23-Dec / 0 COMMENTS

 

It is that time of the year again. With Christmas and New Year’s we musicians get to be extra busy. Three nights ago I sang a Christmas program with the vocal group Ribattuta at the De ToonZaal in Den Bosch. When I arrived to the location of the performance I realized the place is a synagogue. Well, not really a synagogue- not anymore. It was re-purposed a while back, and now it functions as a concert hall. Unexpectedly, the experience that in any other hall would be a lovely one turned on that evening bitter sweet.

 

Surprisingly, I found out that I’m not so comfortable with the re-purposing of places in any religion. I mean, how does that work? One day it’s a holy place and the next it’s not? Where does all the holy go? I guess it’s weird coming from me. I don’t see myself as a religious person, but I do see the belief in other people’s lives. So when I get to sing a distinctly Christian repertoire in what used to be a synagogue, I feel like I’m doing something that is slightly naughty, if not completely wrong 🙂

 

 

But lets’ go back to this process of re-purposing a holy place. I bet there are rules on how that must be done. In The Netherlands it’s common to see places that used to be churches and today function as something else: a concert hall, a night club, a home. Everything goes. Does the energy of the place go away as well? Maybe it doesn’t, maybe it just stays there waiting? I can actually see how a holy place turns into a concert hall though. There’s the ceremony of going to see a concert or giving one, and I can see how a place that used to bring people together around religion now brings people together around music.

 

Since that aspect of the experience did not sit well with me, I was talking about it with some of my colleagues. One friend suggested that the repertoire we sang, and perhaps music in general, has a meaning beyond its’ immediate purpose for which it was written. Music as means of communication transcends time, space and religion. I like that idea very much. I do think that music works on us in a very primal way. It goes straight to your gut.

 

The sweet part of my bitter -sweet evening was playing with a Dutch harpist Remy van Kesteren. One of the pieces he played was Die Maldau by Smetana, of which main musical theme is the same as in the Israeli anthem. It kind of made me smile to hear it. He didn’t mean to make the evening right again for me, but it made me feel a bit at home all the same. What do you know 😉

 

Here’s a video of Remy playing at Night of the Proms 2012 – Antwerp, Belgium.

 

Die Moldau – Remy van Kesteren

 

And a link to the Ribattuta website >> http://www.ribattuta.nl/

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2014!
Ik wens julie fijne kerstdagen!

 

Christmas Remy van Kesteren Ribattuta vocal ensemble Toonzaal