Music Monday Archives - Page 2 of 5

March 22, 2022 iacobusm Lent and Easter

The Spirit of Lent: Two Choruses from Handel’s Messiah

The Spirit of Lent

**Flagellation of Christ**, by Michael Pacher, c. 1495-98

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5-4)

Capturing the Spirit of Lent

The Spirit of Lent is penitence and sorrow. If I may state the obvious, penitence and sorrow are not a lot of fun. Rewarding, salvific in fact, yes . . . but not a cause for joy until later, when we realize their fruits. Not surprisingly, composers creating music for Lent need to make music that’s moving and beautiful, but at the same time appropriately somber.

As we saw in a previous post, George Friedrich Handel originally composed his oratorio The Messiah for Lent. Much of the music, however, is far too sumptuous for this most penitential of seasons, which is why we have come instead to associate Handel’s greatest work with Advent and Christmas. Nevertheless, the sections of the oratorio dealing with the Passion and Death of Christ powerfully capture the spirit of the liturgical season leading up to the Triduum and Good Friday.

Grief and Healing

**Christ Carrying the Cross**, by El Greco, c. 1580

The selection below is a good example. The first part is the chorus “Surely he hath borne our griefs,” a musical meditation on Isaiah 53, verse 4 and the first part of verse 5. Handel’s libretto, following the King James translation of the Bible, reads:

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him.

The second piece completes verse 5. In a haunting fugue, the chorus repeats the line: “and with his stripes we are healed.”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a clip on Vimeo containing both of them, although “With his stripes” comes immediately after “Surely he hath borne our griefs” in The Messiah. There are good performances of the two togeher on another platform. Sadly, Google owns it, and I reject Google and all its works and empty promises. Well, as Hannibal said before leading his army across the Alps, Aut viam inveniam aut faciam! (“I’ll either find a way or I’ll make one”). I made my own video and posted it to the Vidyard platform. The music is a perfomance by AD LIBITUM Orchestra and Chorus. The images are Christ Carrying the Cross, by El Greco, painted c.1580, and the Flagellation of Christ, by Michael Pacher, c. 1495-98.

March 14, 2022 iacobusm Lent and Easter

Fear and Hope: Confutatis and Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem

Fear and Hope are the twin themes of the “Confutatis and Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s Requiem.

**The Last Judgment**, *by Michelangelo, 1536-1541*

If thou, O LORD, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope . . . (Psalm 130:3-5)

Fear and Hope

Fear and hope power this short musical piece. While it’s not strictly speaking a Lenten composition, Mozart’s Requiem Mass, which he was still completing at the time of his death, lends itself to the penitential nature of the liturgical season. This excerpt (“Confutatis and Lacrimosa”), part of the setting for Thomas of Celano’s great hymn Dies Irae, looks ahead to the Final Judgment. Here, Mozart’s music powerfully complements the words of the hymn: we can almost feel what it’s like to be unworthy sinners approaching the Throne of God to throw ourselves upon his Mercy (which, indeed, we are).

I didn’t choose the clip below because it is the most polished performance on the web. Instead, I liked the way this ensemble captures Mozart’s vivid dramatization of the struggle between fear and hope. The male voices and the pounding, insistent strings in the “Confutatis” section powerfully evoke our fear of damnation. The plaintive female voices in the “Lacrimosa” express our hope in God’s mercy and the promise of salvation.

It’s a short piece. Take a couple of minutes here in the second week of Lent to meditate on the Drama of Salvation along with one of the great musical masters, Wolfgang Mozart.

Latin and English Text

Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis,
voca me cum benedictis.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
cor contritum quasi cinis,
gere curam mei finis.

     When the wicked are confounded,
     and consigned to bitter flames,
     call me among the blessed.
     I pray humble and downcast,
     my heart worn down like ash,
     take up the care of my end.

Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus,
pie Jesu Domine,
dona eis requiem. Amen.

