{"id":33,"date":"2021-02-16T16:36:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T16:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/?p=33"},"modified":"2021-06-28T18:34:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T18:34:30","slug":"music-is-the-use-of-pleasing-notes-and-harmonies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/16\/music-is-the-use-of-pleasing-notes-and-harmonies\/","title":{"rendered":"Music is the use of pleasing notes and harmonies&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In todays world through the internet we have the advantage of being exposed to many different talented people.  I found this amazing video of a model maker on facebook.  While the model work is amazing and worthy of it&#8217;s own recognition.  What grabbed me was the music that the model&#8217;s movements were synchronized to.  The Late<strong> Brother Leonard Cohen&#8217;s &#8220;Hallelujah&#8221;<\/strong>.  Please take a listen before proceeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah (Audio)\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ttEMYvpoR-k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I found myself unable to sleep at night and the words of this haunting melody echoing through my mind.  The next day I was compelled to research the meaning behind his lyrics.  Here&#8217;s what I found: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This text is copied directly from a Rolling Stone Feature which you can read from it&#8217;s source <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/feature\/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-brilliantly-mingled-sex-religion-194516\/\">here<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I did not know Bro. Cohen to be a traveling man until <strong>after<\/strong> I researched this.  You can find a snippet from an interview at the bottom of this article where he mentions being a good Mason<\/em> <em>and a google search can find many <\/em>masonic references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u2018Hallelujah\u2019 Brilliantly Mingled Sex, Religion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Read story behind legendary artist\u2019s most famous song, excerpted from Alan Light\u2019s 2012 book \u2018The Holy or the Broken\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-36\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/artist\/leonard-cohen\" target=\"_blank\">Leonard Cohen\u2019s<\/a>&nbsp;career had reached a low point when he wrote \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/hallelujah\/\">Hallelujah<\/a>.\u201d It was 1984, and he had been out of the spotlight for quite a long time. His 1977 LP,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/death-of-a-ladies-man-188054\/\" target=\"_blank\">Death of a Ladies\u2019 Man<\/a>, a collaboration with&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/artist\/phil-spector\" target=\"_blank\">Phil Spector<\/a>, was a commercial and critical disappointment, and his next album&nbsp;<\/em>Recent Songs&nbsp;<em>fared no better. When Cohen submitted the songs for his subsequent LP,&nbsp;<\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/various-positions-90628\/\" target=\"_blank\">Various Positions<\/a><em>, to Columbia, label execs&nbsp;didn\u2019t hear \u201cHallelujah,\u201d the opening song of Side Two, as anything special. They didn\u2019t even want to release the album, though it eventually came out in Europe in 1984 and America the following year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>It took a few years for \u201cHallelujah\u201d to emerge as a classic.&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/artist\/bob-dylan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Dylan<\/a>&nbsp;was one of the first to recognize its brilliance, playing it at a couple of shows in 1988.&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/artist\/the-velvet-underground\" target=\"_blank\">The Velvet Underground\u2019s<\/a>&nbsp;John Cale tackled it on the piano for a 1991 Cohen tribute disc, and three years later,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/artist\/jeff-buckley\" target=\"_blank\">Jeff Buckley<\/a>&nbsp;took inspiration from that rendition and covered it on his 1994 album,&nbsp;<\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/grace-190457\/\" target=\"_blank\">Grace<\/a><em>. It was that version that eventually created a huge cult&nbsp;around the song, and it\u2019s since been covered by everybody from&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/artist\/bono\" target=\"_blank\">Bono<\/a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/artist\/bon-jovi\" target=\"_blank\">Bon Jovi<\/a>. It\u2019s far and away&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/leonard-cohen\/\">Leonard Cohen<\/a>\u2019s most famous composition, even though many people don\u2019t even realize that he wrote it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Alan Light dove deep into the history of the song for his book,&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2rIGuQz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of \u2018Hallelujah<\/a>\u2018&nbsp;<em>by Alan Light, copyright 2012 by Alan Light, Published by Atria, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.