Fear and Trembling

Based on Søren Kierkegaard’s work by the same title, this thirty minute recording of piano and voices presents Kiekegaard’s observations of Abraham and Isaac in eight, minimalistic poems.

You can find it on iTunes, and elsewhere.

PREFACE

(0:00-1:11)

ABRAHAM

(1:12-3:42)

Then He tested Abraham
Who answered “I’m listening”
God said, “Take your son”

“Take him to the land of Moriah
Take your promise son, whom you love
Sacrifice him there, on the mountain
Sacrifice your own son.”

Abraham gives way
And silent, early in the morning he awakes
To travel for three long days

Faith is not something to acquire
Faith is a long road, leading afar
so Don’t you think that you can go any further
Don’t think you don’t have to start

So Abraham takes his own dear son
And steps out on
The road to Moriah

TRAGIC HERO

(3:42-6:54)

People hoped a hero was soon to come their way
Someone who would hear, understand all their complaints
Someone who would set aside his own desires
For the people, give of his life without restraint

[Woah…]

And the story goes and it ends a tragedy
The poor lad gave ‘way, gave his own identity
And the towns people watched and they all understood
So gather ‘round and join as the people weep for him

[Woah…]

KNIGHT OF FAITH

(6:55-10:25)

Here a hero did not come
To speak up, protect the son
But choosing a different way
Abraham holds on to faith
Abraham, a knight of faith

[woah…]

That which of him is required
Abandoned with his desire
He embraced the religious way
Abraham of righteous faith
Abraham, the knight of faith

[woah…]

SPEECHES IN PRAISE OF ABRAHAM

(10:26-12:51)

For great is he, who more loves God than man
for he shall ne’er be forgot
For great is he, who strives with God, holds belief
for he shall be greater than all

For great is he to give up one’s desires
Greater still to hold resignation after
For great is he to grasp hold of the eternal
And greater still to hold on to the temporal
After giving it up

PREAMBLES OF THE HEART

(12:52-17:23)

I come close to see your movements
and Move away from understanding
Sleepless nights all full of anguish
I see you move with fear and trembling

PROBLEMA I

(17:24-21:10)

Faith, the paradox–Faith, the one is placed higher
Than the ethical
Faith, the individual is placed all out on his own
Apart from the world

Is there an end, a cause that is greater
Than one’s relation to the universal, the ethical

To love the son, more than the self is Abraham’s
Ethical law
Still, he puts it aside, As proof of his faith
Proof to his God

One does not start, knowing the outcome
He steps on the strength if the absurd [Oh]
And finds no release, from the agony–the paradox
And finds no relief, on the edge of the world [Oh]

PROBLEMA II

(21:11-25:15)

He walks alone
Outside the world
And meets not a soul, a single traveller

It’s a terrible fall
He knows
To, in solitude, be born [na na… oh]

And Abraham
Renounces the world
To become the particular

And turns his ways
So absolute, to the absolute [na na… oh]

PROBLEMA III

(25:16-28:29)

The silent talk of God and man

Can Abraham speak to us at all?
And find relief; the universal

But silence talks of God and man

What could be said, to justify
To be understood, by wife and child

In silence God communes with man

“Isaac, O my son
God for himself will provide
For the burnt offering
A lamb to be sacrificed”

EPILOGUE

(28:30-31:03)