I'm a classical music lover. Everyone knows that. So when I heard that the Royal School of Church Music was performing in Carolina today, I knew I'd have to attend. The venue itself was worth the visit.
There's just something about great cathedrals.
Their symmetry. Their architectural precision. Their beauty. Their artistry. Their grandeur.
They always remind me of the Scriptures. For where else can you find such beauty and sublimity and grandeur and symmetry and perfection than in the Sacred Scriptures? This applies as much to a simple Greek sentence like John 1:1 as it does to the most profoundly rounded periodic sentence like Heb. 1:1-4.
At any rate, today's performance did not disappoint. Their first piece was the Missa Brevis in D Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Next came Felix Mendelssohn's majestic If With All Your Hearts from the oratorio Elijah. The next number, by composer Eleanor Daley, was called Upon Your Heart. Then followed two Latin choruses, both by Mozart: Sanctus and Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. I loved hearing them sung in Ecclesiastical Latin -- one of my favorite languages in the world and the language in which my entire graduation ceremony at the University of Basel was conducted in, which included me swearing my doctoral oath in Latin. Finally, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach's Peace I Leave With You, based on John 14:27, blessed the enraptured audience. For the postlude, the cathedral organist performed Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude in E-flat Major. Here's a sampling of that magnificent organ piece.
Honestly, I think I enjoyed this more than I did the chorale's performance.
Since my college days I've always had the feeling that there's something special about the pipe organ. I feel so moved listening to great organ music, so much so that other instruments don't come close. Mozart once called the organ the "king of instruments." Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor might be the most famous example.
I feel that those who play the organ are keeping alive something extraordinary. For me, it's the sheer power of the instrument. At a single key press, dozens of pipes in various signatures sound in unison, filling the room with music leaving no gaps for distractions. The distinct feeling of the pipe organ is the acoustic environment it resonates within. I am incredibly blessed being able to listen to all this magnificent organ music within an hour's drive of the farm. I would be happier than a peach if organ music would somehow make a comeback today. To me it's the best representative of God's supreme power and glory that mankind has ever come up with. I try to teach my students that every instrument has its place in worship. I hope I'm doing a good job at it. That includes both traditional and contemporary styles of music, though I'm a big traditional guy myself. A good organist can make all the difference within church services, even funerals. Sadly, modern church buildings don't have the same acoustic effect as older ones. I miss the reverberations and echoes that I got used to when I lived in Basel.
I'm struggling to think of any chromatic instrument that's even on the scale of the pipe organ. Its size, coupled with the connotations inherent within the instrument's reflection of huge life events, makes it a very special instrument to me. Organs produce a sound and evoke a sense of worshipful praise like no other.
Thank God for the gift of music!