s
Here is a link for a You Tube recording of
one of my favorite choral pieces.
(I'm sorry that it may include a commercial on you-tube,
but you can tell it to skip the ad.)
The translation is: We sit down in tears and call to you in the grave:
rest in peace,
peacefully rest,rest in peace, peacefully rest!
Rest your exhausted
limbs! Rest in peace!
Your grave and tombstone will be a comfortable
pillow
and a resting place for the soul and for the fearful mind.
Filled
with pleasure, the eyes can sleep there.
We sit down in tears and call
to you in the grave.
Rest in peace, peacefully rest.
The music during Holy Week is so tragic and haunting. This is only the second year, in my entire life, that I haven't had a church affiliation. I really miss the frantic, feverish rehearsals, where we would combine the somber music of Lent and Holy Week with the joyous, very elaborate music for Easter Sunday. Resurrection Sunday was one day that I could always expect a nervous stomach!
My dad was a bass in the church choir, and we both sang in the adult group when I was in high school. He loved to sing the bass part just about any time. I remember once, the choir was preparing to sing The Seven Last Words of Christ by Theodore Dubois. Dad especially loved the movement that went: "He is death guilty! He is death guilty! Take him! Take him! Let us crucify him!" He sang it while swinging my brother back and forth, only changing the words to "Take him! Take him! Throw him in the water!" What fun!
My father was a staunch Christian, as a youth, and continued to attend church for most of his life. There came a time, though, when he turned his back on his faith. During the last few years of his life, when he was already symptomatic for Huntington's Disease, he decided that he wasn't going to continue to be a believer. His mother, a very prayerful woman, was very unhappy with my father's choice, but she knew that it was part of the disease. She continued to pray for his soul, even after he died.
My dad was a bass in the church choir, and we both sang in the adult group when I was in high school. He loved to sing the bass part just about any time. I remember once, the choir was preparing to sing The Seven Last Words of Christ by Theodore Dubois. Dad especially loved the movement that went: "He is death guilty! He is death guilty! Take him! Take him! Let us crucify him!" He sang it while swinging my brother back and forth, only changing the words to "Take him! Take him! Throw him in the water!" What fun!
My father was a staunch Christian, as a youth, and continued to attend church for most of his life. There came a time, though, when he turned his back on his faith. During the last few years of his life, when he was already symptomatic for Huntington's Disease, he decided that he wasn't going to continue to be a believer. His mother, a very prayerful woman, was very unhappy with my father's choice, but she knew that it was part of the disease. She continued to pray for his soul, even after he died.
