William Zeitler's Music Box

Author: william

  • Whoever Loses His Life for My Sake…

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    Prelude in Fm            J.S. Bach (1685-1750)   [PIANO] This week’s Gospel contains the enigmatic and impossible “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospel’s sake will save it.” (Mark 8:35) Like “Zen masters” everywhere, Jesus is superb at blowing…

  • ‘If Thou But Trust In God To Guide Thee.’”

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    “Lenten Prelude”      C. Callahan Susan Addington, Flute Fugue in Bm, WTC I          J. S. Bach (1685-1750) At age 20, a bright German young man, Georg Neumark (1621-1681), packed his few belongings and left his home in the Thuringian forests. By hard work and frugality, he had saved enough for…

  • For the Beauty of the Earth

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    Folliott Sandford Pierpoint (1835-1917) was born at Spa Villa, Bath, England, and educated at Cambridge, earning his degree in Classics with honors. He taught Classics at Somersetshire College, and eventually retired from academics to become a writer, spending most of his life in Bath and the south-west of England. Pierpoint died at the age of…

  • The Shadow

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    To me one of the more interesting thinkers of the 20th century has to be Carl Jung (1875-1961, pronounced “Yoong”). He was a psychiatrist by profession, and studied under Freud as a young man. He was absolutely devoted to Freud for a season, and then he started to question. For openers, he questioned that everything…

  • Thomas Aquinas and Aurora Consurgens

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    “Vision”                                      W. Zeitler [ORGAN] Order of Chivalry: Truth & the Knight’s Lance     W. Zeitler   In former Music Boxes I’ve discussed the idea of ‘spiritual alchemy’. This is an idea pioneered by Carl Jung (1875-1961) —…

  • Robert Lowry “Shall We Gather at the River”

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    “Shall We Gather at the River” — both lyrics and music — was written by Robert Lowry (1826–1899). The text refers to Revelation chapter 22 in which a crystal clear river with water of Life is described, issuing from the throne of heaven, all presented by an angel of God. Lowry was born in Philadelphia.…

  • Two Monks

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    “Two Monks” (See the Music Box)                          W. Zeitler Improvisation Once upon a time there were two monks on a long journey from one monastery to another — an older veteran monk and a new novice. The road took them to a river. No…

  • William Williams “Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah”

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    “Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah” William Williams (1717-1791) is generally considered to be Wales’ most famous hymn writer. As a writer of both poetry and prose, Williams is today considered one of Wale’s greatest literary figures. He was equally distinguished as one of the key leaders of the 18th century Welsh Methodist revival. Williams…

  • Henry Francis Lyte – Abide with Me

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    “La fille aux cheveux de lin” (The girl with the flaxen hair)    C. Debussy (1682-1918) “Abide With Me” Improvisation Henry Francis Lyte (1793–1847), vicar in the fishing village of Lower Brixham, Devonshire, England, ministered faithfully to his sea-faring people for twenty-three years. Though of modest means, he and his wife Anne lived in an elegant…

  • God and Gnosis

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    “A Leaf in the Wind”     W. Zeitler Improvisation In the last Music Box I discussed the difference between two Greek words for ‘knowledge’: EPISTĒMĒ and GNŌSIS. (Greek has many more words for knowledge than just these two.) EPISTĒMĒ is knowing all about something, while GNŌSIS is direct personal experience. If EPISTĒMĒ is about knowing…