Jonathan Van Dusen was unable to be at chapel this morning , but he was signed up for Music to Feed the Soul. And so he sent this commentary about the song he would have played & I am including a link to the song... m.youtube/watch?v=34vWDb5Fvb4 The song Im presenting today is called You Have to Be There -- its from the musical Kristina, which is probably my favourite music on the planet. The musical was written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (the two men from ABBA -- Benny Andersson is my musical hero!) and Herbert Kretzmer (who wrote the English lyrics for Les Miz), The musical is based on a classic series of Swedish novels called The Emigrants, and it tells the story of Swedes who participate in a mass migration to the US in the 1850s -- specifically the main character Kristina, her husband Karl Oskar, and their children. The Swedes are fleeing famine, poverty, and religious persecution, but they soon find life as pioneers in America to be just as challenging. In this song, after one last tragedy in their family, Kristina finds herself under the stars one night, and begins to question Gods existence for the first time in her life. Kristina is portrayed throughout the story as having a sort of naïve, peasant-like faith -- she considers negative events in her life to be direct punishment from God. As some of you can imagine, this is not a perspective I particularly identify with, but Kristina ends up making an interesting statement of faith here. Its the climactic moment of the musical, and one of the most moving pieces of music I know.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 02:18:47 +0000
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