Brahms in hell

While my typical choice of medium for Media Monday is Movies, this week I want to take the time to acknowledge a marvelous rendition of Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) performed by the Northwest Repertory Singers at PLU on Saturday night. Lagerquist Hall at PLU is certainly one of the best places to hear any kind of music - we heard Tacoma Youth Chorus concerts for five years there - but this was incredible. Not only did we get to sit with new Breaking Bad afficianado Peter G, but got to hear his partner sing in the choir. Oh, and there was an orchestra there too -they added.
But the main thing I wanted to point out was that the requiem is an actual funeral mass, sung in German, with English notes on the side. I love the German language, and think if I were going to be bilingual one day, it will be German. So - friends, check; great music, check; German, check; AND to top it all off, every word sung was from the Bible. Bam. I keep forgetting how steeped in Christianity the composers needed to be. I mean, if you want to pay the bills, you better play some music they can hear in the pews.
At any rate, there was one line that struck me:
Tod, wo ist dein Sieg 
Hölle, wo ist dein Stachel
My high school German did not fail me on the first line-  Death where is your victory, but I did not know what Hölle was. The translation said it was Death where is your sting, but Tod is death, not Hölle. Well, I could have guessed it was hell, but I didn't - thanks, Google translate! But I noted those lines because they were sung with devastating power. I watched to see which lines the choir was particularly into, and that one seemed to hit everyone in the gut. It was the end of a section, as well, and I heard the air rush out of my partner's mouth - "whumph."
I like Brahm's translation of the line better, though. I wonder if that's what Luther's German Bible said, saying that the devil's hell has no sting because we know we're folded in with Christ's victory over "sin, death and the power of the devil." The English double death is not as interesting as Death/hell.
It's music that needs to be heard in church, but probably never will be. Maybe I'll save up and have it sung at my funeral. Along with Mahalia Jackson's version of Abide with Me.