O Magnum Mysterium

Can't sleep. This is not good as I'll probably be worthless tomorrow, but, that doesn't change the truth of the matter that I can't sleep.

Anyway, as i lay in bed, my heart pounding a little too fast for comfort, I keep hearing this piece in my head that I am rehearsing with my one ensemble. It is entitled " O Magnum Mysterium" by Morten Laurisden. It is a MAGNIFICENT work. A renaissance polyphonic work.... before the days of melody and harmony. All lines are melody. Basically whoever has moving notes is the most important at any one given time. The way that the lines interweave creating these POWERFUL moments of tension and release is just....... amazing.

It was originally written as a choral work in Latin ( which I, in all honestly, have not translated). It is a sacred work, but don't let that chase you away. In order to really feel its power you have to hear it performed by voice. The way the voices intertwine is most purely represented by the human voice.

The instrumental transcription is very well done and very challenging for any players, but very much so for high schoolers. The students are doing fabulously, but the obstacle is getting them to feel it.... experience it.... not play it. I wish I knew how to attach sound clips as I have several recordings, but please let me solicit you to look them up. ( or if someone wants to send a quick tutorial, I'll attach them)

The opening statement is like a plea made by the French horn and saxophone. The sentiment is then sympathized with by the clarinet and flute. There is a pause and a stronger statement of the same plea is made again by the sax and horn and continued on for a short time. Because the statements are so brief the power of the tension created by the dissonances reaching for a consonant resolution, regardless of how brief is just ........ aaaahhh, indescribable. There are times that the instruments need to sound like an angel taking the back of their hand and lightly brushing a persons cheek in an offer of comfort or a time when the all the sounds come forcefully together to show beams of brillant light bursting through a thick of storm clouds to just consume the skies with light. And then from all this excitement, in seconds to return to a sense of peace and tranquility, of quiet hope and comfort. Amazing. There are so many of such moments in this piece, but the kids I think still just see notes, not moments, not pictures.

Notes on a page to experience. How do you teach that? Music is aural representation of sight, feeling, experience, emotion. It's not first valve. Yet it is a concept that I learn and relearn, live and relive everyday. Some music connects with you like a pleasant touch or a familiar friend. You feel it and know it. And then there is the music that touches you, but instead like sandpaper as toliet paper. Yet, that music meant as much to the writer as the other, but _you_ just don't respond to it the same. It's so much more than sound.

When I can get someone to "feel" the music, to experience whatever movie or sensation the sounds elicit from them, then they have learned.

Listen to this piece "O Magnum Mysterium". It is as it's title infers. I think I'll play in on iTunes to take the burden off my head.