Voices of Connection: 05/02 Charles Ives: Psalm 90
Today’s piece was chosen by a member of our audience!
Stan Wagnon writes, “One of my favorites I have heard live at Ascension is Charles Ives’ Psalm 90, sung in the 25th Anniversary Concert! Remarkable!” Thanks, Stan, for suggesting a work I personally feel may well be the single greatest masterpiece ever composed by an American. Universal in scope, it portrays the very nature of our existence on earth – the struggles, our anxiety, our human questioning of “what is this life all about?” The piece is a series of short sections, one after the other. But all of it seems wrapped in a timeless atmosphere. I think the piece is so meaningful for what we are going through these days. And near the end of this great work, after so much angst and tribulation, it finally emerges - as if the fog has lifted - with overwhelming beauty and peace as the voices are enveloped in a gentle halo of bells. We all look forward to when that day comes to our current crisis.
– Dennis Keene
CHARLES IVES Psalm 90
Voices of Ascension
Dennis Keene, Artistic Director
Renée Anne Louprette, organist
from the Voices of Ascension 25th Anniversary Concert on April 22, 2014
Church of the Ascension, New York, NY
The singers in this performance are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO.