the main
Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain
King George commands and we obey
Over the hills and far away

When duty calls me I must go
To stand and face another foe
But part of me will always stray
Over the hills and far away

[Chorus]

If I should fall to rise no more
As many comrades did before
Then ask the fifes and drums to play
Over the hills and far away

[Chorus]

Then fall in lads behind the drum
With colours blazing like the sun
Along the road to come what may
Over the hills and far away

[Chorus] X4

Dr. Gwynne Dyer explains why it is important for a people to have a state, and then uses Israel as a case study to give a broader perspective into why nations fight wars, the risks and costs of continually recurring warfare, and how states motivate young men to risk their lives in military combat.

Dr. Dyer states that warfare is politics but it is also about money and power.

Dr. Dyer, in my opinion, gives a somewhat balanced perspective to the subject matter of the documentary and I think he is fairer than most in the mainstream media in his presentation but the film is all from the Israeli point of view and he leaves out a lot of information. However, the film is still worth watching and various Israeli soldiers and officers share their personal opinions about Israel and its wars.

War: Episode 4 The Deadly Game of Nation (1983) was produced by the National Film Board of Canada as part of a seven part series for television called War in 1983, hosted by journalist Gwynne Dyer, and broadcast on CBC Television and PBS.

Father and Son--That's Italian! Ragu Spaghetti Commercial USA c. Late 1980s--No Blacks, No Homos, No Funny Colored Hair People.

I would say being Italian American was about exotic as you could get in America during the 1980s and still be accepted by the culture at large. However, there was a broad brush Mafia stereotype courtesy of the Jews in their Hollywood movies.

If you were of Eastern European ancestry (didn't matter which group), well, the Cold War and the Iron Curtain were still going strong. You didn't have the numbers or the power structure like the Irish Americans and to a lesser extent the Italian Americans. You were all (didn't matter which group you were from) lumped together as "Dumb Polacks" (a pejorative term which I still hear from time to time) brought over here to work in a factory or maybe be a cop or work for a Jew. You didn't belong.

Spago means string in the Italian language.

The Italian Americans changed American society by changing the food Americans ate.

George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) composed the march Scipio for the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards (known by their Royal designation as the Grenadier Guards) in 1725. Handel incorporated this march into the score for his opera Scipio which was first performed the following year in 1726 at the King's Theatre in London.

Scene in Thumbnail is borrowed from the motion picture Young Winston (1972).

Elgar Pomp and Circumstance, Op. 39 March, No. 4 in G (1907)

Music of Sir Edward Elgar.

“I have some of the soldier instinct in me,” Elgar (1857-1937) wrote. Elgar's work Pomp and Circumstance Marches take the military quick march and set the genre as a subject of serious musical compositions for orchestra.

In 1901, Elgar placed a stanza based on Lord de Tabley's (1835-1895) poem “The March of Glory” which Elgar substantially modified as an epigraph for his set of marches which he continued to work on until 1930. March No. 4 in G was written in 1907:

Like a proud music that draws men on to die
Madly upon the spears in martial ecstasy,
A measure that sets heaven in all their veins
And iron in their hands.
I hear the Nation march
Beneath her ensign as an eagle's wing;
O'er shield and sheeted targe
The banners of my faith most gaily swing;
Moving to victory with solemn noise,
With worship and with conquest, and the voice of myriads.

This song, whose actual name is The Hawk and the Crow, apparently almost disappeared in the British Isles. There is only a single instance of the song being collected in the field which was by a joint team of a professional folklorist and a Northern Irish school teacher who collected the song from Liam O'Connor of Pomeroy in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

However, the song was better preserved in the Appalachian region of the United States and was reported being well known there as The Bird Courting Song or The Leather Winged Bat.

One of the purposes of folksong is to pass on a word of advice. You will often hear British or Irish folk songs begin with the lyric “Come All of You” followed by the group of people the singer is addressing: young fellows, pretty young maidens, Bold Sportsmen, etc.

This song does not use that common phrase indicating counsel. Instead, the song, uses anthropomorphic talking birds, which conjure an entertaining and amusing image in the imagination; the talking birds communicate some bits of advice regarding courtship, as well as observations that love may possibly bring either permanent sorrow or great joy.

