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Saturday 21 December 2019

Secular, I fear

Everybody gets table presents here at Castle Robinson. Wrapping them is VR's special job, signalled by the opening tenor arias of Handel's Messiah (Comfort ye my my people, followed by the more celebratory Ev'ry valley shall be exalted). Drink gets drunk and this prepares us all for the life-reinforcing trumpets and great, great drumming that kicks off Bach's Weinachtsoratorium - a moment when I, an atheist, briefly wonder whether there might be something to be said for a revealed religion. After all, look what it did for Johann Sebastian. But then the choir roars out and I am reminded that all this wonderful noise has, of course, been created by "the people who dwell in the shadow of death". Mortals, in fact.

Music is like travelling free by TGV, drinking champagne and watching an unending riverside panoply consisting of the Rhine, the Seine, the Thames and the point at which the Allegheny meets the Monongahela to form the Ohio.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 December 2019 at 20:46

    Ah, a fellow atheist in this season of trees, lights, gifts, and music. I find the return of the sun on solstice as joyous as all the holiday music, and probably has inspired many a poem and song as well. Always makes me wonder how the holiday is celebrated in the southern hemisphere when the sun begins its retreat.

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  2. Roderick Robinson22 December 2019 at 07:24

    Robin andrea: Since I started singing lessons, four years ago, music has taken a much tighter grip on my senses and emotions. This compensates for the much quicker rate of age-related decay occurring in the physical me. Yes, I welcome Spring but I cannot afford to discard Winter since I can't be sure how many Winters I have left. Music - an indoors activity - enriches the restrictions that Winter imposes. And making music is many times more thrilling than just listening to it. Making music also brings out a competitive urge "to improve" which may - if one is fanciful enough - be seen as life affirmation. I apologise for all the syllables.

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