     That day,full of tears,
     when from the ashes shall arise,
     Man, the accused to be judged.
     Have mercy on him, therefore, O God,
     faithful Lord Jesus,
     grant them eternal rest. Amen

March 6, 2022 iacobusm Lent and Easter

Music for Lent: When Jesus Wept

I just ran across the beautiful Lenten song “When Jesus Wept” just within the past week, although it has been garnering more attention in Catholic circles in recent years (my sons tell me they sang it in choir at their faithful Catholic college). It was published in 1770 by American composer William Billings. The melody is quite simple, but when sung as a four part round, as it is here, it takes on a surprising depth and power.

The words are also simple:

When Jesus wept, the falling tear
in mercy flowed beyond all bound.
When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear
seized all the guilty world around.

The song takes its inspiration from John 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible. It reads, in full: “Jesus Wept.” Jesus has just arrived at Bethany, and he has learned that Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, has died and been buried.

We could fill pages with discussion of the implications of this brief verse. I’ll limit myself to one observation. It has always struck me that Jesus knows that, in just a few minutes, he will raise Lazarus from the dead and restore him to his sisters. Nevertheless, he weeps, he cries real tears and feels real sorrow. He experiences the fullness of human sorrow, just as he will soon experience real and excruciating pain and anguish on The Cross. As Scripture reminds us, “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

“When Jesus Wept” nicely captures both the human reality of Christ’s sorrow, and its divine implications. The tears falling from the flesh and blood eyes of Jesus “in mercy flowed beyond all bound,” his human groan of sorrow seizes “All the guilty world around.” In like manner, the breaking of his mortal body on The Cross will be the means by which he eternally conquers Death itself. That’s not a bad thing to keep in mind as we take on the austerities of Lent, ans as we encounter suffering and temptation in our own lives.

The classical vocal ensemble Quire Cleveland sings “When Jesus Wept” in the video below. It was recorded live at St. Peter’s Church in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, April 6, 2014. The painting in the video is “Jesus Wept” by the French artist James Tissot. It is one of 365 watercolors illustrating the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus that Tissot made in the 1880s and 1890s following the artist’s late-in-life reversion to Catholicism.

February 28, 2022 iacobusm Lent and Easter, Sacred Music

The Drama of Sin and Repentance (or not) From Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Music Monday)

**The Last Judgment**, *attributed to Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)*

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! (2 Peter 3:9-12)

Hell is a real possibility for all of us. It’s not a happy thought, but it’s an appropriate introduction to today’s Music Monday selection, our last musical offering before Ash Wednesday. It’s not really sacred music, but it is very relevant indeed to the Lenten themes of sin, repentance (or not), and damnation. This is the finale* of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni (a.k.a. Don Juan), one of the most powerful scenes in the history of musical drama.

First, a little context for the scene below. Don Giovanni is a serial abuser of women. According to his servant Leporello, he has sexually exploited precisely 2,065 women in five different countries (and that’s just during the time of Leporello’s service). Earlier in the opera Giovanni had crept into the bedroom of an unsuspecting young woman, and killed her elderly father, the Commendatore, who had come to her defense. In this final scene, the spirit of the Commandatore has come in the guise of his memorial statue from the nearby cemetery to visit Don Giovanni. The ghost of the murdered father is here to offer the licentious Don one last chance of repentance before his final end.

Samuel Ramey (front) as Don Giovanni, Kurt Moll (back) as the Commendatore

Pentiti!– “Repent!” the ghost insistently demands.

Don Giovanni, unwilling to surrender his pride, every time answers a defiant “No!” Finally, a host of demons arrives to haul the wicked old sinner off to Hell.

In Don Giovanni’s last moments we see in dramatic form the situation that we all face. As St. Peter tells us in the passage at the top of the page, God wishes “that all should reach repentance.” St. Paul likewise assures us that our Lord “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:4) God makes His offer of salvation to all, even to so prodigious a sinner as Don Giovanni. At the same time, we need to accept God’s offer by turning away from sin, that is, we need to choose salvation by repenting. Note that St. Peter also says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,” (Acts 2:38), and St.Paul reminds us that ” the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Don Giovanni makes his choice for sin and death . . . forever.

