O death, where is thy sting?

Tonight I'm singing "A German Requiem" by Brahms with the Bremerton Symphony Chorale. For this concert we have a guest conductor, Hilary Davan Wetton from England.

We've had lots of extra rehearsals this week (in the mist of moving and unpacking), and our guest conductor has been very inspiring. He's a lanky, garrulous British chap, who intersperses jokes with very serious commentary about the piece we're singing.

"I want you to sing your very best tonight." he said. "Because this is one of the greatest accomplishments of the human spirit, and I want you to communicate that to the audience."

He urged us to get in touch with the lyrics, especially the sadness and loss of death as well as the hope of the resurrection expressed in the lyrics from 1 Corinthians:

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. . . . then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:51,52,54,55

It should be a good concert.
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