The Tremeloes' "Hello World"

Last month, I wrote about a riff that's in both the Moody Blues' "So Deep within You" from On the Threshold of a Dream and Rod Argent and Chris White's "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)," which was recorded after the Zombies broke up.  At the time, I'd thought I knew an-other song that had a similar-sounding part, but I couldn't identify it.  Recently though, I listened to an anthology of the Tremeloes, and I discovered that I'd been thinking of the beginning of "Hello World."

The phrase in "Hello World" is longer than those in "So Deep within You" and "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)," and it repeats more frequently.  The song starts with it played four and a half times.

In "Hello World," it starts on a different pitch relative to the key than in "So Deep within You" and "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)," but the intervals are the same in all three (and the pitches of the first five notes are the same between "Hello World" and "So Deep within You").

(click the image to enlarge it)

(standard disclaimer that the notation may be wrong because I did it myself)

Unlike the other two, the notes in that phrase in "Hello World" are picked individually where the second of each pair of eighth notes are hammer-ons in "So Deep within You" and "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)."

According to the liner notes in my Tremeloes collection (Silence Is Golden: The Very Best of the Tremeloes), "Hello World" was issued as a single in 1969.  On the Threshold of a Dream - the album on which "So Deep within You" appears - was also released in 1969 (specifically, April).  Apparently "So Deep within You" was the B-side to the "Never Comes the Day" single, released the same month.  According to the liner notes for Into the Afterlife, "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" was recorded in March 1968, although it wasn't released until Into the Afterlife in 2007.

So I have even fewer answers than I did when I wrote my original post.  Now I have three songs that were all recorded and/or released within about a year and that all share the same phrase.

The Shangri-Las' "Remember (Walking in the Sand)"

Last month, I listened to a compilation album of the Shangri-Las, and I became really interested in "Remember (Walking in the Sand)."  It has some great features, and the more I looked into it, the more I found.

The first thing I noticed was the bass parts during the "(Remember) Walking in the sand..." section:

(click the image to enlarge it)
(standard disclaimer that the notation may be wrong because I did it myself)

I should note that I combined the electric bass part and the bass register of the piano part in the notation.  After two eighth notes spanning a fourth (A to D) in the bass register of the piano, the electric bass echoes that fourth in quarter notes.  Musically, there's a portrayal of memory.  There's the initial event (the fourth on piano), and then that event is revisited but - because of the unreliable nature of memory - it's slightly different.  It's still the interval of a fourth, but it's played on a different instrument and the note values are longer, almost as if that memory is being dwelt upon rather than hurriedly passed over.

In figuring out how to play the bass part (so that I could write about what was happening in that section), I discovered that during the verses, it's has a downward trend:

This repeats throughout the verse, but I don't know how to add repeat signs (the program I use is actually meant to create MIDI files, not notation, but it works well enough for that purpose).

Between that descent and the key (D minor), the sadness in the lyrics ("Seems like the other day / My baby went away," "He said that we were through / He found somebody new") is emphasized.

About a month after I realized those two things about the bass part, I realized that those two sections are in different time signatures.  The verses are in 3/4, and the choruses are in 4/4.  There's a musical distinction between the events that the singer/speaker is currently relating and the events that she's remembering.

The Shirelles - Greatest Hits

Over the last month or so, I've been listening to a Greatest Hits album by the Shirelles fairly regularly, and I found some interesting things in a number of the songs, mostly just interesting melismas.  Coincidentally, it was a year ago to-day that I first listened to the album.

"Tonight's the Night"

There are some nice features with melismas in the bridge here.  The "so"s in both "I might love you so much" and "I may want you so much" have melismas, as if to emphasize how much, and the "heart" in "You may break my heart" has three syllables instead of the usual one, portraying the fragmented nature that the heart would have if it were broken.

"Baby It's You"

Similar to the "heart" in "Tonight's the Night," there's a melisma on "apart" in the second line -  "It’s not the way you kiss that tears me apart."

"Everybody Loves a Lover"

The last two "fell"s in the lead vocals have melismas and the later syllables have lower pitches than the first ones, so as the word is sung, it becomes lower.  The word itself is falling as the speaker/singer explains how she fell in love.