Repent and believe the Gospel!

The clip below is from one of my favorite productions of Don Giovanni, performed in Salzburg in 1991 with Samuel Ramey as Don Giovanni, Kurt Moll as the ghost of the Commandatore, and Feruccio Furlanetto as Leporello. (Please pardon the slightly fuzzy visuals – there are better reproductions on other platforms, but we don’t link to those)

*There is an additional scene after this in which the surviving characters discuss their futures, which was almost never performed in Mozart’s day.

https://vimeo.com/196825301

February 21, 2022 iacobusm Uncategorized

The Last Chance Before Lent: Haydn’s Te Deum

**The Holy Trinity**, *by Francesco Cairo, 1650*

Lent is approaching fast: Ash Wednesday is just over a week away. This is one of our last chances to get in a joyful sacred composition by our old friend Joseph Haydn before the penitential season begins.

Today’s selection is a setting for the ancient prayer Te Deum (see my discussion of the prayer itself below the video). This is the third different setting of the Te Deum I’ve posted on this site. Last year I shared a very recent composition (as in, premiered in December 2019) by Pedro Camacho. I also posted a version by Domenico Scarlatti that was first performed in the 1720s.

Haydn’s magnificent setting was probably composed in 1799, and had its public premier in 1800. Haydn wrote the piece at the request of the Empress Maria Theresa, for which reason it is known as (what else?) The Te Deum for the Empress Marie Therese. The Aylesbury Choral Society has published a brief but very informative explanation of this wonderful sacred composition HERE. I’m really not sure who is performing the piece in the video below, other than they’re boy singers (sängerknaben), along with somebody named Diego. Whoever they are, they do a fine job. Take a few minutes to enjoy their performance of a great composer’s masterful musical rendition of a beautiful ancient payer:

The Te Deum is an ancient Christian prayer. Its title comes from its first line in Latin: Te Deum Laudamus, “We praise you, God.” For many centuries Christians would sing the Te Deum as a song of celebration and thanks to the Lord. This was true not only after events of clearly religious significance, such as the Christian victory over the Muslim Turks in the Battle of Lepanto in 1572, but on the occasion of more worldly triumphs as well, in recognition that all good things are a gift from God. For instance, the English King Henry V is reputed to have ordered his army to sing the hymn after their victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415, an event William Shakespeare includes in his play Henry V.

While nowhere near as old as the psalms, the Te Deum is still a very ancient prayer, having been composed in the 3rd or 4th century. Its authorship is unknown, but has been attributed to St. Ambrose and/or St. Augustine, St. Nicetas of Remesiana, or St. Hillary of Poitiers. It has been set to music many times over the centuries.

Te Deum:

Te Deum laudámus: te Dominum confitémur.
Te ætérnum Patrem omnis terra venerátur.
Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi cæli et univérsae potestátes.
Tibi Chérubim et Séraphim incessábili voce proclámant:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dóminus Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra majestátis glóriæ tuæ.
Te gloriósus Apostolórum chorus;
Te Prophetárum laudábilis númerus;
Te Mártyrum candidátus laudat exércitus.
Te per orbem terrárum sancta confitétur Ecclésia: Patrem imménsæ majestátis;
Venerándum tuum verum
et únicum Fílium;
Sanctum quoque Paráclitum Spíritum.
Tu Rex glóriæ, Christe.
Tu Patris sempitérnus es Fílius.
Tu ad liberándum susceptúrus hóminem,
non horruísti Vírginis úterum.
Tu, devícto mortis acúleo, aperuísti credéntibus regna cælórum.
Tu ad déxteram Dei sedes, in glória Patris.
Judex créderis esse ventúrus.
Te ergo quǽsumus, tuis fámulis súbveni,
quos pretióso sánguine redemísti.
Ætérna fac cum sanctis tuis in glória
numerári.
Salvum fac pópulum tuum, Dómine,
et bénedic hæreditáti tuæ.
Et rege eos, et extólle illos usque in ætérnum.
Per síngulos dies benedícimus te.
Et laudámus nomen tuum in sǽculum, et in sǽculum sǽculi.
Dignáre, Dómine, die isto sine peccáto nos custodíre.
Miserére nostri, Dómine, miserére nostri.
Fiat misericórdia tua, Dómine, super nos, quemádmodum sperávimus in te.
In te, Dómine, sperávi: non confúndar in ætérnum.

