Weak, yet divine
Ben Shahn's music picture book.
MOMA, 1956

The cover is wrapped in sheepskin. It is simply bound with thin, hand-sewn black string. But it doesn't look shabby; rather, it exudes a noble dignity.

The score and illustrations, drawn with Shahn's trembling lines, are printed in black and white on handmade Italian paper. This paper is also great. It feels like dry cotton paper, and has a nice crisp feel to it.

The book's title, "Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sung," is an old hymn of unknown authorship. It is also known as the "Lute-book lullaby," and was originally a solo piece accompanied by a lute. The lute is a plucked-string instrument that is similar in shape to the oud in the Middle East and the biwa in Japan, and produces sound by plucking the strings, without using a bow. This lute lullaby was compiled and established by the lutenist William Ballet in the early 17th century, and is an old piece that is now sometimes sung on Christ's birthday.

There are various versions of the lyrics, but for reference, here is one example. Ben Shahn also illustrated these lyrics with the musical score.

Sweet was the song the Virgin song,
When she, when she to Bethlem Judas came,
And was delivered of a Son,
That blessed Jesus hath to name.
Lulla, lulla, lula, lullaby,
Lula, lula, lula, lullaby, sweet Babe, sung she,
My son, and eke a savior born,
Who has vouchsafed from on high
To visit us that were forlorn;
Lalula, lalula, lalulaby, sweet babe, sang she,
And rockt Him sweetly on her knee.

By the way, Ben Shahn's paintings have a basso continuo of a gaze on weakness, rooted in his own experiences. He went through many hardships before he became independent as an artist. He was born as the son of a poor woodcarver in Kaunas, Lithuania (formerly Kovno, Russian Empire), and moved to New York with his family to escape persecution of the Jews. He was driven out of his hometown and moved to Brooklyn, where there were many immigrant manual laborers and unemployed people, and he himself was one of them, living at the bottom of society, drinking muddy water. While working in a lithograph studio, he taught himself art, and finally managed to make a living by drawing the pictures he loved. Of course, the lines tremble. The inner voice of the weak people in front of his eyes is transmitted to his fingertips as vibrations.

This book is one of 275 limited editions released by MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York) in 1956. That same year, Ben Shahn exhibited at the MOMA exhibition "Modern American Art: Painting, Sculpture, Prints," but the connection to this book is unclear.

Still, it’s a beautiful little piece.
In the future, I would like to continue to feature Ben Shahn as an author, such as the lithographs of Rilke's "The Notes of Malte Laureate," which he created at the Mourlot workshop in his later years, and his "Lucky Dragon" series, which depicts the Lucky Dragon No. 5.


Text by Osamu Kushida