Chorale

I admire Anne Frank.  Trapped in a Secret Annex, quarters that make the house in which I find myself self-quarantined  feel like a mansion, she found a million topics to discuss in her diary.  I seem to have no topic but the Pandemic and its ripple effects on my life, and --now -- the after-effects of the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Including, of course, the President's continuing meltdown as a result of both events.

This Spring has been beautiful, and my daily walks inspiring.  But I've blogged enough Wordsworthian ecstasies on the glories of Nature.  It's been Spring for you folks, as well.  You long for something different (assuming you long for anything at all).

Last December, I wrote about having attended the Christmastide "Festival of Lessons and Carols," presented by the Northwest Boychoir in Seattle's St. Mark's Cathedral.  Since March, those boys have been unable to gather together, either to practice or to perform in public.  The time each of them has between really mastering his art and then having his voice change is short, and it's a shame that the Pandemic has taken many of those months from them already.

But the organization keeps in touch, apparently, with its attendees.  In the last few weeks, I have received emails advising me of two performances -- on Zoom or a similar platform -- which they have posted on YouTube and made available for free.  Something to remind us that even in bad times, there is beauty that transcends the trivia of our daily lives.

In the absence of any other inspiration, I offer you links to the two performances.  They are very well done, especially considering that the boys hear each other only through earphones while they sing.

The first piece is Little Stream, a lively song by Hub Miller -- a Seattle composer and graduate of the University of Washington.

The second is something more classical and serene, Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine.

(Click on either title)

Hope you enjoy, and that this singing by an excellent Seattle chorus gets you through the next couple of days.  By then, I may have come up with a more writerly inspiration for my next blog entry.