Morse and Brahms

Watching a recent episode of Endeavour with the excellent Shaun Evans playing the young Inspector Morse) the haunting choral background music stirred echoes in in my mind. It sounded familiar but I could not place it and that really annoyed me to the point that I couldn't rest until I'd solved the mystery. It was choral, it was sad and it sounded German. Beethoven? No, I couldn't think of anything? Mendelsohn then - no. Eventually I got to Brahms Ein Deutches Requiem but a skim through on You Tube didn't immediately find it. I knew it had to be German because the first line contained the word "Alles". Eventually I found it. It was the Geman Requim after all - "Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras" from Isaiah 40 and other texts. here's a translation of the chorus

For all flesh is as grass,
and the glory of man
like flowers.
The grass withers
and the flower falls.

Therefore be patient, dear brothers,
for the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waits
for the delicious fruits of the earth
and is patient for it, until he receives
the morning rain and evening rain.

But the word of the Lord endures for eternity.

The redeemed of the Lord will come again,
and come to Zion with a shout;
eternal joy shall be upon her head;
They shall take joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing must depart.

 

I was overjoyed - I hadn't heard this music for so long. But to discover the words that Brahms set to music was also a joy because while the chorus begins on an appropriately sorrowful note it is balanced by the other texts. The powerful declaration that the word of the Lord endures for eternity is followed by the joyful Isaiah 51:11

Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

And so sorrow is turned to joy at the glorious day of resurrection. Thank you Brahms, thank you Endeavour but above all Thank You God.