"Foolish Little Girl"

I think ever since the first time I listened to this, the opening sounded vaguely familiar.  It wasn't until about a month ago that I placed it; the first line ("You broke his heart and made him cry") is quite similar to the first line in "Do You Love Me" ("You broke my heart / 'Cause I couldn't dance").  Both songs also have the same contrast in instrumentation.  That first section is quieter with fewer instruments, but then more instruments join in and the song becomes louder.

I should note that I actually don't own the Contour's version of "Do You Love Me."  I'm writing based on the Tremeloes' version, which I think is a pretty faithful cover.

Grieg: From Holberg's Time, Op. 40

Last month, I listened to Grieg's Op. 40 a few times, both the orchestrated version and the solo piano version.  As the title page notes, From Holberg's Time was purposely written in an older style ("im alten Style"):

The Holberg in the title is Ludwig Holberg (1684-1754), a Norwegian man of letters.

While listening to the piano version, I noticed a phrase in the first movement:

(click the image to enlarge it)
(notation found here)

When I heard this it sounded familiar to me, although I had to look up the notation to figure out what was going on and why it sounded familiar.  Starting in the forty-ninth measure, the bass part starts descending, but after every two notes, it alternates octaves and repeats the last note from the previous pair.  Or, at least, it alternates octaves to some degree, since the notes are also doubled in octaves.  (This is in the orchestrated version too, although the notes aren't doubled by octaves.)

This sounded familiar because this same type of figure is in the continuo parts of two Bach works that I looked into recently, Christ lag in Todes Banden (BWV 4) and the Third Orchestral Suite in D major (BWV 1068).

(notation found here [BWV 4] and here [BWV 1068])

For the past year and a half (I finished it yester-day), I'd been reading a book of Edvard Grieg's letters (Edvard Grieg: Letters to Colleagues and Friends, Benestad and Halverson, eds.), and I recently read a letter he wrote to August Winding on 4 February 1875 saying that

recently in St. Thomas Church [in Leipzig] I heard the first concert by a Bach Association under the leadership of Volkland, von Holstein and Spitta (the author of an excellent book on Bach).  The concert included three cantatas by Bach that had not been performed publicly before.  I have never heard anything so beautiful by Bach; they are marvelous, great, profound, childlike and fervent.

I'm not sure if Christ lag in Todes Banden is one of the cantatas that Grieg heard, but that letter at least illustrates that Grieg was fairly familiar with Bach's works.

From Holberg's Time is from 1884, almost ten years after Grieg heard those Bach cantatas in Leipzig.  So between Grieg's documented familiarity with Bach's works and the close historical time period between Holberg (1684-1754) and Bach (1685-1750), it seems like Grieg might have taken that particular phrase from Bach's suite and/or cantata and used it to evoke that particular time period in his own work.

The Decemberists' "Eli, the Barrow Boy"

Recently, I've been listening (for the first time) to a box set of Pete Seeger.  Since a lot of the songs are folk songs, I've heard other versions of some of them.  So while "Molly Malone" wasn't a new song to me, because I recently listened to Seeger's version, I got to thinking about it and realized that it shares some similarities with the Decemberists' "Eli, the Barrow Boy" from Picaresque.

The first lines of both mention a city.  "Molly Malone" names Dublin specifically ("In Dublin's fair city") where "Eli, the Barrow Boy" has just a general "town."  I'd always heard it as "Eli, the barrow boy of the old town," but according to the Decemberists' website, it's "Eli, the barrow boy, you’re the old town."  It's a minor point, but both start with a location.

Both characters "cry" out the wares that they have to sell.  The second verse of "Molly Malone" explains that "She was a fishmonger," and the "Cryin' 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh'" line is at the end of every verse and acts as a transition to the chorus (which is comprised of all the same words).  While Eli has a wider variety of merchandise (he "Sells coal and marigolds" and "Corn cobs and candlewax"), he too "cries out all down the day."

