CANDLELIGHT, MUSIC & LOST LOVE: Before the cure when all died.

CANDLELIGHT, MUSIC & LOST LOVE: Before the cure when all died.

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Massive death causes a community to invent new ways of communal mourning

 

This is really a "mass funeral music video".  While flutes play Pacbel Cannon in E Major, a church full of mourners start with the light from the altar and light the candles of others.

 

From a soft beginning, the candlelight multiplies as the music grows stronger.  It is a beautiful tapestry of music and light.  The stated symbolism was that light represented hope and in lighting others' candles, you were passing along and sharing hope.

 

Before 1993/1994, AIDS was a death sentence.  Many others, like myself, lost nearly every love and close friend they had.  I lost eight out of the ten people I considered closest to me.

 

However sad it may be, mourning conjures up art to soothe emotional pain.  In this instance, music and light flow together to the very center of one's being. 

 

This is the first of two videos excerpted from the same communal service in the gay community on Christopher Street in 1991.  This part is almost entirely about music.  The other part "Every Balloon a Person" shows lost methods of mourning.