RockOm

By Tom Crenshaw and Trevor Harden

On Tuesday of this week we posted our review of Sting's new winter-themed concept album, If on a Winter's Night... It just so happens that one of the musicians who plays on this recording - violinist Daniel Hope - shares a home city with RockOm. We reached out to Daniel to get his thoughts on Sting's new collection, what winter means to him and more. First a little background...

British violinist Daniel Hope is a four-time Grammy nominated violin virtuoso who has toured and performed with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors for many years. Hope is renowned for his musical versatility, creativity and his dedication to humanitarian causes. A compelling performer, Hope’s work involves standard repertory, new music, raga, and jazz. He is also an artistic partner, associate artistic director, and producer of musical festivals, events and special musical programs around the world.

Daniel Hope, now an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, has earned a Classical BRIT award, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and five consecutive ECHO Klassik Prizes. He previously recorded for Warner Classics and Nimbus, playing Bach, Berg, Britten, Elgar, Finzi, Foulds, Ireland, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Penderecki, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Tippett, Walton, and Weill. His interpretation of Ravi Shankar’s compositions, on the CD East Meets West, met with worldwide acclaim.

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RockOm: Briefly describe how you came to be involved with If on a Winter's Night...

Daniel: In a sense, Sting and I go back a long way, but our connection is a curious one. He bought Yehudi Menuhin's house in London, the place where I spent the first seven years of my life growing up. The house was very important to me, and offered me the first chance to experience some of the greatest musicians close-up, such as Ravi Shankar, Stephane Grapelli, and of course the classical masters. I consider it one of the most important musical influences in my life. When Sting moved into the house, we lived across the street, and so I would often see him around. I became acquainted with his music first through The Police, which I listened to when I was a small boy. In 2006 we were both awarded the German ECHO Prize (the equivalent to the German Grammy), and we met officially for the first time backstage in Munich. Sting was so intrigued by this co-incidence, that we have kept in touch since. Then, early this year, he emailed me and invited me to guest on his new album. I was honoured and very excited.

RockOm: Your improvisation skills are quite impressive and impeccable. How much improvisation did you and the other musicians incorporate into the album?

Daniel: There are phenomenal musicians on this album, and all of them are masters of improvisation too. Classical musicians are not usually required to improvise, but my earliest musical training encouraged me to learn how to, and I am very thankful for that! Of the tracks in which I was involved, and also listened to, there was great freedom between the musicians, and it was inspiring to watch the story unfold.

RockOm: What are your overall impressions of the completed album?

Daniel: I think it's a beautiful, unique and deeply powerful album. Sting is a supreme artist, and his knowledge and command of repertoire, style and musicality is simply astonishing. I can't think of another pop star who would have the courage or the insight to bring off, for example, a song from Schubert's Winterreise or a Purcell Aria, and yet, everything Sting does, he does with his own voice and expression, and the very highest level.

RockOm: What does winter mean to you, both personally as well as from a philosophical viewpoint?

Daniel: For me winter is a season of reflection, and calm, especially as the year draws to a close. I can't think of a better companion to these feelings than sitting in front of the fire, and listening to If on a Winter's Night...

http://www.danielhope.com/home/

By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

"For we are gathered here to celebrate and explore the music of Winter,
the season of frosts and long dark nights."

So writes Sting in the liner notes to his latest recording, If on a Winter's Night..., a concept album centered on the darkest and most contemplative of the four seasons. What began as a suggestion to create a Christmas album has evolved into a collection of pensive songs - both original and borrowed - that survey that most spiritually reflective time of year.

Sting continues,

"Like all early creatures we seem pre-wired to recognize and respond to the polar archetypes of light and dark, of heat and cold as they are encoded in the rhythm of the days and nights and the perpetual cycle of the seasons."

And while most of Sting's popular work - if not lyrically, at least in tone - has rested more in the realm of light, If on a Winter's Night... plunges into the darkness and stays there for 50 frigid minutes, never budging from its stoic, frosty soundscape.

