A Tale of Two Haydns

written by: Marin C. (alto)

There are some pieces of music that stick with you your whole life. I can still remember the setting vividly, although some years have passed.  I can close my eyes and picture the darkened auditorium, the orchestra sitting in front of me, me standing at the end of the front row of altos watching my director.  I can even still sing the first pages of the piece, even though we sung in Latin. 

The choir was my High School Varsity Choir, and I was a senior.  It was the only year I had an open time to sing in the choir.  The piece was Haydn's Te Deum.  When my choir director handed us the piece he told us that we'd remember this one and how to sing it forever.  He was right.  Those memories are some of my favorite memories of my senior year of high school.

Flash forward to this year.  It was a new choir, a new auditorium, a new orchestra.  The setting was grander, the orchestra bigger, the choir more experienced.  Of course I'm talking about the WCC's performance of Haydn's The Creation.

Haydn wrote both works within the same few years.  I remembered lots of similarities between the two Haydn pieces.  Both were fun to learn and a joy to perform.  This performance of The Creation will always remind me how I felt as a teenager performing the Te Deum, and how much I've grown since then as a person and a performer.  I also feel blessed by this wonderful music. 

We never totally know where life will take us.  Did Haydn know the scope of the numbers of people that his works would touch?  Maybe not.  Do we know the scope of who our works will touch?  Probably not. 

I hope I can say, several years from now, that I remember passages of music from The Creation.  I wonder what kind of person I'll be the next time I sing one of Haydn's works.  Whatever happens, and when ever it does, I know I'll still look back fondly and remember what it was like to sing the Te Deum, and now The Creation, and cherish those memories fondly.


(more on Haydn's Te Deum)