The late folk singer Kevin Mitchell renamed the song Two Strings on a Bow and sang it on his 1977 record album Free and Easy: Irish Traditional Songs and Ballads. The non-lexical vocables chorus which is common in both Irish and British folksong, in addition to producing a series of interesting sounds, serves to break up the action in the song and creates a sense of suspense on the part of the listener as to what will happen next. Mitchell states that he crafted the singing of this chorus to the tune of the bawdy sailor's hornpipe The Cuckoo's Nest, a musical sexual reference which adds a layer of complexity and humor to the performance of this song to those in the know.

Kevin Mitchell was from Derry in Northern Ireland but he moved to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1969 to work as an industrial painter. Prior to moving to Scotland, Mitchell spent his youth learning traditional Gaelic singing from local and Northern Irish traditional singers. Mitchell won Second Place at the Derry Feis [a traditional Gaelic arts and culture festival] and First Place at the Belfast Singing Competition. Mitchell appeared at folk festivals throughout Scotland and England and at international events. In 2001, Kevin Mitchell and his wife Ellen, who is also an award winning traditional singer from Scotland, recorded a Double CD of traditional British Isles songs on the Musical Traditions' label: Kevin and Ellen Mitchell: Have a Drop Mair. Kevin Mitchell passed away on December 22, 2022.

The late Kevin Mitchell, who was interviewed in 1988 by Fred McCormick, recounts:

It was purely nationalism when I was young. No history of traditional music in the family in Derry City, although on my mother's side there was a fair bit of singing, but not really what I'm particularly doing now. When I was young I was very interested in Irish culture, the language, Irish dancing; and one thing led to another. I learned Irish dancing, and if you get into a minibus and you're travelling from a feis, everybody sings - and I already had a name singing so it gradually developed from there until we came to the competition stage, which was later on. Anyway, what really made me sing was singing songs from my own wee bit of the country, which is County Derry and Donegal. Although Derry is historically part of Donegal, so we've got that kind of split personality, so when I talk about Donegal songs I'm really talking about local songs. The first song that took my fancy was Going to Mass Last Sunday just because it mentioned Derry, although in this case it's County Derry.

More about Kevin and Ellen Mitchell:

https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/mitchell.htm

Two Strings on a Bow

Lyrics

Said the hawk unto the crow one day,
“Why do you in mourning stay?”
“I was once in love and it didn't prove fact
And ever since I wear the black.”
Chorus (repeating each verse's second half):

Singing: Ski-the-diddle ri-the-diddle ri-the-diddley dum,
Singing: Ski-the-diddle ri-the-diddle ri-the-diddley dum,
I was once in love and I didn't prove fact
And ever since I wear the black.

And next there spoke the little brown thrush
Who was sitting in yon holly bush,
“The way to court I've heard them say
Is to court all night and sleep the next day.”

And the next hopped up was a Willie Wagtail,
“I was once in love and I did prevail,
I was once in love and I did prevail
And ever since I wag my tail.”

And the next hopped up was a Jeannie Wran (wren),
“Do you know what I'd do if I was a man?
For fear that one would wriggle and go
I would wear two strings upon my bow.”

Born Joseph Ratzinger in Marktl, Bavaria, in 1927. Conscripted into the Hitler Youth in 1941. Ratzinger's father was a Bavarian police officer who opposed National Socialism. One of his cousins, who had Down Syndrome, was executed by the state in 1941. Joseph Ratzinger served in an anti-aircraft gun crew as a Luftwaffenhelfer.

Ratzinger completed his habilitation in 1957 on the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), known as the Seraphic Doctor of the Church and Ratzinger became a Professor of Theology at Freising College in 1958. Ratzinger was appointed to numerous subsequent professorships at several German universities throughout his life.

After the extremely charismatic Pope John Paul II died, Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope on April 19, 2005 and took the name Benedict XVI in honor of both Saint Benedict (480-548), the founder of Western monasticism, and Pope Benedict XV (1854-1922).
In contrast to Pope Saint John Paul II's powerful personality, presence, ebulliance, and ability to work a crowd, the professorial Pope Benedict XVI was soft spoken and gentle. Each man who becomes Pope brings different qualities and personality traits to the office and there's no exact prescribed manner on what type of personality a Pope must have.

Pope Benedict XVI resigned due to health reasons on February 28, 2013 and was succeeded by Pope Francis on March 13, 2013.

