As we come to the end of our blog series related to SCRC\u2019s spring 2020 exhibit \u201cShowing Us Our Own Face: Performing Arts and the Human Experience,\u201d it is impossible not to reflect on the way that performance and the performing arts world have changed due to COVID-19. When my colleagues and I were creating the exhibit in the late fall and winter of 2019-2020, we could not have imagined a time when theaters, concert halls, and other performance venues were closed for months with no definitive end in sight. None of the disciplines highlighted in the exhibit have escaped the ravages of the pandemic on the human ability to gather and share the joy of live performance and creation, and music, the subject of one of the cases (and this blog post) is no exception.
I myself have been a choral singer since the age of 7 (with occasional breaks of a few years), and my most formative musical experiences were as part of a group, learning to breathe and blend as part of an ensemble. I imagine that those who play in bands and orchestras and are used to the incomparable bonds created between musicians as they perform together must feel the same sense of sorrow at being cut off from this source of communion. Instrumentalists and singers can certainly perform alone, and many have been sharing their talents virtually via Youtube and other social media platforms. However, there is simply no replacement for performing together in person \u2013 as we are all learning, technology only goes so far.
Several of the items in the exhibit\u2019s music case are a testament to the ensemble nature of music-making through the ages. For example, the Pater Noster (\u201cOur Father\u201d in Latin) Gregorian chant in the Missale Brixinense from 1493 is meant to be sung as an act of collective worship as part of Mass:<\/p>\r\n