You are God: we praise you;
You are the Lord: we acclaim you;
You are the eternal Father:
All creation worships you.
To you all angels, all the powers of heaven,
Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.The glorious company of apostles praise you.
The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.
Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you:
Father, of majesty unbounded,your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,
and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.
You, Christ, are the King of glory,
the eternal Son of the Father.
When you became man to set us free
you did not spurn the Virgin’s womb.
You overcame the sting of death,
and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
You are seated at God’s right hand in glory.
We believe that you will come, and be our judge.
Come then, Lord, and help your people,
bought with the price of your own blood,
and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance.— Govern and uphold them now and always.
Day by day we bless you.
— We praise your name for ever.
Keep us today, Lord, from all sin.
— Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
Lord, show us your love and mercy,
— for we have put our trust in you.In you, Lord, is our hope:
— And we shall never hope in vain.

February 14, 2022 iacobusm The Liturgical Year

Music for Love and Marriage: “He Shall Feed His Flock” from Handel’s Messiah

**The Good Shepherd***, by Phillippe de Champaigne, 17th century*

Are you prepared to “die for love”? It’s a romantic cliché, of course, but today is the traditional feast of a martyr who did die for love, literally. I discuss the story of 3rd Century Saint and Martyr St. Valentine in greater detail in “St. Valentine, Patron of Agape.”

One thing is clear from the story of this saint: for Valentine and his fellow Christians, romantic love was inseparable from Christian marriage. In that spirit, I chose for today’s Music Monday selection a piece that has been traditionally played at weddings, “He Shall Feed his Flock Like a Shepherd” from Handel’s Messiah.

Although most of us today tend to associate the Messiah with the season of Advent and the run-up to Christmas, Handel originally composed his oratorio for the season of Lent. As it happens, Lent is just around the corner. And in fact, if you attended the Traditional Latin Mass yesterday, you probably noticed that father was already wearing the purple vestments of the penitential season. For many centuries the Church observed a pre-Lenten season known as Septuagesima, starting on Septuagesima Sunday, the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday (which falls on February 13th this year). Septuagesima disappeared for most of the Roman Church in 1969 in the same reform of the liturgical calendar that removed St. Valentine’s Day as a formal observance.

It’s not surprising that the Messiah has shifted to the less somber penitential season of Advent, since the exuberance of much of its music seems a little out of place for Lent. “He Shall Feed his Flock Like a Shepherd,” with it’s quiet intensity, however, never sounds out of place. It starts out with the description of the Good Shepherd from Isaiah 40:11: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd . . .” Midway through the piece we shift to Matthew 11:28-29 “Come unto Him, all ye who labour . . .” In this context “He Shall Feed His Flock” emphasizes the love of the God who is Love (see John 4:8) for all of us, but especially for our own love as expressed in the Sacrament of Marriage.

Soprano Regula Mühlemann sings in the clip below, accompanied by the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, with Ramus Baumann conducting.

