1. 4. 2019

NOVA ET VETERA / About the concert

Gregorian chant in the liturgy of Holy Week  

In the Gregorian chant repertoire, the last week before Easter – Holy Week – offers up a musically rich and emotionally powerful set of hymns. Historically, these are among the oldest components of the repertoire. What we find here are very elaborate compositions with refined aesthetics and great sensitivity for the meaning of the text. Some of the melodies could be justifiably described as finely polished diamonds – so logical is the structure of the chants, so balanced and astonishing are they in their perfection.

Festive readings provide another distinctive element to the liturgy of Holy Week. These include readings from the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations, commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem. The distress of the prophet, tried by fate, could be seen as an archetype of Jesus’s suffering. There are many tunes for these laments. Our programme showcases two melodically rich chants that were recorded in fourteenth-century sources of Prague Cathedral.

Another integral text of Holy Week is the story of Jesus’s crucifixion as told by the authors of the four Gospels: the Passion. In choral recitation, this text is divided into three roles: the first is chronicus, or narrator, a mid-register voice; the second is Christ, a bass; while the third voice – a fourth higher than the narrator – recites the direct speech of people other than Christ. Two sections of the Passion will be heard in this concert.

Improperia, or reproaches, conclude our choral meditation on the topic of the Passion. These express the Saviour’s notional remonstrance – as culled largely from the Old Testament – with His chosen people, and, by extension, with the whole world. Each of these reproaches concludes with the exclamation “Holy is God! Holy and strong! Holy immortal One, have mercy on us.” These are alternately heard in Greek and Latin, making this one of the few archaic relics of Greek in Western-European Latin speaking liturgy.

In the oeuvre of the Estonian composer Toivo Tulev (born 1958), spiritual themes clearly dominate, often in direct connection with Catholicism, or, more universally, with deep mysticism. Tulev’s musical language is often described as neo-expressionist. With its broadly arched melodies and contemplative textures, disrupted by the forceful entry of individual instruments, the scale of expression in Tulev’s music is very rich indeed. Unlike that of many of his contemporaries, it is strongly emotional and establishes an intense dialogue with the listener; without thereby lacking in rational structure. Indeed, the art of combining the ingenious structure of the work with beautiful sounds has always been the prerogative of the greatest composers of sacred and other music (for example, Josquin Desprez, Claudio Monteverdi, Johann Sebastian Bach and Maurice Duruflé). Tulev’s teachers included Eino Tamberg and the Swedish composer, Sven-David Sandström; his study of electro-acoustic music in Cologne in 1996 was another formative experience. The composer also lists the following influences as determinative: works by Tõnu Kaljuste and Erkki- Sven Tüür, and his activities in many ancient music ensembles including the Paris-based Choeur Gregorien, which  inspired the composer in his study of Gregorian chant. In Tulev’s mysticism, the events and overal character of Holy Week play a key role. The performance of two of his chamber works at the Easter Festival of Sacred Music in 2016 led to the commission of a new work for this year’s festival. We asked for a sacred vocal-orchestral piece, with the proviso that it would be performer at the Brno Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, which placed certain acoustic limitations on it, and then decided that it would be premiered on Palm Sunday. In autumn 2018, the composer visited Brno for the first time and spent some considerable time in the cathedral itself. We then discussed the acoustic and performance options. Gradually, a mosaic of texts was created, related to the theme of Palm Sunday and Holy Week as a whole.

Vladimír Maňas, translated by Štěpán Kaňa

 

So Shall He Descend speaks about descent. Descent here has a double if not a triple meaning – first, reflecting the descent of the Spirit to his people (ecce, ego declinabo), then reflecting the descent of Jesus to the Holy City from the Mount of Olives as it is revealed in the story of New Testament and celebrated during Palm Sunday.

Lastly, we are reminded of being the descendants of the very people who rejoiced (hosanna…) while seeing the Saviour approaching the city and soon thereafter demanding his death (crucifige eum…).

The old French dance tune (sur le pond d’Avignon on y danse – they dance on the Bridge of Avignon), heard shortly in the very endof the piece, marks the preceding events’ soft anti-climax. And indeed, in order to come to the city Jesus had to descend first from the Mount and then cross the bridge over a valley, which was by the tradition regarded as an unholy place.

As a side remark – the original words of the mentioned tune about the Bridge of Avignon were sous le pond (under the bridge) instead of sur le pond (on the bridge) as we all know it. It was under the bridge, in the unholy valley, where the after-party of crucifixion in my imagination once took place.

Most of the texts heard today come from a poem by Kahlil Gibran punctuated by the verses from today’s readings of the New Testament with some added lines from the Book of Isaiah and a Gregorian antiphon of the day. The piece is commissioned by Brno Philharmonic for Easter Festival of Sacred Music 2019.

Toivo Tulev

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NOVA ET VETERA

Tulev: So Shall He Descend

Chants of Holy Week

 

soloists Ivana Rusko, Bettina Schneebeli, Jaroslav Březina, Jiří Hájek

Schola Gregoriana Pragensis / David Eben

Ars Brunensis / Dan Kalousek

Filharmonie Brno / Dennis Russell Davies

 

Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, Brno

April 14, 7 PM