Now playing - Eclipse

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

(Thanks, H)

Comparison

My radio came on as usual this morning and the first piece of music I heard was Franz Tunder's cantata "Wachet auf!" Many years ago I heard Greta de Reyghere and the Ricercar Consort singing that on a recording that came free with a magazine, which was affected me that, despite having no previous interest in German Baroque cantatas, I went out and bought the ten-CD boxed set. That old recording is still somehow totally magical - it's one of the most-played tracks on my iPod (and I'm listening to it as I write this). So it was interesting to hear a different version this morning, but I'm none the wiser as to what makes one singer merely excellent while another touches my soul.

World's strand, sway of the sea

I lie awake. The only sound, regular loud thuds beating a steady rhythm. I'm taken back to my childhood, lying in bed listening to the sea beating against the shore. But in the quiet London night what I'm hearing, I realise, is my own blood flowing, too loud for me to sleep for a long time. Then later, I don't hear my blood any more, but instead (something of which I was previously unaware) the insistent ticking of my small bedside clock.

A New Year