Eriks Esenvalds: A Drop in the Ocean, performed by Polyphony

Eriks Esenvalds is a contemporary Latvian composer. He registered on my choral music-radar a few months ago when my sister’s college chamber choir performed his O Salutaris Hostia.  A Drop in the Ocean is in memory of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and the text is composed of one of her favorite prayers, the Prayer of Saint Francis, and her own written words.  The word-painting Esenvalds does is exquisite. LISTEN WITH HEADPHONES!

Lord, make me a channel of your peace:

Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, let me sow pardon. Where there is discord, let me sow harmony. Where there is doubt, let me sow faith. Where there is despair, let me sow hope. Where there is error, I may bring truth. Where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Where there is darkness, I may bring light!

Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away, I would flee far away, and be at rest. I would find my place of shelter far from the tempest and storm.

Jesus, You are my God. Jesus, You are my spouse. Jesus, my Life, my Love, my all in all.

My work is nothing but a drop in the ocean, But if I did not put that drop in the ocean, the ocean would be one drop the less.

To sing is the most human of the art form delivery, more than, perhaps, an instrument which has to be tuned mechanically. You are the tuner; you are the vessel. Everything depends on how you feel as a person. It is for you to hear how beautiful your instrument is. From you to you with much, much love. That way you can send it out to the public because they make the careers. Once they accept you and your freedom to be and your love for singing they never leave you. There is no love like that.

piano final was a disaster. self-medicating with bubble tea (which i’ve never had before — i like it!) & score review.

O Salutaris Hostia by Eriks Esenvalds | PSU Chamber Choir 2/3/12 (by 8gmama)

I am so proud of my little sister! Not only was she accepted into the top chamber choir at her university, she got a lead role in the opera AND  was a featured soloist at the last choir concert. By the way: she is a freshman. Most of the people in this choir (and the opera) are graduate students (4+ years older).

She is the soloist on the left, and sings the first statement of each phrase throughout the song. I cried during the performance.

and i think she and i need to sing duets together and take the music world by storm. after the concert she told me that her peers keep saying “we wish we could clone you so you can sing that duet with yourself,” and she’s like “actually i have a sister who is basically my choral voice twin but she goes to a different school.”

start grad school program research:

Arvo Pärt - Alina! (by tiad)

Stillness

a few things:

Rumpus Mixtape #9: Chilly Scenes of Winter (by Anna March) ›

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

The questions raised:

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…

How many other things are we missing?

(via turtlemoments)

People became addicted to feeling. They struggled to uncover new emotions. It’s possible that this is how art was born. New kinds of joy were forged, along with new kinds of sadness: The eternal disappointment of life as it is; the relief of unexpected reprieve; the fear of dying.

Even now, all possible feelings do not yet exist. There are still those that lie beyond our capacity and our imagination. From time to time, when a piece of music no one has ever written, or a painting no one has ever painted, or something else impossible to predict, fathom, or yet describe takes place, a new feeling enters the world. And then, for the millionth time in the history of feeling, the heart surges, and absorbs the impact.

(via stupendousmelody)

I “liked” this over 4 hours ago and I am still giggling.

GPOY most of undergrad choir.

(via turtlemoments)

squaremeal:

(via let’s eat / by Tuukka Koski)

Can I just, like, get my graduate degree in Boston or wherever I end up going, live light and rootless for a few years in crappy apartments while I figure out what I am going to do and get started with my singing aspirations, and then move to southeast Portland and live in a historic house (with a wood stove) with a wildly attractive husband and adopt some babies and ride my bike to the market to buy prosciutto and soft cheese and figs and fill my historic house (that also has bay windows and a claw-footed bathtub, I just decided) with used books and a piano and laughter and good food and love and music and have a manageably successful singing career that allows me to impact people’s lives and travel but always have a save haven to come back to and never stop learning?

(via embracethevision)

The Fermata ›