On December 31, 2022, His Holiness, Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, fell asleep in the Lord.

Eternal memory, eternal memory, blessed repose, eternal memory.

World Youth Day is a gathering held by the Catholic Church roughly every three years for the spiritual benefit of young Catholics. In 2008, World Youth Day was held in Sydney, Australia. It is estimated around 300,000 to 400,000 pilgrims attended the final Mass with Pope Benedict XVI on July 20, 2008 held at Royal Randwick Racecourse.

One of the composers that studied the antiphonal style of polychoral music under Giovanni Gabrieli (b. 1554/1557) in Venice was the German composer Henrich Schutz (1585-1672). Giovanni Gabrieli was so impressed with Schutz and his musical mastery that Gabrieli said to Schutz that Schutz was not his student but his teacher, and, shortly before he died, Gabrieli gifted his ring to Schutz. Giovanni Gabrieli died in 1612, and predeceased the artist El Greco and William Shakespeare by just a few years.

Henrich Schutz and other German composers who had studied in northern Italy brought the Venetian polychoral style of music with them when they returned to Germany. The Venetian style of music would become the basis of German Baroque music which would culminate in the compositions of one of the greatest composers who ever lived-- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611 or 1612-1675) was Organist at the Lutheran St. John's Church in Zittau, the southeasternmost city of Saxony. Hammerschmidt was the foremost mid-17th century composer of the Italian concertato style pioneered in Germany by Henrich Schutz. The concertato style involves musical contrast between voice or voices and instrumental music to create a dramatic form of music.

(By the way, Hammerschmidt's music, Sonata super-- Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ, starts @3:43, and the rest of the music on the Album summarized below is all great music too! Hammerschmidt's piece is one part of the great music on this wonderful anthology album).

Hammerschmidt was described in 1655 by Johann Rist (1607-1667), a German Imperial Poet and Hymn writer, as the “world-celebrated Herr Hammerschmidt,” a statement reflecting the popularity of Hammerschmidt's music and the great acclaim with which it was held. Contemporary music scholars regard Hammerschmidt as the greatest composer of German Sacred Music in the mid-17th century. The epitaph on Hammerschmidt's gravestone refers to him as “Orpheus of Zittau.”

“Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ” is a hymn written by Martin Luther and was published in the Protestant collection of hymns- Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn (A Spiritual Song Booklet) in 1524. This collection has been called the origin of all Protestant song music. This is Andreas Hammerschmidt's musical setting of the hymn.

German text / English translation

Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ,
Praise be to You, Jesus Christ,
Daß du Mensch geboren bist
since You were born a man
Von einer Jungfrau, das ist wahr,
from a virgin, this is true,
Des freuet sich der Engel Schar.
the host of angels rejoices over this.
Kyrie eleis!
Kyrie eleison! (Lord, have mercy!)

Das hat er alles uns getan,
sein groß Lieb zu zeigen an;
des freu sich alle Christenheit
und dank ihm des in Ewigkeit.
Kyrie eleis!

He did all that for us
to show His great love;
all Christendom rejoices
and thanks to Him forever.
Kyrie eleis! (Lord, have mercy!)

Video Thumbnail: Virgin and Child of the Crescent Moon, 1510-1520, painted and gilded sculpted limewood by Niklaus Weckmann (German [Ulm], c. 1450-after 1526), Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts).

Photo is from the author's private collection and is displayed for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among mankind.

J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
1. Wir Christenleut', BWV 40/3, 612

Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611 or 1612-1675)
2. Sonata super Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ

Daniel Speer (1636-1707)
3. Fanfare for 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, and timpani

Jacob Handl (1550-1591)
4. Egredietur virga

Guillaume Dufay (1406-1471), Trent Codex MS 92:
5. Three-part antiphon: Alma redemptoris mater

Anon., France, 13th c., Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibl. MS 1099:
6. Three-part motet: O Maria, maris stella-O Maria, maris stella-Veritatem

Anon., Bamberg Staatliche Bibl. MS Lit. 115:
7. Three-part motet: Kyrie-Salve mater salutifera-O miranda Dei karitas

Anon., Codex Montpellier MS H 196:
8. Three-part motet: Neuma-Veni, virgo beatissima-Veni sancte Spiritus

Anon., Augustinerchorherrenstifts MS:
9. Two-part conductus: Ave Virgo Virginum

Anon., Glogauer Liederbuch:
10. Three-part cantio: Fulgent nunc

Performers:

