Connecting through music

This week I was fortunate to go to several events that were very different, yet they had one thing in common – music.

The first event was a play entitled Voice of Silence (“Voix du silence”).

It was produced by a group whose founding members came from France in the 80’s. They began working with different First Nation’s communities as well as other partners in Québec.  The group established themselves in an old 18^th century convent just outside Québec City. They use a quote from Dostoevsky as their focus: “...and if beauty could save the world” (”et si la beauté pouvait sauver le monde”).

They use puppets and other objects to tell a story.

 

The play gave voice to the many children who were taken away from their families and placed in the Indian Residential Schools. The play was “in tribute to the voices that are silent, murmurs that do not have the force of words. The screams that have no ears to hear, songs that release. In tribute to all childhoods shattered by the schools. These voices are an echo of so many other voices."

The cast included First Nations, Innu, Metis, Québecois and French.

 

The dialogue tells the story from the child’s perspective was punctuated with drumming, guitar and native flute music. Several puppet figures were used to characterize different characters, especially the First Nation's child and "the system." It was a very powerful play. Although the story tells of a dark period in our history, what comes through in the end is the strength of the people.  I have heard first hand some of the same experiences recounted that were told here. The dialogue was mostly in French, but included English because one of the First Nations representatives, Ron Meetos, is from Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan.  I had a chance to meet him briefly after the play.

I went to the play with Lucie Painchaud. I met Lucie at the Returning to Spirit workshop held in Tatamagouche, NS, last year. The Archdiocese of Montréal is working to organize a series of workshops and Lucie is on the committee. We met earlier this week with Cynthia Patterson, a deacon in the Anglican Church. Cynthia works a great deal with First Nation’s communities. When she was ordained deacon a few years ago, the ordaining bishop told her to “be a thorn in our side” - to be a voice for the voiceless. He also told her not to be afraid to challenge the status quo “even if it means telling the bishop he may be wrong.” Apparently that got a chuckle from the congregation because she is married to Bishop David Drainville. She was very interesting to speak with and is doing what she can to promote and support RTS.

The second event was another concert with the L’orchestre symphonique de québec.” This time the conductor was Matthias Pintscher and the featured artist was Nareh Arghamanyan, a pianist. The venue was the Palais Moncalm, near the entrance of the old City. The concert was excellent. I was in the balcony this time and had a great view of the musicians.

What caught my eye immediately was the pipe organ. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that large.

 

The concert was entitled Tradition et modernité. The two featured pieces that evening were Mozart’s piano concerto no. 20, and Ex nihilo, a piece composed by Pintscher, himself. To tell the truth, I did not care for the modern piece. Whenever they start moving strange percussion instruments into the concert hall, I get a little worried. The saving factor was the piece was relatively short. The audience was polite, but not overly enthusiastic. Arghamanyan, on the other hand, was incredibly adroit with the piano concerto and received a standing ovation.

The third musical event was going to a pub known for playing Québecois music live.

Two different musicians entertained in both French and in English. I was surprised at how many songs I knew (even some Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond!). The place was packed with young people singing to their heart’s content – in both languages. Deanne, one of my classmates was really getting into the music and she knew a lot of the songs. I told her at one point, “that song is older than you are.” Apparently her parents played a lot of music at home.

Needless to say, I got home very late and needed a nap the next day.

Today I was with the choir again, singing some more. A different story being told, but still music was the vehicle to tell it. For some in the choir, the pieces spoke very plainly of what they believe. Unfortunately, it is not a message that connects with most people’s experience these days. I was telling someone recently that church goers are a definite minority here. They were surprised. They thought Québec would be the same as the rest of Canada, but it is not. There is a lot of cultural Catholicism (buildings, terms, etc.) but for the most part people are not connecting to the church itself.

I find the parish a very eclectic mix of people. Mostly older, but there are some young faces and some you don’t often associate with “church.” Many are new immigrants, and some are finding the community for the first time. It will be interesting to see how the Triduum is celebrated. I checked out the time for the Chrism Mass. Here it is held the Wednesday of Holy Week.

Classes are going well. I am keeping up with the material but still need work on speaking and oral comprehension. Six weeks left in Québec. The time is flying by.