The monthly theme of Resilience and the weekly sermon title
“The Inner Wound” prompt thoughts of Ludwig van Beethoven, the 250th
anniversary of whose birth is marked in 2020. Beethoven perceived his growing
hearing loss at around the age of 30. At first, he told no one, and, in his
famous “Heiligenstadt Testament” of 1802, he raged against the cosmos at the
injustice of being robbed of the one sense which should have been keener in him
than in other mortals. His persistence as a composer, and the increasingly
revolutionary music he penned, as he withdrew from public performance, is one
of history’s greatest examples of
resilience and transcendence. The works by Beethoven included in this morning’s
Gathering and Centering Music all date from this time of crisis.
In the world of the arts, white supremacy has existed side-by-side with a
fascination with the culture of otherness.
Many of the solo piano works performed this morning reflect the appropriation
of non-white musical idioms by classical composers. Examples include the
delightful rags of American composer William Bolcom, the Blues-inspired Prelude
No. 2 of George Gershwin, Claude Debussy’s tribute to Vaudeville in his
“Golliwogg’s Cakewalk,” and Manuel de Falla’s incorporation of Andalusian gypsy
music in the dashing farruca from his
ballet “El sombrero de tres picos.” Read on for programming details.
Gathering Music: Adam Kent, piano
Hymn 127: "Can I See Another's Woe?"
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2 “Tempest”
II. Adagio
Ludwig van Beethoven
Hymn 126: "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"
Centering Music:
Piano Sonata No. 12 in Ab Major, Op. 26
I. Andante con variazioni
Beethoven
Opening Music:
“Danza del molinero” from El sombrero de tres picos (“The Miller’s Dance” from The Three-Cornered Hat)
Manuel de Falla
Interlude I:
From “The Garden of Eden”
II. The Eternal Feminine: A Slow Drag
William Bolcom
Interlude II:
From “The Garden of Eden”
IV. Through Eden’s Gates: Cakewalk
Meditation:
Prelude No. 2 “Blues Lullaby”
George Gershwin
Music for Parting:Golliwogg’s Cakewalk
Claude Debussy