It's not as obvious in "Eli, the Barrow Boy" as it is in "Molly Malone," but both have a fair amount of repetition to describe how much time the characters spend trying to make sales.  "All the day," "All down the day," or "Down the day" appear (usually twice) in every section of "Eli, the Barrow Boy," and "Through streets long and narrow" (or, as some versions have it, "Through streets broad and narrow") is the second-to-last line in every verse in "Molly Malone."

While Molly Malone dies of a fever and Eli drowns, both return as ghosts to continue pushing their wheelbarrows through the streets and sell their goods.  The last verse of "Molly Malone" explains that "Now her ghost wheels the barrow / Through streets long and narrow," and - likewise - the last section of "Eli, the Barrow Boy" has Eli saying, "But I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground / But still I push my barrow all the day."

I know Colin Meloy has some interest in folk songs (evidenced by the Colin Meloy Sings Shirley Collins EP and The Hazards of Love album), so I'm assuming that "Molly Malone" did have at least some influence on "Eli, the Barrow Boy."  I think the similarities would be too much of a coincidence otherwise.

The Moody Blues' "So Deep within You"

When I listened to the Moody Blues' On the Threshold of a Dream last month, the recurring guitar riff in "So Deep within You" caught my ear.  I figured out how to play it and confirmed that - save for the key - it's identical to a part in "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)," which was recorded by Chris White and Rod Argent shortly after the Zombies broke up.  (There are two versions of "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" on Into the Afterlife, but this riff is present only in the second version [track #18], the one with fuzz guitar.)

(click the image to enlarge it)
(standard disclaimer that since I did the notation myself, it might be wrong)

I didn't know how to indicate it in the notation, but the second note in each pair of eighth notes is a hammer-on.

In the Zombie Heaven liner notes, Paul Atkinson (the Zombies' guitarist) says that the Zombies were friends with the Moody Blues and used to go to their parties (p. 31).  While that provides evidence that the Zombies and the Moody Blues knew each other, it's slightly misleading as far as guitar players, since Atkinson didn't play on "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)."  The Into the Afterlife liner notes explain that it was Mac McLeod.

The chronology is also troublesome.  The Into the Afterlife liner notes say that the session at which "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" was recorded was in March 1968.  On the Threshold of a Dream came out in April 1969.  But "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" wasn't released until the Into the Afterlife album in 2007.  So while it would appear that there was some mixing of influences since the songs originated only about a year apart, since the riffs are so similar (with the same accidental even), and since the bands knew each other, it doesn't seem possible that the Moody Blues could have known "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)."  Apparently, the similarity is just a coincidence.

Handel: Messiah

A few months ago, I wrote a rather long post about Handel's Messiah, and - just like I thought - a few days after I posted it, I found an-other Biblical source for the text.  And then I kept finding more.  I still haven't found all of them, but I've found enough that I didn't have in my last post to think that it's worth updating.  So this post is an addendum to the first, although I'm including only the sources I've found for the Biblical texts.  Like I said in my original post, I could probably just look them all up somewhere, but I wanted to find them myself.

What I've written about the music can still be found here.

Part I

1.  Symphony
2.  Comfort ye my people

"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.  A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'" - Isaiah 40:1-3

3.  Ev'ry valley shall be exalted

"'Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.'" - Isaiah 40:4

4.  And the glory of the Lord

"'And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.'" - Isaiah 40:5

5.  Thus saith the Lord of hosts

"For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.  And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts." -Haggai 2:6-7

"Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.  And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts." - Malachi 3:1

6.  But who may abide the day of His coming

"But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?  For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap." - Malachi 3:2

7.  And he shall purify the sons of Levi

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD." - Malachi 3:3

8.  Behold, a virgin shall conceive

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." - Isaiah 7:14

This is also quoted in Matthew, where it includes the "God with us."