&nbsp;<\/em><em>This excerpt was originally published in December 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>****<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In June 1984, Cohen and Lissauer recorded the album that would become&nbsp;<em>Various Positions&nbsp;<\/em>in New York\u2019s Quadrasonic Sound studios. In the album\u2019s arrangements, for the first time on Cohen\u2019s recordings, synthesizers were prominent; they would come to define his sound more and more in the years to come. A group of musicians from Tulsa provided the backbone of the arrangements. Sid McGinnis \u2013 who joined the band at&nbsp;<em>Late Night with David Letterman&nbsp;<\/em>that same year and has remained with the show ever since, in addition to recording with the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Dire Straits \u2013 provided additional guitar parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jennifer Warnes, who had sung backup with Cohen on previous albums and tours, was brought further into the spotlight as a featured vocalist, a counterpoint to the limited parameters of Cohen\u2019s voice. Hawaiian-born Anjani Thomas was one of the backup singers on these sessions; she would go on to become Cohen\u2019s longtime companion, and he produced an album of her singing his songs,&nbsp;<em>Blue Alert,&nbsp;<\/em>in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lissauer, a Yale graduate who has gone on to a successful career scoring films, beamed when he spoke of these sessions that took place almost thirty years earlier. Seated in the larger of the two studio rooms he operates from his thirty-five-acre farm about an hour north of Manhattan, he described working on&nbsp;<em>Various Positions&nbsp;<\/em>as pure pleasure. \u201cI\u2019ve never had a more rewarding experience,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was so much fun; we had a great time. Leonard and I got along so well it\u2019s almost scary. There were no roadblocks, no disasters; it was great start to finish \u2013 it was high art, it was just thrilling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The songs included several of Cohen\u2019s most lasting compositions. The selections that ultimately opened and closed the album, \u201cDance Me to the End of Love\u201d and \u201cIf It Be Your Will,\u201d stand among his best-loved work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Midway through the sessions \u2013 Lissauer can\u2019t remember the precise sequence, but it wasn\u2019t near the beginning or the end \u2013 Cohen brought in \u201cHallelujah\u201d to record. Whatever torment he\u2019d been going through with the song\u2019s lyrics over the previous months and years, he showed no sign of confusion or indecision in the studio. \u201cI think it was as it was,\u201d said the producer. \u201cThere was no \u2018Should we do this verse?\u2019 \u2013 I don\u2019t think there was even a question of the&nbsp;<em>order&nbsp;<\/em>of verses, any \u2018Which should come first?\u2019 And had he had a question about it, I think he would\u2019ve resolved it himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not one to share his struggles,\u201d Lissauer continued. \u201cIf he wasn\u2019t up to recording, if he was still working on something, then we just wouldn\u2019t go in. But he\u2019d never go in and act out the tormented, struggling artist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leanne Ungar, who engineered&nbsp;<em>Various Positions&nbsp;<\/em>and has remained part of Cohen\u2019s production team ever since, said that there was a pragmatic reason he would not have been experimenting with lyrics during the recording. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t bring extra verses to the studio because of time pressure,\u201d she said. \u201cThe meter is running there.\u201d It seems that the breakthrough in Cohen\u2019s editing \u2013 the vision that allowed him to bring the eighty written verses down to the four that he ultimately recorded \u2013 was reaching a decision about how much to foreground the religious element of the song. \u201cIt had references to the Bible in it, although these references became more and more remote as the song went from the beginning to the end,\u201d he once said. \u201cFinally I understood that it was not necessary to refer to the Bible anymore. And I rewrote this song; this is the \u2018secular\u2019 \u2018Hallelujah.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"762\" src=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen2-1024x762.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen2-1024x762.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen2-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen2-768x571.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen2-1536x1143.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen2-2048x1524.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHallelujah\u201d as it exists on&nbsp;<em>Various Positions&nbsp;<\/em>is both opaque and direct. Each verse ends with the word that gives the song its title, which is then repeated four times, giving the song its signature prayer-like incantation. The word&nbsp;<em>hallelujah&nbsp;<\/em>has slightly different implications in the Old and New Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible, it is a compound word, from&nbsp;<em>hallelu,&nbsp;<\/em>meaning \u201cto praise joyously,\u201d and&nbsp;<em>yah,&nbsp;<\/em>a shortened form of the unspoken name of God. So this \u201challelujah\u201d is an active imperative, an instruction to the listener or congregation to sing tribute to the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Christian tradition, \u201challelujah\u201d is a word of praise rather than a direction