Dynamics.

So, on Saturday at Transform, we attended a Taizé service at the chapel. To overgeneralize, Taizé is basically worship, but it's short songs of about three lines or so sung over and over, similar to a mantra.

Now, worship has always been hit or miss for me, where I either feel it or I don't, and the deciding factor for me usually is the words/melody, and whether I like them, or know them. Since Taizé is very simplistic, it was incredibly easy to pick up the words, but this was different. As always, being a such man of monstrous ego, my words started off as a toneless mumble. As I became comfortable with them, the actual melody started to form, and sharp consonants made their way in as well, turning the mumble into a song. As it repeated, my voice grew louder, and I felt empowered. I was amazed, because for the first time ever in worship, I could hear my voice start to cut over those around me. It was a really beautiful experience.

We did three songs: Cantate Domino, Da Pacem Cordium, and Nada te Turbe. The room was broken up into three sections, With one starting, and the next starting the first verse one verse after the first group, and the third group starting the first verse one verse after the second, and we all just repeated for awhile. It was easily one of the most empowering worship sessions I'd ever been to. Words simply fail to describe how much they fail to describe what I felt there.

Now special thanks goes to Lauren, who was merrily humming Da Pacem Cordium as she was packing up to head out on Sunday. If not for her, I'd have probably forgotten Taizé completley, or at least, long enough that I wouldn't be able to remember words to find these songs via Google search. I know it probably sounds strange to hear me say that I was so moved by Taizé, and then three sentences later hear me say I would have forgotten it, so I have to mention that this past weekend I've been moved by God so much that I'm sure that possibly life changing bits and pieces may be lost forever.

So when I got home I googled up the lyrics I'd found and began tracking down these songs, and I listened to them as I drove around. As I listened to Da Pacem Cordium, It seemed that the verses had three distinct "feels" to them:
(you can listen along here - look in the song clips section.)

Verse 1: Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium / Slow, plodding, droning, moving forward without purpouse.
Verse 2: Da Pacem / Somewhat sorrowful, sounding like the statement of a fact
Verse 3: Da Pacem / The vivacious realization and proclamation of that fact

And then it loops, creating this (almost) cycle that grows from the slow droning to the soulful end over and over again. It was weird, because I had no idea what these words meant, but as I listened to them, drawn to sing along with them, I could feel their story:

Verse 1: Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium / I feel alone, without God, I feel alone, without God.
Verse 2: Da Pacem / God is with us.
Verse 3: Da Pacem / God IS with us!

Shortly after I fabricated my own little story around the song, It occurred to me that it sounded like the recording, which was sung the same way we sang it, pretty much had one group always singing each of the verses. I decided to perform experiment to see if this was true. What followed next was a soul crushing 45 seconds of Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium over and over again, until some urge deep inside me could take it no more, broke out completely against my will a joyous "Da Pacem." Then it did it again, louder, and then louder still. My head may have had no idea what "Da Pacem" means, but my heart sure loved it.

The more I thought about it, as I switched around the verses in all sorts of orders, the more I was floored by the dynamics of a three words handful of notes. The fact that something so small and simple can be so powerful, and then cam become more powerful when you alter its form, is nothing short of a fabulous testament to the immaculate beauty of God.

And that's just one of the three. The other two have Dynamics all their own. Check them out.

EDIT: It occurs to me that I didn't put the real translation of "Da Pacem Cordium" The translation is (roughly):
Da -Give/Bestow
Pacem -Peace/Harmony
Cordium -Heart/Soul
"Give peace to the soul"

------------------------------------------------

Side note:

I was listening to the Taizé songs through my ipod's "recently added" playlist. I figured it was the safest way to listen to the songs by themselves without creating a new playlist for them. I had forgotten completley that I'd also recently added Basil Poledouris' "Rock Shop" from the Robocop soundtrack to the ipod. Oddly enough it fit in somewhat well, which is ironic, as I'd recently stumbled upon a video of Robocop director Paul Verhoeven stating that Robocop was a version of the Jesus story.