Author: Michael Angelo Bobb

Music

The Star in the East

Music

As we celebrate Easter, let us raise our voices together. This song must be sung in the best English!

Christ Jesus the Saviour is, was and will always be famous. His splendid, eternal brightness overwhelms. Stir within you all that is fantastic. It was a Good Friday. Even an important protein in every human is in the shape of a cross. I encourage you to worship God and talk to your neighbour. The Bible says that Christ Jesus was slain before God created. Could that be before Genesis 1:1?

Jesus Christ’s rising from the dead means that there is no time to waste in spreading the full Gospel. His rising, as mentioned in my song, also looks forward to the Day of Ascension when men witnessed the God/man filling the Universe.

So… whenever you see the Sun just think of the famous Star in the East, ware your Polo Whites, greet with a holy kiss and share an English champaign breakfast — quail eggs essential! Champaign with a large ‘C’ optional.

Words to the song:

Blink, blink
Blink to the Moon
Jesus the Saviour
Is famous for ever

Blink, blink
Blink to the Moon
Jesus the Saviour
Is famous for ever
For ever and ever
For every believer

Blink! Blink! Blink!

Blink, blink
Blink to the Moon
Resplendent and bright
The dazzling light

Blink, blink
Blink to the Moon
Resplendent and bright
The dazzling light
For ever and ever
For every believer

Blink! Blink! Blink!

Blink, blink
Blink to the Moon
Encourage your cheer
His rising is here

Blink, blink
Blink to the Moon
Encourage your cheer
His rising is here
For ever and ever
For every believer

Blink! Blink! Blink!

His rising
His rising
His rising
His rising

And higher
And higher
And higher
And higher!

The Star in the east

B-link! Blink! Blink!
B-link! Blink! Blink!
B-link! Blink! Blink!
B-link! Blink! Blink!
B-link! Blink! Blink!

B-link! Blink! Blink!

Blink Blink Blink

His rising
His rising
His rising
His rising

And higher
And higher
And higher
And higher!

The Star in the east

Blink, blink
Blink to the Moon

Jesus the Saviour
Is famous for ever
For ever and ever
For every believer
Resplendent and bright
The dazzling light
For ever and ever
For every believer  
Encourage your cheer
His rising is here
For ever and ever
For every believer!

Tags music

Poetry

I Wish I Was A Kite

Tags poetry

Good Friday Music

The Crucifixion — “The Veil is Gone!”

Post author By Michael Angelo Bobb
Post date 28th Mar 2025
1 Comment on The Crucifixion — “The Veil is Gone!”

Music

For piano.

Imagine… 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ, the God/man, falsely arrested for doing Almighty God’s work. Whipped delirious in a kangaroo court. Abandoned, even denied, by those closest to Him. Forced to carry — only just, but not at all — his own execution equipment. At Calvary Hill He foresees the furious dancing that will split time in two.

My music opens with a dissonant chord sequence — but, it is a dance. A dance with a difference. This cosmic King of the dance floor is dancing — furiously!

His adversary at the scene does a diabolical two-step up the cross, lusting after the transfigured crown of thorns. Authority, it’s all about authority. He wants Jesus Christ to worship him. But, the God/man pummels the beast with His heel.

Dancing, dancing — the King is dancing. Listen to Jesus Christ dancing on the cross. My King — your King — is dancing. He dances furiously and beckons: “Dance with me!”

On the cross the King briefly imagines Sheol before continuing with the pace of the dance. Jesus Christ, the God/man; the darling of every sky; every man’s hopes and dreams; the Son of existence must be forsaken on that Good Friday.

————

A song… Hebrew and Christian. A memory of Egypt… Marching in the wilderness. A memory of the Tabernacle in the wilderness… And… that separating veil:

🎵
“Taa taa taa taa...
Taa, ta ta - ta ta
Taa taa taa…”
🎵

————

On the Saturday, the day after, there was fantastic dancing. Unimaginable. Like never before. Similar to a time before time became time. However, nobody will ever know. All that lived knew only silence on that middle day.

The Crucifixion — “The Veil is Gone!”

——//——

In exploring arrangements I embellished, extended and/or made changes to the music. I also made effective use of the additional staves afforded. Due to this fact, the title of pieces were paraphrased from opus to opus.

