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#606: Our Father, We Have Wandered
Jan. 16th, 2020 10:08 pmThis is the nice Bach chorale, with a text about the Prodigal Son story. The parable there is "there was a son who ran away from his father and made a lot of bad decisions but came home and his father loved him and forgave him and threw a big party for him, hint, our relationship to God is a lot the same." My choir has also sung this text to a different arrangement with a cool oboe part, both are good!
The part of the story that I wish made it into the song was the part about the older brother, who is resentful at their father's splurging (of his share of the inheritance!) on the miscreant whereas he never got a party. I recognize that in terms of our relationship to God this isn't very useful because we're all sinners and aren't worthy of God, but even in human relationships I see lots of those weird double standards/perverse incentives, and I've definitely been in that bitter situation before with no recourse but to spiral even further inward. Makes for highbrow song parody allusions, mind you (long story).
The part of the story that I wish made it into the song was the part about the older brother, who is resentful at their father's splurging (of his share of the inheritance!) on the miscreant whereas he never got a party. I recognize that in terms of our relationship to God this isn't very useful because we're all sinners and aren't worthy of God, but even in human relationships I see lots of those weird double standards/perverse incentives, and I've definitely been in that bitter situation before with no recourse but to spiral even further inward. Makes for highbrow song parody allusions, mind you (long story).