Margaret Cable, Alto (performing Hammerschmidt) Helmuth Rilling, organ, conductor (Bach) ; Ferdinand Conrad Instrumental Ensemble (Praetorius, Schein) ; Niedersächsischer Singkreis, Hannover (Praetorius, Walter) - Willi Träder, cond.; Kaufbeurer Martinsfinken (Gabrieli, Handl) - Ludwig Hahn, cond.; London Brass Players (Speer, Hammerschmidt) - Joshua Rifkin; Chorus of the Gedächtniskirche, Stuttgart (Bach) ; Capella Antiqua, Munich (Dufay, anonymous works) - Konrad Ruhland, cond.; Wilhelm Ehmann (Schütz),.

Cornered by a group of hunters' dogs and as a final act before dying, the Granemore Hare speaks to the hunters.

English folk musician Rod Stradling states:

Sam Henry (Irish amateur folklorist [1878-1952]) published a version of this song—as The Hare of Kilgrain—in 1924, from the singing of William Sloan, from Dundooan, County Donegal. Peter Kennedy recorded it for the BBC from Jimmy McKee, in Armagh, in 1952, as The Granemore Hare, as did Robin Morton from Frank Mills, of Milltown, County Tyrone. It would seem to be an Armagh song, given the mention of Keady, and indeed, Granemore is a townland in the west of the parish of Keady.

There is a somewhat similar song called The Cregan White Hare which has its setting in the County Tyrone.

The song was written by Owen McMahon of Tassagh, County Armagh, and is sung and performed by Scottish folk singer Dick Gaughin from his Kist O' Gold album. Music of Ulster.

GRANEMORE HARE

Last Saturday morning, the horns they did blow
To the green hills round Tassagh the huntsmen did go
To meet the bold sportsmen from around Keady town
For none loved the sport better than the boys from Maydown

And when we arrived they were all standing there
So we took to the green fields in search of the hare
We had not gone far when someone gave a cheer
Over high hills and valleys this "puss" she did steer

With our dogs all abreast and that big mountain hare
And the sweet sounding music, it rang through the air
Straight for the Black Bank for to try them once more
And it was her last sight round the Hills of Granemore

And as they trailed on to where the "puss", she did lie
She sprang to her feet for to bid them goodbye
Their music, it ceased and her cry we could hear
Saying, "Cursed be the ones brought you Maydown dogs here"

"Last night as I lay content in the glen
It was little I thought about dogs or of men
But when going home at the clear break of day
I could hear the long notes that young Toner did play"

"And it being so early I stopped for a while
It was little I thought they were going to meet Coyle
If I had known that I'd have lain near the town
Or tried to get clear of those dogs from Maydown"

"And now I am dying, the sport is all done
No more through the green fields round Keady I'll run
Or feed in the glen on the cold winter's night
Nor go home to my den when it's breaking daylight"

"My curse on MacMahon for bringing Coyle here
He's been at his old capers for many's the year
From Friday to Sunday, he'll never give o'er
With a pack of strange dogs round the Hills of Granemore"

Scene from The Ballad of the Irish Horse documentary (1985) and 1961 Republic of Ireland 3 Pence coin with an Irish Hare on reverse depicted in video thumbnail.

Two Great Highland Bagpipe 6/8 Marches--The Highland Brigade At Waterloo; Dr. Ross's 50th Welcome To The Argyllshire Gathering.

The two tunes are played as a medley without a pause in the music. Dr. Ross begins @ 1:39 in the video.

The Highland Brigade At Waterloo: The Highland Brigade's French opponents at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the heavy cavalry in European armies known as curaissiers (i.e., "one with a curaiss"), armored with breastplate and backplate, are popularly known as the successors to the knights of the Middle Ages.

Doctor Ross’s 50th Welcome to the Argyllshire Gathering: "Composed by Pipe Major Donald Macleod, born in 1916 at Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides. Macleod learned piping from his father and from a number of tutors, including the famous Pipe Major John MacDonald of Inverness. In 1937 he became a piper for the Seaforth Highlanders and attained the level of Pipe Major in only four years. During World War II Macleod served in France with the 51st Highland Division and was taken prisoner by the Germans at St. Valery. He managed to escape and returned to his unit in time to pipe his battalion across the Rhine during an assault crossing—despite having been forbiden to do so by his commanding officer. After the war Macleod continued to win piping competition after competition, until he retired from the army in 1963. After that he played exhibitions and wrote pipe tutors and his own collection, Ceol Mor."

