Prayers for our troops, veterans, families, allies, friends, and Canteeners
for a safe and peaceful week ahead.
Prayers for our troops, veterans, families, allies, friends, and Canteeners
for a safe and peaceful week ahead.
”Gravestones cheer the living, dear; they’re no use to the dead.”
– Rev. Gary Davis
Rather than write a Catholic Requiem Mass, Bach wrote a service that set verses from Luther’s German Bible to music. This was purely a Protestant conception. The idea was to console the living, not concentrate on what the dead might be experiencing in the afterlife while the family sat comfortably in church.
But it was Johannes Brahms who executed that idea beautifully in his German Requiem. This was to be his first Top 10 hit and an overnight sensation in the world of choristers and sacred music.
The opening is mystical and comforting. How can you top this for a beginning? The key is a sublime F Major.
The second movement turns dark but ends optimistically. Catch the horror and majesty at 3:02!
This is Klaus Tennstedt conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
Brahms could write tunes that were instant folk song. People would hear the melody years later and say, “That was Brahms?” When the fourth movement was first performed, most of the audience was in tears by the end. Clara Schumann, who had recently lost her husband Robert, was crying like a baby. Have your handkerchiefs ready.
This is Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and Chorus.
Well, I'm at my new home, finally a Washingtonian again, and I'm beat, LOL!
Zach helped me off-load and now I'm winding down. Talk to ya soon.
He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Force, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our G-d from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.
May HASHEM cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighting men from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.
May He lead our enemies under their sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is Hashem, your G-d, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.
G-d bless and keep your children safe, Alouette.
BTTT