This time from me: Music for Easter & Holy Week: Classical Music Compilation

Κυριακή 1 Απριλίου 2018

Music for Easter & Holy Week: Classical Music Compilation

The liturgy and events of Holy Week lie behind some of the most inspired and powerful works in the entire repertoire. By now churches are sombre and bare, statues having been covered up, the altars set to be stripped after the Maundy Thursday service – and so much of the music is correspondingly meditative and sombre. Conversely, faced with depicting the events of the Passion story itself, Bach produced some of the most movingly dramatic music ever written; monuments of the repertoire, Bach’s Passions seem a good place to start.

Stabat Mater Dolorosa is considered one of the seven greatest Latin hymns of all time. It is based upon the prophecy of Simeon that a sword was to pierce the heart of His mother, Mary (Lk 2:35). The hymn originated in the 13th century during the peak of Franciscan devotion to the crucified Jesus and has been attributed to Pope Innocent III (d. 1216), St. Bonaventure, or more commonly, Jacopone da Todi (1230-1306), who is considered by most to be the real author. The hymn is often associated with the Stations of the Cross. In 1727 it was prescribed as a Sequence for the Mass of the Seven Sorrows of Mary (September 15) where it is still used today. In addition to this Mass, the hymn is also used for the Office of the Readings, Lauds, and Vespers for this memorial. There is a mirror image to this hymn, Stabat Mater speciosa, which echoes the joy of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the birth of Jesus.

There can be few more evocative words in music than ‘passion’. As well as its familiar English definition, in a musical context it also suggests the commemoration of that most emotive Christian story, the journey of Jesus to the cross. The word has also come to be all but synonymous in music with its two greatest exemplars: the St. John and St. Matthew Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Tracks are from the following Albums:
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater