Addressing our communal grief

As we all reflect on the tenth anniversary of the most gruesome attack on U.S. soil, orchestras, chorus and other musical organizations have held performances in remembrance of that bright and sunny Tuesday morning that so quickly turned to darkness and dread, outrage and fear.

The New York Philharmonic, which had opened its 2001 season on September 20 with Kurt Masur conducting the Brahms German Requiem, elected to commemorate the catastrophe with Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony, "Resurrection."  Free tickets were distributed, 700 of which were set aside for first responders and families of the victims.  Another 2000 seats were set up in Lincoln Center Plaza for a live video relay of the happenings in Avery Fisher Hall.

President Obama finished his own busy day on 9/11 remembrances with the Kennedy Center's "Concert For Hope," which included the Marine Chamber Orchestra, the Washington National Cathedral Choir and singers Alan Jackson, Denyce Graves and Patti LaBelle.  The President also addressed attendees at the event, originally scheduled for the National Cathedral but relocated due to complications from the recent earthquake that struck the east coast.  His complete remarks can be found here.

Closer to home, the Cedar Rapids Symphony (it's still hard for me to call them "Orchestra Iowa") devoted a small portion of its "Brucemorchestra IV" concert to the occasion, playing the "Nimrod" movement from Elgar's Enigma Variations.  The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, joining with Red Cedar Chamber Music, the Metropolitan Chorale and Theater UNI in a presentation entitled "Remembrance 9/11; Ten Years Later.  This seemed more contemplative in nature and included works by Vaughan Williams (Toward an Unknown Region) and Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 4 "Requiem."

These are events and ceremonies that document among the most challenging times in our American history and collective psyche.  Never before have we been faced with two simultaneous conflicts (unless one wants to note the two opposing fronts of World War II) coupled with a nearly worldwide economic crisis.  Even one of these events would be the cause of national mourning, but to coincide with the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is haunting to all who vividly remember exactly where they were when they first heard of the horrific events in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

A portion of Brahms's score

As a musician I am left to contemplate what music best expresses this time of national mourning.  At the death of President Roosevelt, Barber's Adagio for Strings became an unofficial expression of grief and was heard at the death of President Kennedy.  Some have used Mahler's Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony, in the same way, even though this is a more a love song, written by the composer to his beloved Alma.  For me, I believe that Maestro Masur chose an appropriate vehicle for expressing this difficult time, Brahms' German Requiem.  As the composer himself noted, "As far as the text is concerned, I will admit that I would gladly give up the 'German' and simply put 'human'."  This was a very personal expression of grief for the composer who was reflecting on the passing of his musical "father," Robert Schumann, and his earthly mother, who died in 1865 and prompted Brahms addition of the fifth movement, with its lovely text:

Ye now are sorrowful;
but I will see you again,
and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy from you.
-JOHN 16
As a mother comforts her child
so will I comfort you.
Behold with your eyes: but for a little
have I known Sorrow and labor
and found much rest. -ECCLESIASTICUS 51

This is a very personal text and a very personal expression.  Brahms chooses not to mourn the passing of his loved ones, but rather console those of us left behind, beholden in his opening chorus, "Blessed Are They That Mourn."  And forever we shall....