Music at All Saints Parish Sunday, March 25, 2007
Fifth Sunday in Lent
From All Saints Music Director Donald Teeters
As we approach the final days of Lent, the musical centerpiece in the service today will be a statement about loss by one of the greatest of the composers who have investigated that subject in their music. Johannes Brahms’s monumental "A German Requiem" has at its center a gentle meditation on death, a moment of transcendental beauty in this powerful and moving work. Brahms worked on the Requiem over a number of years, but the last movement to be completed was this one, the fifth, of the seven total. It is scored for soprano solo and chorus, and was written in grieving response to the death of his own mother. The text, from John, Isaiah, and Ecclesiasticus:
Ye now are sorrowful: but ye shall again behold me, and your heart shall be
joyful, and your joy no man taketh from you.
Yea, I will comfort you, as one whom his own mother comforteth.
Look upon me; for a little time labor and sorrow were mine, but at last
I have found comfort.
The excellent soloist, of course, will be Jessica Cooper, and the choir will provide solid support.
Hymns for Lent V:
#142 - Lord, who throughout these forty days
#498 - Beneath the cross of Jesus
#537 - Christ for the world we sing.
All are not only familiar, but also well-loved.