Offering

I recently have been thinking a lot about a piece of music that I had not previously thought about in years: the "Offertorio" movement from Verdi's Requiem. When I was a voice major at the University of Utah I was involved in a concert where this piece was sung by a few of my colleagues, so I got to hear it dozens and dozens of times throughout the rehearsal process. In my opinion this movement is one of the most beautiful and moving pieces of music that has ever been written.



For those of you who are unfamiliar with it (and/or don't speak Latin), let me talk you through it a little bit. It begins with a soaring cello line before the mezzo-soprano and tenor (sung here by a beardless-and-so-young-you-can't-even-recognize-him Pavarotti) enter together, invoking the name of "Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory," as what follows during the whole rest of the movement is essentially one long prayer.

The bass enters at 1:16 delivering this text, which the mezzo and tenor echo: 

Deliver the souls of all the faithful dead from the pains of hell and from the deep pit; Deliver them from the mouth of the lion;
That hell may not swallow them, and that they may not fall into darkness. 

That trio is followed by one of the most glorious moments in all of classical music at 2:38, when the soprano (sung here by the great Leontyne Price, sounding spectacular as always) enters like an angel descending from on high. She holds a single note that magically floats above the violins before the note deliciously melts downward at 2:50. I'll pause for a second until your goosebumps pass. Ready? On that divine entrance she is holding out a single word: "but."

But may the holy standard-bearer Michael show them the holy light.

At 3:52, the bass states that the holy light mentioned above has been "promised to Abraham and his descendants."  This develops into a lively quartet, which dies down at about 4:44 to prepare us for the tenor's delicate and moving offering (hence the Italian title of the movement, "Offertorio"):

We offer to you, O Lord, sacrifices and prayers.
Receive them on behalf of those souls whom we commemorate today.
Grant, O Lord, that they might pass from death into that life  

Like almost everything in the piece, this develops into a quartet and the other parts echo and add to what the tenor has said. The music from 3:52 returns again at 8:08, as the bass once again reminds us of the promises that the Lord has made to Abraham and his descendants.

At 9:15 the four soloists come together in unison to express the final plea of the prayer:

Deliver the souls of all the faithful dead from the pains of hell;
Grant that they might pass from death into that life.

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Back when my Grandpa Tanner died in August, I wrote about how a section from the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius was often on my mind in the wake of his death. His death was peaceful and came without any protracted illness or build-up, and it seemed that he had been released from this life in order to, in the words of Gerontius, "go forth upon thy journey" back to "the Omnipotent Father who created thee." Although it was sudden, it was his time to go and our whole family was grateful that he did not have to suffer.

However, his death has left Grandma Tanner, 95 years old and married to my grandpa for 70 years, alone, and it has been very hard for her. She has continually asked, "Merlynn, why don't you come get me?" She had to move out of the home she and her husband built together in Payson, Utah to an assisted living facility in Bountiful, closer to several of her children. She enjoyed good health up until Christmas, but since then she has been rapidly declining. She spent a while in the hospital and has since been released into hospice care. She has been getting progressively weaker and weaker, and those around her feel that she is very close to death. She is in a lot of discomfort, and she has told several visitors in the past few days, "I never know that it took so long to die."

Like I said of Grandpa Tanner earlier, Grandma Tanner has lived a long, fulfilling, righteous life and has left a tremendous legacy of faith for her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I am so grateful that I have had so many opportunities to spend time with her throughout my life. I know that she is in Heavenly Father's hands now, and at the right moment He will bring her home to be with her husband and family again.

So like before, another piece of music that has been floating around in my mind as I process another grandparent's death and mortality in general. There is something about music that helps me connect to my feelings in a much more direct way than words, and when I listen to the "Offertorio" my heart echoes the same prayer for my Grandmother in her final moments on earth:

Grant, O Lord, that [she] might pass from death into that life
Which you once promised to Abraham and his descendants.
Deliver [her] faithful soul from the pains of hell;
Grant that [she] might pass from death into that life.

SST: Fuzzy and Blue

SESAME STREET TUESDAY

Guess what my sister gave me for Christmas - I'll give you a hint:

You're right - a University of Michigan snuggie! I had my first chance to show off my fuzzy blue snuggie tonight at the Sugar Bowl party hosted by The Thirsty Lion pub in downtown Portland. I wish I had a better picture of it, but it was pretty dark in the pub, so the shot on the right will have to suffice. I blogged once before about the uniting power of Michigan football, and once again tonight I sat down at a table full of strangers and we instantly formed a bond due to our shared University of Michigan experience (except for the kid on the far left, who was an Michigan State fan - boo!).

I got a nice round of applause for the snuggie as I made my way to the front of the bar to pick up my prize from the halftime drawing - a $25 gift certificate to the selfsame bar. Between that and the waitress forgetting about my order and then comping my food and giving me a gift card for a free future appetizer, I made out like a bandit tonight.

This was a continuation of my recent winning streak, which is mostly connected to events at Yahoo!, some of which I have blogged about before. At the beginning of December we had our Yahoo! year-end party, which had a "Casino Night" theme. Poker chips were awarded for playing the various games, which could be redeemed for raffle tickets. I showed up near the beginning of the night and left before people had a chance to get too drunk, so I only ended up with four measly tickets (others told me they had accumulated twenty or thirty tickets).

After I got home from the party I got a text from a Brazilian coworker: "You just won the ipod touch!!!" I was really excited, but less than a minute later she sent me a second text: "sucker :-)"

I thought that was a pretty good prank, so I texted back: "hahaha" To which she responded: "sortudo" (Portuguese for "lucky"). At this point she had me confused, so I asked her in a text if I had really won, but she didn't respond that night.

The party fell on a Saturday night and I didn't happen to pass by the cubicle of the lady who organized the raffle until Tuesday. She stopped me and asked why I hadn't come by to pick up my prize earlier. She then handed me a shiny new iPod Touch.

I was totally surprised because I thought my Brazilian friend was just messing with me, so I went and asked her why she had texted me the word "sucker." "Because you suck. I wanted to win the iPod!" she said. I told her that in English the word "sucker" has the connotation of "I fooled you," and she said that she was not aware of that. She just thought it meant "one who sucks." Seems logical enough.

For most of my life I have never been the type to ever win anything, so this winning streak has been a welcome change. Even Michigan won tonight even though they played like crap. Maybe my winning streak rubbed off on them. Or maybe it was just the power of my snuggie.