Creation < > Turmoil

This evening we had the first full rehearsal with the orchestra for the the first concert I am singing in since January 2020. I've absolutely loved learning Haydn's The Creation - it's a fabulous piece and you can hear what is happening in the music as well as the words.

Starting with darkness and turmoil it moves through the six days of creation. First the darkness is split and light emerges (the moon cooperated beautifully as I arrived home after the rehearsal). Then land, water and hailstorms; plants; cooing doves and singing nightingales; buzzing insects then a bit of contra-bassoon that is supposed to sound like the footsteps of heavy beasts but judging by the rest of the choir's reaction I wasn't the only one thinking it sounded like a cow fart.

Haydn's awe is palpable. He wrote: “I was never so devout as during the time that I was working on The Creation. Every day I fell to my knees and begged God to give me the strength for a happy completion of this work.” I can't share his belief that God created everything out of darkness in six days but I think I can get something close to his awe by coming at it from the opposite side. 

It would have been beyond his comprehension that the apparent pinnacle of creation - humans - are in the process of irredeemably destroying our beautiful world in reverse order. First we will destroy ourselves, then the beasts and birds will go, then the plants. Maybe the land and water will survive us but there will be no living things to see what's left of day and night.

It will take a bit longer than six days but nothing like as long as evolution has taken to bring us here.

Isn't that destruction not as monumentally aweful as Creation?