Saturday, November 15, 2008 | Reason : In the News | print version

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Church Preaches The Music Of Beethoven

NPR

Thanks to Thomas Blankenhorn for the link.

Reposted from:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97010881

Video and audio at the link above

Weekend Edition Saturday, November 15, 2008 - Albuquerque, N.M., is no different from any other American city, in terms of its religious life; you've got churches, synagogues, a couple of Unitarian congregations and a mosque. But an abandoned gas station along old Route 66 is the unlikely home for another kind of Sunday-morning service, and it's one that you won't find anywhere else. It's called the Church of Beethoven.

Felix Wurman isn't a rabbi, priest or preacher. He plays the cello. He didn't feel at home in church, because he's not religious. But he says he also felt that there was something missing in formal concert halls where he performs.

"One of the things you do as a professional classical musician is play 'church jobs,' " Wurman says, "and I always felt that this is so wonderful, all this music, the collection of people, this beautiful room. But there was something lacking."

Wurman is a member of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Before that, he studied with the legendary British cellist Jacqueline du Pre, toured with Andrew Lloyd Webber and performed with Chicago's Lyric Opera Orchestra.

Beyond Entertainment

"All the time I was doing all those things," Wurman says, "I was searching for a form of entertainment that went beyond entertainment, and went beyond the concert."

Last February, he created it. It's sort of like a variety show, with poetry readings, group singing, silence and music. But he's trying to make it more than that: a community, a spiritual place, like a church for people who don't go to church.

"Really, the idea is to find spirituality through culture, through the cultural gifts that so many people have suffered for and created over so many generations," Wurman says. "There's so much information there that's useful."

On a typical Sunday morning, a crowd gathers at the Filling Station, an old gas station that's been converted into a theater. It's in one of Albuquerque's oldest neighborhoods, surrounded by small brown adobe houses, a few blocks from the hulking shell of the old Santa Fe rail yards.

Coffee is a major part of the liturgy here — good coffee. Two cheerful baristas serve everyone free espresso in brightly colored ceramic cups. Laura Motter and her husband Nathaniel, who rode to the church on their tandem bike, have been attending faithfully since last spring.

"The first time I came, I heard about it from a friend who was reading poetry here, and we were just kind of blown away by what you can hear in a gas station in Albuquerque," Motter says.

An Atypical Church

At the Church of Beethoven, the audience sits on plain wooden risers. The cement floor has been scrubbed clean of oil stains, but the exposed brick and cinderblock walls still look as if they were blackened by exhaust. Wurman doesn't always program classical music, but on this particular morning, the church lives up to its name, with a Beethoven string quartet.

"His music is probably the most important reason I selected him as figurehead," Wurman says of Beethoven. "Because he really took a lot of chances with his music, in terms of the emotional content of it, he just doesn't give you any notion of what's coming. And then, all of a sudden, he's in a different mood altogether. I just think that's just so human."

Wurman adds that, unlike Bach, Beethoven didn't write that much church music. In fact, he rarely, if ever, went to church.

"He poured all that spirituality that he couldn't find a place for in the traditional church, he poured it straight into his art," Wurman says. "And that's what most of the great creators did. And so I can just go and grab that incredible crystallized piece of beauty and present it to people."

Feeling The Music

Dwayne Longabaugh has a subscription to the symphony, but he comes to the Church of Beethoven for a different musical experience.

"You're sitting three feet from the musicians, and you can actually feel the music, instead of just hearing it," Longabaugh says. "The lower notes of the music actually reverberate in your chest."

Wurman refuses to charge admission, because churches don't do that. But he does have expenses to cover, so he asks for donations. Sometimes he comes out ahead; sometimes he doesn't. But in just nine months, he has built a devoted Sunday-morning following, as well as a community. Wurman says he's determined to see his church survive and prosper.

"I have struggled so long in the arts," he says. "It's like you're crying in the wilderness. You're saying, 'Look at all this incredible music that really isn't getting out there to the extent that it should.' "

Wurman says he doesn't want the Church of Beethoven to grow into a megachurch, because that would destroy the intimacy that makes it meaningful. But he'd like the idea to get big, and spread, with churches of Bach, Schubert, Mahler and Bernstein sprouting up.

"My goal is to disseminate all of this wonderful art," Wurman says, "because people don't know that much about it. I know there's an audience for it."

Posted: Saturday, November 15, 2008 | Permalink

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1. Comment #284503 by DarwinsChihuahua on November 15, 2008 at 10:52 am

I'll see your Church of Beethoven and raise you:

http://www.coltranechurch.org/

DC

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2. Comment #284516 by Zachary Sloss on November 15, 2008 at 11:21 am

I might start a Church of Wagner.

