Music (was: A sweet touch...)

[John Walton]

blpurdom at yahoo.com said:

> 
>> It was uplifting and
>> it was heartbreaking (they did Barber's Adagio for Strings
>> which makes me cry any time, let alone now).
> 
> We played a recording of this at my father's funeral in May.  I was
> blubbering all through it.  This was my father's favorite piece of
> music in the world.  Barber originally wrote it as a memorial piece
> for those lost in WWII, but it is used as a general memorial now.  I
> once had the privilege of singing the a capella choral version (Agnus
> Dei) under the baton of Matthew Glandorf, who teaches at the Curtis
> Institute of Music here in Philadelphia.  It was serving as a
> backdrop for "Shut Up And Dance" (yes, I get the irony), an annual
> fundraiser that the Pennsylvania Ballet does for a local AIDS group.
> 
> We sang the Barber at the back of the stage while two dancers did a
> heartbreakingly beautiful pas de deux, only part of which was visible
> to me because I had to have one eye on my music and the other on
> Matt.  He almost didn't make it through his first rehearsal with us
> because he was saying that Barber wrote the piece when he was exactly
> Matt's age, and when he had the exact same job as Matt at Curtis.
> And Matt had just lost his partner to AIDS...I had also recently lost
> another friend to AIDS.  That was probably the hardest performance of
> my life.  I have no idea how the musicians and performers made it
> through last night's concert.

I too have sung the Agnus Dei. It is unbelievably gorgeous and is only
slightly behind Rachmaninov's Bogoroditsye Dyevo and Allegri's Miserere Mei,
Deus in my Gorgeousness rankings. Also up there are Balfour Gardiner's
Evening Hymn (only in Latin as it sounds naff in English), and pretty much
anything madrigal-related. Anything Rutter-written is unfortunately out of
the question as his music overwhelmingly makes me laugh. Hmmm...perhaps
that's what's needed now :D

I have been taking so much comfort from music recently...just turning my
speakers up high and bathing in sound.

--John
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John Walton -- john at walton.to

     We shall overcome. We shall overcome.
     We shall overcome someday.
     Deep in my heart, I do believe
     We shall overcome someday.

September 11th, 2001.
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