Luminous

 

Luminous                                                               Copyright Dec 2, 2018

Lyrics by Bette Korber, music by Bette Korber and Lisa Carman

This song is played in a standard guitar tuning, but riddled with non-standard chords.

As I don’t know what I’m doing, I made up a way to try to write this down.

“h” is my way of trying to write a non-standard chord played up on a high fret. It means fingering like a simple E or A, but played “high” up, on the fret number indicated (like the 7^th or 9^th fret)

I tried to guess from the notes what the chord might actually be on the left. Good luck!

B=Eh on 9^th  fret,  A = Eh on 7^th,  

E= Ah on 9^th, D = A on 7^th fret, C = A on 5^th fret, Bb = A on 3^rd fret

Intro -- instrumental

Actual chord              (chord form/fret)

B / B / A / A /              (E 9^th E 7^th)

B4 / B4 / A2 / A2 /      (E 9^th E 7^th)

B4 / B4 / A2 / A2 /      (E 9^th E 7^th)

D2 / A / E / E              (A 7th, A, E)

E2 / D2 / E / E            (A 9^th, A 7^th, E)

Chorus: piclk                                                                        Actual chord              (chord/fret)

Your words are trailing stardust                                           B / B / A / A /             (Eh 9^th Eh 7^th)

There’s moonlight in your eyes                                           B / B / A / A /             (Eh 9^th Eh 7^th)

Reason leads to the knowledge you find                            B / B / A / A /             (Eh 9^th Eh 7^th)

As the Music of the Spheres plays in your mind.                D / A / E / E /             (Ah 7th, A, E)     

Verses: strum

Henrietta’s stars are dancing,                                            B / B / B / B /     (Eh 9^th)

Shining with rhythms of light.                                             A / A / A / A /     (Eh 7^th)

Finding meaning in their tempos,                                      B / B / B / B /      (Eh 9^th)

She gave distance to the night.                                         G / G / F / F /     (Eh 5^th, Eh 3^rd,)

                                                                                               

E  / F / G / G    ( E , Eh 3^{rd ,} Eh 5^th)

Cecilia untangled starlight,                                                          

Found the fabric of the universe.                                     

White fire in her  alchemy                                                 

Heats the sun and warms the Earth                              

                                                                                               

Chorus: sing  

Aaaahhhhh break    strum

E (Ah 9^th)        D (Ah 7^th)         C (Ah 5^th)     Bb (Ah 3^rd)     A    A               E / D / C / Bb / A

Ah –a               Ah – a              Ah – a           Ah –a-aa-a    a-a Ah            pause

Verses:

Vera danced with Galaxies,

They swirled her in their arms,

She found matter in their darkness,

Shaped their patterns and their forms.

Sweet Beetle weighed the universe,

Held omega in her palm

She saw dark and light together

Expand into Forever’s song.

Chorus

Your words are trailing stardust                                      

There’s moonlight in your eyes                                       

Reason leads to the knowledge you find                                  

As the Music of the Spheres plays in your mind.                     

Outro: strum

Luminous, Mysterious, Luminous, Mysterious             E/ D / E/ D (Ah 9^th, Ah 7^th)

Luminous, Mysterious, … Women’s minds.                 E / D / E / E   (Ah 9^th, Ah 7^th)

Luminous Video 

Luminous Song 

 

This song and video were created as a tribute to four women astronomers: Henrietta Leavitt (Leavitt’s law, period-luminosity relation), Cecilia Payne (the composition of stars),  Vera Rubin (Dark Matter), and Beatrice (Beetle) Tinsley (galactic evolution and the expanding Universe).

 

Adapted Creative Commons copyright 

Song copyright, Dec. 2, 2018, video copyright, July 1, 2019)

Please feel welcome to sing Luminous live in any venue.

Please feel free to share or show the Luminous music/video in any non-commercial context, but please keep the credits at the end linked to the images to comply with their usage requirements.

If you would like to record this song, please contact Bette Korber or Lisa Carman at She Sings Studio, Bozeman, Montana.

Song Notes:

I write songs that tell stories, of people and places that move me. I was reading about astronomy, trying to understand what I could about how we (collectively) know what we know about the universe. As I read, I discovered the work of four amazing women whose ideas helped shaped the way we understand the cosmos:

Henrietta Leavitt (Leavitt’s law, period-luminosity relation allowing us to measure the relative distance to stars),

Cecilia Payne (Composition of stars and the sun), 

Vera Rubin (Dark Matter),

Beatrice "Beetle" Tinsley (Galactic evolution and the expanding universe)  

The work of these fine women was new to me, but of course they are not forgotten among those enjoy the history of science -- there is rich information about them available for the curious in terms of biography, essays, and letters. There are lonely craters on the moon, and asteroids streaking through the dark and cold of space, that bear their names. A mountain peak in New Zealand was favored with the name Mount Tinsley.  Even better, one can find them in the clear beautiful trails of understanding they left in scientific literature. But as far as I could tell, they were "unsung". So I fixed that.  I'm blessed to be able to collaborate with wonderful musicians who lift up my songs and give them some grace.  This song comes to you from:

Lyrics by Bette Korber

Music by Bette Korber and Lisa Carman

Lead Vocal: Lisa Carman

Mandolin: Jimmie Killingsworth

Banjo: Peter Oviatt

(Peter's and Jimmie's music is so entwined it flows together as one sweet shining stream of music through this little song)

Violin: Karina Wilson

Bass: Justin Bransford

Harmony Vocal: Adrienne Bellis

Drums and Percussion: Paul Pearcy

Sound Engineer: Jono Manson (Kitchen Sink Studio: Santa Fe, New Mexico)

Mastering: Michael MacDonald (AlgoRythms Mastering: Santa Fe, New Mexico)

Producers: Bette Korber and Lisa Carman (She Sings Studio: Santa Fe, New Mexico & Bozeman, Montana)

There is a moment of quiet at the end of the song, Karina's fiddle sings us out, then there is silence, then her fiddle whispers back in.  The silence between the fiddle lines is a wordless line of the song. It is for Vera Rubin, a Quiet to remember the many many long cold nights she spent in the high peaks of Arizona, minding the great telescopes, her mind in the stars of a dark sky, her thoughts entering distant galaxies. Observing.

Cover photo 

Comet Lovejoy, a photo by my husband James (theilr@flickr, Album: view from the gutter).

Thank you for listening.