Job… opening narration
The story of Job is one of the oldest stories known to man and is believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, which is itself a collection of ancient books that mysteriously - mystically - connects our souls to the cosmos.
It is an artistic work of immense sophistication that is removed from any particular historical context or crisis. Its tension strikes a chord that rings throughout history… from ancient Israel’s exile to modern Israel’s Holocaust… from the genocide perpetrated by Genghis Khan’s Mongol warriors to that taking place - today - in Darfur.
Job is a story about a …
She whose name is unspoken
Job’s wife has been much maligned and, in my opinion, misunderstood. Much of that misunderstanding is understandable, I suppose, since she is mentioned in only one verse in the entire book of Job and in that, we are not even told her name. In chapter 2, after all the calamities have fallen on Job and he is sitting in a pile of ashes scraping his sores with a broken piece of pottery, his wife comes to him. Verse 9: “His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
You can see why so …
R.I.P. J.B.
James Brown, the undisputed Godfather of Soul, the self-proclaimed “hardest working man in show business”, has taken his final rest at age 73, after battling a bout of pneumonia. James Brown named as his home town Augusta, Georgia, a town with more than its share of people who have always been reticent to acknowledge the musical contributions made by Mr. Brown, preferring to point out his many personal problems, as if the bad in some way negates the good. R.I.P., J.B.
National News Hits Close to Home
Just this morning I found out that Kelly James, the climber found on Mt. Hood in Oregon, was the brother-in-law of one of our customers at PowerServe. Had I known earlier, I think I would have taken more interest in the details. I feel like I need to apologize to Caroyln Custis James, our customer and one of my online friends, for neither realizing nor taking the time to find out. I know it’s probably a factor of how we’re wired that we lack interest in events that we don’t think affect us personally, whether it’s …
So long, Joe: 1911-2006
Joseph Barbera, one-half of the genius creative team Hannah-Barbera, died today at age 95. Surely no one alive has escaped his influence, having created more than 300 series during his six-decade partnership with William Hannah, including Tom & Jerry, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, and Jonny Quest.
Misunderstood is an Understatement
I think Job must be one of the most misunderstood books in the Bible. I’ve sat through several studies of it and undertaken several more on my own. I’ve been constantly amazed at the range of opinions and declarations about what it “teaches”. I suppose that’s true of much of the Bible, but Job seems to be one book that you can use to support whatever preconceived notions you’d like to assign to it.
A couple of examples:
Job - Beginnings pt.2
I suppose I should mention that my wife Suzanne, whom I approached about writing music for my lyrics, has a Master’s degree in music. She is an excellent musician and songwriter; she teaches piano, flute, and voice as well. She and I have written many songs together and even entire original music programs. We have never undertaken anything like the production of Job, as I envision it, though.
I don’t really know what arrogance (chutzpah?) caused me to think I could even DO what we’re trying to accomplish. But here we are. The lyric is complete and we’ve got about half of the music done… enough …
The Story of Job - Beginnings
In 1986, I started working on the lyrics for what has become Job: a Postmodern Opera. What spurred me to begin the project was a simple reading of the book. It struck me that “Job” was a magnificent work of epic poetry. I began to see that with some rearranging and rephrasing of the lines in the story, it could very well work as a musical or operatic piece put to modern music.
The opening lines of Job:
1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God …
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