Hallelujah is a Hebrew word meaning "Praise you, Jehovah" or "Glory to the Lord". Leonard Cohen, the late Canadian singer, wrote the song for his 1984 album Various Positions but it really became popular after it was featured in the 2000 film Shrek. It has been much recorded including versions by John Cale, Jeff Buckley, Willie Nelson, Rufus Wainwright, k.d.lang, Susan Boyle and Alexander Burke. But, after Leonard Cohen's own version, my favourite one is by the fragile-voiced English folk-singer Kathryn Williams. There have been over 300 recordings of the song and Bob Dylan has performed it on stage.
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| Leonard Cohen, 1934 - 2016 |
Cohen's version really emphasises the
poetical nature of his work. As with Bob Dylan many of his lyrics stand up
on their own as poetry. The song was voted into the top ten of greatest songs by
songwriters in the British magazine Q.
It is often stated that lyrics and poetry differ because
lyrics were written to be sung and it's true that reading aloud the lyrics of
many wonderful songs just doesn't work as poetry. I think there should be a
newly-coined word for song-lyrics that are somewhere in between because
great lyrics are often underrated. I hope recognition of Bob Dylan as a Nobel
Laureate brings acceptance of this closer.
Cohen, a notorious perfectionist, is said to have originally
written 80 verses for the song and has performed almost
totally different versions on stage. This variety is reflected in many of the
cover versions which allows the song to be interpreted in an assortment of ways
from religious iconography to explicit sexual meanings. I would say that
Cohen's recorded version contains both of those elements at once.
Probably my favourite verses are the fabulous first and
second ones:
Well I heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah.
Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
The second verse contains reference to a pair of notorious biblical
women: Bathsheba ("You saw her bathing on the roof")
and Delilah ("....she broke your throne and she cut your
hair.") I find it unsurprising that so many singers have recorded this
song and sing it live on stage because it is so immaculately constructed -
perhaps I should have said 'conceived'. Leonard would have known what I meant
by that......
Interestingly the fourth and fifth lines of the first verse actually
describe, musically, what the song is doing as those lyrics are sung. The
accompanying chords are often used in hymns. Also, it's in the relatively rare
12/8 time signature. That is, if you like, a regular four-beat bar with
each beat divided in a triple rhythm.
