Number 39, December 1, 2022

Bright Morning Stars

One of the gifts of the advent season is the beautiful traditional music that accompanies the anticipation of the coming of the Christ figure in the Christian church.  If you have ever sung traditional Christmas carols, you know the kind of waiting and watching that comes with the season of Advent.  “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is a great example of the liturgical setting for this season’s music.

Within the realm of the more secular music for this season, I believe that the concept of awakening, waiting, rising up for hope of the coming of a miracle is also found in the folk song “Bright Morning Stars.”  This song has been recorded by many artists in various genres, using various treatments through the generations.  Today I include two contrasting style examples to explain its wide reach down through the centuries.

I first became aware of the tune while researching the Appalachian and Bluegrass repertoire.  The Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley and his band followed the “sacred” forms for the song as part of their otherwise non-religious concerts.  For a more recent example, I also found Gillian Welch and David Rawlings paying homage to Stanley’s treatment in their a capella duet.

Here’s Ralph Stanley from 1998 (with Ricky Skaggs!):

Here is Gillian Welch and David Rawlings:

Bright Morning Stars

Bright morning stars are rising,
Bright morning stars are rising,
Bright morning stars are rising,
Day is a breaking in my soul.

Oh, where are our dear fathers?
Oh, where are our dear fathers?
Oh, where are our dear fathers?
They are down in the valley a-prayin’
Day is a breakin’ in my soul.

Oh, where are our dear mothers?
Oh, where are our dear mothers?
They have gone to heaven a shoutin’
Day is a breakin’ in my soul.

Bright morning stars are rising,
Bright morning stars are rising,
Bright morning stars are rising,
Day is a breaking in my soul.

A number of years ago, the contemporary composer, arranger, conductor and performer Shawn Kirchner placed this traditional tune in a choral setting.  In his notes for the printed sheet music, Kirchner writes:

“I especially liked the way the song linked the beautiful, universal and ‘external’ imagery of dawn and morning stars to the similar ‘internal’ movements of renewal that we all also experience.”

For another new twist, Kirchner added one more verse to his version that was not part of the original:

“Oh, where are our dear children?
They’re upon the earth a-dancing”

which lends a bit of optimism to this otherwise mournful tune.  He further writes of this additional lyric:

“I like the image of those who have passed on and those are yet present upon the earth calling to each other ‘across eternity.'”

Here is Kirchner’s “Bright Morning Stars” performed by The Choral Project featuring Jason Brittsan at Mission Santa Clara, April 2015

I hope you all take inspiration from this bit of hope as we wait for a coming joy-filled miracle for this season and beyond.

Happy holidays everyone, and as always, thanks for reading!  There’s one more blog for this year and then we’re off to 2023! Keep in touch with blog post ideas or just to say hey!  You can email me HERE.

Love and Blessings,

Susie

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Award-winning recording artist, Broadway singer, journalist, educator and critically-acclaimed powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called “one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today” by Roz Larman of KPFK’s Folk Scene.  LA Weekly voted her ensemble Best New Folk in their Best of LA Weekly for 2019, calling Susie “an incomparable vocalist.”  “A flat out superb vocalist… Glaze delivers warm, amber-toned vocals that explore the psychic depth of a lyric with deft acuity and technical perfection.”  As an educator, Susie has lectured at USC Thornton School of Music and Cal State Northridge on “Balladry to Bluegrass,” illuminating the historical path of ancient folk forms in the United Kingdom to the United States via immigration into the mountains of Appalachia.  Susie has taught workshops since 2018 at California music camps RiverTunes and Vocáli Voice Camp.  She is a current specialist in performance and historian on the work of American folk music icon, Jean Ritchie.  Susie now offers private voice coaching online via the Zoom platform.   www.susieglaze.com