to offer praise \u2013 which became the more common colloquial use of the word as an expression of joy or relief, a synonym for \u201cPraise the Lord,\u201d rather than a prompting to action. The most dramatic use of \u201challelujah\u201d in the New Testament is as the keynote of the song sung by the great multitude in heaven in Revelation, celebrating God\u2019s triumph over the Whore of Babylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cohen\u2019s song begins with an image of the Bible\u2019s musically identified King David, recounting the heroic harpist\u2019s \u201csecret chord,\u201d with its special spiritual power (\u201cAnd it came to pass, when the&nbsp;<em>evil&nbsp;<\/em>spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him\u201d \u2013 1 Samuel 16:23). It was his musicianship that first earned David a spot in the royal court, the first step toward his rise to power and uniting the Jewish people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs a student of the sound, I understood the resonances of his incantation and invocation of David,\u201d said Bono, who added that he immediately responded to the \u201cvaingloriousness and hubris\u201d of the lyric. \u201cI\u2019ve thought a lot about David in my life. He was a harp player, and the first God heckler \u2013 as well as shouting praises to God, he was also shouting admonishment. \u2018Why hast thou forsaken me?\u2019 That\u2019s the beginning of the blues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this first verse almost instantly undercuts its own solemnity; after offering such an inspiring image in the opening lines, Cohen remembers whom he\u2019s speaking to, and reminds his listener that \u201cyou don\u2019t really care for music, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of the funny things about \u2018Hallelujah,\u2019 \u201d said Bill Flanagan, \u201cis that it\u2019s got this profound opening couplet about King David, and then immediately it has this Woody Allen\u2013type line of, \u2018You don\u2019t really care for music, do you?\u2019 I remember it striking me the first time I heard the song as being really funny in a Philip Roth, exasperated kind of way \u2013&nbsp;\u2018I built this beautiful thing, but the girl only cares about the guy with a nice car.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cohen then describes, quite literally, the harmonic progression of the verse: \u201cIt goes like this: the fourth, the fifth \/ the minor fall, the major lift.\u201d This is an explanation of the song\u2019s structure (the basic chord progression of most pop and blues songs goes from the \u201cone\u201d chord, the root, up three steps to the \u201cfour,\u201d then up another to the \u201cfive,\u201d and then resolves back to the \u201cone\u201d), followed by a reference to the conventional contrast between a major (happy) key and a minor (sad) key. He ends the first verse with \u201cthe baffled king composing Hallelujah!\u201d \u2013 a comment on the unknowable nature of artistic creation, or of romantic love, or both. In the song\u2019s earliest moments, he has placed us in a time of ancient legend, and peeled back the spiritual power of music and art to reveal the concrete components, reducing even literal musical royalty to the role of simple craftsman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second verse of \u201cHallelujah\u201d shifts to the second person \u2013 \u201cYour faith was strong but you needed proof.\u201d Apparently the narrator is now addressing the character who was described in the first verse, since the next lines invoke another incident in the David story, when the king discovers and is tempted by Bathsheba. (\u201cAnd it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king\u2019s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman&nbsp;<em>was&nbsp;<\/em>very beautiful to look upon\u201d \u2013 2 Samuel 11:2.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a July 2011 service at St. Paul\u2019s Presbyterian Church in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, the reading of this story was accompanied by a performance of \u201cHallelujah.\u201d The Reverend Dr. R. M. A. \u201cSandy\u201d Scott delivered a sermon with his explication of the David story and its usage in the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe story of David and Bathsheba is about the abuse of power in the name of lust, which leads to murder, intrigue, and brokenness,\u201d said Reverend Scott. He recounted that until this point, David had been a brave and gifted leader, but that he now \u201cbegan to believe his own propaganda \u2013 he did what critics predicted, he began to take what he wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reverend Scott calls the choice of the word&nbsp;<em>baffled&nbsp;<\/em>to describe this David \u201can obvious understatement on Cohen\u2019s part. David is God\u2019s chosen one, the righteous king who would rule Israel as God\u2019s servant. The great King David becomes no more than a baffled king when he starts to live for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut even after the drama, the grasping, conniving, sinful King David is still Israel\u2019s greatest poet, warrior and hope,\u201d Scott continued. \u201cThere is so much brokenness in David\u2019s life, only God can redeem and reconcile this complicated personality. That is why the baffled and wounded David lifts up to God a painful hallelujah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the David and Bathsheba reference, the sexuality of the lyrics is drawn further forward and then reinforced in an image of torture and lust taken from the story of Samson and Delilah \u2013 \u201cShe tied you to a kitchen chair \/ she broke your throne, she cut your hair\u201d \u2013 before resolving with a vision of sexual release: \u201cand from your lips she drew the Hallelujah!