We sang five beautiful songs today to honor those who sacrificed their lives in defending our country. I've mentioned before how I'm not always too keen on patriotic songs and their often quirky/over-sentimental lyrics. However, today's songs were ones I very much enjoyed singing. Interestingly enough, the one I liked the best was one with no lyrics at all. I liked it best because I was free to think my own thoughts--to have the music, itself, evoke images and feelings related to freedom and those who have helped preserve it. "Hymn to the Fallen" was name of the song. Check it out if you have a few minutes.
The Tabernacle itself was filled to over-capacity. In fact, they had to turn many people away because there was no room left by 9:15a. At least a third of the audience came from a BYU Basketball Camp that had been going on this past week. Dads and their sons, mostly dressed in white shirts and ties, joined the rest of the audience, as has been a Memorial Day weekend tradition for as long as I've been in the choir. A quick search online shows the tradition going back as far as 2003, though it may go back much farther than that. At any rate, I hope everyone enjoyed the music and the spirit, and took a moment to say a prayer of thanks to the fallen.
As a side note, if you've ever wondered just how many men and women have fallen in war, this graph shows that number to be more than 1.1 million! (That's about the equivalent of a city the size of Austin, Texas or San Jose, California) It's all so very tragic, really. Tragic that peaceful solutions aren't sought after more, or that such solutions, even when put in play, end up not working. I'm sure, too, that the 1.1 million number will most certainly rise as time moves forward.
As we sang God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again, I turned and sang to the people who were in the far right balcony. I thought it would be nice to do since it seems like most of the choir just sings out to the main audience in the middle. As I did, I seemingly locked eyes with a younger man who kept watching/listening intently. As we sang the last line, his hands went up to his eyes, wiping away tears. While I highly doubt he was actually looking at me, I'm so glad that he was able to feel something as we sang. I hope he knows how much God loves him.
Until next time, God be with you.
PS: a special thanks to Mack Wilberg for being patient with the choir this morning. For the life of us (or, at least, some of us), we could not sing in tune. Thankfully, after much practice and many stern words, we pulled it off and got the "two thumbs up" at the end of the performance. Wheww!
PPS: a special thanks to all those who have purchased a copy of our latest CD, "Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Friends". It's now at the number 2 spot on Billboard's Classical chart and number 1 on the Classical Crossover chart.
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