Latest Articles by Sarah Canice Funke
The Messiah is my favorite piece of music ever. Ever ever ever. It's what I would take with me on that hypothetical desert island. And narrowing my music love down is so hard. But the Messiah is my musical Bible...
Sorrow, triumph, glory, anguish, hope, transcendence, awe, judgment, and grace. It's all there. All there together. Those Baroque composers really knew how to effect their Affects. Not to become one of those stodgy old past-dwellers, but I think that contemporary church composers could learn a thing or two from their 17th/18th century counterparts. Because music is very effective at engaging the heart and soul. BUT it should not arouse just any old emotion, but the appropriate emotion, in its proper place. So many songs do not indicate which feeling is proper for the proper time: joy, sorrow, repentance, hope, faith, love. The emphasis I suppose is on spontaneity, but the result is an emotional rush of sameness, and that is hardly spontaneous.
And that's the way I feel about it, which often gets convoluted with the way I think....
(the INTJ in me....again coming after more insightful conversations with Natalie...)
I feel the same way. Although I don't know if the Messiah is my favorite piece of music. I do need to get a copy of it soon though.
Posted by: Evan Donovan at 10.12.06 14:17Ok, I know this is going to sound really strange, but it hasn't been until this year that I haven't *actually* heard many parts of "The Messiah". I went to free concert of the Messiah a few weeks ago (that wasn't very good) and in my mind it was akin to Gospel music. It was the repitition of phrases that made it seem akin to Gospel music. That might not have made any sense . . . .
Pretty much all vocal music that's setting a text repeats phrases.
Posted by: Evan Donovan at 11.12.06 23:17Unless you are setting it to recitative...
Posted by: funke at 11.12.06 23:27