\u201d Both biblical heroes are brought down to earth, and risk surrendering their authority, because of the allure of forbidden love. Even for larger-than-life figures and leaders of nations, the greatest physical pleasure can lead to disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen3-641x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-38\" width=\"347\" height=\"554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen3-641x1024.jpg 641w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen3-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen3-768x1228.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen3-961x1536.jpg 961w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen3-1281x2048.jpg 1281w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen3-scaled.jpg 1601w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 347px) 100vw, 347px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe power of David and the strength of Samson are cut away; the two are stripped of their facile certainties, and their promising lives topple into the dust,\u201d wrote Reverend Thomas G. Casey, S.J., a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, of these first two verses. \u201cThe man who composed songs of praise with such aplomb and the man whose strength was the envy of all now find themselves in a stark and barren place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lisle Dalton, an associate professor of religious studies at Hartwick College, noted the many levels on which Cohen\u2019s linking of David and Samson works. \u201cBoth are heroes that are undone by misbegotten relationships with women. Both are adulterers. Both are poets \u2013 Samson breaks into verse right after smiting the Philistines. Both repent and seek divine favor after their transgressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know a lot about Cohen\u2019s personal life,\u201d Dalton continued, \u201cbut he seems to be blending these two figures together with, we presume, some of his own experiences. There\u2019s no \u2018kitchen chair\u2019 in the Bible! There\u2019s a biblical irony that highlights the tendency of even the most heroic characters to suffer a reversal of fortunes, even destruction, because they cannot overcome their sinful natures. The related tendency, and the moral message, is for the character to seek some kind of atonement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the third verse of \u201cHallelujah,\u201d Cohen\u2019s deadpan wit returns, offering a rebuttal to the religious challenge presented in the previous lines. \u201cYou say I took the Name in vain,\u201d he sings. \u201cI don\u2019t even know the name.\u201d He then builds to the song\u2019s central premise \u2013 the value, even the necessity of the song of praise in the face of confusion, doubt, or dread. \u201cThere\u2019s a blaze of light in every word; \/ it doesn\u2019t matter which you heard, \/ the holy, or the broken Hallelujah!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA blaze of light in every word.\u201d That\u2019s an amazing line.&nbsp;<em>Every&nbsp;<\/em>word, holy or broken \u2013 this is the fulcrum of the song as Cohen first wrote it. Like our forefathers, and the Bible heroes who formed the foundation of Western ethics and principles, we will be hurt, tested, and challenged. Love will break our hearts, music will offer solace that we may or may not hear, we will be faced with joy and with pain. But Cohen is telling us, without resorting to sentimentality, not to surrender to despair or nihilism. Critics may have fixated on the gloom and doom of his lyrics, but this is his offering of hope and perseverance in the face of a cruel world. Holy or broken, there is still hallelujah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the remarkable fourth verse drives this point home, starting with an all-too-human shrug: \u201cI did my best; it wasn\u2019t much.\u201d Cohen reinforces his fallibility, his limits, but also his good intentions, singing, \u201cI\u2019ve told the truth, I didn\u2019t come to fool you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And as he brings the song to a conclusion, Cohen shows that for a composition that has often come to be considered a signifier of sorrowful resistance, \u201cHallelujah\u201d was in fact inspired by a more positive feeling. \u201cIt\u2019s a rather joyous song,\u201d Cohen said when&nbsp;<em>Various Positions&nbsp;<\/em>was released.&nbsp; \u201cI like very much the last verse \u2013&nbsp;\u2018And even though it all went wrong, \/ I\u2019ll stand before the Lord of Song \/ with nothing on my lips but Hallelujah!