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Brahms’s First Symphony — The Long Road Into the Light
Johannes Brahms spent more than twenty years bringing his First Symphony to completion, conscious that any German symphonist following Beethoven would be measured against him. That burden can be heard throughout the work, but nowhere more clearly than in its final movement.
The music begins in C minor, uneasy and searching, before a radiant horn call breaks through the darkness. A solemn brass chorale follows, opening the way for the movement’s great central melody—broad, noble and deliberately reminiscent of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. From there, Brahms gradually gathers the entire orchestra into a triumphant C-major conclusion.
This is not cheerful music pasted over despair. Brahms allows uncertainty its full weight before leading us beyond it, making the final victory feel discovered rather than declared. The darkness remains part of the journey; it simply does not receive the final word.
Fauré’s Tanto Ergo offers devotion without theatrical excess. The music is warm, poised, and gently luminous, unfolding with the quiet confidence so characteristic of Fauré’s sacred writing. Rather than overwhelming the listener, it invites stillness: solo voice, chorus, and organ moving together in an atmosphere of reverence, restraint, and serene beauty. This is faith expressed not as spectacle, but as inward radiance.
**Latin**
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui;
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui;
Praestet fides supplementum
Sensuum defectui.
Genitori Genitoque
Laus et jubilatio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio;
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.
**English Translation**
Therefore, so great a Sacrament
Let us venerate, bowed low;
And let the old covenant
Give way to the new rite;
Let faith provide what is lacking
Where the senses fail.
To the Father and the Son
Be praise and jubilation,
Salvation, honour, power also,
And blessing;
To the One proceeding from them both
May equal praise be given.
Amen.
This week’s definitions have circled around the citizen: rights, law, speech, and equal standing before the state. Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man is a fitting musical companion. It is solemn without being pompous, grand without being royalist, and public without being partisan. It sounds like civic dignity — not the glory of rulers, but the worth of ordinary people.
The text is the Song of Simeon from Luke 2:29–32:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word;
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
to be a light to lighten the Gentiles,
and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Arvo Pärt’s Nunc dimittis did not grab me right away. At first, I found it almost too still — spare, slow, and hovering at the edge of boredom. But that seems to be part of how the piece works. It does not seize the listener by force. It waits. It asks for patience.
By the end, the music had done something I was not expecting. The quietness accumulated. The long lines, the luminous harmonies, and the text’s sense of release began to feel less like restraint and more like surrender. Simeon’s words — “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” — are not dramatic in the ordinary sense. They are the sound of someone who has seen enough, received enough, and can finally let go.
I caught shades of Bear McCreary’s Battlestar Galactica writing here, especially “Passacaglia”: music that seems static until the repetition starts to feel like fate gathering in the walls.
I began the piece slightly bored. I ended it in tears. That may be the best description of Pärt’s power here: the music seems almost empty until you realize it has been making room for something.
Well, folks let me tell you, listening the the choral finale of Mahler 2 is inspiring, but singing it… Next level experience. We had the Calgary Youth Orchestra and 3 other choirs join my choir to tackle this monumental piece. Every chorister should have the opportunity to sing in this iconic musical experience.
Original German
Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n
Wirst du, Mein Staub,
Nach kurzer Ruh’!
Unsterblich Leben! Unsterblich Leben
wird der dich rief dir geben!
Wieder aufzublüh’n wirst du gesät!
Der Herr der Ernte geht
und sammelt Garben
uns ein, die starben!
—Friedrich Klopstock
O glaube, mein Herz, o glaube:
Es geht dir nichts verloren!
Dein ist, ja dein, was du gesehnt!
Dein, was du geliebt,
Was du gestritten!
O glaube
Du wardst nicht umsonst geboren!
Hast nicht umsonst gelebt, gelitten!
Was entstanden ist
Das muss vergehen!
Was vergangen, auferstehen!
Hör’ auf zu beben!
Bereite dich zu leben!
O Schmerz! Du Alldurchdringer!
Dir bin ich entrungen!
O Tod! Du Allbezwinger!
Nun bist du bezwungen!
Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen,
In heißem Liebesstreben,
Werd’ ich entschweben
Zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug’ gedrungen!
Sterben werd’ ich, um zu leben!
Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n
wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu!
Was du geschlagen
zu Gott wird es dich tragen!
—Gustav Mahler
In English
Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you My dust,
After a brief rest!
Immortal life! Immortal life
Will He who called you, give you.
To bloom again were you sown!
The Lord of the harvest goes
And gathers in, like sheaves,
Us together, who died.
—Friedrich Klopstock
O believe, my heart, O believe:
Nothing to you is lost!
Yours is, yes yours, is what you desired
Yours, what you have loved
What you have fought for!
O believe,
You were not born for nothing!
Have not for nothing, lived, suffered!
What was created
Must perish,
What perished, rise again!
Cease from trembling!
Prepare yourself to live!
O Pain, You piercer of all things,
From you, I have been wrested!
O Death, You conqueror of all things,
Now, are you conquered!
With wings which I have won for myself,
In love’s fierce striving,
I shall soar upwards
To the light which no eye has penetrated!
Die shall I in order to live.
Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you, my heart, in an instant!
That for which you suffered,
To God shall it carry you!
—Gustav Mahler
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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