I have never thought about angles. However, I knew angels were “beings” found in the desert religions and appear in European paintings, sculptures, and architecture. After thinking about angles, I came to the conclusion that it was lucky to be an angel. I recorded rolling dice and shuffling cards as a sound suggesting luck. The title comes from the William Blake poem “I heard an Angel:”<\/p>\n
I heard an Angel singing
\nWhen the day was springing
\n\u2018Mercy, Pity, Peace
\nIs the world\u2019s release.\u2019<\/p>\n
Thus he sung all day
\nOver the new mown hay,
\nTill the sun went down
\nAnd haycocks looked brown.<\/p>\n
I heard a Devil curse
\nOver the health and the furze,
\n\u2018Mercy could be no more,
\nIf there was nobody poor,<\/p>\n
And pity no more could be,
\nIf all we happy as we.
\nAt his curse the sun went down,
\nAnd the heavens gave a frown.<\/p>\n
Down poured the heavy rain
\nOver the new reaped grain\u2026
\nIs Mercy, Pity, Peace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Considering the piece is only one minute I condensed the poem to “Have Mercy. Have Pity. Have Peace.”<\/p>\n
Another angel reference comes from a short section from the opening of the Sanctus<\/em> from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis<\/em>: two angles portrayed by two flutes accompany Jesus as a solo violin descending from heaven to earth. The soprano’s text, “Have Mercy. Have Pity. Have Peace.” is accompanied by\u00a0 Beethoven’s music. The basic idea of the piece is an angel (the singer) singing on a cloud where we hear wind and a ironical passing\u00a0 airplane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One-Minute Song from a Singing Angel [embedyt] http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_B_lmffHbYo[\/embedyt] Back in the summer I composed a one-minute piece entitled “I Heard an Angel Singing” for soprano and fixed audio. It was part of a collection of 15 songs by different composers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":504,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,6],"tags":[250,264,248,251,249],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electroacoustic-music","category-music","tag-angels","tag-anne-marie-condacse","tag-beethoven","tag-missa-solemnis","tag-willam-blake"],"yoast_head":"\nI Heard an Angel Singing - Mark Gustavson is Sounding<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Back in the summer, I composed a one-minute piece entitled "I Heard an Angel Singing" for the soprano Ann\u00e9-Marie Condacse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Heard an Angel Singing - Mark Gustavson is Sounding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back in the summer, I composed a one-minute piece entitled "I Heard an Angel Singing" for the soprano Ann\u00e9-Marie Condacse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark Gustavson is Sounding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mgustavson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mgustavson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-31T03:59:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-22T23:30:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Gustavson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mgustav\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mgustav\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Gustavson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Gustavson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/49c3d2a6333efa6ed7d6eefb99b7b09b\"},\"headline\":\"I Heard an Angel Singing\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-31T03:59:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-22T23:30:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/\"},\"wordCount\":325,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/49c3d2a6333efa6ed7d6eefb99b7b09b\"},\"keywords\":[\"angels\",\"Ann\u00e9-Marie Condacse\",\"Beethoven\",\"Missa Solemnis\",\"Willam Blake\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Electroacoustic Music\",\"Music\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.markgustavson.com\/blog\/i-heard-an-angel-singing\/\",\"name\":\"I Heard an Angel Singing - 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