\u2019 \u201d (While the published lyrics read \u201cnothing on my lips,\u201d Cohen has actually almost always sung \u201cnothing on my tongue\u201d in this line.) Though subsequent interpreters didn\u2019t always retain this verse, its significance to Cohen has never waned: Decades later, when he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he recited this full last verse as the bulk of his acceptance speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wanted to push the Hallelujah deep into the secular world, into the ordinary world,\u201d he once said. \u201cThe Hallelujah, the David\u2019s Hallelujah, was still a religious song. So I wanted to indicate that Hallelujah can come out of things that have nothing to do with religion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s rescued the word&nbsp;<em>hallelujah&nbsp;<\/em>from being just a religious word,\u201d said the Right Reverend Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, in the BBC radio documentary. \u201cWe\u2019re broken human beings, all of us, so stop pretending, and we can all use the word&nbsp;<em>hallelujah&nbsp;<\/em>because what it comes from is being open and transparent before God and the world and saying, \u2018This is how it is, mate.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the&nbsp;<em>New Yorker,&nbsp;<\/em>Leon Wieseltier would refer to the song as \u201ca wryer sort of contemporary psalm with an unforgettable chorus.\u201d As Salman Rushdie would many years later, he also noted that \u201conly Cohen would rhyme \u2018Hallelujah\u2019 with \u2018what\u2019s it to ya?\u2019 \u201d In fact, every verse is built around the central not-quite-rhyme of \u201cyou\u201d and \u201cHallelujah,\u201d as if the pronunciation of \u201cyou\u201d that\u2019s necessary is a recurrent punch line built into the rhythm of the song. (\u201cThey are really false rhymes,\u201d Cohen has said, \u201cbut they are close enough that the ear is not violated.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI always picked up on at least two levels that Leonard\u2019s lyrics worked on,\u201d said Lissauer. \u201cThe obvious, the sexual undertones of so many of his things, and the alienation and loneliness that\u2019s often there. Plus, he was able to find unusual ways to talk about subjects that are not unusual. \u2018Hallelujah\u2019 had this unstoppable focus to it, and I knew right away that it was a cornerstone in his career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though almost everyone immediately concentrates on Cohen\u2019s lyrics, of course we wouldn\u2019t still be talking about \u201cHallelujah\u201d without its simple yet unforgettable melody. It sways, gentle but propulsive, a barely perceptible waltz rhythm adding complexity to a singsongy lilt. \u201cI might have contributed a little bit in that department,\u201d said Lissauer with a grin. \u201cYou can hear that it\u2019s not like a lot of things Leonard\u2019s ever done. He had a little help with the chords and the direction of the melody \u2013 we had worked together before and gotten comfortable doing that. But it\u2019s his song, I\u2019ve always made that clear. And when we started to get the voicings and the chords and the melody, then it became blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For some of the inheritors of \u201cHallelujah,\u201d it is explicitly the melody that speaks most strongly. Jake Shimabukuro is a young, Hawaiian-born ukulele virtuoso. He has built a huge online following through such mind-blowing, fleet-fingered performances as solo uke arrangements of \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d and \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d;&nbsp;<em>Guitar Player<\/em>&nbsp;magazine called him \u201cthe Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele.\u201d But one of the highlights of his live show, and one of his more popular YouTube clips, is a simple, direct instrumental rendition of \u201cHallelujah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTo me, it\u2019s not about the lyrics at all,\u201d said Shimabukuro. \u201cI really think that it has a lot to do with the chord progression in the song. There are these very simple lines that are constantly happening . . .\u201d and though we were seated in the restaurant of a midtown Manhattan hotel, he had to stop to get his ukulele out of its case and demonstrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As he ran through the song\u2019s chords, he said, \u201cWhat I like about it is it picks me up. It\u2019s very uplifting, and I think it\u2019s the way that the melody moves, the way that the chords move. This is the line that made me want to cover this song on ukulele\u201d \u2013 he played the melody for the second half of the verse, like the lines \u201cIt goes like this: the fourth, the fifth \/ the minor fall, the major lift; \/ the baffled king composing Hallelujah!\u201d \u2013 \u201cthat ascending line just does something to me internally that makes me feel good. You\u2019re just playing the scale going up, that\u2019s all it is, but there\u2019s something about that combination of notes . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"687\" src=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen4-1024x687.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-39\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen4-1024x687.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen4-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen4-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen4-1536x1030.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen4-2048x1374.