Sacred Harp Beat | DIGITAL MUSIC
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Music for the Holy Week
Anke Arkesteyn
For more than thirty years, Rev Anke Arkesteyn has provided beautiful and atmospheric music for many events and services in the Rosa Veritas community. We are pleased to now be able to share recordings of some of her music, recorded especially for the Holy Week, with friends near and far.
Details
Digital Audio mp3 download
Rosa Veritas Publishing 2021
10 tracks | 28 minutes in total
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About the Cover:
As well as being a talented musician, Anke is also a talented artist. The cover art was painted by her, inspired by this saying: The beloved disciple, lying on the breast of Jesus, hearing the sacred heart beat of Jesus, and through that coming to know all things … May this music assist you to tune into that sacred heart beat also. About the Harpist: I learned to play the piano when I was six. Mum and Dad were singers. Mum played the piano and Dad the violin. I wanted to play the harp. But the piano it was. Later I played recorder in a consort group. We played in medieval plays all dressed up in period costume. One day when I was nine, Nicanor Zabaleta, a Spanish harpist, came to Delft and performed in our local castle. I had thought that harpers were always women in white dresses clinging to enormous harps, but here was a man with a Celtic harp which he played like fireworks. To learn the harp became even more desirable to me. This wish was finally answered when I migrated to Australia and found The Centre, the Church of the Mystic Christ. Lukas, a member, was playing Elegy, a piece on this CD, and I was blown away. I bought my first harp in Adelaide and got lessons from Mary Anderson, a professional harpist. Since then, my harp collection has kept growing. I now have five harps. And I teach. The most rewarding aspect for me is becoming an international therapeutic harp practitioner, playing for palliative patients, the sick and the elderly. I thank my American Rosicrucian friend and the founder of this organisation, Christina Tourin, who guided me towards this calling. Reverend Anke Arkesteyn About the Music: Were you there when they crucified my Lord arose from a memory of Rev Mario singing it with his whole heart and me accompanying him. When I played it in my lonely room again, I was accompanying him once more. I honestly heard his voice. The 14th Century Lament is a Dutch lamentation written by an unknown composer from the 14 Century. I found it in a harp book for beginners. O Come and Mourn is a song that we sing every Holy Week, usually during the Meditation on the Fourteen Stations of the Cross. This setting of the Stabat Mater was composed by John Rawson. O Sacred Head Sore Wounded is another well-known song traditionally sung on Good Friday. I love Bach tremendously. Each year I went to the Mathews Passion with my sister Helen and we sat for three hours listening to this great work with Mum and Dad in the choir. Bach never wrote for harp so the piece is very difficult to play. Like Jesu Joy it is written for keyboard. Elegy – it was hearing this piece, by an anonymous composer, that spurred me to finally take action and learn to play the harp. The pieces called Unite and Gentle Souls were composed by my American Rosicrucian friend and founder of the International Harp Therapy Practitioners, Christina Tourin. We became close friends because we saw in each other the Christ the Rose. She wrote: Gentle Souls - Sitting under a mighty majestic oak in Mt Laguna CA, this tune fell as clearly as an acorn announcing its arrival. I was feeling so at peace, so full of love, so at one with the universe. I felt the wonder of the bird calls, the softness of the baby deer, the excitement of being alive. This piece is dedicated to a Rosicrucian brother. Unitē - This is perhaps one of the most divine gift of tune that filled my ears. This took place at the Florida aquarium. I was playing in a large room that had a two storey glass tank in which fish swam about. The room was dark and my lighted crystal harp was bathed in blue and green lights. Special people come into our lives. On this particular late afternoon the angelic realm hovered about in song as I experienced an unbelievable mysterious encounter with a soulmate who led me to new doors in my life. The song Ik wil mij gaan vertroosten (I will take comfort) was found in a Franciscan monastery in Antwerp during the 14th Century. In my song book it says Canon Saint Gregory ... which Gregory is not known, so God only knows how old this melody is. The song was printed in 1539, and much later printed again and the text modernised. It became very popular after the Second World War. It has many verses but it is hard to translate well the old language. It ends with ‘O Jesus ziet mij aan’ which is more than asking Jesus to look at you. It is to look into the soul. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is the famous and well-loved piece by Johann Sebastien Bach. In our community it is treated with great reverence.
Key words: Devotional, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Music |