To get a sense of this album, one has only to look at the cover art: Sting walks alone in a snowy woods, accompanied only by his icy-whiskered companion named Compass. There is a silence that whispers from within the photo, only presumably broken by the sound of crunching snow collapsing beneath rubber soles. And this picture, in its simplicity, sums up the album perfectly, as if the audio from these 15 tracks had coalesced into a single image.  Both Sting and his marketing team have done a fantastic job "setting the stage" for this album, carrying out the concept and vision to its fullest potential: Pictures in the album's liner book include a heavily bearded and deep-eyed Sting, blustery landscapes, sweaters and coats, candle-lit living rooms and musicians in wistful meditation. Wintry words spill out from the pages of Sting's personal commentary such as mentions of "hot mugs of tea," scarves, ghosts and coal fires... he's certainly attempting to paint a picture. And he has, quite successfully.

PARALLEL STORIES

You could go so far as to say that a Winter-themed album that ignores the reality of Christmas would be in error, as the two have become so intertwined in Western culture. As the large portion of Sting's borrowed material stems from British and Scottish sources, it's no surprise that the album begins with a song singing the praises of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In fact the story of the "God-child come to earth" makes repeat appearances on If on a Winter's Night..., appearing also in the recordings of the 15th century German carol "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming," the touching fable-song "Cherry Tree Carol," and beyond. Despite Sting's self-professed agnosticism, he shares that "the sacred symbolism of the church's art still exerts a powerful influence over [him]."

Don't for a minute believe this is a Christian-centric album, however. Alongside hymns singing the praises of "the root of Jesse" are hints of something more ancient, medieval, folksy, ritualistic, natural and even pagan. In his own words, Sting says that it was "important to draw parallels between the Christian story and the older traditions of the winter solstice."

Spiritually and metaphorically, Winter's Night draws you inward through sonic themes related to winter such as reflectiveness, introspection and stillness. In order to fully "get" this album and its overtly subtle tone, one almost needs to understand Sting's motivation:

"...there is something of the Winter that is primal, mysterious and utterly irreplaceable ... as if we somehow need the darkness of the winter months to replenish our inner spirits as much as we need the light, energy and warmth of summer."

He goes further, acknowledging that Resurrection and light are just around the bend as Winter soon makes way for Spring. In truth they are two sides of the same coin:

"We are reminded that there is light and life at the centre of the darkness that is Winter - or conversely that, no matter how comfortable we feel in the cradle, there is darkness and danger all around us."

THE SONGS

Those longing to hear a new offering supported by Sting's Fender P-bass, electric guitars, synthesizers and a trap set need look elsewhere for herein we experience the folk-inspired sounds of harp, classical guitar, Melodeon, cello, Northumbrian Pipes, and fiddle. Fans of the Sting who penned Brand New Day, Mercury Falling, Ten Summoner's Tales and the majority of the Police's material will have to be remarkably open to other styles of music in order to include this alongside their favorite of his albums. This is not because this latest release is less than his previous offerings, not at all, but rather that it is so extraordinarily different from them. If On a Winter's Night... was released on the Deutsche Grammophon label which is both appropriate and telling, for this collection of songs belongs more suitably alongside your classical CDs (or even his own 2006 album Songs from the Labyrinth) than it does next to your Peter Gabriel or Paul Simon discs.

Sting begins with "Gabriel's Message," singing "Most highly favored lady, Gloria!" over the gentle instrumentation of a nylon-stringed guitar, muted horns and tight vocal harmonies.  From there the album slowly and intentionally bubbles forward like a frozen-over brook, presenting classical and folk pieces including a Celtic begging song, a folk tune from Sting's home of Newcastle, a number from Henry Purcell's King Arthur, a reference to Schubert's Winterreise and more; as well as two original pieces, the beautiful "Lullaby for an Anxious Child" and a new arrangement of the previously recorded "Hounds of Winter."

