Seeking sublime: classical music that transcends the everyday

This blog post could easily have been called seeking spiritual, or seeking the profound. There is a very human need to seek meaning in our lives, and all of us share the common experience of needing to make sense of our time here on earth.

We do this in a variety of ways that can be spiritual, secular, charitable, educational, athletic, gluttonous or ascetic. And for many of us, art, and particularly music, help to decipher the metaphysical road map that leads us along the way.

When the CBC Music site launched in February, I wanted to find a way to generate a list of music that transcends the everyday and aspires to the universal. The challenge, as I saw it, was to ask the right question of people whose musical opinions I valued and hope that compelling answers would land back in my email inbox. The awkward, perhaps even crazy question I ended up asking the musicians, radio personalities and music lovers on my list was, “What would you choose to listen to as you depart this world?” I hoped for a handful of recommendations and received an immediate rush of inspiring answers.

Among the responses were stories of the profound effect music has had on people’s lives, posted here and here. I also learned from Vancouver composer Stephen Chatman that Lawren Harris, one of Canada's greatest artists, listened to Rossini’s Stabat Mater on his deathbed. Maybe this question about deathbed listening wasn’t so crazy after all.

This is the list of music that came in. Is this some of the most sublime classical music ever created? You be the judge.

Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano
Denn alles Fleisch from the German Requiem of Johannes Brahms

Serouj Kradjian, pianist and composer
Befreit by Richard Strauss.

Randall Jakobsch, bass
Pace, pace, mio Dio! from Verdi's La Forza del destino performed by Leontyne Price

Rodney Sharman, composer
Pur ti miro, pur ti godo from L'Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi

Laurie Brown, host of The Signal on CBC Radio 2
Choosing silence as her preferred final listening experience, Brown says: “Hearing is the last of the senses to leave us when we are dying. I’ve decided I don't want to be listening to music. I've had plenty of music in my life and it has meant the world to me, but I only get to die once and I want to tune into that experience as fully as I am able.”

Mariateresa Magisano, soprano
Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt

Bradshaw Pack, composer
Sanctus from Berliner Messe by Arvo Pärt

Rita Costanzi, harpist
Für Alina, by Arvo Pärt

Donald Gislason, writer and music lover
Dona Nobis Pacem from the Mass in B minor by Johann Sebastian Bach

Jamie Parker, pianist
Molto Adagio; Andante from the 3rd movement of String Quartet Op. 132 by Ludwig van Beethoven
For Parker, the score markings provide essential information about the music:
“The slow section in Lydian mode, Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart (a convalescent's holy song of Thanksgiving to the divinity in the Lydian mode) is the slow beautiful opening, and the Neue Kraft fühlend (with renewed strength) passage in D major is remarkably uplifting.”

Stephen Chatman, composer
Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Peter Togni, host of Choral Concert on CBC Radio 2
Etude Opus 2, #1 in C sharp minor by Alexander Scriabin

Nicole Lizee, composer
Zueignung by Richard Strauss, performed by Jessye Norman.

Jennifer Lim, pianist
Ode to Joy from Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven

Bill Richardson, host of In Concert and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on CBC Radio 2
Always quick with a refreshingly skewed point of view, Richardson remarks that: “I’d choose Eileen Barton's 1950 recording of 'If I Knew you were Coming, I'd have Baked a Cake,' if only because I expect to be served cake on the other side. I also appreciate the B-side for its candor and valor: ‘Poco, Loco in the Coco.’”

Jocelyn Morlock, composer
Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 639 by Johann Sebastian Bach

Cameron Wilson, violinist and composer
Requiem in D minor by Gabriel Fauré

Rena Sharon, pianist and professor of collaborative piano, UBC School of Music
Beim Schlafengehen from the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss