Hallelujah

Malinda is one of my very best friends.  I've known her as long as I've known George; I met both of them right when I moved to Austin in 2008.
During the pandemic, the KLCC choir died in the most literal sense possible.  She and I have been doing what we can to salvage the music scene of this crumbling church, rummaging through old choral scores to see what works for solo voice and what doesn't.  We recently stumbled upon Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and I said, "Mozart's Light Show uses this.  Do you think we should save it for the holiday season?"  She said, "Oh, everybody uses it for whatever they want.  You could change a few words and make it into a math lesson."  This quickly became an actual creative writing assignment from her to me - Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, as a math lesson, in three verses.

It's such an iconic song that I wanted to change as little as possible; to not only leave the rhyming patterns, but most of the actual rhymes themselves.  The atmosphere - religious, vague, powerful, artistic.  Flexible in meaning, but actually about something as mundane as the area of a triangle.

If you like this, then why?  But thank her for the inspiration.

George often says, "Why can't we figure out how to make money with that brain of yours?"

I think we all know why.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord  That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don’t really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth The minor falls, the major lifts The baffled king composing Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her She tied you to a kitchen chair She broke your throne, and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Well, maybe there's a God above As for me all I've ever learned from love Is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you But it's not a crime that you're hear tonight It's not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the Light No, it's a cold and it's a very broken Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Instrumental Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Well people I've been here before I know this room and I've walked this floor You see I used to live alone before I knew ya And I've seen your flag on the marble arch But listen love, love is not some kind of victory march, no It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah

I’ve heard there was a formula By Heron of Alexandria, But you don’t really care for quotients, do you? It goes like this, the height, the width Just half the base, but all the lift, The triangle triumphant, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw no squares when you drew the roof Her angles lay all sorts of ways, you knew her So you broke her base, and you saw the mess But two diagonals you’d just been blessed And from your lips, came forth the Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Well, maybe there’s a God above Geometry’s my only love But He made all the angles when he drew you The triangles he split that night Made rectangles of equal height He was cold, and they were broken, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Instrumental Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Well people I’ve been here before I know the height and I’ve walked the floor You see the space is equal both sides, do ya? And I’ve seen your sketch with one dark, one light, And you add them up with the angles Right, It’s no question that they’re equal, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah

The area of a triangle is 1/2 of the base times the height.

The following graphic from access.openupresources.org sums up what I was going on about.

Leonard Cohen