Beautiful Music

[carynb]

Last night, mycrazyhair & I went to see zoarazul in the spring QuodLibet concert, and enjoyed some absolutely wonderful music.

It was all sacred music this time round, and all of it was good. The highlight for me had to be a version of Ave Maria by Franz Biebl that was absolutely breathtaking, although the Alleluia by Jean Berger was also wonderful.

There's something about beautiful harmonies done by beautiful voices that just transports me. The main reason I kept singing in my Church choir long after I started questioning my faith is that music touches the divine, for me. I may not have believed everything in the service, but I was always sure that God was in the music.

Last night reminded me of that.

Beautiful.

Comments

[lovecraftienne.livejournal.com]

I'm wholly in agreement. It was very lovely.

[zoarazul.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your kind words!

The Biebl was the very first song we sang in our first rehearsal back in January. I was very much on the verge of quitting as I perceived that our director had gone past the point of "wacky" and well into the "asshole" zone (for telling us that he was abandoning the group, then doing a total about-face). So I had showed up at that rehearsal prepared to quit at the end of the night ... but then I got a sense of what we'd actually be singing ... I decided to play the buttercup and suck it up. Such is the power of the Biebl! :-)

I know exactly what you mean about finding a spiritual home in music. Practically speaking, the reason that composers and artists once devoted so much of their talent to religious themes is because the (Catholic) church was underwriting all the projects ... but the Bible is also a rich source of inspiration -- even just for storytelling purposes, if one finds it difficult to connect to it on a faith level.

I mean, try singing in a clear voice when you're actively imagining the heartache of a grieving father, crying, "O my son ... would God I had died for thee ..." It's a bit of an emotional transposition -- layering our earlthy experiences over "God's word" -- but it reminds me that religious text were written for a human audience, not in some kind of esoteric and scholarly vacuum. Doesn't make me believe in it any more than I do, but as you suggest, anything that gives us greater glimpses of the divine is a good thing.