"'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us)." - Matthew 1:23

9.  O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion

"Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God!'" - Isaiah 40:9

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you." - Isaiah 60:1

10.  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth

"For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you." - Isaiah 60:2

11.  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined." - Isaiah 9:2

12.  For unto us a child is born

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6

13.  Pifa
14.  There were shepherds abiding in the fields

"And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear." - Luke 2:8-9

15.  And the angel said unto them

"And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'" - Luke 2:10-11

16.  And suddenly there was with the angel

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying," - Luke 2:13

17.  Glory to God in the highest

"'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!'" - Luke 2:14

18.  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth." - Zechariah 9:9-10

19.  Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy." - Isaiah 35:5-6a

20.  He shall feed his flock like a shepherd

"He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young." - Isaiah 40:11

"'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.'" - Matthew 11:28-29

21.  His yoke is easy

"'For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'" - Matthew 11:30

Part II

22.  Behold the Lamb of God

"The next day he [John] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'" - John 1:29

23.  He was despised and rejected of men

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide the faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." - Isaiah 53:3

"I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting." - Isaiah 50:6

24.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried out sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace..." - Isaiah 53:4-5

25.  And with his stripes we are healed

"... and with his stripes we are healed." - Isaiah 53:5

26.  All we like sheep have gone astray

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." - Isaiah 53:6

27.  All they that see him laugh him to scorn

28.  He trusted in God that he would deliver him

29.  Thy rebuke hath broken his heart

30.  Behold and see if there be any sorrow
31.  He was cut off

"By oppression and judgement he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?" - Isaiah 53:8

32.  But thou didst not leave his soul in hell

In my previous Messiah post, I postulated that this was related to Psalm 16:10 - "For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption."  I found a similar verse in the New Testament:

"'For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.'" - Acts 2:27

33.  Lift up your heads, O ye gates

"Lift up your heads, O gates!  And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.  Who is this King of glory?  The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!  Lift up your heads, O gates!  And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.  Who is this King of glory?  The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!" - Psalm 24:7-10

34.  Unto which of the angels

"For to which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'?  Or again, 'I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son'?" - Hebrews 1:5

35.  Let all the angels of God worship Him

"And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him.'" - Hebrews 1:6

36.  Thou art gone up on high

There's some similarity between the text here and Ephesians 4:8:  "Therefore it says, 'When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.'"

37.  The Lord gave the word
38.  How beautiful are the feet

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'  The voice of your watchmen - they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.  Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem." - Isaiah 52:7-9

39.  Their sound is gone out
40.  Why do the nations so furiously rage together

"Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and his Anointed, saying," - Psalm 2:1-2

41.  Let us break their bonds asunder

"'Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.'" - Psalm 2:3

42.  He that dwelleth in heaven

"He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision." - Psalm 2:4

43.  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron

"You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." - Psalm 2:9

44.  Hallelujah

"Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.'" - Revelation 19:6

"Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.'" - Revelation 11:15

"On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of Lords." - Revelation 19:16

Part III

45.  I know that my Redeemer liveth

"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God." - Job 19:25-26

"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." - 1 Corinthians 15:20

46.  Since by man came death

"For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." - 1 Corinthians 15:21-22

47.  Behold, I tell you a mystery

"Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet." - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52a

48.  The trumpet shall sound

"For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.  For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." - 1 Corinthians 15:52b-53

49.  Then shall be brought to pass

"When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:  'Death is swallowed up in victory.'" - 1 Corinthians 15:54

50.  O death, where is thy sting

"'O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?'  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." - 1 Corinthians 15:55-56

I looked into the source for this text a bit more, and - apparently - it's a quotation of Hosea 13:14: "Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?  Shall I redeem them from Death?  O Death, where are your plagues?  O Sheol, where is your sting?  Compassion is hidden from my eyes."

51.  But thanks be to God

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 15:57

52.  If God be for us, who can be against us

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:31b

"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us." - Romans 8:33-34

53.  Worthy is the Lamb, Amen

"[Many angels were] saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!'  And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!'  And the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' and the elders fell down and worshipped" - Revelation 5:12-14

The Roulettes' "This Little Girl"

Back in April, I got the Roulettes' one and only album Stakes and Chips.  The first time I listened to it, I thought that the beginning keyboard part of "This Little Girl" (credited to Holland, Stevenson, and Cosby) sounded similar to the beginning keyboard part of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say."  A few months later (in June), I learned the two parts in order to compare them, and recently I finally got around to notating them:

(click the image to enlarge it)
(standard disclaimer that since I did the notation myself it's entirely possible that I have something wrong)

When I figured out the parts, I was actually surprised by how similar they are.  They both start with the same four-note figure: E, B, D, E' (although "What'd I Say" plays the B as two eighth notes, where "This Little Girl" has a single B as a quarter note).  It wasn't until notating it that I discovered that both have notes tied over a bar line too.

