Hallelujah

I have to remember how to spell the title of this song. This week, I'm playing the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. You've probably heard this song in recent years, but this sounds quite a bit different from the original version. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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This song is a different one from the Hallelujah that was composed by Handel. You often hear that one in church choirs and orchestras, for example. This Hallelujah is one that makes sense when I play it on my piano.

In this recording, I even started playing the song with a couple of fingers. When you only need the melody and a bass line, it actually isn't too hard. Then at the end of the song, I was using all the fingers on my hands.

Cohen's original version doesn't sound much like the recordings you hear today, but his song has still become incredibly popular. In fact, there's actually versions of the lyrics for Christmas and Easter. I suppose his song became something different from what he thought it would.

Alright, hopefully this is the last time I'm going to use this 6-line staff. Maybe I should change it so that it's 5 lines.

Just like I'd want to correct that staff, composers might notice that their song has been changed a bit in order to make it better. Or even if you write a book, you might notice that the message people are noticing in it is different from what you planned.

However, that doesn't mean you did a bad job at writing. Your audience just liked it a different way, and they made additions to your work. Without the song you'd written, the new versions of the song, and whatever else was inspired by those, would never have existed.

If you're going to fill a teacup with music, there's no problem with adding in some milk or sugar.

So keep filling it!

~Liya