Krakow Open Mic - Henning Franz Composition

From Aug 31, 2010   leonardohenforum

Henning melds his music with Leonard Cohen's words to stunning effect

While the Krakow Event brimmed with excellent, interesting presentations, none was more captivating, genuinely moving, and – at least to me – delightfully surprising than our very own forum Mod, Henning’s performance at the Open Mic session.

To those of us who know Henning only from his forum posts, he comes across as – well, let’s call it feisty and edgy. In person, however, he is – and those of you who haven’t met him will have to trust me on this - charming, soft spoken, and elegant.

At Open Mic, Henning sang lyrics written by Leonard Cohen set to music Henning himself composed. The effect was, without exaggeration, enthralling.

In an email correspondence, Henning elaborated on his approach:

The song [played at Open Mic] is called Priests. It appeared on the first LC songbook that I bought, called Songs from Leonard Cohen.

Way back then I tried to play it according to the tablature in the songbook, but never really got it. So after I started to create my own melodies to Leonard's poems in 2000, early this year I created my own take on Priests and this is the result.

Happily, I captured Henning's turn at the Krakow Open Mic on video. The lighting on the theatre stage distorts the view somewhat, but the sound is pretty good.

As can be seen on this video, the words of Leonard Cohen meld with Henning's exquisite music giving the audience a gift which shines with his unabashed love of Leonard Cohen’s work.

I came so far for beauty, indeed!


*Priests*
Music by: Henning Franz
Words by: Leonard Cohen

Leonard's lyrics are:

And who will write love songs for you
when I am lord at last
and your body is some little highway shrine
that all my priests have passed

My priests they will put flowers there
they will stand before the glass
and they wear away your little window love
they will trample on the grass

And who will aim the arrow
that men will follow thru your grace
when I am lord of memory
and all your armour has turned to lace

And all of you have seen the dance
that God has kept from me
but he has seen me watching you
when all your minds where free

There are 4 songs from my 2003 album "Songs from Energy of slaves" at
 http://www.myspace.com/golittlesong