Love and Hope beautifully expressed through music
Oriana’s upcoming concert programme, Reflections: Songs of Love and Hope, is something truly special. It’s a collection of songs from many sources, ancient and modern, popular and classical, sacred and secular, but all with a unifying message of – just as the concert’s title suggests - Love and Hope.
There’s expression of love for another - “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, “The Cloths of Heaven”; love for God, however God may (or may not) be perceived – “Alleluia” “Festival Sanctus”, “Even When He Is Silent”; love for nature, our world and each other – “Earth Song”, “What the World Needs Now”.
There is hope expressed and shining through in the beautiful, heart-rending “Prayer For the Children”; the exquisite “Ecce Novum” (literal meaning ‘Behold the New’); and the joyous intensity of “My Soul’s Been Anchored In the Lord”.
Some songs are quietly contemplative – “Alleluia”; some are a jubilant celebration of how good it is to be alive and in love – “Sway”; others are intensely emotive and emotional – “Prayer For the Children”.
But whatever their source, inspiration or motivation, every one of these songs has something positive to say about the human condition, and all are, in one way or another, encouraging and uplifting.
Perhaps the centrepiece for the whole programme, is the sublime “Sure On This Shining Night”. It’s based on a poem by the late American writer James Agee, set to music by composer Morten Lauridsen. It expresses the sense of being at peace with the world, with the cosmos, and with oneself. Lauridsen’s music and Agee’s words are a nigh perfect combination, and the result is something truly exquisite. If there is a song genre love and hope, this fits the definition beautifully.
Reflections: Songs of Love and Hope is exactly what it says. All of these beautiful songs are reflections – meditations - on those two things that are what the world needs now.
Performances
Saturday, August 17, 2.00 pm – St. Patrick’s Church, Gympie
Sunday, August 18, 2.00 pm - Stella Maris Performance Centre, Maroochydore
For bookings and information, go to www.oriana.org.au
Oriana is proudly supported by
Storage Direct Sippy Downs
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