Music The first music of the Cathedral is traditional Anglican church music, but we also celebrate earth music, early music, jazz, rock, Broadway, gospel, and programs from all around the world: Sephardic and Sufi songs, Japanese flutes, Tibetan chants, and African drums—to name just a few. As we say at the Cathedral, “All are welcome.”
The Sacred is Clear
“Glorious music fulfills its highest function by being transmuted into praise.” CATHEDRAL ARCHIVES PAUL WINTER Playing in the Cathedral is always a revelation. The first time I took my horn into the Cathedral, it was empty. I stood in the reverberating silence for a moment. When I began to play, the sound floated and hovered. It seemed to glow with a richness I had never known before. The acoustics here combine thousands of tiny echoes bouncing off all the surfaces at different distances. Each time, the glory of the sound is more magical than I had remembered. KENT TRITLE The sacred element is absolutely clear here. You are hearing something beautiful surrounded by arches, stained glass, and all these objects of spiritual significance in the staggering dimensions of this space. JESSYE NORMAN
I’ve sung in cathedrals around the world. In some of the grand cathedrals, one can feel rather small and not a part of what is happening. But it isn’t the same here. This is a place where light and peace just grab you. Here, there is a oneness with the grandeur of the space that is not overwhelming to the spirit. One finds a beautiful feeling of calm and involvement always. I don’t know how else to describe it, but it isn’t like singing at a concert at all. It is something more personal about being in that space and making music. Even when the Church is full of so many people, when you are there you feel that it is happening just for you. I have been attached to the Cathedral since I was 21. That is a long relationship.
JUDY COLLINS
For a long time, I have sung at the Cathedral on Easter Morning and New Year’s Eve. When I first saw the Cathedral, I thought, “I need to sing in this place and I’m going to sing a capella here.” I usually wind up singing Amazing Grace. It is like a prayer not only for me, but for everybody in the Cathedral. JOHN CLINTON EISNER A
lot of the most profound experiences of being at the Cathedral are hearing the words spoken. But when you sing, it is even more beautiful: The lyrics are essentially in poetic form and so they become metaphoric. DEAN KOWALSKI The best way to know what it is to be Anglican is to come to church and listen to how we pray and listen to our hymns.
BRUCE NESWICK Music and worship have been tied together as far back as we can trace. And that music has taken many forms. But in Christian services, the human voice has always been considered the most sacred and for centuries the only acceptable instrument. BRUCE FIFER Who is singing? The music is part of the place, the place is part of the liturgy, the liturgy absorbs the congregation…. Who is singing? Who is singing is God. With me, in me, through me, is me. KENT TRITLE The Cathedral looms large in the imagination of the city. The vision of what it can be both liturgically and secularly as an icon for New Yorkers is extraordinary. Music is the thing that can draw New Yorkers from different cultures here and because of the scale of the Cathedral, we can do it at a level other places only dream of.
Theresa Thomason at the Feast of Saint Francis. 172
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