After the recital we went to Bistro 127 for a "European Lunch" and - well, that's another of the brighter spots in Christendom, but more about that later.Back to the Corinth Reformed Church. It is a powerful statement of mankind's attribution of God. From the outside it sweeps in from its outlying rooms and offices rising like a concrete crescendo into the heavens. A body incarnate into a single finger pointing to its object of adoration.
Inside, the central aisle leads straight to the altar but your eye passes that by, lifting with the stained glass brilliance dominating the far church wall, rising to the ceiling. The greatest contrast in the entire church is where the bright organ tubes lift out from their dark support, and together with the vertical stained glass they form a great cross. That cross is
echoed by the arches which lead down from each side of the church to turn the arms of the cross into an loving embrace which seems to say God is good.Sound waves play upon your chest as the organ springs to life. A great pulsing note of power calls the faithful to prayer. The organist, Mr. Edwin Weber, a fourth-year student at Lenoir-Rhyne University has begun his offering to his audience and to God. Six pieces he performs over the next thirty minutes. The sound waves come later again to play on your chest and face, and still later the floor of the church vibrates the soles of your shoes as in a quaking earth. While playing a Bach prayer, Mr. Weber looks serene as if posing for a portrait, gazing forward like one hypnotized. Later, during a Boellmann Toccata, he writhes and lurches forward and backward, from side to side, with elbows rising and falling like a pilot bringing in a plane filled with apprehensive souls to a safe landing through a stormy and windy night.
What a wonderful treat! How good it is to be a part of all this, even if only as a spectator.
© John Womack, 2009. All rights reserved.
2 comments:
This is lovely! While I'm not a church-goer myself I really appreciate the architecture of a well designed church. This is a beautiful church. I love it when you feel music floods your body and you feel deep within yourself. That happened to me at the Asheville Symphony, I felt each note being played, especially from the handsome Russian pianist!
I needed a beautiful post like this on such a dreary day.
Yes, music is a wonderful form of art, good music is sometimes like watching a good artist paint a great picture, and the really cool thing about organ music is that it combines two of most challenging parts of art which is music and architecture - the sound the organ makes is only part of the organ art, the rest comes from the space it is played in. The last time I felt the floor tremble like it did Friday was in Westminister in London with Big Ben chiming in the background. The two other performances we plan to attend are March 27 with Robert Smith a grad of LRU and Yale School of Music, also director of music at 1st Presby Ch in Morganton. Then on April 10, the current organist of Corinth RCh, lives here in Hickory now and is also a composer of organ music. So - lots of good organ players, not so many really good places to play them - or occasions to play organ music for that matter.
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