it is the song not the singer that is important

On Sunday afternoon, March 3, 2013 Chris Kypros performed  a Piano Concert on a Knabe Concert Grand Piano, a gift to All Saints Church  from Debi and Dave Adamson, refurbished with a grant from the Outer Banks Foundation  for the opening  of the Don and Catherine Bryan Cultural Series. Chris played Schubert Four Impromptus, Op. 90, D. 899, Chopin's Ballade No 1 in G Minor, Op. 23, Alberto Ginastera Sonata No. 1, Op.22 and Beethoven  Sonata, Op. 2, No. 3. The second movement, the Adagio was described in Chris' note in the program as ""exquisitely crafted phrases and harmonies that speak prayerfully to that part of the soul where language doesn't exist."

I had preached that morning giving the 3rd attempt at a final sermon for that Sunday.. I am not sure I ever was able to say what the Spirit was asking me to say. There are so many barriers to speaking the spiritual truth using words.  After the service, I did some hospital visits where I spent a lot of time keeping my mouth shut and listening to the space between the words in the conversations. However, I still had the nagging sense of the futility of words.

The night before I had worked as a volunteer usher at the Outer Banks Forum concert of the Vienna Boys Choir and  so my attempt at reflection was sandwiched between two concerts of music.  We did not tape Chris nor the Vienna Boys Choir, and there is something that is untranslatable when the music is not played live in the same room. There is an electric current between the performer and the audience where the performer is held in the hopes of the audience to bring them to the moment of the divine mystery. God knows we in the religion business try our best but we always fall short..

The following is a link to  Alice Sara Ott playing the 2nd movement- a suggestion close your eyes or else you will focus on the "singer not the song" like the line from the 1961 British movie of the same name.