Music To Inspire!


"Music is an agreeable harmony for the honour of God and the permissible delights of the soul." ~J.S. Bach
I am sitting in the cozy pink bedroom, listening to delightful music on my Spotify playlist and think what I am supposed to write in this dear little blog of mine? It is a truth I feel you may be aware of that this blog has been a bit 'under-the-weather' so to speak due to how schoolwork has flooded me lately with its immensity. It is on my plans to do some slight changes around here in the near future, Lord willing, and also refocus on keeping this blog a happy and healthy and inspiring place to visit. This probably includes things like a new blog design, a reorganization of the different topics I normally write about here on this blog, and an appearance of more thought-provoking posts. But this sort of takes a bit of time and right now I do not have that time - more is the pity! But please do stay patient, and stay tuned to this blog, as I have some little plans :)).

All that aside, I thought to go with a more light-hearted, musical post for today, seeing all the music I've been into lately. It was Mary (no wonder there), who actually brought to my memory rather unintentionally the old blog series I used to do on my blog, Music To Inspire!. Good gracious, it has been a while since I did one of these, hasn't it? But since I have been having a little 'dry spell' with blogging the last few weeks, it seemed like a good idea to share some of the music that I've been listening to with you all, in the hope that it inspires us all! Music is, after all, an amazing spark for imagination both in the blogging and novel-writing sphere. What is Music To Inspire! you might ask? Well, you can find all you need to know about it here, but the gist of it is this: 

Music To Inspire! is a series of posts I started in 2011 where I share in a specific post, hymns and Christian songs, classical music, folk songs and some of my favourite movie soundtracks with you all. Sounds interesting? Well, I hope you'll as thoroughly enjoy those tracks and YouTube music clips as I do, and are blessed as well!

But this time, I've decided to add a little feature to Music To Inspire! You can join in the series yourself by sharing a Music to Inspire! post of your own with your own favourite youtube songs of the month on your blog with a few thoughts on each of the songs. I am quite curious about the melodies that have been inspiring you so please join in with a post of your own and don't forget to simply link back to my post and leave the leave the link of your post on the linky at the bottom of the post so that the posts would go 'round. Enjoy!

'You Raise me Up'

A while ago, my mum discovered this song, 'You Raise me Up' sung by Josh Gobran, and it has become a favourite of mine just as it is to her. According to Wikipedia, the song was originally written as an instrumental piece and titled, 'Silent Story'. Parts of the melody are based on a traditional Irish tune (especially the opening phrase of the its chorus), the Londonerry Air,  which is best known as the usual tune to the 1910 song Danny Boy. It is always interesting to discover the history of some of the music. Nonetheless, I just really love the words of the song, and is such an encouragement in times of trial. 'You raise me up so that I may stand on mountains... I am strong when I am on Your shoulders; You raise me up to more than I can be'. 

'The Sailor and the Mermaid' by the Gothard Sisters

A little while ago, my sisters and I came across the youtube channel of The Gothard Sisters, who are an 'all-female Irish music and dance group from the Pacific Northwest, USA. The three girls (who are truly sisters!) perform and record new Celtic arrangements of well-known traditional tunes and popular songs, as well as their own original compositions from their 6 recorded studio albums.' (just so you'd know I got that above synopsis from their website, The Gothard Sisters). Greta, Willow and Salona are really talented young ladies; each of them started learning the violin when they were really young, then they got into Irish dancing and now play all sorts of instruments and sing as well together in concerts and Festivals across America. They were/are homeschooled which naturally gives them more time to play and sing and be together, and I just love watching them work together as sisters. It is always fun listening and watching music bands that are made up of siblings, particularly three or more sisters (I can so relate to it *grins*), like the Von Trapp Children and these girls are pretty much like them except that they concentrate more on playing music :). They just inspire me so much to pick up my violin and fiddle away, or sing with my sisters! This youtube song above, is actually one of their own compositions and one of my favourites at that; I find it so beautiful and joyful - don't you agree? You can watch more of their songs here

The Hobbit - Misty Mountains (Dwarven Song) Violins - Taylor Davis

You may remember me sharing on a previous Music to Inspire! post some of Taylor Davis' music videos. She's a really beautifully talented violinist who plays passionately and feelingly. I always love listening to her play and learning something new from her on the violin! Well, here is her version of 'Misty Mountains' dwarf song from The Hobbit on the violin. Being quite a fan of the song from the movie, I was so happy that I really loved this arrangement - it carries something of the same depth and mystical beauty that Richard Armitage and the cast gave to the song, I think *smiles*. 

And my dear friends, that's all the songs I've got for today! I could add more, but I thought the fewer the better, because then you'd have the chance to listen and enjoy them thoroughly. So, tell me, are you happy that I brought back Music To Inspire! and do you think I should continue it? If so, please try and  join in Music To Inspire! and leave your link below :). May the Lord Jesus bless you with His loving Presence tonight.

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