Lakota Healing Song

From the YouTube information:

"This Lakota Healing song is what is known as a "Peyote" song. Peyote songs are the native american way of worshiping God." (See more below)
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Lyrics:

Wani wachiyelo Ate omakiyayo (Father help me I want to live)
Wani wachiyelo Ate omakiyayo (Father help me I want to live)
Wani wachiyelo Ate omakiyayo (Father help me I want to live)
Atay nimichikun (Father you have done this)
Oshiya chichiyelo (Humbly have pity on me)
Wani wachiyelo Atay omakiyayo (Father help me I want to live)
Wani wachiyelo Atay omakiyayo (Father help me I want to live)
Wani wachiyelo Atay (Father I want to live)


Music: Peyote Healing
Artist: Robbie Robertson


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Cherokee Morning Song: I am of the Great Spirit

"Cherokee Morning Song" performed by the native American group, Walela. The group was founded in 1996 by sisters Rita Coolidge and Priscilla Coolidge, with Priscilla's daughter Laura Satterfield as the third member. From Wikipedia: "Walela" means hummingbird in Cherokee. Coolidge considered this group important not only in honoring her Cherokee ancestors, but also in bringing their culture to others.

Ojibwe Prayer Song

From Indian Country Ojibwe Culture:

The Ojibwe speak a language of the Algonkian language family and constitute the largest Indian group north of Mexico. Their extensive pre-contact territory in Canada was mainly north of Lakes Superior and Huron. During historic times, they spread west and south and today numerous Ojibwe bands stretch from present-day Ontario in eastern Canada all the way into Montana. Oral traditions of the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi assert that at one time all three tribes were one people who lived at the Straits of Mackinac. From there, they split off into three different groups. Linguistic, archeological, and historical evidence confirms that the three tribes descend from a common ethnic origin.

Ojibwe religious life was largely personal, but was also a daily concern with living appropriately and making one's way through a world filled with spirits which inhabited birds, animals, rocks, and cosmic phenomena including the sun, moon, the four winds, thunder, lightning, and thunderbirds. On a personal basis, one of the most important spirits was an individual's guardian spirit which was acquired via a dream or vision and could be called on for protection and guidance. Spirits were honored through prayers and tobacco and food offerings and could sometimes be contacted through shamans. Oral traditions described the world of spirits and provided appropriate models of correct behavior with regard to them.

 

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Picture: The Great Migration

From An Ojibwe Elder's Art and Stories

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The Lord Is My Shepherd (Goodall)

"The Lord Is My Shepherd," by Howard Goodall is a lovely example of English choral music. If you are a fan of The Vicar Of Dibley, you've heard a portion of this one in the closing credits. Notes from the YouTube post:

The Choir of Wells Cathedral, Somerset, under the direction of Matthew Owens, perform Howard Goodall's setting of Psalm 23, 'The Lord is My Shepherd'.... This particular musical setting for choir and orchestra is well-known for having served as the theme music to the television programme 'The Vicar of Dibley', where the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and soloist George Humphries recorded the track.  The choir here is accompanied by the Wells Cathedral School Chamber Orchestra. Treble solos by William de Chazal, former Head Chorister at Wells.

And the Wind Was Low (Love Song)

Near the epicenter of the Jesus Movement of the 1970s was a band called Love Song. To say that they were pioneers in contemporary Christian music would be to devalue what this group did. They were witnesses to a unique spiritual awakening. No one had ever before done Christian music the way they did, and no one has matched them to this day. They wrote their own songs bearing witness to life as they were seeing it emerge. There was no "Christian Music Industry" at the time. These were pure artists standing outside the establishment, with no ties to the corporate industry. They recorded two albums of original material and left a legacy in the process. "And the Wind Was Low" was one of my favorites. It is performed here by Love Song's lead vocalist, Chuck Girard along with a slide show of the band from that unique era on California's coast and a movement that reverberated across the country.

Andraé Crouch (I'll Still Love You)

Last week we lost a pioneer in Contemporary Christian Music and a legendary Gospel artist when Andraé Crouch died at the age of 72. I'll never forget the morning at breakfast in my college cafeteria when one of my classmates mentioned a new album by Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, Take Me Back. "Finally!" he said, "Christian music is as good as anything you can hear on the radio!" 

Andraé Crouch was a crossover artist in many ways. Virtually the only African American on the "Jesus Music" scene in the 1970s, he was recognized as one of the best in the field of what became known as Contemporary Christian music. He was schooled in "Black Gospel" growing up in The Church of God in Christ (which has produced many talented black musicians). Crouch became a Grammy award winner and a mainstay in the music industry, doing music for television and movies, and working with many of the luminaries in the business.

Here is the opening track from Take Me Back, released in 1975, "I'll Still Love You."

 

Epiphany: O Little One Sweet (J.S. Bach)

The sublime work of J. S. Bach lends palpable grace to the Epiphany story of the Christ Child come
 to earth's domain, casting divine energy upon the consciousness of humankind, awakening the world.

 
See also "Epiphany" at  http://notdarkyet-commentary.blogspot.com/2015/01/epiphany.html

 

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Dona Nobis Pacem

Dona Nobis Pacem is Latin for "grant us peace." It is a phrase from the Latin Mass during the Agnus Dei. The phrase has been used as the centerpiece for a number of musical works. For this one, usually classified as "traditional," the origin of the melody is unknown, but some have speculated that it was composed by Palestrina or Mozart. It is often sung as a three-round canon.