Requiems

Just came back from a business trip to New Orleans.    Quite the place!   Too late for Mardi Gras and beads although the streets were packed day and night with music everywhere – on the street, in restaurants, and, of course, in the bars.

The music I liked best, however, was heard in the Cathedral found in the heart of the French Quarter: St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the United States.  I accidentally stumbled into a wonderful evening performance (free) of “Requiem for the Living” featuring the Magnolia Chamber Ensemble (presented by Manhattan Concert Productions) and the Cathedral Festival Chorus.

Hayden, Mozart, and Telemann were featured by the Ensemble, and it was splendid.   However, the highlight for me was the Chorus with the Choir singing the Indroit – Kyrie, Vanitas Vanitatum, Agnus Dei, Sanctus, and Lux Aeterna.   Latin aside (Greek to me), my New Orleans Lenten experience was made special by a Choir of over 50 men and women singing an original composition by a composer named Dan Forrest.  He reminded me of our Music Director Donny Nolan and his original work.

I left that performance and the Cathedral to enter the nearby park filed with jazz, but that was drowned out by the glorious music still echoing in my head.   It truly was a requiem for the living, not the dead.

So, as we journey through Lent and we listen to Donny and the music of our own choir, let’s appreciate they always try to give us our own requiem for the living.    And, they succeed in our own “cathedral” we call Christ the King.

Deacon David Pierce