Today's church people are missing a beautiful gift of inestimable worth.
In Bach's age, all Christians who regularly attended church would have known Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. This is a simple hymn about the coming of Christ.
Just hearing the tune evokes the profound message of the hymn:
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,
Der Jungfrauen Kind erkannt!
Dass sich wundre alle Welt,
Gott solch' Geburt ihm bestellt.
Now come, Saviour of the gentiles,
recognised as the child of the Virgin,
so that all the world is amazed
God ordained such a birth for him.
The hymn itself is by Martin Luther (German text and English translation); it is largely based upon the hymn Veni, Redemptor Gentium ("Come, Redeemer of the Earth" - Latin text and English translation) - by St. Ambrose - the bishop of Milan who had a profound influence upon St. Augustine of Hippo.
il Concerto di Natale del Coro Polifonico di San Nicola, Pisa Coro Polifonico San Nicola di Pisa, Tuscan Chamber Orchestra; conducted by Stefano Barandoni
This is a boldly tempestuous rendition of Psalm 2, which is quite a tempestuous Psalm:
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the LORD and against his anointed, saying,
“Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”
Interestingly enough, it is a part of a larger Christmas Oratorio.
Of course, this should be no mystery; the plight of mankind lost in sin is an essential element of the Incarnation - and should be a part of any musical Christmas narration. It's also present in Händel's Messiah. Today, however, we don't tend to expect such in Christmas music.
Though many congregations once knew how to sing in parts and read music, the art of congregational singing is being lost as many churches move to "praise bands."
One might notice that churches in films which are portrayed positively, tend to sing hymns in parts. By pointing this out, I mean no judgment upon the vast majority of churches which don't; but simply: good congregational singing is in no sense something which estranges new people or visitors. In fact, I'd think that it generally would be seen as a lovely thing by newcomers - as evidenced by mainstream media's selection of congregational singing for evoking positive images. I believe "praise band" music to be popular largely because small children more easily understand it, its being so similar to the songs they hear on the radio and in shopping malls. Unfortunately, praise band style music in many churches is likely to be experienced as odd by many newcomers, and is experienced by many as an acquired taste (and not always easily acquired).
Congregational singing in parts is, on the other hand, a beautiful demonstration of the harmonious diversity within the body of Christ, with the congregation itself being the main instrument of praise, rather then being like "back up singers" for the band standing in front.
This is a hymn sung by a Mennonite church. Not bad at all for congregational singing. It's part of Youtube user w3tno's collection of videos - mostly of congregational singing. It is a valuable resource if your own congregation is interested in congregational singing - either to inspire them, or for listening to how other congregations have sung these hymns as an aide to learning them.
Today is both Rogation Monday, and Memorial Day for Americans.
In honoring soldiers, we must also remember the horror they have confronted, and are trained to confront: that is, the horror of war. Soldiers, whose careers are molded around the problem of war, tend to have a much more attuned consciousness to the horrors of war than civilians. They know that confronting the spectre of war is necessary; and they gladly give their lives to this phenomenally ugly side of human existence. Let us therefore be thankful that they do this for us - with all the attendant unpleasantness, sacrifice, and occupation of the imagination with things unseemly. For because they take this burden upon themselves, we civilians are free of it.
Few have understood how awful war can be as the residents of Dresden at the close of the Second World War - amongst them, Rudolf Mauersberger, a composer and cantor at the Dresden Kreuzkirche. When the church was bombed, Mauersberger lost eleven young choir members. He wrote a motet, How Lonely Sits the City - Wie liegt die stadt - which was performed for the first time at the Kreuzkirche in August, 1945.
Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst,
die voll Volks war.
Alle ihre Tore stehen öde.
Wie liegen die Steine des Heiligtums vorn auf allen Gassen zerstreut.
Er hat ein Feuer aus der Höhe in meine Gebeine gesandt
und es lassen walten.
Ist das die Stadt, von der man sagt,
sie sei die allerschönste,
der sich das ganze Land freuet?
How lonely sits the city that was full of people.
All her gates are desolate.
The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
From on high he sent fire;
into my bones he made it descend.
Is this the city, which was called the perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?
The text is based on Lamentations.
Another setting of this text, by Matthias Weckmann (17th century) is also fine listening and fit for today
I am receiving many reports from my facebook and twitter feeds that someone has died.
This is a great opportunity to remember: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is the very best time). A notion which while redirecting our thoughts toward God, should also prompt us to reconsider our simplistic notions of temporality.
Bach's cantata opens with Acts 17:28 - for in Him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your poets have said: 'For we also are His offspring.'
It is interesting that Bach takes this thought of having our being in God, and decides to begin with a conclusion about time: that we should consider God's time, and our participation in it ... and that this time is "the very best time." Reflecting for a moment on a few things N.T. Wright has said - God certainly "inhabits" our time, time in the way that we tend to experience and perceive it ... He is most certainly "connected" with it somehow. He does not exist in complete isolation of our own temporality. We should not say, "God is outside of time" - it is understandable that people express themselves this way, but it is very inaccurate and can cause some to conclude that God is not at all related to our own time.
God's time is the very best time.
However, God's "own time" - which would be in a sense the very essence of temporality - is not necessarily the same as our own perception of time, or how our own movement through constitutes our perceptions. We know that God is eternal. Since this does not "fit" into our own time, it is our own perception of time which we must see as localized and not necessarily applicable to God ... rather than trying to shoehorn God into our own experiences of time.
God's time is the very best time.
Apparently many are also speaking these days of something they refer to as "the afterlife." I've always found this word odd and problematic. Anyways, if we are to think of such an "afterlife," I believe that Bach has done well in expressing what one of our primary attitudes toward it should be:
That God's time is the very best time.
We believe that God is sovereign; the "where" and "what" regarding those who died as a result of the 9/11 incident, all those who have died since then in the aftermath of various reactions ... and this latest death ... we believe that God is just and good, and trust Him that He has done rightly and justly with all.
Why Viderunt Omnes? Many reasons. Too many for a short posting. Someday I'll have to write up why Viderunt Omnes is such a lovely bit of the Psalms for jubilating in God's glory, and the amazing story of Perotin's twelfth-century setting of it - but for the moment, one can simply enjoy Viderunt Omnes without my elaboratory verbiage. And when you read this blog, may there always in the back of your mind be that lovely ... "Viiiii -----!".
