Taking time for music

One of the perks of this mission is that we are supposed to take some time with just each other on occasion. That it is on the list of things we are supposed to do is probably a good idea, because otherwise the non-stop nature of this calling would make us tend to forget to do it.

Often this life we are living reminds me of a sentence written by Douglas Adams: "I love deadlines.  I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."  (Salmon of Doubt)   There are some days that are on the more sedate side, but there is always the constant awareness of the latest set of speedily approaching days and dates that we need to make preparations for.

Anyway....So, in accordance with the directive received, and clued in by the Van Wagenens who heard about it first, we attended a concert at the Hanoi Opera House this week.

And after rescuing a French tourist from being bilked by an insistent scalper trying to foist an invitation to a reception off as a ticket to the concert, with the aid of her cohort posing as a helpful citizen, (note: always just buy a ticket at the ticket office, no matter what country you are in or how great a deal the scalper ticket is, okay?) we were treated to a selection of pieces from Handel's Messiah played by the Vietnam Vietnam Opera Ballet (VNOB) Symphony Orchestra and a combined choir of four vocal groups: the VNOB Choir, the Hanoi Voices Choir, the Hanoi Freude Choir, and the Xuan Voce Choir.  The VNOB Choir and the soloists were all Vietnamese. two of the choirs were made up of Japanese citizens and the fourth had people from all different nationalities.  It made for some great names in the choir sections.  For examples, the bass section, which had a tremendous sound and some remarkable articulation, included Phan Manh Duc, Andrew Holt, Ishidaira Hiroshi, Gerard Gasquet, Hans Wormgoor, To Minh Hai, Jan Van huis, Yoshida Kento and (great name for a bass) Johannes Bellow, among others.

The first half of the concert was Messiah selections.  I was actually moved to tears by the beauty of their rendition of  "And the Glory of the Lord".  The second half of the concert was actually a modern dance performance by the ballet company, with recorded music.  We wandered around our third floor balcony during the intermission and could see, below us, that the foyer of the concert hall was full of departing instrumentalists and singers.  One of the Japanese choirs gathered on the stairs before they left and sang Silent Night to the patrons in the foyer. I took too long fumbling with my camera to catch the first verse in Japanese, but I did catch the second verse (which was also the first verse) in English.

May your Christmas season start with lovely, freely given, Christmas music too.

Francophiles out here?

The French have been here. And the influence lingers. I think I’ve commented before about  the presence of significant French heritage here, in the architectural gems like the Hanoi and HCM Opera Houses, the Post Office, and other masterpieces of French design. There is even a bridge designed by the firm to which Henri Eiffel belonged and that is reminiscent of the tower by his name in Paris. The Vietnamese love these reminders of their French connection. They have their baguettes, the beret (though these are much  less common now than Yankee’s caps) and their impressionists who continue to turn our delightful scenes from the local streets, flora and so forth. 

         

                                 

        

  

   

But this past week we discovered that this  love for the French extends to music as well. It was the  60^thanniversary of the music conservatory in Hanoi, and they had invited a noted French conductor to direct the celebratory concert, which featured, can you guess? Choral and orchestral works by Faure, Charbrier, Messaien, and Beethoven. I’m looking back now and saying how did Debussey and Ravel not make the cut here? Poulenc I could understand. But that “slight” aside, the music was a delight, particularly the Faure which could as easily come from a recording we acquired a while back with Rutter conducting. And the Beethoven Festival for Chorus and Orchestra was a much more grand celebration than “La Mer” or Bolero would have been, even if they had managed to add in pieces for choir. 

         

                                       

    

The female voices in the choir were delightfully gowned in “traditional” ao dai, with a more modern palette of color options, and their performance along with the Hanoi symphony was superb. Our seats directly above the stage were not ideal for views, but the sound, which is what we came for, measured up wonderfully. And then afterwards, we went back to “little Seoul” to our  apartment in this increasingly cosmopolitan city to enjoy an eclair.

So what can we draw from this? How does this evening on our date teach us or testify of Christ?

What one culture adopts from another may be an interesting anthropological puzzle to some, but in a greater sense, the individual culture (or in today's terms, the operational software) of a family, community or nation will only excel eternally to the degree that they adopt the cultural traits of a Christ-centered people, of individuals devoted to seeking the interest of their neighbor, rejoicing not in evil but in goodness, returning good for ill, repenting and seeking to have wrongs corrected, and the ill-will therefrom supplanted by wholeness and wholesomeness. What will really matter for us after we leave Vietnam is whether those we have met are indeed more like Him, and of course, whether we also have had his image engraved more completely in our countenance, his feelings and affection for mankind nearly similar to ours, our willingness to do all for others just as he did. That is the culture I want in my life and family. That is the software I hope will govern my responses to others, the legacy that I hope to leave to my grandchildren.