We sang two pieces by Francis Poulenc in church today. One of them, "Salve Regina," I remembered from the first time I encountered Poulenc's sacred music (in a Nacht der Musik performance in a neogothic church in Braunschweig years ago!), and its weird loveliness floored me again.
But singing it today I was overwhelmed in a different way, too. Many of us have been seeking ways to challenge the demonic machismo of white Christian nationalism. This isn't the God of the Bible, we cry, not how Jesus lived. Having moved from the Roman Catholic to the Episcopal Church, however it hadn't occurred to me that what we needed - who we need - is Mary. Protestantism's discomfort with the feminine (including the femininity of God and Jesus) is part of the problem...
Fun fact: The motet is dated "Noizay mai 1941," the very time at which Poulenc helped found the anti-fascist Front National des Musiciens.
