Faith is born through Bach and the sounds of the silence of nature

By Theo Coggin

She had been “a very naughty little girl”. Her mother had come up with the perfect punishment for a 10-year old inquisitive and intelligent youngster, the only girl of three siblings.  Held firmly by the hand, she was marched down the aisle of the imposing Pietermaritzburg City Hall. She was led to a seat next to someone she knew. Her mother bade a fond farewell and retreated up the aisle to join the choir on stage of which she was part and that was singing in the concert on that day. Meanwhile the bright-eyed Uschi Wellmann took in the sight of the majestic organ pipes that attracted her immediate attention. Before her eyes, the stage came to life with a choir and orchestra, ready to perform JS Bach’s Christmas oratorio.  Uschi sat spellbound, entranced by the sound of “A” on the oboe as the orchestra tuned their instruments.

And then the conductor! Clad in traditional black tails and bowtie, he strode on to the stage, orchestra and singers alike standing in respect and to welcome him. The applause from the packed audience swelled to greet him. As he stepped on to his podium, baton at the ready as he raised his hands, the audience fell silent. Singers and orchestra alike were united in their focused attention on him.

The timpani drums started their roll, closely followed by the flutes and oboes. “I thought I was being transported to heaven,” Uschi fondly recalls. It was an experience in complete contradiction to the “punishment” her mother had intended.

Uschi was no stranger to music. The daughter of a Lutheran pastor, Wolfgang Weissbach, and his wife, Sieglinde who was just as faithful as he was to his calling, Uschi grew up in a missionary environment in Esibongweni, near Denny-Dalton in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Not only was the family devout, but the music that filled her life from an early age had a deep spiritual influence on her. There were no large pipe organs. No orchestras.

But there were choirs! Choirs of the sort that are unique to Africa. If one has grown up in such remote places where people abound, the sound of voices singing in beautiful harmony is part of life. And when that music stops, there is the sound of the “silence” of nature – its own “spiritual  music”.

It was in this environment that Pastor Weissbach ministered “in the church on the hill” and, as all little girls do, Uschi played with the other children in the community and was soon fluent in isiZulu and her home language of German.

Then came a move to Wartburg with its predominantly German-speaking congregation. On arriving in the small town, she was immediately struck by a congregation of white people. It was a huge culture shock. At the time, she spoke isiZulu more fluently than German, and English was unknown to her. She even had to stop her beloved ballet classes to attend extra English lessons, so she could catch up with her peers!

Another culture shock came when she heard the congregation singing in German to the accompaniment of the huge range of sounds from the pipe organ – from the highest of bird-like sounds to the deepest growls of nature. So intense was her fascination of the organ that she would often creep into the church while it was being practised. As quietly as possible, she would curl up at the foot of the pipes, captivated as much by the rumbling vibrations of the low notes as by the romantic call of the organ’s harmony emerging from its range of pipes.

Thus her faith in the Gospel that her Dad preached and her interest in music grew, although she regrets that she did not learn to play the organ. Her Dad was a kind father to her and her brothers, George and Ulrich. She recalls an occasion for which he might have been criticised as a pastor for allowing his young daughter to sit at his feet as he spoke to a parishioner. But that epitomised the love in which the family grew up. It also perfectly describes Uschi’s own attitude to life. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that she trained to become a nursing sister, a profession that she has practised all her working life.

As she grew up and headed towards Grey’s Hospital Nursing College in Pietermaritzburg, music remained part of her life. After all, she was a girl of the Beatles era. She sang in choirs made up of nurses of every race. One can picture Uschi, a tall, graceful and dignified woman, in her nursing sister’s uniform, singing in the choir as it moved from ward to ward on Christmas Eve as is the nursing tradition. There were carols set to familiar German tunes, like “Silent Night”, as well as a plentiful array sung in isiZulu.

Those carols, hymns and religious works that Uschi sung have enabled her to cope with many of life’s challenges. Whether she is travelling through one of the valleys of life, or blissfully happy, it is music that fills her soul and, she hopes, radiates from her personality.

JS Bach’s music in particular gives her comfort and reassurance; it reinforces what she learned as a young girl, “sitting alone” in the vast crowd in the Pietermaritzburg City Hall, hearing her first oratorio, as well as the lessons from her mother and father.

“It is when I hear beautiful music that I am firmly reminded of my faith and convinced of its relevance. Such music reassures me and underlines the great truths of the ages that decency, loving-kindness and caring for all of humankind is what matters. That is the recurring message I was taught at home, in my profession and in singing – especially singing the compositions of the great composers of every age, from Palestrina to Rutter, and of course, the master of them all, JS Bach.”

That is why Uschi has been a faithful member of the sopranos of the Johannesburg Bach Choir for many years.

The basses sit directly opposite the sopranos in the JBC. At its final practice in 2024, this writer looked across from his seat and thought there was someone missing among the sopranos. Then he realised: Uschi wasn’t there. Then he remembered that Uschi has retired from her matron’s position at St Andrew’s School in Bedfordview and moved to become the matron at Paulpietersburg Christian Retirement Village in northern KZN. Uschi will be missed – but there is little doubt that the music of her life will continue.

• The Bach Blog is the official blog of the Johannesburg Bach Choir and is edited by Theo Coggin.
• Uschi Wellman is an immediate past member of the soprano section of the choir.
• Please “Like” The Bach Blog. You are welcome to share this Blog, and the many others that have been written during as we celebrate our 60^th anniversary. The Bach Blog can be found at this link: https://johannesburgbachchoir.com/2024/08/21/the-bach-blog-2/