The devastation I felt at Trump’s election four year ago was accompanied by Kate McKinnon’s rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah on SNL just after the election. Leonard Cohen had died a few days before and this seemed to sum up all the loss, passion and despair I was feeling. Her end remark, “I’m not giving up and neither should you” has followed me through these four years. I learned to play the song and it has been my go-to when I need to reflect on there being a better chance this next time.
Hallelujah
I didn’t watch the RNC convention. Fortunately, I had scheduled a number of Zoom meetings talking about everything from re-electing a representative who flipped an always red seat last year to how to use books to increase equity in our schools. I wasn’t even tempted. But, reading a summary this morning, I saw that Hallelujah was played and sung...twice.
Obviously, Trump neither had heard the words nor knew the provenance. He may have thought he was hearing the Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. But I wondered if there was someone planning this program who decided to bookend these four years in this way. You have to listen to the two renditions of this song to see how profoundly they reflect the difference in visions.
The operatic singing at the end of the convention was just plain weird, beautiful but weird. Trump tried clapping to bring it to a close after about 3 minutes, then stood silent. The assembled unmasked crowd stood for almost 9 minutes of an italian opera aria, Cohen’s Hallelujah, and Ave Maria in Latin, (make America great?) and then joined in singing patriotic songs. Remember one of the first super spreader events? It was a small church choir that demonstrated that singing is one of the best ways to pass on the virus. Plus chanting — Four more years, and USA-USA-USA. I hope that the CDC uses this as a research project on how the virus spreads.
I went back to listen to McKinnon’s version again. Hillary Clinton had also listened to it and said it brought tears to her eyes, just as it did to mine and Kate’s. It still is pure and poignant. The song’s words about a “broken king”, “even though it all went wrong”, and the sense of an ended relationship were fitting for four years ago. i hope they are equally fitting today.