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/DO_DOM.htm

I am not one hundred percent certain if the man in the video's thumbnail photo, the late Dr. Roddy Ross, is the Dr. Ross referred to in the title of Pipe Major Donald Macleod's tune but he must be the Dr. Ross referred to in the title of Pipe Major Donald Macleod's tune!

"Neil and Helen Ross had lost their first son in his infancy and, for that reason, it is thought Helen encouraged Roddy to study medicine, which he did at Edinburgh University, graduating with first class Honours. Apart from piping, among his hobbies were playing shinty and putting the shot. On graduation, war service followed in the Royal Army Medical Corps; posted to India he was later parachuted into Burma where, among other matters, he had to deal practically with the victims of rape and torture by the enemy. After the war he was called as an expert witness to the war crimes trials in Malaya."

https://bagpipe.news/2022/01/05/famous-pipers-dr-roddy-ross/

In his Meditation, “Philosophy of Life,” Father Leo Clifford of the Order of Friars Minor (i.e., the Franciscan Friars) preaches Catholic Truth and establishes that the Christian Philosophy of Life is embodied in the example of the mercy, self-giving love, neighborly love, and service of the Good Samaritan, a non-Jew, who performs Jesus's law with the right motivation of the Charity and the love of God and man of the Christian and is thus on the path to inherit Eternal Life.

Luke 10:25-37
Revised Standard Version

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered right; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, 34 and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Music by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1937) and the libretto is by A.C. (i.e., Arthur Christopher) Benson (1862-1925), poet and Master at Eton College.

The work was to be premiered at a Royal Gala on June 30, 1902 on the eve of King Edward VII's Coronation but Edward VII became ill with appendicitis and the Royal Gala was cancelled and the Coronation was postponed until August 9, 1902.

Instead, the Coronation Ode premiered at the Royal Gala held for the first anniversary of the Coronation nearly a year later on June 25, 1903 at the Royal Albert Hall.

At King Edward VII's suggestion to Elgar, the Ode's “Finale: Land of Hope and Glory,” is the Trio from Elgar's first Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 in D from 1901.

In 1905, Elgar was invited to Yale University by Professor Samuel Sanford to receive an honorary doctorate and Professor Samford arranged for “Land of Hope and Glory” to be played as Elgar walked off the graduation stage.

The tuneful British marching music immediately caught the ear of academics from other Ivy League schools and elite universities across America and was incorporated into their graduation ceremonies; by the 1920s,“Land of Hope and Glory” had spread to most commencements of universities and colleges throughout the United States. The music, with its slow, stately, decorous and triumphant sounds, is a perfect fit for the academic ceremony marking academic accomplishment.

Performance of “Land of Hope and Glory” was eventually placed at the beginning of the graduation ceremony and also became ubiquitous at U.S. High School graduations but it is known colloquially in the United States as the Pomp and Circumstance March.

The preceding five movements of the Coronation Ode, Op. 44 are great too and deserve your listening attention.

Coronation Ode, Op. 44 (1902) composed by Sir Edward Elgar; Lyrics by A.C. Benson.

I – Introduction: "Crown the King", for soloists and chorus

II – (a) "The Queen", for chorus; (b) "Daughter of ancient Kings", for chorus

III – "Britain, ask of thyself", for bass soloist and men's (tenor and bass) chorus

IV – (a) "Hark, upon the hallowed air" for soprano and tenor soloists, followed by (b) "Only let the heart be pure", for soprano, contralto, tenor and bass soloists

V – "Peace, gentle peace", for soprano, contralto, tenor and bass soloists and unaccompanied chorus

VI – Finale: "Land of hope and glory", contralto soloist, with chorus

“Land of Hope and Glory" (Movement VI from the Coronation Ode, Op. 44 [1902] composed by Sir Edward Elgar; Lyrics by A.C. Benson)

VI – "Land of hope and glory" – Finale (Contralto Solo and Tutti)
Solo
    Land of hope and glory,
        Mother of the free,
    How shall we extol thee,
        who are born of thee?
    Truth and Right and Freedom,
        each a holy gem,
    Stars of solemn brightness,
        weave thy diadem.

