A Blissful Sunday - Part II

Now I must tell you about the second part of our blissful Sunday - the gorgeous wedding we attended. Youlia and Jose - the bride and groom to be - had invited me to sing one of the pieces from my upcoming CD on love and marriage. Up till now, I have sung the same piece for 5 weddings this year (love is definitely in the air)! For all the previous weddings, I had sung the marriage prayer with Martin Kerr as a duet on the original recording so I felt it was time for a change. Youlia and some of the guests had already heard that piece at Varya and Sarmad’s wedding (another dear couple whose wedding was held in our home a few months ago-what a blessing that was for us).

Jarome was just finishing up one of the new pieces for the CD called ‘ Where there is love‘ so we set a goal of finishing it in time for the wedding (we only had 2-3 weeks). He made a backtrack so that I could use it for Youlia and Jose’s wedding. Let me tell you a little about this piece… It consists of a quotation by Abdu’l-Baha on love, an Apache (Native American) wedding blessing and a quote about love by Henri Matisse. The three quotes are intertwined in the same piece and sung together in parts. Naturally I wouldn’t be able to sing all the parts together live for the wedding so it took a little time working with Jarome on choosing how best to sing the song and which parts to sing live and which to leave out. So after a few trials, we finally made it work really well.

What I love about this song is that it has lots of rhythm. That is something that I haven’t used too much of before in my music but with some encouragement from my producer and an open mind, I have grown to love it and am feeling the need for more of it in my compositions from now on! Needless to say, there were a few surprised faces in the audience once the African djembe and the drums starting playing on the song!

The wedding was held outside in a beautiful garden and what a glorious and joyous wedding it was. These wonderful occasions are always such a delight to attend especially with Tarry as it brings memories of our own special day!

I am including the wedding invitation that Youlia and Jose put up on youtube (beautifully made by Sarmad in consultation with Youlia). I felt it was such a unique way of inviting guests to a wedding!

Thought of the Day:

“Now you will feel no rain,

for each of you will be shelter to the other.

Now you will feel no cold,

for each of you will be warmth to the other.

Now you are two persons but there is one life before you.

Go now to your dwelling-place to enter into the days of your togetherness.

And may your days be good and long upon the earth.”

-Traditional Apache (American Indian) Wedding Blessing