Bach Together Again

There's something about the St Matthew Passion, and I'm not the only one who has felt this, but the final act leaves you feeling...calm...complete...really down here right now and ok.  Actually, I can't ever remember feeling this before.

Before the final rehearsal, I was confident;  I had worked hard  and I had it licked, oh yes, all by myself (sometimes with JC or another singer, the odd group rehearsal...).     I knew the words, the music, the musicality came to me, I learned all the solos, oh yes, I was good all by myself.

Then we got together to sing as a choir and a few more things came in to play...the unexpected things, and some of which had to be Overcome.

My immediate singing neighbours
The strange beast which is the ensemble of all the singers
The weather, the dust, the heat, the dark, the day
The accoustic
The instrumentalists and their tempermentalists
The listeners
The Direction

Oh boy.

But, he got us together (Eric Noyer eric-noyer.fr).  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f3jk8ml9p4

Here is a taste of what I've learned

You can have a bad accoustic with cloth and building dust, but a wonderful 'echo' from your audience. For example, for the concert at the school for children with learning disabilities, Eric boiled down the story of the arrest and crucifixion of Christ to the essential, and the children were absolutely scandalised that anyone would want to nail him to a cross; as one they drew in a horrified breath  "Why did he keep silent?"  they shouted out.  Isn't this how we should all feel?  This gave us a charge of righteous energy for some hard hitting singing!

Seeing the audience meditate, weep, come back for a second concert, say how moved they were and how they feel they have heard the story for the first time...this is what music is about for me (and not competition, personal glory and technical or expressive 'perfection').

There is something wonderful about a bunch of amateurs getting it together, for an audience who thinks...perhaps I could do that, and when an amateur makes a mistake, warbles, and perseveres, it is moving, attention grabbing, and a wake-up call.  It reminds me of Shakespeare's plays performed by travelling troupes in market places - brought down to earth for us to understand and live.

There is something which I call 'living music', when the music touches us, rattles out internal organs, makes us ecstatic, fills us with a total-being understanding, makes it seem as though the concert is full of angels rejoicing...rare, has to be heard to be believed...a privilege to take part, whether audience or performer.

The Community of Music is important, among the performers, and between them and the audience.

Music is my sublime expression.