The Afterlife

Notes on the Program

by Steven Blier

Any record collector worth his vinyl is surely familiar with a breed of recital discs typically called “Songs of Faith.” Diva X, who has previously been photographed in full stage makeup and low-cut costumes to sell her recordings of Carmen or Salome, is now chastely dressed in a simple, high-necked dress with makeup appropriate to, say, a high school English teacher; baritone Q, discarding his Don Giovanni get-up, is now portrayed in a black choir robe, clutching a bible. Typically, the singer gazes into the beyond, contemplating spiritual matters. Sometimes the accompaniment is just piano or organ, sometimes orchestra and the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but an air of serenity and quiet resolution is, at least, the message conveyed in the packaging. On a recent trip to the local compact disc emporium, I spotted no fewer than three recent additions to the fold, all by gifted and well-established opera stars.

These albums have their roots in religious services, where a common faith in an assumption, and where, most importantly, song is used to exhort and reinforce belief. But art songs aren’t hymns; poets quest for faith as an evolving drama, often played out in the context of a world which seems to challenge simple religious belief at every turn. The many ways artists have portrayed heaven reflect more than their longing for the experience of the divine, or for transcendence; they also give us a history of cultural, moral and social ideals – visions of love, friendship, marriage, sensuality, order, confusion, blissful imaginings and skeptical rationalism. Ultimately, anyone’s theories and beliefs about the afterlife reveal a great deal about that person’s experience of life on earth, and therefore today’s survey of songs about heaven serves as a philosophical and psychological history of modern times – if you will, a thinking man’s “Songs of Faith.”

The complete notes are now available for purchase.