Ave Maria - 6

I've been waiting since day one of this series to post this particular Ave Maria - and I can't wait any longer! This video features Bobby McFerrin and a huge audience, the composition of which I've not been able to discover. The video includes a fairly lengthy intro by McFerrin but please be patient and wait for the music to begin. As McFerrin instructs, the Bach-Gounod setting of the Ave is the combination of two musical pieces. A Bach prelude is the foundation and the Gounod setting of the Marian prayer sits atop it - tenderly and delicately so.

Besides the beauty of the composition, I find this performance particularly moving for the way McFerrin pulls together the voice of what looks to be a very large audience with his simple and stunning vocalizing of the prelude. What sends shivers up my spine each time I hear this is less McFerrin's vocal prowess and more the song the people make and his ability to draw that from them and to support it with a simple melody that bubbles out of his throat and mouth.

What comes of this unrehearsed collaboration is nothing less than a thing of beauty.

A pastor's ministry in the liturgy is meant to be of a kind with this moment. The work of the presider is to meld the soul and voice of hundreds of people in the church with the simple, stunning ritual which is the prayer we offer. This happens every Sunday but to greater and lesser degrees. You probably know, as I do, that our worship comes together with greater unity, energy, depth and spirit on some Sundays than on others. While the prayer we offer is always a great gift to God, there are times when it breathes the Lord's very Spirit within and among us. Such graced moments are the confluence of many elements: our open presence to the ritual moment; lectors allowing God's voice to speak through them in the word; the sine qua non of beautiful music, beautifully voiced and played; the work of the homilist in bridging us from the ancient words of scripture through the stuff of daily life to the altar of Eucharist and our sharing in the sacrament of Christ's presence...

But I digress!

This series on the Ave Maria is meant to invite, remind and urge you to come to the concert Chosen From All Women on Sunday night, September 9 at 7:30 p.m., following Evening Prayer at 7:00 p.m. at Holy Family Parish in Concord. The concert will be presented by Lauren Sprague (soprano) and Carol Messina (piano).

For more information on the concert see my first post on this topic, and scroll down to find the first previous posts on the Ave Maria.

Ave Maria Numbered Series