On Choirs: Singing European classical music seems like kind of a copout for Baha'is
Uploaded on April 1, 2006 by dragfyre 
Ned is quite knowledgeable about the Faith, recognizing its diverse embrace, which he expects to hear when Baha'is sing. -gw
I'm now in two choirs, the Unitarian Church of Calgary Choir, and VocaLatitudes, a community world music choir. With the later, we performed on Sunday, singing during intermission for a concert called Make a Joyful Noise, in the lobby of Jack singer Concert Hall. For those who don't know it, the lobby is alot nicer than it sounds. I got to watch the concert, too, showcasing the music of multiple faiths. It was great, really well staged, but seemed a little narrow to me. They started with an American Indian singer and drummer, and had a buddhist chanter, and representatives of the Sihk, Hindu, and Sufi community, all of whom performed in what I would call East Indian style music, although the Sufi music was probably closer to pakistan or the middle east in origin, but still, lots of tabla and sitar.The Christian choir was impressively massive, being the combination of 4 churches and I think two high schools, and they sang "All Thing Bright and Beautiful", a lovely song. Having a (white) pianist and (white) soprano soloist singing European classical music seems like kind a of copout for Baha'i, even if they do acknowledge all prophets. The Bahá'u'lláh came from Iran, and I'm sure the Baha'is must have some original music of their own.
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{Re-posted with permission}
2 comments:
The Baha'i Faith is not an Iranian religion. It began in Iran but is universal. Baha'is sing beautiful sacred music in the European tradition, gospel music, bhajans in India, Persian songs, and chant in a variety of styles and languages.
The song just did not seem to be specifically related to Baha'i, although some of your prophets words or writings were displayed upon a screen. In a concert focused on diversity, it just gave me the impression that the organizers were not able to find any actual Baha'i or Baha'i music, and filled in the gap with a generic piece. Perhaps a fitting comparison would be, using the Beatles "All You Need Is Love" to represent Christianity. Sure, it fit's the overall philosophy, but it's not particularly specific. It was still a wonderful performance, with styles of music I don't often hear, most very meditative.
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