Friday, August 31, 2012
Proud But Sad Moment
My daughter sings in a community youth choir. It is a top flight group directed by an internationally acclaimed children's choir conductor. She had her first rehearsal this week and was pleased to see that one of the pieces the choir will be singing is a setting of the Magnificat. When the piece was passed out Caitlin immediately knew from the title what the text would be because she knows what the Magnificat is, having sung it for years in church. As the choir perused the text the director asked if anyone knew who sang the words in the Bible. Caitlin was apparently alone in raising her hand. I'm glad she knew the answer, but so sad hardly anyone else did. This choir is a secular group so obviously I would not expect everyone to know about the Magnificat. But I am surprised that in a 60-voice children's choir there were not a few more. Maybe they did know and were just too shy to raise their hands. Still, I am sad for what has obviously been lost, is continuing to be lost, as our culture becomes less Christian and our churches less liturgical.
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2 comments:
Praise God that they are getting exposed to the Magnificat at all. My high school sings the Christmas portion of Messiah every year, and there are always the complaints that the public school should not sing something so "religious."
Dan, the public schools in this area have superb music departments and they sing a great deal of sacred music. They obviously understand that to sing great choral literature means not ignoring sacred texts. That seems to bleed over into the community children's choirs, who do the same. We are very glad of that. One of the things we love about Caitlin's choir!
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