Choral — SATB + Piano

The Separating Veil is Torn!, Opus 10 No. 3 — Excerpt

————

Organ

The Crucify, Opus 9 No. 3a — Excerpt

————

Vocal Chamber Ensemble — Soprano, Tenor, Violin, Harpsichord

EREPTUS!, Opus 8 No. 3 — Excerpt

————

Tags Good Friday, music

Poetry Wagner

A Re-working of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung – Chapter 1

Post author By Michael Angelo Bobb
Post date 21st Mar 2025
1 Comment on A Re-working of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung – Chapter 1

Part 1: The Rhinegold | Scene 1 | On the Bed of the Rhine

“From left to right by nature’s design

Flows continuously the ready river Rhine

Lighter turquoise evenly spread

Becoming darker towards the bed

Near the floor the water dissipates

Leaving an increasingly breathable state

This vaporous man-sized space

Moves continuously and at a pace

Across the floor of the riverbed

Where no man can naturally tread

Are rough rocks and undercurrent tides

And vertical caverns unimaginably wild.“

The Ring | Chapter 1 | Scene 1

Tags poetry, Wagner

Videography

Prism Transition

An Arthouse Video

Photography — It was a sunny, Sunday afternoon when light was streaming through my back window. There was a gentle breeze that made the leaves on the tree in the back garden move to and fro. The poetic dancing shadows on my piano added a rare atmosphere. The perfect day to photograph a prism. One has to know about optimal sun position and angle in relation to planet Earth in order to make this document. I succeeded on my second attempt which was 365 days later. This type of photography can only happen on one day of the year in that location.

Light — If I was travelling on a wavelength of white light through a prism, I would mingle with the density of the crystal resulting in offspring of different types of light spread across the electromagnetic continuum as refracted light. Light is refracted on entry and exit of the prism.

Computer — Keynote software has a transition feature called ‘colour planes’ that separates red, green and blue. This knowledge sparked the idea to make a video of a prism. A secondary idea was the knowledge of a particular piece of music.

Music — The title of the music in ‘Prism Transition’ is ‘Spiegel Im Spiegel’ by Arvo Pärt, and was re-composed from four staffs to three by myself especially for the video. Spiegel Im Spiegel translates to Mirror in the Mirror and was the reason I included it in the poem ‘High Street! — Outside In, Inside Out’. Here is that very verse:

“And even more extraordinary: a reflection reflecting itself

Now everything keeps reversing and turn-turning about

Spiegel Im Spiegel melodies go round inside my head

On and on and on it goes, outside in, inside out…”

Illusions — The psychology of visual perception, the physics of refraction. A key term when thinking about mirror images, is: enantiomorphs. An object has the coordinates: x, y, z. An object as reflected by a mirror has the coordinate: – x, y, z. Therefore, when looking through a mirror one has to double the distance from the object to the mirror in order to obtain an accurate measurement of the reflection.

Prism Transition

Tags video

Poetry

High Street!

A quirky poem based on the imagery from last week’s blog!

High Street! – Outside In, Inside Out
Music: Amilcare Ponchielli – Dance Of The Hours from La Gioconda

Last week’s blog:

Click ALISON – Daughter of Alice

Tags Comedy

Fine Art Music

ALISON – Daughter of Alice

An Arthouse Video

The title of this video production is ALISON — Daughter of Alice. The visual aesthetic is ‘high key’: still photographs using black and white reversal film and music by a contemporary composer.

This high key type of photography is crucial to attain the light and bright tones with little or no shadow akin to Hollywood portrayals of heaven. High key photography can be achieved inside the camera at the time of exposing the frame by increasing the exposure value. If you are using film, then darkroom techniques can be used during developing the film and/or printing onto photographic paper. There are also computer software programs which allow you to lighten either the grey/shadowy areas of an image or the whole image. It was this type of post processing that I used with the black and white reversal film from my SLR camera.

Composing the photographs

From black and white to colour, metaphorically speaking.

The scene is Anerley and Penge, South East London, 2019. The time was a bright summertime before the shops opened. The theme: reflections. Beckenham and Croydon were surveyed but couldn’t match the architecture, infrastructure details, street design, economic demographics and lighting. People were avoided at all costs. The law states that you have to gain consent from people before taking their photograph. Sometimes, my Photomedia degree comes in handy! The idea for the project popped into my mind one sunny day as I was just walking down the high street and happened to notice a reflection in a shop window. Before I know it, the moment had come and gone.

The Lewis Carroll Imperative!

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Alison once exclaimed in her Adventures in Wonderland. On reflection, could she have cried the same thing when Looking Through the Looking-glass? The photographs in this arthouse video are what one might see when looking into a shop window on a sunny day: the contents inside and a reflection of what is outside. Imagery Lewis Carroll would appreciate, even entertain and develop, if he was still around today? Please let me know your thoughts on this idea in the comments sections below. Thank you!

