Liner Notes: "A Prayer That's Soft and True"
A first release
A Prayer That’s Soft and True was written at home in 2022.
At its heart, the song is a petition for selflessness & solidarity. Despite arising from a place of non-traditional spirituality, the song employs a Biblical language to convey its feeling. However, the heart of its expression can also be mapped onto the Buddhist principle of Karuṇā ( करुणा ), being a cultivated impulse of justice, compassion & mercy. Karuṇā is rooted in spiritual striving, and Buddhist aspirational goals.
The song’s melody & lyrics were teased out in a rough form over two nights. Roughly six months later, in early 2023, the song was recorded over 12 hours. All the parts on the album were written and performed alone, and this process lent itself to a non-stop session of recording — one which curiously resembled a contemplative practice.
Tony Gillott assisted with the production of the song. Tony’s enthusiasm and passion for recording engineering — as well as the tools he graciously offered through his own private studio — were indispensable to this process.
A tremendous token of gratitude to Tony for not only offering his time, patience, and input, but also for encouraging & deepening the creative process.
The album artwork features a very old 18th century image of a fleuron: decorative, usually floral — “printer’s flowers” — illustrations used as typographic features, marginalia, and punctuating forms.
In particular, the fleuron used comes from the 1786 edition of Illustrations pour La Fille de joie (Illustrations for the Girl of Joy), authored by John Cleland (1709-1789). Sourced via public domain resources by way of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the image is in the public domain.
The lyrics to the song can be read below:
God bless the one who waits
Takes their time and radiates
Steely patience, meditations on the day
And God help the child who weeps
Picking pennies from the streets
May they never ever hunger, never thirst
Save the ones who still maintain,
Silent faith, the golden chain
Tethered to creation’s cause
Rich in action, meek in words
Shepherds tending to their herds
In a shining fertile field
Lord help for me to seek
Ways to turn my other cheek
Love my enemies as friends
May our hearts still never harden
May we get back to the garden
Where we all might walk as one
All these things I ask of you
In a prayer that’s soft and true
Sealed with the sacred sign
And sing it…
All these things I ask of you
In a prayer that’s soft and true
Sealed with the sacred sign
© Danny Scope/Daniel Scopelliti. June 2024.