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3. Comment #284521 by pulsar1z on November 15, 2008 at 11:28 am

What a great idea. I'd go as long as they don't thank God for the church

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4. Comment #284523 by Anwyl on November 15, 2008 at 11:31 am

Glorious Ludwig Van!

Other Comments by Anwyl

5. Comment #284533 by Dr Doctor on November 15, 2008 at 11:54 am

Beethoven, now there is a composer worth worshipping.

Other Comments by Dr Doctor

6. Comment #284541 by Stafford Gordon on November 15, 2008 at 12:12 pm

What about a church of the Duke of Ellington.

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7. Comment #284542 by j.mills on November 15, 2008 at 12:13 pm

Well, that all sounds very nice. But I am allergic to the word "spirituality". If they'd just call it an Arts Morning...

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8. Comment #284543 by D'Arcy on November 15, 2008 at 12:14 pm

I believe it was Toscanini who said of Beethoven's last works the string quartets:

"written by a deaf man, to be listened to by a deaf man".

Toscanini was well wrong. Now they are "spiritual". Amen.

Other Comments by D'Arcy

9. Comment #284551 by Border Collie on November 15, 2008 at 12:23 pm

I'm in 'church' every minute I'm on the Internet listening to either Classic FM in London or WRR in Dallas ...

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10. Comment #284582 by KRKBAB on November 15, 2008 at 1:03 pm

Put me down for "The Church of Instrumental Frank Zappa" please.

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11. Comment #284603 by beeline on November 15, 2008 at 1:35 pm

Very nice idea - what we've always needed is a regular meeting where we can marvel at 'stuff' and not have to be poked around by religious folk. Once you have that, then you have a community, and then the need for religious services will wane.

Mind you,

Wurman adds that, unlike Bach, Beethoven didn't write that much church music. In fact, he rarely, if ever, went to church.

I'm not convinced this is a reason for passing Bach over as a selection. He knew which side his bread was buttered, and certainly wrote spectacularly beautiful music. The church was set up to provide his instrument - the venue, the singers and the instrumentalists - so he would have been stupid to turn down their considerable patronage, even if he wasn't religious (which he certainly appears to have been, although you never can tell).

The church was a bit like his synthesizer manufacturer: they provided the 'technology' to make his notes sound out, and he fed that giant machine his MIDI signals, in the form of sheet music and arm-waving. It doesn't matter who provides the instrument, really.

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12. Comment #284613 by ggab7768 on November 15, 2008 at 1:44 pm

That is a "movement' I could get behind.
Big fan of the B-guy.

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13. Comment #284649 by MelM on November 15, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Sorry, my post here was intended for the "SC priest: No communion for Obama supporters" article. I've moved it there.

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14. Comment #284665 by Cartomancer on November 15, 2008 at 3:30 pm

Some sort of Gospel of Beethoven? Roll over and tell Tchaikovsky the Good News?

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15. Comment #284666 by Steve Zara on November 15, 2008 at 3:31 pm

If Vangelis isn't elevated to Sainthood within my lifetime, I will really start to doubt the judgement of the Catholic Church.

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16. Comment #284669 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Comment #284582 by KRKBAB

I live in that church, KRKBAB! Try these for size (one size fits all):

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=VcnBE9kfRTU

http://churchofrationalism.blogspot.com/2008/11/brief-musical-interlude_5479.html

Other Comments by Laurie Fraser

17. Comment #284672 by Chris Davis on November 15, 2008 at 3:43 pm

How interesting that this should come up now. I've been thinking a lot about Beethoven's Ninth recently.

Schiller's 'Ode to Joy' is actually as ridiculous a piece of God-bothering as you'll ever hear from a street bible-thumper drunk on his own hyperventilation. It starts off well enough with some rather redundant stuff about nice things being nice, but then drops - a propos nothing at all - into a load of guff about a lieber Vater wohning beyond the Sternenzelt. Well, no he doesn't, actually!

But put all this balls into the mouths of a really good choir, backed up by a really good orchestra, and the result is an emotional nuke.

I'm about as rabid an atheist as I know - about eight on the scale. But when I hear the 4th Movement of the Ninth done well, water comes out my eyes, nose and ears, and I lose the ability to breathe.

What chance has reality and rationality against such stuff?

CD

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18. Comment #284675 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 3:48 pm

19. Comment #284678 by NewEnglandBob on November 15, 2008 at 3:52 pm

I await the Church of Mozart. His music is more devine.

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20. Comment #284680 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 3:53 pm

Comment #284678 by NewEnglandBob

You might have added, NEB, "...than just about everything but Bach."

