Songs of the Sorrowing Heart

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NKJV)
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. ⁶ Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. ⁷ And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

Certain musical genres are helpful when you are troubled. The two that readily come to mind, is the Blues (Spirituals) and Country Music. You will also find a thorough treatment of this theme in true folk music – that is, in traditional forms of music that evolved naturally from the human experience.

One of the most plaintive is the O Negro Spiritual “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child.” It was first recorded by Paul Robesons in 1933, in the shadow of the Great Depression. Perhaps Odette does it best, from a woman’s perspective. And who can forget the definitive cover from “Hooty and the Blowfish.” <grin>

According to Etta James in an interview with American Chronicle: "The Blues and country are first cousins ... What I look for in a song is for the story to be for real. I like a blood and guts kind of thing. That's what you find in the lyrics of country music." Blues and country music both developed in the 19th century in the Southern United States. They share a similar history. For this reason, they share many of the same musical and lyrical characteristics.

 

Traditional folk music or American Tradition Music sings has many songs of woe, like “In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines and you shiver when the cold winds blow.” While American Folks Music and the Blues represent the songs of sorrow and lamentation, I doubt there is culture on the earth that does not have similar themes in their music and stories.

I suppose the source of all sorrow comes when the events of our lives fail to meet our expectations. We expect our emotional relationships to last for a lifetime and mourn when they are cut short. Our hearts are made to break when those we love experience pain. I doubt we would have it to contrary. Imagine a life completely without sorrow. Would it be a life truly worth living? I would mean that we had nothing of value to mourn when it is lost.

I doubt there are “tears in Heaven” (to borrow from yet another songwriter on the occasion of losing his son.) God will indeed one day, immediately following our death, “wipe every tear from our eyes.” Till then, in this “vale of tears” we will feel the gut sinking sensation of loss.

God sometimes washes the eyes of his children with tears in order that they may read aright his providence and his commandments. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler (1822–1909)

 

A day of sorrow is longer than a month of joy. Chinese Proverb

All our winters are God’s:
the winter of our sorrow,
the winter of our unhappiness,
even the winter of our discontent. George Macdonald (1824–1905)

 

Behind joy and laughter there may be a temperament, coarse, hard, and callous. But behind sorrow there is always sorrow. Pain, unlike pleasure, wears no mask. Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

 

Do not cheat thy heart and tell her, “Grief will pass away, Hope for fairer times in future, And forget today.” Tell her, if you will, that sorrow Need not come in vain; Tell her that the lesson taught her Far outweighs the pain. Adelaide Ann Procter (1825–1864)