Community Participation Requiem

RantWoman passed up a Friend's invitation at Folklife to attend a community participation sight-reading performance of a requiem. RantWoman now feels silly for not asking which requiem although the answer to that question would not have changed RantWoman's mind.

Even though RantWoman thinks this particular Friend would likely do her part justice, RantWoman is enough of a music performance snob that sight-reading a requiem sounded like really more fun than RantWoman at least should have after already spending a sunburnt afternoon among the lively folk at the festival.

Upon reflection, RantWoman thinks any kind of performance of a requiem is decidedly an interesting way to observe Memorial Day. Possibly a requiem is more appropriate for Memorial Day than, say, for Easter, another occasion when requiems sometimes get performed particularly by choral afficionados not wedded to the traditional liturgical calendar. As RantWoman understands it, the point of a requiem is the Rest in Peace part and that seems counterproductive to the whole Easter thing. RantWoman also notes that this year's national celebration features mention of all the family members returned home alive gosh dang it thanks to all the miracles of modern medical technology but with such horrendous injuries that they will need profound care likely first and foremost from their families for the rest of their lives. RantWoman notes that as tangentially as possible lest she get derailed multiple directions besides the observance of the national remembering and the distinct gap between this state of affairs and more thoroughgoing resurrection, reanimation.