CONCLUSION

If on a Winter's Night... is almost "application music," or music for the purpose of introspection, mood setting, or direct listening. It most likely shouldn't be considered for enlivening your holiday party with yuletide cheer and may not even be - if I may be so bold - for entertainment. Like most music with depth, it requires a certain conscious presence to fully appreciate and experience, coming to grips with it over time like slowly warming beneath a freshly applied sweater.

There's a mystery in the dark of winter that is both unsettling and strangely comforting, as if everything remains unanswered and yet is perfect as it is; If on a Winter's Night... resides in that mystery. It isn't music for everyone, nor will there be any signature Sting hit singles emerging from it, and yet for those brave enough to look within and meditate on what lies in the heart of darkness, it is a welcome companion to the bleak seasons, both in nature and in the soul.

"If I have a spirituality at all, it's about music. I play and I listen to music as if it really matters to my soul, to my eternal being." [Sting]

Flip over to any news station, media outlet, twitter account or hip website and you'll soon discover that today is Beatles Day, 09.09.09. It marks the release of The Beatles Rock Band, The Beatles Remastered Box Set and the world is abuzz again with Beatlemania.

It's common knowledge that the Fab Four (to varying degrees) developed an interest in meditation and spirituality in the late 60s, which (as any true life practice should do) rubbed off into their lyrics and songwriting.  So with that said and in honor of this special day, here's a short list of our favorite spiritually-charged Beatles tunes.

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TITLE: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (Listen)

EXCERPT: "Jai guru deva om, nothing's gonna change my world, nothing's gonna change my world."

REFLECTION: Utilizing a Sanskrit mantra (roughly translated as "Victory to God divine" or "Hail to the divine guru"), "Across the Universe" speaks to experiencing the divine in "limitless undying love" and in the multitude of forms ("Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes"). But perhaps the most beautiful truth lies in the simple chorus. When we're centered in spirit, it matters not what the dance of life does around us. Nothing can perturb us; nothing can shake us, ever. "Nothing's going to change my world."

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TITLE: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (Listen)

EXCERPT: "There's nothing you can make that can't be made, No one you can save that can't be saved, Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you, in time - It's easy. All you need is love."

REFLECTION: Of course everyone knows the chorus of this song, which proclaims that all there is, all there ever will be and all we'll ever need is love. As Brian Epstein put it, "It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message... The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything." The Zen koan-like verses are also quite profound: "There's nothing you can make that can't be made." Take that Bodhidharma!

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TITLE: THE INNER LIGHT (Listen)

EXCERPT: "Without going out of my door, I can know all things on earth, Without looking out of my window, I could know the ways of heaven."

REFLECTION: Lifted almost verbatim from Chapter 47 of the Tao Te Ching, "The Inner Light" is proof of writer George Harrison's spiritual search and influence. Over a merging of classical Indian instrumentation with Western song form and delivery, "The Inner Light" speaks of looking within to discover the whole universe instead of searching without. Wise words, indeed, as we too often seek outside of ourselves when all that is required is to uncover the spark of the divine that is closer than our breaths.

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TITLE: I ME MINE (Listen)

EXCERPT: "All I can hear, I me mine, I me mine, I me mine; Even those tears, I me mine, I me mine, I me mine; No-one's frightened of playing it, Ev'ryone's saying it, Flowing more freely than wine; I me mine."

REFLECTION: A reflection of the Ego's destructive impact on our personal lives and the world, "I Me Mine" is yet another testament to George Harrison's growing disillusionment with ego and interest in compassion and connectedness. As this song's Wikipedia article shares, "the Bhagavad Gita 2:71-72 can be translated as 'They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of 'I,' 'me,' and 'mine' to be united with the Lord. This is the supreme state. Attain to this, and pass from death to immortality."

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OTHERS:

• "Within You Without You"
• "Let It Be"
• "Help"
• "Because"
• "Here Comes the Sun"

Thoughts? Other suggestions or reflections? Leave some comment love...