The Mosaic musical performance has been an annual event at DGN for 27 years. For the past 26 years ‘Hallelujah’ has been the closing song for the Mosaic, but this year the concert’s closing song will be ‘This Is Our Wish’ by Tim Lauer and Angela Lauer, arranged by Thomas Matta.
Some students expressed concerns due to the closing song change from ‘Hallelujah’ to ‘This is Our Wish’
because of how grand the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus students felt as though the rest of the concert would be outshined. Although, ‘Hallelujah’ will no longer stand as the closing song for the Mosaic. It will not be off the program entirely, instead, it will be featured as the opening song for the Mosaic.
“There are an additional 21 pieces of music, of all styles and formats, between that and our closing selection, so we don’t feel people will be comparing the two. When programming a concert, music teachers consider both a strong opening and a strong closing, which I think we’ve accomplished,” Fine Arts department chairperson Gina Wych said.
The reasoning for the song switch was primarily based on the strong religious implications of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus.’ The music teachers felt it was important that nobody in the audience or performers in the show felt excluded during an event meant to bring the community together.
“All five DGN music teachers felt a strong desire to end our Mosaic concert with a piece that is inclusive of all performers and audience members. ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ is an important musical selection with high aesthetic value, but also strong religious connotations,” Wych said. “It was the consensus of the entire music team that we could, and should, find a closing piece that does not align so closely with one belief system. We hope that all audience members and performers will walk out of the concert feeling included in the warm holiday wishes of our new closing selection.”
Some students were hesitant to accept the change of closing songs and there was some confusion over why the change was needed now, after many years of ‘Hallelujah’ being the closer.
“From talking to a lot of students and sending out a survey to all the students I could reach, I gathered a lot of information and generally what I found is that most students felt like they didn’t understand why the switch had been made and a lot of them I think because I was apprehensive a lot of us were nervous about how it would go,” junior Caleb McCloud said.
However, the decision to change the closer ‘Hallelujah’ to ‘This is Our Wish’ was made with the students as well as the Downers Grove community in mind.
“We hope everyone loves the new closing piece and leaves the concert feeling the peace, goodwill, and spirit of the season,” Wych said.
