Jeff Buckley died on May 29, 1997 from drowning. Chart success came posthumously with his cover of Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” becoming his first number one on Billboard’s Hot Digital Songs in March 2008 and reaching number 2 in the UK Singles Chart that December.
Part II of Georg Friedrich Handel’s Messiah ends with the famous Hallelujah Chorus. The line “for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” is sung by all voices, first in unison, then in imitation with Hallelujah-exclamations interspersed. The second line “The kingdom of this world is become” is sung in a four-part setting like a chorale. The third idea “and he shall reign for ever and ever” starts as a fugue on a theme with bold leaps, reminiscent in sequence of Philipp Nicolai’s Lutheran chorale “Wachet auf”. As a countersubject, the words “for ever – and ever” assume the rhythm of the Hallelujah-motif. The final acclamation “King of Kings…and Lord of Lords” is sung on one note, energized by repeated calls “Hallelujah” and “for ever – and ever”, raised higher and higher (the sopranos and the trumpets part), up to a rest full of tension and a final solemn “Hallelujah”.
Several famous songs feature the ancient Hebrew word ‘Hallelujah’ in their lyrics, including the most popular American song of the 1860’s — a song which paid tribute to a martyr whose 1st cousin was the gt-gt-gt-gt-grandmother of one of the Dopers posting in this very thread.
“The Burning of the School” is a parody of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, known and sung by schoolchildren throughout the United States and in some locations in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The version I learned in Boston is as follows:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school
We have tortured all the teachers – we have broken all the rules
We ramrocked the offices and hung the principal
March on, third grade, march on!
Glory, glory, hallelujah
My teacher hit me with a ruler
So I hit her on the beam with a rotten tangerine
And her head came flying off.
In 1960, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus with their rendition of ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’. It was released as a single and reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It is the choir’s only Top 40 hit in the Top 100.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is now officially the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, following a new teaching by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that nicknames for the denomination, including “Mormon”, are inappropriate.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was founded by Brigham Young (at that point the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) in 1847, just weeks after the group of Latter-Day Saint pioneers which Young led had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
According to the text of the Book of Mormon, the word Mormon stems from the Land of Mormon, where the prophet Alma preached the gospel and baptized converts. Mormon—who was named after the land—was a 4th-century prophet–historian who compiled and abridged many records of his ancestors into the Book of Mormon.
Painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire.
Alma-Tadema’s meticulous archaeological research, including research into Roman architecture led to his paintings being used as source material by Hollywood directors in their vision of the ancient world for films such as D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), Ben Hur (1926), Cleopatra (1934), and Cecil B. DeMille’s epic remake of *The Ten Commandments *(1956). Jesse Lasky Jr., the co-writer on The Ten Commandments, described how the director would spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to show set designers the look he wanted to achieve. The designers of the Oscar-winning Roman epic Gladiator (2000) used Alma-Tadema paintings as an inspiration. Alma-Tadema’s paintings also inspired the design of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1959) with Charlton Heston (1923-2008, born John Charles Carter), Stephen Boyd (1931-1977), and Haya Harareet (b. 1931) was a remake of a 1925 silent film with the same title and was based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Civil War Union General Lew Wallace, 1880). Parts were filmed in Arcinazzo Romano, Nettuno, Latomies di Salone, and Cinecittà, Italy.
As noted, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is a novel by Lew Wallace published in 1880. Although initial sales were slow, within two years it became very popular. In 1900, the book became the best-selling American novel of the 19th century, surpassing Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
The first adaptation of the book was a Broadway play which opened in New York City in 1899. The highlight of the show recreated the chariot race with live horses pulling real chariots running on treadmills.
Movies based on the book were released in 1907, 1925, 1959, 2003, and 2016.
Lew Wallace’s greatest contribution to the U.S. war effort during the American Civil War was arguably the day at Monocacy, Md. when he and his troops delayed the Confederate army commanded by Jubal Early as it approached Washington, D.C., giving President Lincoln and Gen. U.S. Grant more time to reinforce the city’s defenses and ultimately repel Early’s army. Wallace, the joke went, made Early late.
Abraham Lincoln won less than 40% of the popular vote in 1860, but had majorities in enough states for electoral victory. Southern secessionists were disappointed that Lincoln, a compromiser, was the Republican nominee — they wanted a supporter of abolition, like William Seward, to be President so that Secession would be inevitable.
To abet Secession despite the nomination of Lincoln, many Southerners emphasized the actions of John Brown, even referring to the Republican Party as the Brown-Helper Party.
Abraham Lincoln read the Bible daily, but he never joined an organized church in his lifetime.
“Hot Rod Lincoln” is a song by American singer-songwriter Charlie Ryan, first released in 1955. The song is sung from the perspective of the driver, whose hot rod is a Ford Model A body with a Lincoln-Zephyr V12 engine, overdrive, a four-barrel carburetor, 4:11 gear ratio, and safety tubes. A cover version by country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in 1971 became the most successful version of the song, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100,
Abraham Lincoln, Republican of Illinois, enjoyed lively church services, although he was never a member of an organized congregation, as **Bullitt **noted. Lincoln once told a friend, “I like a preacher who looks like he’s fighting bees.”
Bob Dylan’s song “Highway 61 Revisited”, starts with the lyric “Oh God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son’/Abe says, ‘Man, you must be puttin’ me on’”. Abraham was the name of Dylan’s father, which makes the singer the son whom God wants killed.
The Coen Brothers movie Inside Llewyn Davis is about a struggling folk singer in 1961 New York City. One night, he is followed onstage at a local coffeehouse by none other than Bob Dylan - who, we know, will have just as wildly successful a musical career as Davis’s has been a flop.
Joel and Ethan Coen were born and raised in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Their mother, Rena, was an art historian at St. Cloud State University while their father, Edward Coen, was an economist at the University of Minnesota.
The city of St. Louis, Missouri, was founded in 1764 by two French fur traders and was named after Louis IX of France. Shortly after its founding, France was defeated by Spain in the Seven Years’ War and the area was ceded to Spain. France re-acquired the area in 1800, but, in 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase.