~ Reflections of a GRCMB Listener Spring 2009 ~

To the editor: The Grand Rapids Men and Boys Choir performed works by Henry Purcell for Sunday Evensong last week at All Saints’ Church in Saugatuck. (Sunday May 17, 2009)

From the night’s program brochure: “I dare to claim that Purcell was and is the eternal master of the achingly, painfully and gloriously beautiful. Gather then, ye people, Anglophiles and friends of the core to humanity. Settle into your favorite chair and surrender to the sound-kept peak of aching beauty.”  Like the composer, whose 17-century’s works were represented Sunday night, the Grand Rapids Choir of Men & Boys are master(s) of aching beauty.

The technique and discipline were there; there is no music without them. The program was more an offering of beautiful worship than a performance. I remember a particular phrase cut off. All of the T’s were precisely at the same time, from the first-grade chorister to the white-haired veteran. After that I can remember no technique, for it was a spiritual night.

The measure of art is its capacity to influence the heart. Beyond that, it is communicating some vision and emotion from the artist to the audience. The art of the GRCMB was successful. Their stated purpose was “to express the profound mysteries of God.” They did that.

I often think that the unsatisfactory sounds coming from other children’s choirs are due to both ignorance and the reticence boys have to open their mouths and produce a clear, bell tone, unadorned purity of sound with their bodies.

It is easy to be the rough-and-tumble, dirt-on-the-face imp. It is harder to abide the softer but so valuable capacity to create beautiful music. This practiced discipline of teaching children music, to me, is highly prized.

The two boys, singing soprano, remind us that it is not just women who may listen and respond. Music is a human thing, neither masculine or feminine. Like the brothers singing in chorus with the same genes, all the boys sound good together.

My childhood choir director always said, “Pay attention to the words. Know what you are singing.” This choir—from the smooth, resonant men’s basses to the very top of the chord, seem to do this. The articulate British pronunciation of GRCMB coordinates with the King James -Elizabethan translation of the Psalms being sung.

During the prayers of intercession I snuck a peek at the choir stalls. There was this angelic kid, on his knees, eyes closed and mouth moving to the cadence of his own prayer. This is the real benefit of teaching music like this; one hopes it sinks in.

Then there is the tremendous power of peer pressure on a child. When they do something together as a team, they really get something done. I believe I saw the same boy who was praying chase another chorister around the bushes in the church yard after the service. When he made a flying tackle, I thought that being a rough-and-tumble boy can fit into a life filled with art and music.

The future of humanity seems brighter this morning.

In our brief span on this planet, we should consider the quality of how we live our lives. Allowing the public to sing a bit with such a masterful group is a great civic good. Thank you, All Saints’ Church, for your Evensong Service.

Andrew Paton Plummer
Douglas

(Taken from a “Letter to the Editor” to the Saugatuck/Douglas Commercial Record Wednesday, May 27, 2009)