"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES:
PALM SUNDAY THROUGH EASTER SUNDAY
The Bidding Prayer of the Festival of Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve begins with the invitation, "Beloved in Christ, let us prepare ourselves to go in heart and mind to Bethlehem, and see the child lying in a manger." As Holy Week begins, we begin also the second great pilgrimage of the liturgical year, this one not to "Royal David's City," but rather to Jerusalem; to bear witness not to the birth of Christ, but rather to his suffering, death and resurrection.
The structure of the services of Holy Week is very ancient, dating back to the church of Jerusalem, where the ceremonies were intimately and specifically related to the holy places. Christians gathered at these places, sanctified by their actual association with Christ's presence, to remember and to worship. From the very beginning, music has been associated with these services, and over the centuries a wonderful musical repertory has been built up by which the pilgrim can be aided and uplifted in the journey to Calvary. Over the course of the week, some of that music will be heard at the Church of the Transfiguration.
The organ prelude introduces the melody of the great Palm Sunday hymn, "All Glory, Laud and Honor," in a well-known chorale prelude setting by Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The hymn itself is very dramatic, and the congregational singing of it during the procession places us squarely in Jerusalem to witness Christ's entry into that city and the beginning of his passion.
Antonio Lotti (c.1667-1740) composed several settings of the Crucifixus (from the Creed), of which his eight-part setting is the best known. The ubiquitous English aesthete Charles Burney heard this composition during a sojourn in Italy in 1770, and described it as "truly grave and majestic, having no confusion or unnecessary notes," and claims that the piece "affected [him] even to tears." The service concludes with Johannes Brahms' highly evocative setting of the Passion Chorale, "O Sacred Head Surrounded."
On Maundy Thursday, the music shifts to France, appropriately, for France has a long tradition of intense eucharistic devotion, which is well represented in the organ music of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) and the choral music of Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986). Le Banquet Céleste is a highly introspective meditation on the Holy Communion. Its slow, chordal construction gives it a static and contemplative quality, yet a sense of life and movement is maintained by Messiaen's use of what he calls "bird-song" (in which the sounds of birds are suggested by the organ) and the ethereal dissonance of the chords as they slowly move towards the equilibrium of resolution, like a troubled soul seeking and finding peace in the presence of God.
Duruflé's Ubi caritas and Tantum ergo are beautiful compositions built up from the Gregorian melodies which have for centuries been associated with these texts. Ubi caritas ("Where charity and love abide, there is God") is an antiphon from the Maundy Thursday liturgy, and has profound significance in eucharistic theology. Tantum ergo is an ancient Communion hymn, and a meditation on the presence of Christ in the Sacrament. In these two fine choral compositions, Duruflé brings out the beauty of the Gregorian melodies, while steadfastly maintaining the sense of devotion and eucharistic focus which their texts instil.
On Good Friday, we hear the Improperia (Reproaches) in the setting of Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). With this music, we are in the midst of the most agonizing moments of the passion. Weakened by exhaustion and relentless physical torments, the dying Christ sinks into a kind of delirium, asking the bystanders, "My people, what have I done to you? In what way you been aggrieved by me? I pray you, answer me." Hearing no answer, Christ continues with a recounting of the miracles and deliverances he worked during his time among them, only to be brought to this ignominious end. The full choir sends up a plea for mercy in both Greek and Latin, as if to combine east and west in a collective act of reparation for what is occurring.
The Reproaches originate in early Greek liturgy. They are not found in the New Testament narratives of the passion, and are not to be taken literally, but are rather a dramatization intended for devotional purposes. They are a remarkable example of the richness and pathos of the Byzantine liturgy. In the context of Victoria's work, the Reproaches are part of a much larger work, the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (Office of Holy Week), a sumptuous publication of 1585, which stands as one of the greatest gifts to Christian musical art left by any composer. Victoria was well-suited to his task. Born in Avila, Spain at the time of St. Theresa (whom the composer is said to have known), and ordained a priest in the Congregation of the Oratory (founded by St. Philip Neri, whom Victoria also knew), his compositions can be seen as a musical counterpart to the mystical writings of St. Theresa.
Victoria's elder contemporary, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) represents the culmination of the Renaissance style of sacred music, and also its end. Like Victoria, Palestrina also composed a splendid setting of the entire Holy Week cycle. The motet Adoramus te is taken from the Good Friday segment of this work, and its restraint, balance, and purity of sound are the hallmarks of Palestrina's compositional style.
