The Open Ears Project - Episode Sixteen: On Forgiveness

CLEMENCY BURTON-HILL: This is the Open Ears Project, it’s day sixteen. 

[Music: “When I am laid in earth” by Henry Purcell]

J’NAI BRIDGES: We spend so much time as, as people in humans, like, wanting to please people and doing this and we focus on how the wrongs are wrongs and wanting to make them right. But I think in the end, it's like, how do I make people feel? And for me that comes from: what do I feel about myself. 

I'm J'nai bridges and I am a mezzo soprano opera singer. I've chosen “When I am laid in earth” which is an aria from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell.

I can remember first falling in love with music when I was three years old. I just remember my parents turning on the radio… they played Motown every single morning.

But much later, my senior year in high school, I joined the choir and that was it. I was just like whoa what is this world. I  need to know more. And that's kind of you know the beginning of... the beginning of the end

The first time that I heard this piece I didn't know anything about the background of this area. But what happened was a feeling that I'd never felt before. I started weeping, actually. I mean it's, it's really so simple. It opens… [SINGING]

And I think that there is such power in simplicity.

So in this area Dido is a character that is about to commit suicide, because her lover has decided that he... He's leaving her. So she's saying; remember who I am, how I made you feel. Um…. and try to forget all of my wrongs, you know. But I've asked for forgiveness. What is done is done. But that's not how I want you to remember me.

So I'm actually constantly thinking that you know treating people with respect and kindness even if someone has hurt me. I feel like it's the right thing to do. And even though she is taking her own life it's that same idea of wanting to be remembered for the good.

Music is probably my most important companion. I think I've learned to not take things so personally through this piece of music. And for this piece that it goes there for me. It's a few chords, a few words, and in the end it's just like, forget my fate. But remember me. Which is something that I strive to do. You know. What is my legacy. How do I want to be remembered. Through... Through everything you know through the bad through the good. What am I here to say?

CBH: J’Nai Bridges chose Dido’s Lament: When I am Laid in Earth by Henry Purcell and it always amazes me that was music first heard in 1689, but still so incredibly powerful today. As ever the full track is coming up in just a moment and it’s only 5 minutes long. The version that we’re going to hear is so spare, so haunting, so if you can, maybe try to just take a moment out of your day and let the sheer power and beauty of the human voice wash over you, do its thing. If there’s music that helped you come to a deeper understanding of yourself or your situation, or something that got you to a state of forgiveness like J’Nai described so eloquently, then let us know, we’d love to hear from you. You can email us at hello@openearsproject.org, you can join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #openearsproject, or hit me up: clemencybh. See you tomorrow. 

Copyright © 2019 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information. New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record. Note: The copyright date for any new transcripts should reflect the year the transcript is created. Also, for transcripts being created now for shows in the past, and send out or posted now, the language should be on the transcript (again, with the copyright date the transcript was created). For example, any transcripts created between now and the end of the year would have the copyright date of 2019, even if the show was made in 2018.