Brahms!

I just realized that before my post in February, I last posted about Brahms in 2011.  I was, at the time, preparing the Brahms Requiem for two concerts.  Well, I am singing it once again.  Just a couple weeks away and so it's that time of concert prep where it's in my head ALL DAY LONG.  And I am perfectly ok with that.

The German Requiem is different from most requiems that we're used to.  It's in German, not the familiar Latin text.  And it's not all plodding and sad.  There are certainly quite, dainty moments, but there are multiple fugues and daring, blaring, exciting exultations and declarations.  It's not a sleep piece.  It's beautiful and moving and exciting.  I love it.  I love singing it.  Throughout the past couple months, just rehearsing it has elevated my mood.  When my mind couldn't quit a funk while singing parts of it, the second movement fugue actually cleared my head of the emotional fog. This is why I believe that music is mighty.  Fugues have power over us!  I go home from rehearsal smiling, even when I'm so tired I just want to sleep for days.

If I ever meet Brahms in the great beyond, I will hug him for creating this joy.