In 2018, our choir had the pleasure of bringing into our celebration of the Resurrection a wonderfully delicate and evocative composition by the Spanish composer Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599). Well, we actually only sang the first half of the work, as the complete work takes around 7 minutes to sing, which makes it a bit long for an Offertory in our service. The work is called Maria Magdalene et altera (Mary Magdalen and the other Mary). It describes the visit to the tomb of the women who were the first people to learn about the Resurrection. Here is the text of the first part of the motet: Maria Magdalene et altera…
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Choral music for Easter, Part II — Philips, Christus resurgens
Last year, on Easter Sunday, our choir sang a setting of Christus resurgens by Peter Philips (1561-1628). A boy chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London under the Roman Catholic choirmaster Sebastian Westcott, Philips was eventually ordained a Roman Catholic priest and spent most of his life — and very successful musical career — in Italy, Spain, France, and the Low Countries. The text to Christus resurgens is one that we were planning on singing this year, in a setting by a different composer. Christus resurgens ex mortuis, jam non moritur, mors illi ultra non dominabitur. Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more. Death shall no more…
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Choral music for Easter, Part I — Richafort, Christus resurgens
Back in the pre-quarantine era, the choir had begun work on an anthem for Easter Sunday morning. It has been my habit to find some of the most wondrous, most elaborate, most effusive music in the repertoire for us to share with the congregation as we celebrate the Resurrection together. And the choir has always worked hard — and remarkably, without complaining — to try to master the pieces I have selected. This year, we had planned on singing a piece by a composer whose work was new to us. Not much is known by anyone about Jean Richafort, who was born sometime around 1480, somewhere in the Netherlands. He…
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Music for Passiontide XI — Holy Saturday responsories
The first of the three nocturns in the Holy Saturday Matins begins with a reading from Lamentations 3:22-30. (Here is an explanation of the Maundy Thursday readings and responsories, and here the texts for Good Friday are examined. It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.It is good for…
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Music for Passiontide IX — Good Friday responsories
Yesterday’s post explained the structure of the Maundy Thursday Matins in which the Tenebrae responsories were placed. The structure for the Matins on Good Friday is the same: three nocturns (groups of readings and chanted or sung responsories). Each nocturn contained three readings and a following responsory. (The Holy Saturday responsories are discussed here.) As was the case on Maundy Thursday, the traditional readings in the first nocturn on Good Friday were all from Lamentations, the first being from 2:8–11. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the…
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Music for Passiontide VII — Maundy Thursday responsories
This post presents the series of 9 brief texts that were traditionally sung on Maundy Thursday as part of the Divine Office. (The Good Friday responsories are discussed here, and the Holy Saturday responsories are discussed here.) Within the structure of the hours of prayer in the Western monastic tradition, Matins services were held at about 2 a.m.. On Maundy Thursday, Matins included three “nocturns,” i.e., groups of readings and prayers. The readings in the first nocturn on Maundy Thursday was from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, a text which mourned the siege of Jesusalem in the 6th century BC. These readings were followed by chanted responsories with texts that described…
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Music for Passiontide, VI — Passion settings before Bach
If you have listened to musical settings of the story of the Passion, odds are it was one by Johann Sebastian Bach. Given Bach’s astounding achievement in both of the two extant Gospel-based Passions, it’s easy to forget that he didn’t invent the form. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has observed that Bach’s “Olympian reputation invites avalanches to smother the achievements of distinguished forebears.” In the program notes to a recording of the St. Matthew Passion of Orlande de Lassus, baritone Greg Skidmore points out: setting the passion narrative to newly-composed music to be performed liturgically during Holy Week has been a constant practice in the Catholic church since the 14th century. Liturgically…
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Music for Passiontide, V — Buxtehude and the Body of Jesus
Several years ago, I wrote an article for Touchstone about Membra Jesu Nostri (“The Limbs of Our Jesus”), a work by Dieterich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707). The article — “Made Clean by His Body” — explained the background to this collection of seven short works based on a medieval poem and designed to encourage meditation on the significance of the suffering of Christ on the Cross. On this page, I’ve placed the Latin text for this unique work, along with an English translation and an embedded recording.
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Dieterich Buxtehude, Membra Jesu Nostri
Membra Jesu Nostri (“The Limbs of Our Jesus”) is an hour-long cycle of seven cantatas written in about 1680 by Dieterich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707). The text is from a poem called Salve mundi salutare (“Hail, Salvation of the World”), most likely written by an early-thirteenth-century monk. The article “Made Clean by His Body” explains the background to this work. Below is a performance by Concerto Vocale, directed by René Jacobs. The soloists are: Marina Bovet, soprano; Maria Christine Kiehr, soprano; Andreas Scholl, counter tenor; Gerd Türk, tenor; and Ulrich Messthaler, bass. The text and translation are below the embedded video. Cantata I — Ad pedes (To the feet, based on…
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Made clean by His body
by Ken Myers [This article originally appeared in the March/April 2016 issue of Touchstone magazine.] The term “Passion” is used to describe both the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross and a genre of pictorial, dramatic, or musical works recounting those sufferings. Musical Passions typically follow the narrative structure of one of the Gospel accounts of the events of Holy Week. They present a narrated story — the characters portrayed by singers often include an Evangelist as a narrator sharing the stage with Jesus and Judas, Peter and Pilate. Early Passion settings were simply chanted, but by the late fifteenth century, more elaborate “through-composed” settings began to emerge, which made room for…