Dieu de l’enfer

Dr dear Dr: I am hardly the DMus that you might be after having started so many chorales, choirs, and scholas in the past, but allow me to confide that I have been listening to a modern ballad by the singer Giulia Falcone, called “SOS d’un terrien en detresse”, and I was surprised to hear the phrase “Dieu de l’univers,” which I maybe misheard or misinterpreted as “Dieu de l’enfer” in which the singer I thought seemed to be suggesting that the God of the heavens is also the God of hell, any clarifications on this little gem of a Gemma piece?

These modern ballads rarely attain the kind of fame or clarity that a song like the famous ones of Hayley Westernra attain sometimes like Clare de Lune, and then there is the rival genre in the pop world where Ed Sheeran the British actor and popstar has said that the best singer in the world is Taylor Swift, but the reader is right to highlight the above ballad which in the original sung by a male singer attains great fame, as much for its lyrics as for its tune, but in the hands of a young and rare genius like Giulia Falcone really does attain the epithet of greatness. It is now arguably one of the best modern ballads in the world of entertainment and classical music. And true like many superficial observers the music and the words seem to chime in with the sentiments of the Albert Camus of the world in which the suffering of the human race is a cause for disbelief in a good God of the universe, but in this song, there is more to meet the eye, it is true. She does not actually sing the sentiment “Dieu de l’enfer” but she hints at the overall meaning in the phrase “Dieu de l’univers”, God as president over the world even over this world, that God even in the depths of Sheol can be found to be lauded, and chiefly because he is not a God of vindictive or capricious punishment of the worthy or the just but a God of justice who must see his poor little ones vindicated and liberated from the unjust mishandling of the rich. In a middle class and upper class world, the rich always defend the rich, and the soppy sentiments of the Camus brand of philosophical emotionalism is the sort of thing that poor quality amateur philosophers love to love, but it is all sentiment and rich man’s thought at the end of the day, as that great black actor in the movie “Platoon” about taking point in Vietnam has it in response to some pious secular platitudes of some secular journalist played by actor Charlie Sheen, since it is the poor little ones of the world on AOC style zero contracts that have to live with the downloads of the rich and the unjust and those like subprime lenders that deprive fathers and their young families of the rooves over their heads. So yes, the rich love defending the rich, the famous dine off the plates of the famous, but who but God defends the poor little families and little ones of the world? In this sense what Giulia Falcone alludes to is the correct sentiment in a world in distresse, that the world does suffer at the hands of the wealthy and famous and richesse laden indulgencies, that God is a just God and this cannot be denied, and that even the dark lords of punishment in Sheol must obey his salvific will, for he must save the world not only for its justness from time to time but also give good example to those that have failed in their compassion for others and allowed bad example and scandal to dominate their public comportment in times of great questioning by men. The soppy sentimentality of the rich and the upper classes is not vindicated by this extreme modern ballad - it is a distressing one to think about, but a nice one to listen to and ponder upon, Deo volente. Giulia does an exceptional job on this song and is to be congratulated on a neat 9/10 for performance. As good as the Hungarian ballad from the music of a young Akayoz singing the theme song from the movie “Gladiator”, in which the divine being or Ondi or the “sun of righteousness” is praised for his justice too, as the young Russian singer moves the ground of “Gladiator” and redisposes the listener and the reader to the idea that actually “Gladiator the movie” is really about religion, religion for the young slaves of the gladiatorial schools of the ancient world of the Romans, the pro mundo romanorum and so is the right movie that parents might wish to show to their boys and girls at home when introducing the manly spirituality of the gladiators of once upon a time. Gerard Manly Hopkins would love this movie - men do so too. We like this movie, Fr B and myself, and this theme song for its sonorous beauty but also because it chimes in nicely with our intent as we run this parish like a gladiatorial training school rather than just yet another standard elderly nursing home for the deanery wallahs of yet another extension of the DSS or another sentimental and soppy Albert Camus like reserve for the unbeliever medicaid worker that is dealing with the leg in bed 6 and the lung in bed 7. Either way, it is difficult to compare the two ballads, but Falcone gets ahead on sheer pallid pace and emotive delivery each time, a very nice modern ballad, arguably the best in the world, even with a gifted young Akayoz around, at this moment in time.