Apr 5

Written by: Stephen Michael Newby
4/5/2008 11:20 AM

Tell us what you thought about the concert?

 

About the Music

Reconciled: A Gospel Oratorio — the composition performed in this concert — creatively blurs the lines between neo-classical and gospel, following the centuries-old order of Christian worship but re-imagining it for the 21st century with soulful musical styling. The fusion and blending of these two distinct genres presented the artists an opportunity to express reconciliation in the process as well as in the performance. Reconciled is both a celebration and an embodiment of Christ’s ongoing work of reconciliation in the world.

The piece opens with the “Reconciled Overture,” a collision of symphonic sounds foreshadowing the spiritual and sonic journey on which we are about to embark. The choir streams in singing “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” a call to the Holy Spirit to come! We are here tonight because the Spirit has drawn us — not simply as passive listeners, but as active worshipers. Yet, even as we respond to God’s expansive welcome, we gather as a people estranged from one another and divided by differences that appear irreconcilable.

Now enters the first of the variations on the hymn “The Church’s One Foundation.” This hymn is the recurring theme, the common thread, of the work, reminding us that our foundation — both as individuals and as the Church — is Jesus. Next, “Kyrie” voices our confession of division, our cry for mercy as we own up to the barriers we’ve constructed in our world, in the Church, in our lives. Immediately, though, the mood changes, erupting into celebration, as we revel in God’s comprehensive, liberating forgiveness: “Gloria!”

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