Imagine for a moment this very same Alice grew up, married her sweetheart and wanted a baby boy. But, however, she had a daughter instead. What name do you think she would christen the infant? Alison? And suppose this child grew up and happened to walk down a busy village lane just like Penge?

The Music

Im Paradisum by Karl Jenkins

My instrumentation of the music:

Acoustic piano

Electronic keyboard:

Piano
Organ
Recorder
Flute
French horn
Harp
Bell
Cimbles
Chior

The flute sound in this arthouse video I made into a ringtone for my mobile phone. The reason I chose the tune was because it was so light and bright and distinctive.

ALISON – Daughter of Alice

Tags Fine Art, music, video

Music Poetry

GOD CREATES

Poetry

GOD CREATES was written with the sky in mind and appears in my first book. It was one of the poems that marked the start of an increase in my poetry interests following water damage to my Nikon DSLR camera. In the poem, the second person of the Trinity makes an entry, is crucified, rises from the dead, rises to the skies and returns from filling the universe to be the bridegroom at His wedding feast.

This is the only poem I have written where the title is in capital letters. Can one imagine writing anything of this nature and not use capital letters? For me the answer is: “No”. Even music I have composed on this subject has received the same treatment: a vocal chamber piece, a solo piano piece, a choral piece and an organ piece. These musical pieces, by and large, I estimate are falling within the category of virtuosity.

My GOD CREATES poem also retains, on reflection, elements of virtuosity:

10 verses
4 lines per verse
40 lines in total
3 syllables per line
12 syllables per verse
120 syllables in total
2 words per line — except line 39
8 words per verse — except last verse
80 words minus 1 in total

I am sure these numbers mean something to somebody, somewhere!

Would there be poetry if there was not music? Or, should that be: Would there be music if there was not poetry? I hope your happy conclusion has considered at least one of my poems. Perhaps this one?

The music in the video

G. F. Handel (1685 – 1759), Suite Nr. 4, Sarabande. The stately pomp and majesty of this Spanish dance fitted well with the subject matter of the poem: God and God in the act of creating. The rhythmic structure of the music agrees with the rhythmic structure of the poem.

Handel wrote the music for harpsichord, originally. On this recording I am playing it on my once John Broadwood & Sons piano.

GOD CREATES

Tags literature, music, Poem, poems, poetry, video, writing

Love

Love, Romance and Music

Welcome Valentines!

To accompany the above Cupid fly-past, imagine music from, say, a Jane Austen adaptation. The audiobook version of this poem is quite agreeable, and includes a soundtrack arrangement from the Hollywood production of Pride and Prejudice starring Matthew McFadyen and Keira Knightley. All my poetic writings are finalised with a Parker fountain pen!

The next poem is simply titled ‘Love’. On the surface it appears innocuous. Maybe in the manner of Stendhal’s celebrated book with the same title? My essay, however, is a skydive — treating this atomic, incendiary device fantastically. When recording the audio my voice sounded, at times, like a madman. Love had its birth long before primordial waters existed above the stars. And so, you will be forgiven if you feel drunk after this poem. If you do, then you have the genes of a superhero.

King Solomon wrote the Song of Songs in the Bible, Old Testament, dedicating it to his favourite wife: The Shulamite. For this special day, I have selected a particular search engine result about her: “she is a dark, sensual woman”. This understanding, I put to you, was probably arrived at by way of interpreting Solomon’s life. Song of Songs mentions kissing, garden and fragrance. My thunder is singing and a never-ending dance. The players in this, my composition, are: soprano, tenor, violin and piano.

Several years ago on a wet St Valentine’s Day I was listening to BBC Radio 3, a Thursday. They played a delightful version of ‘Scarborough Fair’. Thirty-six hours later I completed recomposing the music for solo piano. My reading includes a three note accompaniment in one hand and suspended notes in the melody. ‘Scarborough Fair’ is a traditional English folk song from the Middle Ages. The ballad is all about asking a former lover to perform impossible tasks in order to win back his love. For this video, my formal dinner shirt represents a cambric shirt.

P.S. I know a man called Eros who thinks about blowing kisses… all day long!

P.P.S. If you know of anyone who will be alone this Valentine’s Day, please share thoughtfully.

Tags love

art Music poetry

Black Friday

Michael Bobb Productions has announced a luxury sale of clean and pristine art, paperbacks and audiobooks of poetry, and a full-length music book for solo piano.