Like the phrase in "This Little Girl," the phrase in "What'd I Say" is two measures long, but - barring a slightly different rhythm so that an E note from the next measure intrudes a bit - it's the same notes in every measure.  As the song goes on, that same phrase is raised by intervals so that it starts on A and later on B.  The phrase in "This Little Girl" doesn't do that, but it's similar enough that I think it took some inspiration from the phrase in "What'd I Say."

Saint-Saëns: Christmas Oratorio, Op. 12

I've been really into Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio lately.  Even though Christmas is months away, I've listened to it five times in the last few months.  I noticed a couple things that I wanted to write about, and then - in following along in the score (found here) - I found a few more.

II. Recit et chœur

Beginning at the fifty-seventh bar of the movement (the twenty-sixth bar after the key change that corresponds with the beginning of the soprano solo), the text is "Et hoc vobis signum" ("And this to you a sign" - the first part of Luke 2:12).  The musical setting of "vobis signum" forms a cross:

I first learned of this cross-inscribing feature in John Eliot Gardiner's Bach: Music in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Gardiner illustrates Bach's use of this in Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4:

In the Christmas account, the "sign" of the Savior for the shepherds is "find[ing] a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger," but this is also a foreshadowing of the crucifixion, which is also a sign of "a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).

I've found this cross inscription in quite a few pieces now, but I don't know if any of them were placed intentionally (although I can usually devise a plausible meaning for their placement).  However, since I first learned about this in a Bach cantata and the first movement of Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio has the note "dans le style de Séb. Bach" ("in the style of Seb[astian] Bach"), I feel that it's more likely that Saint-Saëns - since he was obviously familiar with Bach's work - created the cross figure intentionally.

The chœur section of the second movement has the text "Gloria in altissimis Deo, et in terra pax..." ("Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace..." - Luke 2:14).  "Gloria in altissimis Deo" is first sung by the sopranos and the altos, the higher voices, and "Et in terra pax" is first sung by the tenors and the basses, the lower voices:

(click the image to enlarge it)

Distributing those parts of the text among those particular voices results in an audible representation of the highness of Heaven and the lowness of Earth.  (Incidentally, Handel does this same thing [with the same text even] in the Messiah.)

Furthermore, the "altissimis" ("highest") is set across a series of rising notes, as if to further indicate the height:

V. Duo (soprano & bass)

At the 60th bar, the cross inscription is seen again (it's also present a few times in earlier measures, but here it's clearer to see):

The accompanying text this time is "Deus meus es tu."  I'm not sure if there's a Biblical source behind this, but it translates to "You are my God."  Again, the cross inscription points to the crucifixion, an act that illustrates Christ's compassion for us.

Since this is a duet and the text has a predicate nominative, it's easy to set it in such a way that the subject and the predicate nominative are sung simultaneously, which Saint-Saëns does.  The grammatical structure is doubled by the musical structure.  In the first bar in the example above, as the soprano sings "es tu" ("you are"), the bass sings "Deus" ("God").  Then it's reversed and the soprano sings "Deus" as the bass sings "es tu."  Between them, it's "You are God."

IX. Quintette et chœur (soprano, mezzo-chorus, alto, tenor, bass)

A few months ago, I wrote a post about the melody to which some of the "alleluias" here are set and how it resembles a melody that Palestrina wrote.

X. Chœur

I'm not sure if there's a Biblical source for this text either, but the tenth movement begins with "Tollite hostias et adorate Dominum in atrio sancto eius."  I put some effort into this translation and came up with "Raise sacrifices and worship the Lord in His holy hall."

