Who wrote the text of “Even When He Is Silent” and under what circumstances? Do these questions matter?
I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining.
I believe in love when I feel it not
I believe in God even when he is silent.
Found written on a concentration camp wall after World War II
That’s the text used in the lovely piece that my own choir, the Cherry Creek Chorale, is performing/has performed in October 2022, a setting written in 2011 by the Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen. Given my own fascination with history I was curious to find out a little bit more about these words: Which concentration camp? Who might have written them? My internet diving turned up some surprising facts about the lines, facts that only deepened and strengthened their power.