Peace and Love, Baby

Peace and Love, Baby
Thanks to the generosity of a friend, on Saturday night I was able to attend the Duluth Superior Symphony. The symphony chorus performed with the symphony and her significant other sings in the chorus. They have season tickets, so she asked if I would like to use the other ticket and go with her. I was delighted. The theme of the program was “Peace and Love, Baby”, and the music was themed around the ‘60’s. The works of the program paid tribute to the search for peace and justice and to the coming age. The pieces were: “Theofanidis “Peace, Love and Light You Me One”, and a newer piece that was written with the city of Memphis in mind, during the 60’s, it was piece was called “Dreams Interrupted” by Phillips. It gave us images of Memphis past and present, and included a mournful tuba lullaby for Martin Luther King. The second part of the program was Brahms's "A German Requiem, Op. 45" It was selected because it was written by Brahms as a means for him finding his peace in the midst of grief. He began writing it 2 months after he lost his Mother. It was beautiful. The performances that evening of the symphony and chorus was beautiful. It sure made for a relaxing, enjoyable evening! (Thank you Stephanie and Michael!) Note: Monday's Duluth News Tribune has a review of the evening "DSSO nicely mixes old with new",
click on my News Tribune link on the left to read it.

Speaking of Martin Luther King, and listening to the symphony and the chorus, reminded me so much of the late 60’s when I sang in a 200 member Oratorio Society for 3 years. We practiced one night a week from October through the spring and then we performed at the Forum Auditorium in Harrisburg. The first year I participated, we did “The Messiah”. My Grandmother took me with her one time to see the society’s performance of Handel’s Messiah, when I was about 14 years old. I was a singer from the time I was about 8 when the organist at our church had me do a solo at church. That was the start of my singing. Anyhow, when I heard the performance that afternoon, I told my Grandmother that someday I would be on that stage singing with the chorus and orchestra. So, one day I was! I sang with them for 3 years. The weekend that Martin Luther King was killed, that Sunday, we had a performance. We were doing the oratorio, “The Peaceable Kingdom” (by Hayden if I remember correctly). The streets in Harrisburg were not very peaceful that day. When we got there, there were picketers everywhere, upset that King was killed. They were always picketing in Harrisburg about the war, (Harrisburg is the capitol seat of the state of PA) and there was a lot of racial tension there during the 60’s, now there were protesters and picketers about King being shot. I will never forget that day. I lived out in the rural sticks on a farm, 50 miles from Harrisburg and 20 miles from York. York and Harrisburg were the cities near us that had the racial tension. When we weren’t in York or Harrisburg, we were not touched by the tension. We heard about it in the southern states, but we were pretty naïve that it was happening in our area. Living in the country during the 60’s, I guess we didn’t always know what was really going on our nearby cities. But, that day, I was made aware.

By the way, on a side note about Harrisburg. My husband was stationed in the army just outside of Harrisburg. During the racial tensions and riots of the 60’s, Harrisburg often had curfews, to curb the rioting, etc. Bob didn’t like what he saw there, I really didn’t know about it until he told me, and of course, in Duluth, Minnesota in the 60’s these things would never have occurred. So, that is how he judged all of Pennsylvania (of course I told him he was wrong to judge the whole state, by the racial tension in Harrisburg, but he did). That is the main reason when we talked about getting married; he insisted that we live in Minnesota, not Pennsylania! Yes, those years of the 60’s were turbulent years, in the south, west and east. I do believe the Midwest was pretty immune at that time (at least Duluth, Minnesota was!) Another reason, I ended up in Minnesota!

(The photos above are of the Forum Building and the Forum Stage in Harrisburg, PA,
where I sang with an Oratorio Society three performances, including Handel's Messiah)