Chorus
    'Tho thy way be darken'd,
        still in splendour drest,
    As the star that trembles
        o'er the liquid West.
    Thron'd amid the billows,
        thron'd inviolate,
    Thou hast reign'd victorious,
        thou hast smil'd at fate.

Soloists and Chorus
    Land of hope and glory,
        Fortress of the free,
    How shall we extol thee?
        praise thee, honour thee?
    Hark! a mighty nation
        maketh glad reply;
    Lo, our lips are thankful;
        lo, our hearts are high!
    Hearts in hope uplifted,
        loyal lips that sing;
    Strong in Faith and Freedom,
        we have crowned our King!

Performed by the New Philharmonia Orchestra, Philip Ledger (1977). Recorded in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge.

Puppet head of the late Queen Elizabeth II borrowed from the New Spitting Image satirical television program.

The Old Rose & Crown: a song about the demise of the Old English Pub composed and written by English expat living in Canada folk singer Ian Robb.

Lyrics:

Good friends gather round and I'll tell you a tale
It's a story well known to all lovers of ale
For the old English pub, once a man's second home
Has been decked out by brewers in plastic and chrome.

[Chorus]
Oh, what has become of the old Rose and Crown?
The Ship, the King's Arms, and the World Upside Down?
For oak, brass, and leather, and a pint of the best
Fade away like the sun as it sinks in the west.

The old oaken bar where the pumps filled your glass
Gives way to Formica and tanks full of gas
And the landlord behind, once a man of good cheer
Now just mumblеs the price as he hands you your beer.

[Chorus]
Oh, what has bеcome of the old Rose and Crown?
The Ship, the King's Arms, and the World Upside Down?
For oak, brass, and leather, and a pint of the best
Fade away like the sun as it sinks in the west.

And where are the friends who would meet for a jar
And a good game of darts in the old public bar?
Well, the dartboard is gone, in its place is a thing
Where you pull on the handle and lose all your tin.

[Chorus]
Oh, what has become of the old Rose and Crown?
The Ship, the King's Arms, and the World Upside Down?
For oak, brass, and leather, and a pint of the best
Fade away like the sun as it sinks in the west.

But the worst of it all's what they've done to the beer
Their shandies and lagers just make you feel queer
For an arm and a leg, they will fill up your glass
With a half and half mixture of ullage and gas.

[Chorus]
Oh, what has become of the old Rose and Crown?
The Ship, the King's Arms, and the World Upside Down?
For oak, brass, and leather, and a pint of the best
Fade away like the sun as it sinks in the west.

So, come all you young people who like to sup ale
Lets hope for a happier end to my tale
For there's nothing can fill a man's heart with more cheer
Than to sit in a pub with a pint of good beer.

[Chorus]
Oh, what has become of the old Rose and Crown?
The Ship, the King's Arms, and the World Upside Down?
For oak, brass, and leather, and a pint of the best
Fade away like the sun as it sinks in the west.

Fr. Richard Ho Lung M.O.P., The Founder And The Superior General of the Missionaries Of The Poor had an interview on the matter of abortion in Jamaica, West Indies.

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION

SECTION TWO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

CHAPTER TWO
"YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF"

ARTICLE 5
THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

You shall not kill.54

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, "You shall not kill: and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment." But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.55

2258 "Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being."56

Abortion
2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.72

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.73

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.74

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.75
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.76

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,"77 "by the very commission of the offense,"78 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.79 The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:

"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."80

"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."81

2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.

54 Ex 20:13; Cf. Deut 5:17.
55 Mt 5:21-22.
56 CDF, instruction, Donum vitae, intro. 5.
57 Cf. Gen 4:8-12.
58 Gen 4:10-11.
59 Gen 9:5-6.
60 Cf. Lev 17:14.
61 Ex 23:7.
62 Mt 5:21.
63 Cf. Mt 5:22-39; 5:44.
64 Cf. Mt 26:52.
65 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,64,7, corp. art.
66 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,64,7, corp. art.
67 Cf. Lk 23:40-43.
68 FRANCIS, Address to Participants in the Meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, 11 October 2017: L’Osservatore Romano, 13 October 2017, 5.

