It is not every evening that the museum is the weighing the 18th -century European mass within them, which was performed in its entirety by the sounds and a young orchestra songs. In this last weekend, Madras Musical Association staged Johan Sebstian Bakh B mass in B Minor, Not only as a performance, but as a proposal.
What happens when in the 1740s, leapzig was never performed in the work written by a righteous Lutheran and never performed in his lifetime, as it finds its voice in a completely different rhythm and ritual -shaped city after about 300 years? The answer came out as a belief in the power of music to get away from far away throughout the evening.
Mass in B Minor Not designed for easy consumption. There is no story, no visual cue, no dramatic arc – only the architecture of Latin mass: Carey Ellison (Lord have mercy), In Anam Dum (I believe in a god), Fire dei (Lamb of God), and so on. The phrases were unfamiliar to some, but the MMA offered translations into the program notes, and, even more importantly, the music was given enough space to breathe its meanings in the room.
Augustine Paul left Baton
There was no crowd, there was no attempt to dazzle with speed or scale. Powered by Augustine Paul – who has led MMA songs since 2009 – was attentive to the shape of the concert score, for a change between coral mass and single intimacy, and for the acoustic possibilities of the hall. The museum theater, with its stone walls and the gently worn platform, conducts the sound carefully, instead of growing and solving the music, is revived.
MMA song players, now in their 132nd year, include singers of ages and businesses, some formally trained, not many. Orchestra – a large extent made from musicians under the age of 25 – contacted the score with the direction coming from being unbalanced from the performance history. Their focus was only on connection: for music, each other, and to the audience. The writing of Bakh, which, demands the clarity of the line and the structure on the furious when benefited from this unavoidable perspective.
Mass There is an editing. It was never intended for the same literagical occasion-it is a sum of sacred music of Bakh compared to a service-taiyar work.
MMA song players, now in their 132nd year, include singers of ages and businesses, some formally trained, not many.
One of the most striking examples of this structure is Mantra Self. A reflection in its heart: ET incarnatus est (And meat was made), then Crucifixus (He was on the cross), and then ET revival (And he got up again). Crucifixus – Low, sung in measured phrases, especially impressed, its descending lines begin to fall through the space instead of crossing it. ET revival Chased with a gentle expansion, such as the light was returning a windopen at a time.
In Chennai, Bakh wrote away from Literal Space, that vision did a different kind of urgency in the museum theater. And yet, he said the work. Many had never heard Mass First. And yet, they stayed with it.
For conductor Augustine Paul, the scale and complexity of the piece was not fully visible until it was deep in his preparation. “I did not analyze the work intensely before choosing to perform. I tried coral parts before an epidemic with an atmosphere. So, I was confident that the songs could do it. Only when we decided to perform. MassDid I start working on a full score? This was when I really got to see depth. Although the quality of music is certain to influence the listener, the length was a little concern from the viewers’ point of view. But finally applause and response revealed that people like it. ,
Some of this is also quietly radical: a attire of amateurs, increasing the performance of one of the most technical and spiritually demanded works, in a city, where Western classical music is still a minority language. This was not correct, and it did not need to be. Shakti is in choice – to perform complete performance, not only familiar parts. To give it live and did not trim. To believe that the audience will be with long arcs of music.
There was no crowd, there was no attempt to dazzle with speed or scale.
“Both the song players and orchestra fought very well with technical demand. Orchestra managed five to six rehearsals, with two songs, and development was impressive during that time. The time was about two hours before the real concert that came together,” said Paul.
Perhaps, it is – the fragility of preparation and impossibility of complete control – which gave the echo in the evening. This reminded the audience that great music is not a certain monument. This is something in which you step, whatever resources you have, and re -build from within. It is a living structure, as much as it is huge.
Bakh closes it Mass Not with pomp, but with a repetition: Donna Nobis Pesar (Give us peace). In this performance, the movement was gradually sung – almost privately – sound after more than nineties. That last raga did not feel like an end, but like a breath held in the air, a note was suspended.
Published – 09 April, 2025 02:41 pm IST
