Monday, February 20, 2012

Music for Lent and Easter @ St Paul's

Music for Lent and Easter

So here we are, approaching Ash Wednesday and the first Sunday of Lent. The forty-day fast that we now refer to as Lent was first observed at the turn of the fourth century in Egypt, although it’s focus at that time was more on the fast Jesus took in the wilderness after his baptism, than on a preparation for Easter. The forty-day Lenten preparation for Easter, as celebrated by Western Christians, appeared in Rome sometime between 354 and 384; its beginning was moved back to Ash Wednesday in the sixth century, in order to allow for forty full days of fasting (since the Sundays are officially non-fast days, or Sundays in Lent rather than of Lent). The forty days of Lent, as we now observe them, then run until the evening of Holy Thursday – at which point we start the three-day Easter Triduum.

The Easter Triduum – a single, unified, liturgy, comprising the Holy (“Maundy”) Thursday evening Eucharist (commemorating the Last Supper), the Good Friday Celebration of the Passion and the Great Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday night – is rooted in the liturgies of the Church of Jerusalem, which are beautifully (and in great detail) reported for us by the Gallic pilgrim, Egeria, who observed, in Jerusalem during her travels there in 381-384, the reliving of the gospel events in the locations in which they originally took place.

Given the nature of the whole season of Lent and the Easter Triduum – the climax of the entire Church Year – it is hardly surprising that is has produced some of the highest forms of both the visual and aural arts. Painters and composers alike have been moved to create works of astonishing depth and expression and it is from this musical repertoire that we draw our music for the season.

During Lent, the choir music each Sunday comes primarily from the English Reformation period (16th century) with composers such as Tallis and Byrd. The music in Holy Week – from Palm Sunday – includes composers such as Victoria and the Spanish Renaissance composer, Christobal Morales. The Easter Triduum will provide its usual varied menu of music, from the 16th century English composer, John Taverner, to a contemporary setting of the Pange Lingua text by Gregory Heislman, Director of Music at the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Cleveland, OH.

The choir will, as in previous years, set the tone for Holy Week with the Sequence of Music and Readings for Passiontide on the afternoon of Palm Sunday, April 1st at 4.00 p.m. Using the unique ambience and acoustic of Cronyn Hall, the music will include God So Loved the World by Stainer, Hear My Prayer by Henry Purcell and Antonio Lotti’s famous Crucifixus. We will also hear readings from a variety of sources, both biblical and non-biblical. Do put this in your calendar and plan to join us.

On Easter Sunday morning, we will be joined by a brass quartet and the musical setting of the Eucharist will be the Missa Resurrectionis by Gerre Hancock – the famed Organist and Master of the Choristers at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York who died in January of this year. Dr Hancock was one of America’s most highly acclaimed organists and choral directors and his loss will be felt profoundly by all involved in church music in North America and much further afield. On Easter morning, we will also sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah; music will be available for any congregation members who would like to sing along.

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