From the Heartland
On Saturday, April 10, as Diane and I were driving through a rainstorm that at times was quite heavy to South Bend for a performance of the South Bend Symphony I was reminded of the phrase “April showers bring May Flowers.” The phrase has had several iterations. Al Jolson made a song version of the phrase popular in 1921. You can find all kinds of written versions of it. No matter the iteration, the meaning is always the same: out of the dark clouds of today good results can come tomorrow.
The concert April 10 was the first for the South Bend Symphony in thirteen months. The concert also marked the reopening of the Morris Performing Arts Center. A reminder that dark clouds of the pandemic were still with us was that there was no one sitting in the row in front of us and behind us. In our row of fourteen seats there were only four of us with a possibility of eight. The conductor and musicians wore masks. Justus Zimmerman, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra’s executive director, reminded all of us of gravity of the dark clouds that we had all experience by having us pause for a moment of silence to remember those who had died during the pandemic.
Since the concert Saturday night was a part of the Jack M. Champaigne Masterworks Series and the June H. Edwards Mosaic Series I was expecting traditional classical music. What I got was something quite different. The first number, Suite for Lower Strings, by Clarice Assad featured the string section’s lower voices, such as the viola, cello, and bass with the violins providing the accompaniments. The five movements were a fantasy on well-known themes by J.S. Bach.
The second number was Concerto in A Major For Oboe d’amore, BWV 1055. When was the last time you remember hearing a concerto for the oboe? Ravel had dedicated the last work, Le Tombeau de Couperin, to seven friends of Ravel fighting in World War I. However, it was anything but a dirge. It was filled with joy and celebration.
As the concert proceeded I thought to myself how fitting a selection to bring hope. Out of the dark clouds which we have all experienced there is a brighter day coming that will not be a return to the old, but a rebirth of a new day to stir the soul and inspire the spirit. The dark clouds of yesterday will bring the flowers of tomorrow.
The description of the earth in Genesis 1:2 might be viewed as a hurricane at sea at night. Into this chaos God brings light and order. (Gen. 1:3) This theme of God bringing His light into the darkness is an ongoing theme in the scriptures. Isaiah lived in a time when Judah was under the dark shadows of the Assyrian empire. In 9:2 the prophet writes, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.” In the Gospel of John we read, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
When Diane and I left the concert on April 10 the sun was still shinning; the rain had stopped; the earth had been renewed. The dark clouds and the torrential rain that had blotted the sun were gone. What we found as we exited the Morris, like the concert which we had just experienced inside, was a bright light shining out of the shadows and showers of the previous thirteen months, and giving hope for the future.