Behold, all flesh is as the grass, and all the worldliness of man is as the flower of grass

So, I get to sing in the Brahms Requiem with the OCC chorale tomorrow night. I've been playing for rehearsals, but as the orchestra will be playing tomorrow night, I get to sing instead!

And, we get to sing it in English instead of German, which, though a musical heresy, is nice because then I know what I'm singing about. And here's what I think: From what I know of the piece at this point, there are more tragically bleak parts (see blog title; also "Lord, make me to know that I must perish...what do I wait for?" that work than transcendently triumphant ones (But yet, the Lord's word endureth forever!).

What I'm saying is, it feels like Brahms knew just as much (if not more) about existential crisis as moving beyond it. From what I know about his life and music, both were full of feeling, but his life may have been lonely...he never married, and it's widely believed that he suffered from unrequited love for Clara Schumann, his mentor's wife. And I don't think that he was really devoutly religious. So the piece is so moving because it's so human; it suffers, but it wants so badly to transcend.

Performance is at 8:oo tomorrow night at OCC; $10 if anyone is interested. But probably nobody who comes will have as much fun as I do singing it!