72 Cf. CDF, Donum vitae I,1.
73 Jer 1:5; cf. Job 10:8-12; Ps 22:10-11.
74 Ps 139:15.
75 Didache 2,2:SCh 248,148; cf. Ep. Barnabae 19,5:PG 2 777; Ad Diognetum 5,6:PG 2,1173; Tertullian, Apol. 9:PL 1,319-320.

79 Cf. CIC, cann. 1323-1324.
80 CDF, Donum vit

Father Leo Clifford of the Order of Friars Minor (i.e., the Franciscan Friars) preaches Catholic Truth and establishes that an abundant life can only be found in a belief in the Christian God and not in the pleasures and things of this world in his Meditation “Without Christ.”

The World Express wishes everyone a Blessed and Happy Easter!

Christos voskrese! Voistinu voskrese!
Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!

This song does not share any subject matter with the children's book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame which was published in 1908 except perhaps a tenuous reference to the book's title contained in the song's lyrics but it is a good song.

Alan Bell was a member of the Taverners Folk Group which founded the Blackpool Folk Club in 1961. Bell achieved much success as a composer of contemporary British Folk Music and his music was inspired by the Fylde coast of Lancashire. He founded the Fylde Folk Festival in 1973.

Alan Bell passed away at the age of 84 in 2019.

“Mars: The Bringer of War” by Gustav Holst (from The Planets).

Gustav Holst's seven movement orchestral suite The Planets is one of the great works of modern art music, popularly known as classical music.

Gustave Holst began his composition of The Planets during the early summer of 1914, and completed the orchestral suite's first movement, “Mars, The Bringer of War,” around June of that year. The Great War would begin in Europe about two months later in August. The Planets had its origin in Holst's interest in astrology which he had developed during a holiday vacation with several friends in the Spanish island of Mallorca during the spring of 1913.

But the focus of Holst's music is not horoscopes printed in a British tabloid newspaper. Holst's grand work captures the majesty, mystery, energy, power, beauty, and wonder of the planets of our solar system as Holst's imagination envisioned them in music.

Holst was born in 1874 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He came from a musical family, and some of his ancestors, including his father, were professional musicians. Holst eventually studied music and composition at the Royal College of Music in London. He was the Director of Music at the St. Paul's Girl's School in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London from 1905 until his death in 1934 and Director of Music at the Morely Memorial College for Working Men and Women from 1907 to 1924.

After the success of The Planets in 1919, Holst also taught composition as a Lecturer at the University of Reading and at his alma mater the Royal College of Music. A few years later, Holst accepted an offer to lecture and conduct at the University of Michigan in 1923.

A shy and modest man with bad eyesight and a right arm afflicted by inflammation, Holst shunned his newly acquired fame as a classical music composer, and refused honors and rewards and requests for interviews and autographs.

I did not make the video; it includes film footage from World War Two to accompany the music. It's very sympathetic to the Allied forces and their cause.

The Firesign Theater was a comedy group that released their shtick on record albums and I think they also performed live from time to time.

Yeah, there were at least a couple of Jews in the group; they may have been all Jewish for all I know but I think most people here at Bitchute do not seem to be too pure in their music or entertainment.

The comedy group's repertory and presentation were very loosely based on the form of radio drama from the Golden Age of Radio during the 1920s through the 1950s but featured irreverent no holds barred satire lampooning American history and culture and was presented in a outrageous contemporary manner.

“Fighting Clowns” satirizes the moment the Cold War turned hot again when Ronald Reagan became President in 1980.

People are invited to attend a Free Concert (perhaps a recruitment concert put on by the U.S. Army?) with the Fighting Clowns performing and then they are asked to join the military at the end. However, the music performed devastatingly lampoons the Cold War, the U.S. Military and President Reagan and has the opposite effect.

As a side plot, a couple of Jewish Hollywood Movie Executive types relax in a Jacuzzi discussing their drug use and world events as the United States and the U.S.S.R. move closer to Nuclear War.

This is one of the Firesign Theaters best works although along with the home runs in the album are some balls and strikes.

Highlights include the opening number “The Bozos Song (@ 0:40),” “Oh, Afghanistan (@ 20:35),” and “This Bus Won't Go To War (@32:20).”

Posted for the increase and diffusion of Humor among Mankind!

The following is quoted with slight modifications from the Worthpoint website:

“It's the start of the Reagan-era 1980s, and the 101st Fighting Clown battalion brigade wants you!

