Eastman Chorale

Once I sang with Eastman ensembles. Now I go to hear their concerts, always expecting something extraordinary. I am not disappointed. Dr. Weinert, who had tried to get me to come sing with the Eastman Rochester Choir again, was his usual competent self. I ended up sitting with the choir director from Roberts, both of us having come on our own. We compared notes about the various pieces and sighed in all the right places.

The program was demanding - not repertoire that community choirs could attempt. Pieces like:
William Walton - Cantico del sole
Thomas Jennefelt - O Domine
William H. Harris - Faire is the Heaven
Ildebrando Pizzetti - Messa di Requiem

Aside from not knowing the various languages well enough to immediately catch what is being sung, I wonder that audiences are interested in this music. Certainly Kilbourn Hall was far from filled, a sad waste of energy and breath. Still, this music needs to be kept alive, needs to challenge us to raise our standards as we remember what used to be everywhere the norm.

I can't help but wonder as well how many people are touched by this often religious repertoire. This idea of religious music performed in a concert hall and not in worship is a question I wrestle with - almost as much as I wrestle with the level of music in our worship services not being fit for the ears of a congregation much less a king.

The first time I heard a Bach Passion in a concert hall (for I surely never heard one in a church service) I was reduced to tears. How poignant and touching the truth set to fine music was to one uninitiated in the better musics, having been raised Presbyterian where the mindset is that the human voice was created by God and ought to be the principle means of praising God.

As surely as I was touched by the music, the singers and most of the audience was not moved in the least. I observed sleeping, restlessness, watch consulting and plain old boredom. I have no answers. But I am working on finding ways to wed excellent music to significant worship. I have a long ways to go.