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song: Moravians create own requiem
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Published: November 8, 2009
When we think of Moravian music, such requiems as those composed by Verdi, Mozart and Brahms don't come to mind. But that's not stopping the Moramus Chorale and Orchestra from presenting the next best thing.
The group, which specializes in Moravian music from the collections of the Moravian Music Foundation, will present "Praise You Ever More on High" in Hanes Auditorium at Salem College next Sunday.
Jayson Snipes, the Moramus' music director, compiled the pieces in "Praise" and said that they amount to "a Moravian requiem using Moravian music" composed by several composers, including Johannes Herbst, Max Reger and Edna S. Jeffries.
"The texts just fit together," said Snipes, a fan of great requiems. "It's meant to be one long, continuing work."
A requiem is either "a musical setting of the Latin mass for the dead" or "any musical work
with a text intended to commemorate the dead," Ted Libbey wrote in The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music.
Snipes grew up in the Moravian church. He hears the requiem spirit in a lot of Moravian music.
"Moravians have been known for their unwavering faith in times of uncertainty
or turmoil, and death is certainly no exception," Snipes wrote in program notes for next Sunday's concert. "So many pieces of music in the collections speak of the excitement or serenity of being called home to heaven."
He also wrote that he has "incorporated the doom and destructive sounds like Verdi and Mozart, the scriptural comfort of Brahms, and the … chorales in the style of Bach cantatas (or Moravian Singstunden)."
Mallie Graham, the president of the Moramus Chorale, has sung with the group since its beginning in 1976. She seems to welcome what Snipes has done for "Praise."
"He's brilliant at putting together anthems that have an overall message," she said.
"Praise" features passages for chorus, solo vocalists, wholly instrumental fare and even worship-like singing for audience members. It was first presented this past summer during the Moravian Music Festival at Belmont Abbey College.
The performance of "Praise" will provide local listeners another chance to hear that program and to become reacquainted with a larger, more diverse ensemble.
Graham said that the Moramus group has grown to include about 45 members under Snipes' leadership, which began in 2008. It had between 25 and 30 members before he took over, she said.
Snipes serves as the music director of Maple Springs United Methodist Church, having recently been the organist and hand-bell director of Mount Tabor United Methodist Church. He said he has recruited about 15 Methodists into the group.
One of them is Marty Lowe, who finds Moravian music "just beautiful" and said that its texts "speak God's truth to me."
"This is a group that wants to preserve this music," she said. "That's a thing that has drawn me to it."
Graham said that the number of non-Moravians in the Moramus Chorale has never been higher than it is now. She welcomed the greater diversity.
"Our purpose is to sing Moravian music," she said.
"That doesn't mean other people can't do it."
kkeuffel@wsjournal.com
727-7337
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