This album combines Firesign's full-frontal live "Eight Shoes" vaudeville-style song and dance, camp and amp revue show with additional in-studio improvisations, captured just as the Sappy Seventies gave way to the belligerent and self-satisfied Empty Eighties.

Semper Humorous, indeed. War is the answer, but what was the question? Just stare at the incredible Phil Hartman (yes, that Phil Hartman [i.e., Firesign Theater member]) cover art and maybe you, too, will remember.”

The Firesign Theater. Fighting Clowns, Rhino Records, 1980.

The Bozos Song

The Four Gobs

The 8 Shoes

In The Hot Tub

Hey, Reagan

In The War Zone

Oh, Afghanistan

In The Alley

Violent Juvenile Freaks

In The Hot Tub, Again

This Bus Won't Go To War

Jimmy Carter (bonus track) (2:51)

Kombat--Russian War Song (Modern Folk-Rock Fusion with English Subtitles) by Russian Rock Band Lyube.

Lyrics by Aleksandr Shaganov.
Music by Igor Matvienko.
Sung by Nikolay Rastorguyev.

The name of the band Lyube is a nickname for Lyubertsky, Russia, a suburb of Moscow.

In addition to the spectacular footage from Bratislava and Budapest, two Eastern European Christmas carols play in the background.

The first is a traditional Czech Christmas carol "Let's Go Together to Bethlehem”("Pujdem spolu do Betlema") which is misidentified as a different carol in the documentary.

The second is the traditional Hungarian Christmas carol “Angel From Heaven.”

Wishing You A Merry Christmas.

Return to Wilten Abbey, Innsbruck, Austria:

Wilten Abbey is located in Innsbruck's urban district of Wilten. The name Wilten derives from Veldidena, a Roman military camp from the 4th century A.D. Wilten Abbey is located at the foot of the Bergisel Hill and has one of the oldest boy choirs in Europe--the Wilten Boys' Choir which was founded during the mid-13th century.

Wilten Abbey is under the care of the Premonstratensian Order of the Catholic Church, also known variously as the Norbertines and White Canons. The Premonstratensian Order has its own rite of liturgical practice which had its beginnings at the Court of Charlemagne the Great. As scholar Archdale King states: “The liturgy that Charlemagne and his successors sought to introduce was therefore Roman in its essential framework, but considerably altered and enriched to meet the requirements of the Nordic races. In the middle of the 10th century, a monk of the abbey of St. Alban at Mainz, which was the intellectual and cultural centre of the (Holy Roman) Empire, collated the liturgical manuscripts of Lorraine and produced what has been called by Monsignor Andrieu, the 'Romano-Germanic pontifical'” (170).1

The video footage of the performance is from Organist Diane Bish's televison series Joy of Music, program #8813. Ms. Bish's television series featured a number of Christmas Specials filmed in Germany and Austria. The video clip includes a somewhat humorous interview conducted by Ms. Bish with some of the Wilten Abbey Boy Choristers.

Merry Christmas!
Fröhliche Weihnachten!

1 King, Archdale. LITURGIES OF THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. Bruce Publishing Company, 1953.

Angels We Have Heard On High--Wilten Boys Choir

Engel singen Jubellieder: Text by Norbert Gerhold, Austrian Composer and Music Teacher, founder and director of the Wilten Boys Choir from 1946 to 1982.

Engel singen Jubellieder, künden die Geburt des Herrn,
von den Bergen hallt es wieder, Freude ist nun nah und fern.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo (Latin--Glory to God in the Highest),
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Froh vernimmt das Volk die Kunde,
naht ein König, kommt ein Held?
Hört, geboren ward zur Stunde
Gottes Sohn, das Heil der Welt!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Lasst uns singen, lasst uns beten, Gottes Gnade ist uns nah,
lasst uns hin zur Krippe treten, der Erlöser Christ ist da!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Angels sing songs of joy, announce the birth of the Lord,
it reverberates from the mountains, joy is now near and far.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo (Latin--Glory to God in the Highest),
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

The people gladly hear the news
is a king coming, is a hero coming?
Hear, God's Son was born to
this hour, the salvation of the world!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the Highest),
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.

Let us sing, let us pray, God's grace is near us,
Let us go to the manger, the Redeemer Christ is there!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo,
Gloria, in excelsis Deo.