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe way the melody is structured is quite genius,\u201d said David Miller of the popular classical crossover group Il Divo. \u201cIt builds, it lifts, then there\u2019s always the one word coming back down. It\u2019s almost like sex \u2013 it builds, it builds, there\u2019s that moment, and then the afterglow. To go on that journey, the whole thing taken as an experience, is wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the sound of Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah\u201d recording, producer Lissauer had a clear vision of his own. He had written the arrangement and the orchestration, and those didn\u2019t change after they got into the studio. \u201cIt was effortless to record; it almost recorded itself,\u201d he said. \u201cThe great records usually do. The ones that you have to go and beat to death and get clever and do this and that, somehow they just don\u2019t have that flow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though the song potentially lent itself to a grand, anthemic treatment, and a note on the actual score indicates that the musicians were to perform the song in a gospel style, the producer wanted to hold it back. The drummer, Richard Crooks, played with brushes, not sticks; \u201cwe had to get strength without bashing,\u201d Lissauer said. The producer felt that a regular bass wasn\u2019t a big enough sound to match Cohen\u2019s vocals, low even by his usual standards, so he crafted a synthesizer bass part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t want it to be huge,\u201d said Lissauer. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to have a big gospel choir and strings and all that kind of stuff, so even when it got large it always had restraint to it. We decided to do this modified choir that was not gospel, not children; it was just sort of a people choir. We brought everyone in \u2013 the band came and sang, my ex-wife came and sang,&nbsp;<em>I&nbsp;<\/em>sang on it. In a way we were trying to get it to be a community choir sound, very humble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t go for overpowering, hit-record-making strings and key changes, or any of the things that would\u2019ve tweaked it. It got its strength from its sincerity and its focus. We just wanted it to be sort of everyman. And I still stand by that being what it was about \u2013 it wasn\u2019t about slickness or a gospel-y hallelujah; it was about the real hallelujah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While this may have seemed like a simple undertaking to the album\u2019s producer, to Leanne Ungar, the recording engineer, this approach presented its own complications. \u201cI think John knew just how special it was, because he took such care and extra time with every aspect of the arrangement and mix,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, that song was a real struggle. I remember Leonard kept asking me to put more and more reverb on his voice. I love hearing the texture of his unadorned voice and I didn\u2019t want to do it. So I\u2019ve never liked listening back to that recording, because I don\u2019t like the solution I arrived at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI remember wanting John to replace the synthesized guitar with a real one,\u201d she went on. \u201cI also remember wishing we could record a large choir instead of layers of small groups. We wanted the song to keep growing bigger and bigger each chorus, but there are limitations of dynamic range on a recording, so the mix was very challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between the choir, the \u201980s-era synthesizer, and Cohen\u2019s studied performance, the studio \u201cHallelujah\u201d is certainly dramatic, though, as with many of his recordings, it flirts with cheesiness. The production hits the goals it was aiming for, but there\u2019s a scope, a theatricality to the arrangement that puts it at a bit of a distance \u2013 as is often the case, Cohen\u2019s work feels a bit sui generis, something that a listener either gets or doesn\u2019t, and going back to this original recording, it\u2019s difficult to hear what would make the song connect to a universal audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all of its elements, the most striking aspect of the original \u201cHallelujah\u201d recording, beyond the lyrics, is Leonard Cohen\u2019s own vocal performance. Such lines as \u201cI don\u2019t even know the name\u201d or \u201cI did my best; it wasn\u2019t much\u201d are delivered with a wry, weary humor, creating a real tension between the verses and the soaring, one-word chorus. Those who know the song only through the covers that followed, many of which don\u2019t include this section, would be surprised by the additional complexities in the original. The singing creates the sense of struggle, conflict, and resignation that then pays off in the song\u2019s climactic, closing lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled,\u201d Cohen has said, \u201cbut there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that\u2019s what I mean by \u2018Hallelujah.\u2019 That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and you throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say, \u2018Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe only moment that you can live here comfortably in these absolutely irreconcilable conflicts is in this moment when you embrace it all and you say, \u2018Look, I don\u2019t understand a fucking thing at all \u2013 Hallelujah!\u2019 That\u2019s the only moment that we live here fully as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They finished recording the song, and the rest of the&nbsp;<em>Various Positions&nbsp;<\/em>album. \u201cI said, \u2018Man, we\u2019re on top of this, this is really going to do it,\u2019 \u201d John Lissauer recalled. \u201d \u2018This is gonna be the breakthrough, this record is really going to be important.