Music Says What Words Cannot

I have been surrounded for pretty much my entire life. In my mom's belly I listened to all the smart baby music, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, etc. After I was born I grew up listening to my sisters play piano and sing in school. I had my fair share of musical instruments myself. Not being a fan of violin, or piano, or flute, I decided instead to sing. Since elementary school and onward, I have been in choir every single year. At Penn State I joined the Oriana singers, the all-women singing group. However, what's special about this semester is we're joining forces with the Glee club (the all-boys group) and Concert Choir (the cream of the crop) to sing Brahms' German Requiem. The whole hour and ten minutes of it. Oh boy, Messiah's Hallelujah Chorus ain't got nothing on this monster.

A total of seven movements, Brahms' requiem was unique for his time. A requiem is a song for the dead, usually played during funerals or mass. Brahm's Requiem is indeed a song remembering the dead, but it is in most part comforting the living, and focusing on all of the emotions that comes with grief and loss, but also love and recovery - that everything will be ok. In the fifth movement of the requiem, a soprano sings a solo, and it almost makes me cry every time I hear it. Originally, the requiem was only three movements. Then he added another three to parallel his first three movements. Then, Brahm's lost his mother, and he wrote the fifth movement to remember her. He puts this movement in the middle of the requiem, where it stands alone with no other movement to partner with it. Roughly translated, the soprano sings, "when you are sad, I will comfort you," and then the chorus sings, "comfort me, as a mother would." Knowing the background on this movement, it drives to to tears, knowing that we are singing the pain of Brahm when he lost his mother.

Music is the only thing that makes me feel like this. How strong and how powerful it can be, while also being warm and gentle. Listening to music is one thing, singing and embodying it is a completely different thing. I think the reason why I never gave up choir was because I loved feeling all of these emotions. I love conveying these emotions and meanings to people that want to listen, and feel these emotions with me. When you hear a good piece of music, it sticks with you. For singing, it's no different. I've sung a lot of peaces over the course of eight or so years, but Brahms is going to stay with me for life.

If you're a fan of classical music or don't have anything to do this weekend, the Penn State School of Music will be performing the Brahms German Requiem at Eisenhower Auditorium at 7:30pm, Saturday April 14. Adult tickets are $20, and student tickets are $10. I really really really really really think if you want to listen you should do it in person. The feels get so real. But I understand the weekend is you-time, so we are also livestreaming the concert (the stream will go live an hour or so before the concert)! Come listen to a once-in-a-lifetime concert and support our school's music program!

Brahms has a great beard!