Performance and Meaning

Amy and I had the great joy of being a part of an alumni concert at USD earlier this month for the Chamber Singers group that we were in back in the day. It was a day that we had circled on the calendar for months and made it three straight years that we'd had an opportunity to do something of this nature in Vermillion; the first when Larry Torkelson called together a bunch of his former students for an alumni concert, the second when we gathered again to mourn and celebrate Larry's home going after he lost his battle with cancer and the third being this year where a new tradition started by bringing the past and present together in a way that will hopefully continue into the future.

The current Chamber Singers group performed five pieces and then we joined them to sing five more. It was a great program of sacred pieces and the performance of the current group was excellent from a musical standpoint, but I found myself thinking about how disconnected some of the singers were in light of what they were singing. Instead of great songs of worship testifying to the power, majesty and holiness of God, they were great art songs where the song was the object of devotion rather than the One the song was written to reveal.

I suppose I was no different in college. I had grown up in the church, accepted Christ in Jr. High, tried to play the part of a good Christian in High School and had settled into a pattern of going through the motions by the time I reached college where I probably approached the same types of pieces in the same way that I witnessed from many of the current singers.

As I thought more about this, I longed for communion with God through the pieces we would perform together. I prayed that God would transform those works from works of art to expressions of love, devotion, hope and faith that would somehow touch the audience in a way that would glorify God and take on a transformative, transcendent power as we encountered Him in a place where the distinction between earth and heaven blur for just a moment.

I felt His presence and worshipped with all that I had, not wanting to sacrifice performance for connection, not wanting the art to be the goal, but His glory. I know I wasn't the only one and can only hope that it made the performance more meaningful not just for us, but for those that saw something of His beauty in our offering. I know I will continue to dwell on this thought and the lessons I've been learning for a long time and hopefully it will make me a better performer and a better worshipper.