\u2019 \u2018Hallelujah\u2019 just jumped out at you, plus there was a lot of other great stuff on the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd it went to Walter Yetnikoff, who was the president of CBS Records, and he said, \u2018What is this? This isn\u2019t pop music. We\u2019re not releasing it. This is a disaster.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Famous and infamous, music industry legend Yetnikoff had risen from the label\u2019s legal department to run the company, which he did from 1975 to 1990. His career (which is documented in Fredric Dannen\u2019s definitive study of the record business,&nbsp;<em>Hit Men,&nbsp;<\/em>and in his own freewheeling auto biography,&nbsp;<em>Howling at the Moon<\/em>) was marked by such earth shattering triumphs as Michael Jackson\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Thriller&nbsp;<\/em>and Bruce Springsteen\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Born in the U.S.A.,&nbsp;<\/em>alongside a litany of accusations and allegations about his shady cohorts and abrasive style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Cohen recounted the story, when Yetnikoff told him that he was rejecting&nbsp;<em>Various Positions,&nbsp;<\/em>he said, \u201cLeonard, we know you\u2019re great, but we don\u2019t know if you\u2019re any good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lissauer suggests that perhaps the executives at Columbia (a division of CBS; soon to become part of the Sony Corporation) were expecting something more pop-oriented, based on the early reports from the sessions. \u201cThe \u201980s was an awful period for real, artistic singer-songwriters,\u201d he said. \u201cThe \u201970s had everything from Paul Simon\u2019s solo stuff, James Taylor, Joni, even Randy Newman. But the \u201980s was all bands and MTV, and Yetnikoff might actually have been looking for a way to weed out the Leonards of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ungar believes that the rejection of the album was less strategic than that. \u201cI think it was the usual reason \u2013 they didn\u2019t hear a single.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"698\" src=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen5-1024x698.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen5-1024x698.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen5-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen5-768x524.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen5-1536x1047.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen5.jpg 1914w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Many years later, in a 2009 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company about the ongoing success of \u201cHallelujah,\u201d Cohen was sanguine about Columbia\u2019s decision. \u201cThere are certain ironic and amusing sidebars,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause the record that it came from . . . Sony wouldn\u2019t put it out, they didn\u2019t think it was good enough. It had songs like \u2018Dance Me to the End of Love,\u2019 \u2018Hallelujah,\u2019 \u2018If It Be Your Will\u2019 \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t considered good enough for the American market. So there\u2019s a certain mild sense of revenge that arose in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But without the benefit of hindsight, consider Walter Yetnikoff\u2019s position. In September 1984, Leonard Cohen would turn fifty. Each of his last three albums \u2013 covering a time span that reached back a full decade \u2013 had sold less than its predecessor, even in the scattered countries around the world where he did have a following. He had never placed an album in the U.S. Top Ten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, as Cohen was in the studio recording&nbsp;<em>Various Positions,&nbsp;<\/em>the summer of 1984 was perhaps the biggestseason in the history of the record business. Over the courseof a few months, Prince\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Purple Rain,&nbsp;<\/em>Springsteen\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Born in the U.S.A.,&nbsp;<\/em>and Madonna\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Like a Virgin&nbsp;<\/em>were all released,and each went on to sell over ten million copies. MichaelJackson\u2019s game-changing&nbsp;<em>Thriller&nbsp;<\/em>was still riding high onthe charts, more than a year after it first came out. Since itslaunch in 1981, MTV had become the dominant force inpop music marketing, with a reach and an impact unlikeanything the industry had seen before, and now the world\u2019sbiggest superstars had figured out how to take advantage ofthe exposure and opportunities that it offered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There could be no arguing that record sales had become very big business, and were getting bigger by the day. Stakes were high. And against that backdrop, it\u2019s not hard to imagine that a record company might have had a difficult time knowing what to do with a middle-aged artist, of an elite but very limited stature, at this precise moment in music history. It\u2019s perhaps even more difficult to see a label executive being able to hear clearly enough to believe that the simple song with the Bible stories and the one-word chorus might go on to some success of its own. And, to be honest, while the synthesizer sounds were considered state-of-the-art in 1984, they weren\u2019t