Each week I search the best of the internet for sacred choral music that aligns with the Weekend's scripture readings and post several selections on our website at Choral Music Worth Hearing.
When I see scripture I know really well, my instinct is: can I find a musical setting that's new and different, maybe even with a wow factor, to help me gain a new perspective on this verse?
Because, frankly, if I've seen it a bunch of times, it sometimes fails to resonate.
Here are two settings of the same text taken from this weekend's Gospel, John 15:
I am the true vine and you are the branches, says the Lord.
Whoever remains in me, and I in him, bears fruit in plenty.
Both are for SATB chorus. They couldn't be more different.
The music is a bit like the two images above...the first is meditative and sparse. The second busy and active.
Are they choosing to send the same message? How do you hear the two settings in relation to each other; in relation to the original text?
I heard a great quote the other day: Music is a way of feeling "thoughts".
I imagine these two composers were thinking very different things as they wrote. Yet both are grounded in the same thought: "I am the vine, and you the branches..."