March 15, 2015

Michael CW Bell

Lent 4

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When Helen first approached me about presenting a talk on Lenten Music in place of a sermon, my first thought was, “Are you for real?” Then my second thought was, “Oh boy.” And then after starting my research into the topic – again: “Is she for real?”. The reason for the latter was that it quickly became clear that to make a talk on music in Lent is amusing because historically it is the very season when music was quite often cancelled! Well, it is true where, for example, in Baroque Leipzig “quiet time" was observed between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Only the feast of Annunciation was celebrated with a cantata, even if it fell in that time. Of course, however, this was not the case everywhere, where music was heard it was performed mostly a cappella or unaccompanied.

Just as a reminder of where we come from there are actually six Catholic “no-no’s” during the season:

1. no instrumental music unless accompanying voices

2. no singing or saying the gloria

3. no singing or saying the alleluia before the Gospel

4. no flowers on the altar

5. no emptying holy water fonts

6. no veiling crosses before the 6th Sunday of Lent

Despite the restrictions placed on composers, there has been an abundance of beautiful music composed and performed for Lent when we are trying to find ourselves in relation to Christ. So Helen is for real and understands that there is much I could call upon to discuss today.

The beauty of the character of this season might be lost on people in the modern world because the idea of penance is not so very popular today. But just as we need desperately the season of winter – as we say at St Matthew’s “for the heart”, we need the season of Lent as an introverted preparation for Holy Week and its glorious finale. For composers who are quite often introverted people, Lent offers great inspiration. Take for example, O Sacred Head Now Wounded, Palestrina’s Stabat Mater and Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) that is often heard in the requiem mass like that of Mozart. Then there are works that offer comfort amid the torment, music like the reflection piece today God So Loved the World by Stainer.

Eric Johnston states that “In a way, Lenten music began before the Church did. Jesus and the apostles sang Passover hymns on the first Holy Thursday, as testified by the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The earliest Christians often sang of the passion and death of Christ, although their music is mostly lost.” [1] What we do know, however is that these early hymns were monophonic and sung in unison. These chants are widely agreed to be most penitential type of music and thus are heard frequently during Lent, as are the psalms. These chants prevailed right through the middle ages, growing in complexity until they finally blossomed in the Renaissance into musical structures that began to match the grandeur of the buildings and cathedrals housing their singers. We think of composers such as Josquin Des Prez and Dufay in the 15th century who began to set a tenor cantus firmus with treble descants and fauxbourdon lines mostly a sixth interval harmony beneath.

Thomas Tallis working under various English monarchs in the 1500s saw much conflict within the church. Yet he also left us beautiful consoling music appropriate for Lent such as The Lamentations of Jeremiah. An even greater work is his huge 40-part motet Spem in Alium that fully captures the sorrowful character of the season. The journey from Ash Wednesday through until Easter Sunday is perhaps the most important Christian journey of the year and musically it reflects light coming out of darkness. Out of the Deep by Tallis that will be heard at communion reflects this idea in its rising upper voice and by modulating up by means of a sharp at the end of its first phrase.

There is some argument as to when Lent concludes. Some argue Palm Sunday while others state that the season ends at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday. For me to label Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions as Lenten, some may dispute although they serve in text and music as worthy meditations before Easter. One cantata Bach wrote that is certainly written for Lent is #54 (BWV 54). The opening aria states:

Stand firm against sin,

otherwise its poison seizes hold of you.

Do not let Satan blind you

for to desecrate the honour of God

meets with a curse, which leads to death. 

These words are typical of much of the libretto Bach used for his weekly cantatas – austere and patronising. But what I find wonderful is how such text is married to its exact opposite – the most serene and beautiful music one could ever find anywhere.

The voluntary for today is Bach’s Komm susser Tod (Come Sweet Death). Pablo Casals the famous cellist was in awe of this solemn sacred song and recorded it many times. For me it is a profound essay on the reality of death and even without its text the music paints the deep and conflicting emotions at play upon contemplation of the final act in our lives.

Whatever season we look at in the Christian calendar – Advent, Epiphany, Trinity – the evidence in my own passion is that the music written to convey Divine love as we find in the Christ story – this music reaches depths that I have not ever found in what we label as “secular”. When composers seemed to look “up” rather than “sideways”, they achieved an ecstatic beauty. Excitement and joy, true sorrow, pathos and comfort, I will always come back to it. But what creates this difference? Countless composers have been inspired to write music on the basis of everyday human love – opera, madrigals, symphonies and thousands of love songs. But for me there is always a change in its quality that is difficult to explain. At St Matthews we try to merge or at least marry these traditionally separate worlds – that is, the sacred and secular. For me anyway, human love is divine. The conclusion I must make is that it should not matter. Whatever inspires us in art or music to carry ourselves in the everyday world with better patience, compassion, kindness and love must be worthy of God.

[1] Arlington Catholic Herald 2003