With the arrival of the Great Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday, the pilgrimage draws to its conclusion, and the mood of penitence and sorrow is dramatically transformed into one of rejoicing and celebration. Once again, music is called into the service of the liturgy to help effect this change, and establish an aura of festivity as Christ's mission of redemption is completed, and our work as followers of Christ begins anew.
The structure of the services of Holy Week is very ancient, dating back to the church of Jerusalem, where the ceremonies were intimately and specifically related to the holy places. Christians gathered at these places, sanctified by their actual association with Christ's presence, to remember and to worship. From the very beginning, music has been associated with these services, and over the centuries a wonderful musical repertory has been built up by which the pilgrim can be aided and uplifted in the journey to Calvary. Over the course of the week, some of that music will be heard at the Church of the Transfiguration.
The organ prelude introduces the melody of the great Palm Sunday hymn, "All Glory, Laud and Honor," in a well-known chorale prelude setting by Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The hymn itself is very dramatic, and the congregational singing of it during the procession places us squarely in Jerusalem to witness Christ's entry into that city and the beginning of his passion.
Antonio Lotti (c.1667-1740) composed several settings of the Crucifixus (from the Creed), of which his eight-part setting is the best known. The ubiquitous English aesthete Charles Burney heard this composition during a sojourn in Italy in 1770, and described it as "truly grave and majestic, having no confusion or unnecessary notes," and claims that the piece "affected [him] even to tears." The service concludes with Johannes Brahms' highly evocative setting of the Passion Chorale, "O Sacred Head Surrounded."
On Maundy Thursday, the music shifts to France, appropriately, for France has a long tradition of intense eucharistic devotion, which is well represented in the organ music of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) and the choral music of Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986). Le Banquet Céleste is a highly introspective meditation on the Holy Communion. Its slow, chordal construction gives it a static and contemplative quality, yet a sense of life and movement is maintained by Messiaen's use of what he calls "bird-song" (in which the sounds of birds are suggested by the organ) and the ethereal dissonance of the chords as they slowly move towards the equilibrium of resolution, like a troubled soul seeking and finding peace in the presence of God.
Duruflé's Ubi caritas and Tantum ergo are beautiful compositions built up from the Gregorian melodies which have for centuries been associated with these texts. Ubi caritas ("Where charity and love abide, there is God") is an antiphon from the Maundy Thursday liturgy, and has profound significance in eucharistic theology. Tantum ergo is an ancient Communion hymn, and a meditation on the presence of Christ in the Sacrament. In these two fine choral compositions, Duruflé brings out the beauty of the Gregorian melodies, while steadfastly maintaining the sense of devotion and eucharistic focus which their texts instil.
On Good Friday, we hear the Improperia (Reproaches) in the setting of Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). With this music, we are in the midst of the most agonizing moments of the passion. Weakened by exhaustion and relentless physical torments, the dying Christ sinks into a kind of delirium, asking the bystanders, "My people, what have I done to you? In what way you been aggrieved by me? I pray you, answer me." Hearing no answer, Christ continues with a recounting of the miracles and deliverances he worked during his time among them, only to be brought to this ignominious end. The full choir sends up a plea for mercy in both Greek and Latin, as if to combine east and west in a collective act of reparation for what is occurring.
The Reproaches originate in early Greek liturgy. They are not found in the New Testament narratives of the passion, and are not to be taken literally, but are rather a dramatization intended for devotional purposes. They are a remarkable example of the richness and pathos of the Byzantine liturgy. In the context of Victoria's work, the Reproaches are part of a much larger work, the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (Office of Holy Week), a sumptuous publication of 1585, which stands as one of the greatest gifts to Christian musical art left by any composer. Victoria was well-suited to his task. Born in Avila, Spain at the time of St. Theresa (whom the composer is said to have known), and ordained a priest in the Congregation of the Oratory (founded by St. Philip Neri, whom Victoria also knew), his compositions can be seen as a musical counterpart to the mystical writings of St. Theresa.
Victoria's elder contemporary, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) represents the culmination of the Renaissance style of sacred music, and also its end. Like Victoria, Palestrina also composed a splendid setting of the entire Holy Week cycle. The motet Adoramus te is taken from the Good Friday segment of this work, and its restraint, balance, and purity of sound are the hallmarks of Palestrina's compositional style.
With the arrival of the Great Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday, the pilgrimage draws to its conclusion, and the mood of penitence and sorrow is dramatically transformed into one of rejoicing and celebration. Once again, music is called into the service of the liturgy to help effect this change, and establish an aura of festivity as Christ's mission of redemption is completed, and our work as followers of Christ begins anew.
