Tag: Lent2021

Some of the best concertos for multiple instruments were not called ‘concerto’ at all. Instead they take the form of a sinfonia or sonata or ouverture that opens a vocal composition, constructing the sonic tableau for the first scene, whether that scene is staged or unstaged. The church music of Johann Sebastian Bach provides many […]

Most Passion dramas, in their final scenes, carefully avoid hints of the events to follow on the third day: the only joy they sometimes convey comes from the dawning realization by the centurion at the crucifixion, that Jesus truly was the Son of God. The libretto published by Barthold Heinrich Brockes (see Thursday’s post) ends […]

The liturgy of Tenebrae, in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, was until 1955 celebrated at Matins and Lauds over three days, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. In addition to psalms and prayers, it included nine readings on each day, and each reading was followed by an appointed Latin text to be […]

Christians the world over recall the crucifixion of Jesus Christ often, not only on Good Friday. They affirm their beliefs about it, every time Mass or Holy Communion is celebrated, through a particular sentence in the Nicene Creed (the Credo portion of the Mass) that can seem all too brief and matter-of-fact: He was crucified […]

This post, for Maundy Thursday, is in a series for Lent to Easter, 2021 Passion dramas in the Lutheran tradition, designed for performance in church during Holy Week, generally adhere to the Biblical text of one of the four Gospels, much of it sung by a narrator: in this method, actual persons (Judas, Caiphas, Pilate, […]

One of the seventeenth century’s most remarkable artistic creations concerning the Passion is the cycle of seven cantatas called Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima (‘The most holy limbs of our suffering Jesus’), composed in Lübeck by Dietrich Buxtehude (c1637-1707). Buxtehude’s manuscript of the work is dated 1680 and dedicated to his friend Gustaf Düben, director […]

On Palm Sunday, the Church remembers Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to loud cheers of ‘Hosanna to the son of David!’ as the start of the rapidly unfolding sequence of events leading to his crucifixion and burial within a week. But there was another event that also prefigured the Passion, one that occurred just the day […]

This Thursday, 25 March, is the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Christian Church remembers how the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would bear a son, as recounted in Luke 1:26-38 and previously foretold in Isaiah 7:14. Unlike the dates of Lent and Easter, which shift according to the lunar calendar, […]

This Sunday, the fifth in Lent, is sometimes called ‘Passion Sunday’, marking the start of the two weeks of Passiontide (the second being Holy Week). One of the most loved Passiontide songs is O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (O Lamb of God, innocent), with a 500-year-old text and an even older tune. Both its words, from […]

Psalm 143, the seventh Penitential Psalm, is a lament seeking protection from oppression and persecution (the full text is here). In the opening verses, sung in this superb anthem by William Byrd, the penitent acknowledges God’s righteousness and begs not to be judged, knowing that the salvation granted to anyone is a gift, not something […]

Psalm 130, the sixth Penitential Psalm, concludes positively with reassurances of God’s ‘plentiful redemption’ but begins as a gloomy lament in which the penitent cries out for mercy ‘de profundis’, ‘from the depths’—presumably the depths of despair where the light of hope is extinguished. While there is nothing in its text that marks it as […]

Psalm 102, the fifth Penitential Psalm, is a lengthy lament (see its 28 verses here). The first part, verses 1-11, is the prayer of an individual who, weak and tearful, worn down in a time of great trouble, pours out his own desperate pleas to God: ‘… Do not hide your face from me … […]

Psalm 51, the Miserere, occupies the central position of the seven Penitential Psalms and probably remains the one most frequently read or sung today. Being a deeply personal text for self-examination—it uses the first person throughout: have mercy on me … cleanse me … deliver me … open my lips—it does not easily adapt for […]

The first and third of the Penitential Psalms are auguished laments, crying out for relief and salvation from the consequences of sinfulness (both begin with ‘Lord, do not punish me in your anger’). Lying between them, the second Pentitential Psalm, Psalm 32 (31 in the Latin Vulgate), contrastingly seems like an oasis of reassurance, with […]

The group of seven ‘Penitential Psalms’ (psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143 in the Hebrew numbering) have been recommended for devotions since as early as the time of St Augustine in the fifth century. They have often been prescribed by the Church for Ash Wednesday and for other times during Lent and […]