"Magnificat" (live)
August 16, 2010 at 7:05 amhttp://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/13632874 click to hear
www.reverbnation.com/artist/song_details/4776854 for a related song, a multi-track version of "There's A Woman" with the full intro
A 'magnificat' is any rendering of the song Mary sang out in response to the greeting of Elizabeth in Luke 1, from the Latin of the opening line, "Magnificat anima mea, Dominum", or, "My soul magnifies the Lord". As I write this it is Assumption Day, and the Gospel at church is this very same "Magnificat". I hope I can do it some justice.
My rendering of this was driven by my discovery of the inversion or altering of chords on guitar. The lesson I learned was that you need not always anchor the chord with the bass bottom; that not doing that allows for smoother transitions between chords and segues to other keys. In this early song, I was also experimenting with how where you pluck on the string alters the tone of the sound, so, at the end my back strum is way down near the bridge, giving it a harp-like tinny quality. For the chorus I was strumming further up where my left hand was holding down the chords. This led to much frivolity because Dave & Greg soon caught wind of what I was doing and, to be funny, they began strumming WAY up the neck on bass and guitar, their right hands practically right NEXT to their left hands!! Then I would exaggerate my strumming, too, and the three of us would be looking pretty silly together: the Guitar Brothers! as Tony used to say. Oh, that was classic!
Mary always meant a whole lot to me right from the beginning of my conversion because it was my praying the Rosary that night before my conversion that led to me meeting Kathy the next day in the library. And I then met Mary through voracious BIBLE STUDY. Here in her own song, I discovered her own humility yet total confidence in the Lord's using her with power. I discovered it's OK to call her blessed if the angel and the Holy Spirit through Elizabeth did. I discovered she really was "filled to the fullest possible" with graces and that God wants all of us to be, too. I discovered it was her FAITH, like that of Abraham that had made her the one for whom such "great things" have been done. If our devotion is restored to a basis such as this, perhaps it can be a point of meeting for Christians of all patrimonies and backgrounds. I know that's what Jesus wants.
My thought in writing this was to make a catchy, triple time anthem that would allow everyone to join in on the greatest inspired song of all time. This version is a live Christmas show performance that does suffer in some respects, but it lets you hear how we did the vocals. I love how Denise did the first verse, identifying with the woman Mary, I did the second with the strong "scatter the plans of the proud" line and then we join together on the last verse where I threw in the triumphant eternal life motif. There is an earlier recorded version of this, but I prefer this one where Denise and I handle the verses in this way.
Faith, Love and JOY TO THE LORD FOREVER!
Mark LaJOIE
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