Sing to the Glory of God

From the Producer

     

I am the producer of this show and I thought I'd tell you a little about it. Sandy Ungar, former host of "All Things Considered" And the current President of Goucher College hosts this program which sheds light on the legacy of anti-Judaism in great Choral repertory. The birth, death and resurrection of Christ have inspired some of the most passionate sacred music ever written. As Christians prepare to celebrate the most holy days of the church's calendar, men and women in grand concert halls, modest church buildings and glittering cathedrals will turn to the Choral repertory for inspiration raise their voices to the glory of God. But over the last half-century, music directors, singers and even audiences have begun to raise troubling questions about some of the most widely recognized pieces in the repertoire, especially Bach's Passions of St. Matthew and St. John. The problems are etched into the librettos, which contain anti-Judaic images, which have their point of origin in the Gospels themselves. Confronted with the challenge of singing words that have been historically used to sanction hate, many chorus members are refusing to participate. Others have swallowed hard and sing pieces in their original German, hoping their audiences won't notice the words. And some have begun to develop educational resources to identify and respond to the problems of religious intolerance.