Messiah in the Summer
Back in the 1990's I made a trip out to British Columbia. I was blessed to stay with friends in Calgary and I rented a car and drove south and crossed into British Columbia by the great Frank Slide. About a hundred years ago the whole side of a mountain disintegrated and descended on a small town. I visited a priest-classmate who is in the Diocese of Nelson and then stayed in the southern part of BC going through Osoyoos and then on to the Okanagan. Accompanying me on this drive through the mountains was a tape I had picked up in Calgary called a "Soulful Messiah". It made a great impression on me. The music is lively and imaginative, very well produced and performed and it manages to knit itself together with Handel's musical score. The overture in particular is a history of African American music.
Over the years I tried to find it on CD and couldn't. More recently I had checked iTunes and not found it, but just a day ago I checked again . . . and there it was. A few clicks and it is now downloaded.
In the world of overwhelming choice that we have we are often steered in the direction of consuming culture; it is wonderful when we get some chances to share in something that is intelligent, enlightening and the fruit of rich human collaboration.
To live in a world that is diverse and at peace we need to produce and share with one another such things of depth.
Over the years I tried to find it on CD and couldn't. More recently I had checked iTunes and not found it, but just a day ago I checked again . . . and there it was. A few clicks and it is now downloaded.In the world of overwhelming choice that we have we are often steered in the direction of consuming culture; it is wonderful when we get some chances to share in something that is intelligent, enlightening and the fruit of rich human collaboration.
To live in a world that is diverse and at peace we need to produce and share with one another such things of depth.
