Hidden Beauty

Posted

Benjamin Hanson
Bell Tower Reflection for 4/17/20

Hidden Beauty

By Benjamin Hanson

Before the closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the All Saints Choir was preparing music for Easter Sunday. We were planning to present excerpts from Vivaldi’s musical setting of the ancient prayer, Gloria in excelsis Deo, or “Glory to God on high.” Now that Easter has come and gone, I find myself reflecting on this piece and how it can serve us even in isolation.

Vivaldi’s setting takes the text of the Gloria and “zooms in” to it, expanding the short prayer into a thirty-minute long song of praise by repeating lines of the text, ornamenting each word with different sounds and musical textures, and approaching each line from a different perspective. By “zooming in” to the text and working to find beauty beneath the surface of the prayer, the composer reveals hidden facets of praise in the text of the Gloria that range from joy and love, to awe and penitence. In a way, the composer has looked past the earthly prayer to search for the inspiration behind it. The composer looks past the Gloria to look for God.

The process of exploring a text in this way is a familiar one for choir singers. Choirs spend weeks or months rehearsing a piece of music before they perform it. This process allows time for each member of the ensemble to live with the words of the song, meditate on their many meanings, and explore every dimension of the poetry or scripture before finally presenting their interpretation of the lyrics through performance. The choir takes time to zoom in on every piece they perform, looking to understand it from every possible angle, and to find hidden beauty in doing so. By living with these texts for so long, the choir has the opportunity to sense the beauty of God’s creation and inspiration in every piece they sing.

In this time of isolation, I find exercising this practice in all areas of life to be more important than ever. While confined to our homes we have no choice but to linger in familiar places and patterns in our lives. In this time we have the opportunity to zoom in our daily routines and on the relationships we share with our loved ones, and to consider these everyday things from a new perspective. In doing so we can look for God in the mundane moments of our lives, knowing that God is always there. There is no greater comfort in times of crisis.

I’ll leave you with the text of the Gloria as it appears in the BCP. In reading it, perhaps you can zoom in to the text to look for beauty of God between the lines, as well. If you care to listen to Vivaldi’s setting of the text I discussed above, you can find a quality performance here.

 

Glory be to God on high,
and on earth peace, good will towards men.

We praise thee, we bless thee,
we worship thee,
we glorify thee,
we give thanks to thee for thy great glory,
O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.

O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ;
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.

Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father,
have mercy upon us.

For thou only art holy;
thou only art the Lord;
thou only, O Christ,
with the Holy Ghost,
art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.