The heart of song - Bobby McFerrin

Krista Tippet does her homework before interviewing incredible people.  This morning her guest was Bobby McFerrin.

Bobby grew up in an Episcopal church in LA.  He loved singing in the children's choir.  His dad was an opera singer, and his mom sang all the time.  He grew up with singing in the home.

Here are three great YouTubes of his work.  There are times, he says, when he goes onstage feeling horrible, bad headache or tense because he's just had an argument with one of his children.  Within a minute of being with the audience, he's happy.  By the end of 90 minutes he's usually 80% healed.  To me this says something about his love for what he is doing, his love for music, his love for people, and the healing effect of acting on this love.

He tries to release in his audiences the improvisation and spontaneity they knew as children.  He taps into a deep spirituality innate, it seems, in all mankind.  (Scroll to the interview link at the bottom.)

He says of the Pentatonic Scale, "Regardless of where I am, anywhere (in the whole world), every audience gets that!"  You have to see it, to appreciate "getting it."





How do you draw thousands of strangers into singing "Ave Maria" together, beautifully, the first time?




For the 23rd Psalm, Bobby had been thinking about the heavy patriarchal element in the church and wanted to write something about the feminine side of God.  He dedicated this to his mother.



Note how in the final added verse which, in a traditional chant would be "Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost," he is consistent in maintaining the feminine.

The text:
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need.
She makes me lie down in green meadows;
Beside the still waters She will lead.

She restores my soul; She rights my wrongs.
She leads me in a path of good things
and fills my heart with songs.

Even though I walk through a dark and dreary land,
there is nothing that can shake me,
She has said She won't forsake me --
I'm in her hand.

She sets a table before me in the presence of my foes.
She anoints my head with oil
and my cup overflows.

Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in Her house forever,
forever and ever.

Glory be to our Mother and Daughter
and to the Holy of Holies
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be
World without end.  Amen.

You can listen now to  Krista Tippet's interview with Bobby McFerrin,  “Catching song.”