Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras.
January 12, 2004, 04:52 pmI think I was the summer before my junior year in high school when I first heard Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem. My sister had a CD of it and maybe she played it for me, or maybe she put the first two movements on a tape for me. I can't remember. But I do remember taking baths in my parents' claw foot bathtub and listening to it and trying to be incredibly moody and morose.
Surprisingly, in spring semester, the concert band performed the first movement and I played timpani. Of course, since no one really cared much for concert band in my school, and considering it was written for an orchestra and choir, our crappy concert band arrangement wasn't really up to it.
The spring break of my senior year, I visited UK and my dad and I saw it performed by the UK Orchestra with some guest vocalists providing soprana and baritone. I was pretty floored. I haven't seen many orchestral performances.
Sometimes I listen to it at work when I feel the need to be morose (like today), but other than that, I haven't listened to it much the last few years. But the craziest thing is that when I graduated, I received a gift from my "Uncle" George (he's my mom's cousin, I think), who is the timpanist for the Utah Symphony Orchestra. He sent me a performance that the Utah Symphony Orchestra did of Ein deutsches Requiem. I was so excited, I popped it in and started listening and almost jumped out of the window like Alex in A Clockwork Orange. The vocals were all translated in English!! How disorienting?! Needless to say, I've not bothered to listen to all of it.
Selig sind, die da Leid tragen,
denn sie sollen getrösstet werden.Blessed are they that mourn;
for they shall be comforted.