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21. Comment #284681 by D'Arcy on November 15, 2008 at 3:56 pm

Steve Zara says:

If Vangelis isn't elevated to Sainthood within my lifetime, I will really start to doubt the judgement of the Catholic Church.

John McEnroe said:

You cannot be serious!

Frank Zappa and Vangelis? And I thought of you lot as highbrows. Get serious, try Mike Bloomfield, or Mississippi John Hurt. They will bring you down to Earth. As for Beethoven, he will take you to the top of Mount Olympus to marvel at the view before bad weather intervenes and he takes you down again and up again 2 minutes later when the clouds have cleared, and then Zeus gets angry.......

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22. Comment #284682 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 3:59 pm

D'Arcy - I'm shattered! Zappa is as close to the divine as you'd like to get. (Just between you and me, though - I agree about Vangelis;) )

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23. Comment #284686 by phil rimmer on November 15, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Beethoven does it for me. From my childhood infatuation with Leonora No.3 to the Razumovsky Quartets of later years. I must, however, say I learned more of religion from Zappa (well about Catholic girls at least). In truth the list of Gods is huge and growing.

I've always despised the religion versus science divide. It is crass and simple minded in the extreme. No, the true divide is religion versus art, fellowship, literature, music, politics, science, theatre, culture etc. Without religion our spiritual nourishment lacks nothing.

EDIT I think it was my turn for the Zappa gag....

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24. Comment #284691 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 4:17 pm

I've always despised the religion versus science divide. It is crass and simple minded in the extreme. No, the true divide is religion versus art, fellowship, literature, music, politics, science, theatre, culture etc.

Beautifully put, Phil.

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25. Comment #284698 by Baron Scarpia on November 15, 2008 at 4:37 pm

Beethoven - my favourite composer. Not very original, I know, but hey.

Oddly enough my favourite Beethoven piece is the Agnus Dei from the Missa Solemnis, which might sound a bit odd coming from an atheist.

A Church of Beethoven sounds like something worth sacrificing my Sunday morning for. Plus, we have rather more evidence that Beethoven existed, so it's on a surer theological footing.

Oh, and a Church of Wagner is a terrible idea. The services would last for days.

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26. Comment #284705 by wndrwll84 on November 15, 2008 at 5:00 pm

What about a Church of Oasis? (St. Noel?)

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27. Comment #284706 by Steve Zara on November 15, 2008 at 5:02 pm

Comment #284686 by phil rimmer

Sorry, but I just can't stand Beethoven.

For me, perfection is Sibelius.

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28. Comment #284708 by Sirion on November 15, 2008 at 5:12 pm

I belong to the church of Haydn. This church of Beethoven is an affront to the TRUE god of music, and can sadly only end in bloodshed.

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29. Comment #284710 by j.mills on November 15, 2008 at 5:14 pm

Steve, I'll be first in the door at your Church of Vangelis (and where would Sagan's Cosmos be without the hairy Greek?) - but if D'Arcy wants to warm us up with a bit of Mississippi John Hurt first, I won't object. If we're going to have some classical, I'll take Glass and Bruckner's 8th.

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30. Comment #284711 by GordonWillis on November 15, 2008 at 5:17 pm

My choir is performing Beethoven's Mass in C at the end of the month. We've been living with it for over a year now, and it gets better every rehearsal. It's an extraordinary experience. It makes the text irrelevant (probably - it's my guess - why Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy, who commissioned it, didn't like it). Just something really human and generous. Someone who knows pain but doesn't wallow in it. I'm not imagining it, everyone says the same. I get the same with some of his sonatas and string quartets. Not even Bach gets there.

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31. Comment #284715 by Ed-words on November 15, 2008 at 5:24 pm

I think it was a church in San Francisco

that was named after the modern jazz great,

John Coltrane. It may still be there.

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32. Comment #284717 by ukvillafan on November 15, 2008 at 5:29 pm

No church of Wagner for me - that Hart to Hart programme was rubbish!

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33. Comment #284733 by KRKBAB on November 15, 2008 at 6:01 pm

Laurie Fraser- THANKS for the Sofa link. That song is like comfort food for my soul.

Steve Zara- Sibelius? YOU TOO? He was for a long time my favorite composer. Finlandia- Karelia Suite- The Swan of Tuonela (sp?)- Violin Concerto- the list goes on and on. The interesting thing is I discovered Sibelius when I heard Keith Emerson and The Nice doing a version of Karelia Suite. Even by a rock band it was a phenomenal piece!

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34. Comment #284735 by Art Vandelay on November 15, 2008 at 6:02 pm

ukvillafan: i agree, but he was good as the bionic woman.

