7. News (EN) - Commemorial at Dachau, 13th of September 2016

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ENGLISH VERSION
 

September 13th, 2016: The music of Bach’s b-minor mass resounds in Dachau

by Maarten van Leer
(Soloist in the concert at Dachau / Initiator, conductor of the project in Israel)


A few weeks ago, our caravan made a halt at Dachau: On september 13th, the death anniversary of Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, we performed Bach’s b-minor mass as a commemmoration in Dachau, right next to the Concentration Camp Memorial Site, in the church of the Carmelite monastery Heilig Blut.

This concert was the initiative of Sara Jobin, a very gifted professional conductor from the USA. A few years before, during the time she lived in the neighbourhood of the Abode of the Message, a sufi community in upper New York State, she heard a lecture of Pir Zia Inayat Khan, during which he recounted the life’s history of his aunt, who functioned during WWII as a secret agent and radio telegrapher for the allied forces in Paris, before being betrayed and consequently murdered in Dachau. Sara was at once very impressed of this story and wished to realise this concert as a commemmoration to Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan at the place where she had died. One and a half years ago Sara came to Germany where we met for the first time and agreed, that also this intent would have best chances within the year 2016, in which I was planning to rehearse the b-minor mass anew, in order to perform it in the Holy Land.

For the rehearsal week in July in the Zenith Camp and it’s final concert in Olivone, Sara offered to accompany the rehearsals on the piano and so to make it to a joint project. Back in the USA, she made a video wherein she recounts the story of Noor’s life and also asks for donations.  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bach-b-minor-mass-in-dachau#/http:// Together with her, several vocal and instrumental soloists traveled from the States in order to be part of this special concert.
In Dachau she was assisted by Sr. Irmengard Schuster, who made the church of the Carmelite Monastery Heilig Blut available and who also spoke a very beautiful prayer for peace at the opening of the concert.
 
Beforehand, we met at 5 pm at the Crematorium: At the wall next to the ovens, where the deceased had been burnt at that time, a commemorative plaque has been put up with the names of four british woman agents who all were shot at the same day, under which Noor-un-Nisa. In this commemmoration ceremony, prayers, incence and flowers were being offered. Sara put one rose in front of every oven. Her sister, Laura Jobin-Acosta, sang Noor-un-Nisa’s composition Song to the Madzub in such a way, that all present were deeply touched.

From here, we went in procession, with the sounds of a buddhist Mantra, towards the church of the Carmelite monastery, where the concert would start at 6.30 pm.

From our choir, around 40 singers took part, as well as some experienced singers from the Munic area. All had been rehearsing two days in Dachau and also had had the opportunity during this time to visit the site of the former concentration camp with its depressing history and past.

The orchestra had been kept small on purpose: 5 string instruments, flutes, oboes, trumpets, timpani and organ. Just a few days before Sara succeeded in finding the still missing players in Hungary, who were willing to play with us after an 8 hour drive….

The church was not completely full in the evening, but in another way it was filled all the same, because in this place one has the feeling to sing for many unseen souls. Sara lead the performance in a wonderful way and the music did create much harmony. At the transition into the Resurrexit real joy broke through, which accompanied us for the rest of the evening. For me, it was as if Pir Vilayat was making music with us here.

After the performance, that same night, we heard that the day before in Munic Pir Vilayat’s and Noor-un Nisa’s brother, Md. Hidayat Inayat Khan, aged 99, had passed away. In this way the concert had served even another purpose in the unseen….

For the participating choir singers, this performance was a very good opportunity to sing the opus with orchestra and so to become even better acquainted with it. And so it was another wonderful preparation for our musical pilgrimage at the end of this year to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth.













by Qadira Büsken
(Alto 2)

... singing the unique music of the b-minor Mass at this place was a very deep experience after which I stayed somehow silent for a few days. Sara and some of the musicians came from very far, the US and Hungary; it was the heartfelt wish of all of us to open the space at this place of suffering through the light and vitality of Bach’s music for healing.

Although a lot of wonderful healing work already happened at this place, the pain of the past and the suffering of unredeemed souls was still tangible. I felt too fragil that day to go on the camp site and stayed in the shelter of the Karmel Church.

To sit there on a bench, surrounded and wrapped into the still tangible sounds of the Dona nobis Pacem and Et in Terra Pax of the rehearsal was very soothing. The others, being at the ceremony at the Crematorium, were very present at the same time. At one point a warm feeling, a sweet touch, a taste and fragrance of love and compassion dispersed in the room; maybe at that very moment Laura sang the Song to the Madzub; she has a voice and a way to sing, which touches the depths of the hearts. Later we heard her singing the Laudamus ...

The Karmel Sisters welcomed us with deep sparkling joy and simplicity; we were even allowed to enter and sing in their space for daily prayers, otherwise closed for public.

The vibrations and sounds of the b-minor Mass converged through the inner space into the outer, joined by many different voices, more and more not only being our own voices but the ones of other beings, souls, even angels. The tragedy of this place is more than 70 years ago; still some souls seem to be on their journey to liberty. The vibrations of Bach’s music and the love of our human hearts might have given some of them wings towards the light.





Link to the documentary Princess Spy about the life of Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan:


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Link to the concert of 1996 at Dachau, conducted by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and Maarten van Leer.