A night of Bach
My OT professor from last year is in the San Francisco Bach Choir. Marnie and I went to hear them last night. It was really amazing.
I realized that I had made a glaring omission on my profile. I love Bach and he is probably one of my favorite musicians, if not my favorite. I played string bass in my high school orchestra. Through most of high school it was just a relatively easy class that made me "well rounded", but my last year we started playing alot of baroque music especially Bach. I really enjoyed it and it made me start taking music and its role in my life more seriously.
Last night was a great reminder of the power of music. Though the majority of the program was in German (possibly the best use of German ever!), a tone of worship still comes through the music. Bach's autograph on all of his pieces was "to the glory of God". He wrote music for every liturgical event on the Lutheran calender (last night's program said that meant about 59 occasions) and consistently did a high quality of work. That is something that I very much respect in an artist. People like Bach or Hitchcock who can be prolific and still keep their quality high impress me.
I commented to Marnie that I thought the program, especially the first half, was incredibly worshipful. She was surprised, given my preference for more of an "emergent", rock style of worship. The similarity to me is that it wasn't stale. The singers were expressive in their tones and in their bodies. the music had a life and took off! Reading the translations of the cantatas (of course provided by my former Prof.) the texts were pretty much taken directly from scripture. I suppose if we ever did traditional hymns in a way that didn't seem like rote, then maybe I would feel the same way about them. Actually I've been to places where hymns are enlivened and embodied and I loved it. I guess my point is, for something to be worship, it has to hae energy. If it doesn't then maybe you don't understand what you're singing. Or maybe you're the one person God hasn't been good to...
I realized that I had made a glaring omission on my profile. I love Bach and he is probably one of my favorite musicians, if not my favorite. I played string bass in my high school orchestra. Through most of high school it was just a relatively easy class that made me "well rounded", but my last year we started playing alot of baroque music especially Bach. I really enjoyed it and it made me start taking music and its role in my life more seriously.
Last night was a great reminder of the power of music. Though the majority of the program was in German (possibly the best use of German ever!), a tone of worship still comes through the music. Bach's autograph on all of his pieces was "to the glory of God". He wrote music for every liturgical event on the Lutheran calender (last night's program said that meant about 59 occasions) and consistently did a high quality of work. That is something that I very much respect in an artist. People like Bach or Hitchcock who can be prolific and still keep their quality high impress me.
I commented to Marnie that I thought the program, especially the first half, was incredibly worshipful. She was surprised, given my preference for more of an "emergent", rock style of worship. The similarity to me is that it wasn't stale. The singers were expressive in their tones and in their bodies. the music had a life and took off! Reading the translations of the cantatas (of course provided by my former Prof.) the texts were pretty much taken directly from scripture. I suppose if we ever did traditional hymns in a way that didn't seem like rote, then maybe I would feel the same way about them. Actually I've been to places where hymns are enlivened and embodied and I loved it. I guess my point is, for something to be worship, it has to hae energy. If it doesn't then maybe you don't understand what you're singing. Or maybe you're the one person God hasn't been good to...