Of course, after I did my own translation, I found one on the internet:  "Bring offerings, and adore the Lord in his holy place."  The "His holy" is what I'm drawing attention to here, because it's set to yet an-other cross inscription, this time in both the soprano and bass parts:

It's not as obvious why the cross is inscribed here as it is in its other occurrences.  Since half of it accompanies the first part of "holy," it seems like it has something to do with sanctification.  I'm not sure, but I thought I would point it out.

There are actually multiple crosses here.  There's one in the soprano part, one in the bass part, each of those is doubled in the corresponding strings, there's one in the the higher register of the organ part (the second line from the bottom), and - though it might be far-fetched - there's also one in the movement number (X).

Carole King's "Home Again"

About four months ago, I wrote about Carole King's "It's Too Late."  Instead of transcribing the lyrics myself, I referenced those in the liner notes of Tapestry, and - in doing so - I found an interesting line break in "Home Again."

There's a slight pause after "I really need someone to talk to, and nobody else" before it's completed with "Knows how to comfort me tonight."  Before it's completed, that "nobody else" seems to be the direct object of "need" instead of the subject of an-other clause.  So it could be rendered as "I really need someone to talk to and nobody else."  As long as that pause continues, there's a different meaning to that line.  With "nobody else" as a direct object of "need," "someone to talk to" acquires an exclusivity (something like "I need nobody else but someone to talk to").

Of course, the completion of the line provides that same specificity ("Nobody else / Knows how to comfort me tonight"), but it's artfully done via that pause and the ambiguity of what function "nobody else" plays.

Mel Carter's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me"

When I listened to Mel Carter's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" a few months ago, I noticed that there's some use of the homophones "will be" and "we'll be."  It wasn't until recently (when I transcribed the song) that I really looked into them.

In the first verse, Harry Nobel - who wrote the song - establishes the repetition of some words at the end of each line:

Hold me, hold me
Never let me go until you’ve told me, told me
What I want to know and then just hold me, hold me
Make me tell you I’m in love with you

But in the second verse, he plays around with that repetition via the "will be" and "we'll be" homophone.  It could be either:

Thrill me, thrill me
Walk me down the lane where shadows will be, will be
Hiding lovers just the same as we’ll be, we’ll be
When you make me tell you I love you

Or:

Thrill me, thrill me
Walk me down the lane where shadows will be, we'll be
Hiding lovers just the same as we’ll be, we’ll be
When you make me tell you I love you

The first iteration is probably what's intended, although in making sense of that verse, I thought of the second version first.  The difference is in the first "will be" and "hiding."  They could be a future tense transitive verb or a future tense linking verb with an adjective.  It's either "Walk me down the lane where shadows will be hiding lovers" or "Walk me down the lane where shadows will be.  We'll be hiding lovers just the same as we'll be when you make me tell you I love you."

The more I think about this, the more I'm in favor of "shadows will be hiding lovers," but the other parsing could be argued for too.

It's interesting how Nobel (intentionally or not) varies the lines in that second parsing, inserting that line break between "we'll be" and "Hiding lovers."  After establishing repeating sounds in the first verse, changing the meaning while still retaining the same sound plays with the listener's expectations.  It creates a similar kind of thrill that the verse itself mentions.

Punch Brothers' "Rye Whiskey"

Back in May, I watched the Punch Brothers live at the House of Blues via WGBH.  During "Rye Whiskey," I noticed the lines "Oh boy, rye whiskey makes the sun set faster / Makes the spirit more willing / But the body weaker."  I realized that this is an allusion to the Bible.

It's actually in two different places in the Bible, but the verse is the same: "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41 and Mark 14:38).  Jesus says this to the disciples after they fall asleep while Jesus is praying alone in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It seems like "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" has become a pretty common expression, but I think "Rye Whiskey" illustrates a deeper familiarity since the next line is "Because rye sleep isn’t good sleep, boys."  The particular weakness of the Biblical "the flesh is weak" is falling asleep, which "Rye Whiskey" also mentions.  In fact, "Rye Whiskey" seems to go even a step further and say that it "isn't good sleep."  It's not only the weakness of a body that's weary; it's the weakness of a body that's weary but can achieve only a fitful sleep because of the effects of rye whiskey.