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35. Comment #284746 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 6:16 pm

Comment #284733 by KRKBAB

Haha - I remember the Nice doing the Karelia Suite. At the time (I was about 17) I thought it was extremely groovy. I listened to it again recently and realised just what a travesty it actually is. But never mind - it got me interested in Sibelius, so thank you, The Nice. Isn't that a nice version of Sofa, KRKBAB?

Other Comments by Laurie Fraser

36. Comment #284755 by steveroot on November 15, 2008 at 6:22 pm

1. Comment #284503 by DarwinsChihuahua on November 15, 2008 at 10:52 am
I'll see your Church of Beethoven and raise you:

http://www.coltranechurch.org/

Don't forget Buddy Miles and the Electric Church!

http://www.vinyl.com/product_id/LPMERC61222

And, speaking of Chihuahuas,
http://www.dogchurch.org/index.shtml
Ste5e

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37. Comment #284760 by KRKBAB on November 15, 2008 at 6:30 pm

Laurie- That is a nice version. That is such a cool melody, that I think I would appreciate ANY version of it. I live in the Portland, Maine area and someone actually said to me that ALL pizza is good! I'm originally from the NYC metro area so I thought that was a blasphemous statement. Do you think "ANY version of Sofa would be a good one" is blasphemous? This town, this town is a sealed tuna sandwich.

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38. Comment #284766 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 6:35 pm

Some versions of Sofa are not particularly good. Steve Vai's "mega guitar" version on Zappa's Universe is one such. For me, the original (instrumental) on OSFA (love the anagram) with George Duke's superb, stately piano, is the best.

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39. Comment #284774 by KRKBAB on November 15, 2008 at 6:46 pm

Laurie- OSFA was a great line up- maybe the best. What do you think of Wakajawaka and The Grand Wazoo- two of my favorites.

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40. Comment #284779 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 7:01 pm

Love them both to bits. If I had to list, say, my five favourites, they'd be Joe's Garage, OSFA, Grand Wazoo, Yellow Shark, and Sheik Yerbouti (if only for the closing stages of Yo Mama).

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41. Comment #284781 by KRKBAB on November 15, 2008 at 7:04 pm

Zappa's death saddens me to no end, but he recorded lots and lots and lots of music. Thank dog for F.Z.'s proliferation!

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42. Comment #284785 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 7:09 pm

Agreed, KRKBAB. I was fortunate enough to see him twice in concert, once with THAT band (fell in love with Ruth Underwood immediately.)

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43. Comment #284789 by a non e-moose on November 15, 2008 at 7:13 pm

If I had to name anything worth worshipping, beethoven just might be it...

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44. Comment #284799 by Mitchie2006 on November 15, 2008 at 7:33 pm

Anyone interested in starting the Church of the Beatles? Or how about the Church of the Brian Wilson? There are two ideas I could definitely support.

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45. Comment #284800 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 7:37 pm

Comment #284799 by Mitchie2006

Yeah, but we'd have to leave one of them out so's we could form a nice little trinity. I suggest Paul.

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46. Comment #284833 by ev-love on November 15, 2008 at 10:17 pm

Chris - I'm exactly the same. You've only got to bring Brahms' German Requiem within cooee of me and I'm a blubbering baby. But, big deal - I'm not crying for "Gawd" - as any rational human understands, music is just about the most powerful emotional stimulus there is (especially as you get older). “Gawd”, how I empathise with that!

Someone (I forget who) was once asked to choose some music to send into space to show there was intelligent life on earth. He said, “To send Bach would be boasting.” I think he/she was right!

Mind you, I’d also love a churcn of Ben Webster. Now, how’s that for showing your age?!

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47. Comment #284836 by Laurie Fraser on November 15, 2008 at 10:21 pm

That's nice, ev-lov (and probably true!)

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48. Comment #284837 by Big T on November 15, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Ex-love: It was the late great bioligist/essayist/Doctor of Medicine Lewis Thomas.

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49. Comment #284845 by bendigeidfran on November 16, 2008 at 12:28 am

Who is touring heaven right now' I think Elvis made it by saying 'Lord have mercy' a lot. However most of the other rock stars must be elsewhere. My guess is Elvis on vocals, mother Theresa on lead guitar, Diana, queen of hearts on tambourine and Queen mum on bongoes.

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50. Comment #284853 by D'Arcy on November 16, 2008 at 1:08 am

Those in search of the deity should remember that "Eric Clapton is God". I know that's true, because I've seen it painted on several different brick walls, in different parts of the world.

Now don't tell me that could have happened all by itself!

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