edgy enough to win over younger listeners, and they soon sounded somewhat dated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Various Positions&nbsp;<\/em>was released overseas, and two months after CBS passed on it, the independent label PVC Records put it out in the U.S., at the end of 1984. (Columbia would later buy back the rights to the album when it rereleased Cohen\u2019s catalogue on compact disc.) But still, once the album reached the public, hardly anyone seemed to notice \u201cHallelujah,\u201d the first song on the LP\u2019s second side. Don Shewey\u2019s album review in&nbsp;<em>Rolling Stone&nbsp;<\/em>didn\u2019t mention the song, though it noted the album\u2019s \u201csurprising country &amp; western flavor\u201d and singled out \u201cJohn Lissauer\u2019s lucid and beautiful production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lissauer had never even seen that review until I sent it to him after our interview. In fact, he had no idea that&nbsp;<em>Various<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Positions&nbsp;<\/em>had actually been released in the U.S. until four or five years after it happened. When Cohen\u2019s manager at the time, Marty Machat, broke the news to the producer that the record had been turned down, he said that it wasn\u2019t worth bothering to execute their contract \u2013 and so, to this day, Lissauer has never seen a single cent in royalties for his work on \u201cHallelujah,\u201d about which he seems curiously at peace. \u201cI still survive, everything is fine,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it would be nice to actually get royalties for an album with the most-recorded song in fifty years on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experience essentially ended Lissauer\u2019s producing career. Baffled by the label\u2019s response to a project that he felt so positive about, he switched gears and turned to making music for films, which he feels has all turned out for the best. But he does express regret that the outcome of the&nbsp;<em>Various<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Positions&nbsp;<\/em>saga effectively meant the end of his relationship with Cohen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOnce they went out on tour and then we got word that the record was a non-record, I didn\u2019t see him for fifteen years,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we were both so embarrassed. I felt horrible. I felt like I\u2019d ruined his career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Excerpted from the book&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/the-holy-or-the-broken\/\">The Holy or the Broken<\/a>: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of \u2018Hallelujah\u2019&nbsp;<em>by Alan Light with permission from Atria\/Simon &amp; Schuster, out December 4th.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This text was copied directly from a Rolling Stone Feature which you can read from it&#8217;s source<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/feature\/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-brilliantly-mingled-sex-religion-194516\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Brother Cohen&#8217;s masonic reference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.leonardcohenfiles.com\/sounds2.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"585\" height=\"98\" src=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Snap-2021-02-16-at-09.41.13.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Snap-2021-02-16-at-09.41.13.jpg 585w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Snap-2021-02-16-at-09.41.13-300x50.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>find the full interview <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leonardcohenfiles.com\/sounds2.html\">here<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"676\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Snap-2021-02-16-at-10.26.27.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Snap-2021-02-16-at-10.26.27.jpg 676w, https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Snap-2021-02-16-at-10.26.27-300x244.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve made it this far&#8230; thank you so much for reading.  I found the journey of making this song worthy of sharing and adding to the fact that he was a FreeMason only enrichens the experience.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May you take this one piece that expands the fellowcraft lecture and expand your knowledge into the 7 liberal arts and sciences.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please feel free to leave a comment below.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Worshipful Brother Leonard Cohen&#8217;s &#8220;Hallelujah&#8221;.  In todays world we have the advantage of being exposed to many different talented people.  I found this amazing video of a model maker on facebook.  While the model work is amazing and worthy of it&#8217;s own recognition.  What grabbed me was the music that the model&#8217;s movements were synchronized to.  The Late Worshipful Brother Leonard Cohen&#8217;s &#8220;Hallelujah&#8221;.  He was a Past Master of Wauseon Lodge #349 in NY. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/leonardcohen1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80,"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/80"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernstarlodge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}