He shall feed his flock like

A shepherd

And He shall gather

The lambs with his arm

With his arm

He shall feed his flock like

A shepherd

And He shall gather

The lambs with his arm

With his arm

And carry them in his bosom

And gently lead those

That are with young

And gently lead those

That are with young

Come unto Him

All ye that labour

Come unto Him, ye

That are heavy laden

And He will give you rest

Come unto Him

All ye that labour

Come unto Him, ye

That are heavy laden

And He will give you rest

Take his yoke upon you

And learn of Him

For He is meek

And lowly of heart

And ye shall find rest

Unto your souls

Take his yoke upon you

And learn of Him

For He is meek

And lowly of heart

And ye shall find rest

Unto your souls

February 7, 2022 iacobusm Sacred scripture

Before the Storm: The Finale to Haydn’s The Creation

*Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, by Wenzel Peter, 1829*

We’ve been looking at selections from Haydn’s oratorio The Creation over the past few weeks . Last week we saw the overture, “Chaos,” a musical representation of the state of disorder that prevailed before God created the universe. The selection before that was “The Heavens are Telling,” based on Psalm 19. This piece comes at the end of the first part of the oratorio, after God has created the firmament and the land. It celebrates the wonderful way in which creation reflects its Creator.

Today we are listening to the conclusion of Haydn’s masterpiece . . . but not the end of the story. At this point God has created the parents of the human race, Adam and Eve, who are happily busying themselves about the Garden of Eden. In “Sing the Lord, ye voices all!” the chorus booms out a joyful song of thanks:

Sing the Lord, ye voices all! Utter thanks ye all his works! Celebrate his pow’r and glory! Let his name resound on high! The Lord is great, his praise shall last for aye. Amen! Amen!

The drama ends before the Fall. We, of course, know what lies ahead for Adam and Eve, even if they don’t. As we listen to the rousing finale, we can’t help but reflect on the words spoken moments before by the angel Uriel. “O happy pair, and always happy yet,” he says to the first man and woman, “if not, misled by false conceit, ye strive at more, as granted is, and more to know, as know ye should!” The true drama is about to begin.

The clip below features the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir performing “Singt dem Herren alle Stimmen” (“Sing the Lord, ye voices all!”) from Haydn’s The Creation.

The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir performed the Creation by Joseph Haydn in the University Aula, Oslo, on April 3rd 2012.

Conductor: Grete Pedersen
Soloists: Marita Kvarving Sølberg (soprano), Astrid Sandvand Dahlen (alto), Magnus Staveland (tenor) Johannes Weisser (bass)

January 31, 2022 iacobusm Uncategorized

A Musical Evocation of Chaos by Joseph Haydn

Ancient of Days, by William Blake

Last week’s musical selection was “The Heavens are Telling” from Joseph Haydn’s masterpiece, an oratorio called The Creation. There are three parts to the oratorio as a whole. The first part deals with the creation of the heavens and earth, and inanimate things such as light, water, land and plants.The subject of the second part is the creation of the animals. The third part is a celebration of our first parents, Adam and Eve.

Haydn by Guttenbrunn — *Joseph Hadyn, by Ludwig Gettenbrunn, 1791-1792*

The selection we heard last week came from the end of part one. Today we go back to the beginning, not only the beginning of The Creation, but the beginning of time, the beginning of everything: the Chaos before Creation itself. Haydn’s overture is a musical evocation of that Chaos.

Interestingly, the Chaos section may not sound quite as chaotic to us as it did to audiences at the end of the eighteenth century, accustomed as most of us are to dissonant, syncopated music. This is nevertheless a powerful musical experience, all the more so when we listen with the Biblical account in mind. The sense of order underlying chaos also makes me think of some of the current ideas in physics. Consider, for instance, this sentence that I cribbed from the Wikipedia article “Chaos Theory”:

Chaos theory states that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self-organization.

We can take both Haydn’s overture, and the discoveries of modern physics, as a reminder that God sees the order underlying the appearance of chaos, always and everywhere.

The clip below features a performance of “Chaos” from Haydn’s The Creation by the Palomar Symphony Orchestra directed by Ellen Weller, with a rather interesting video by Kali Coogan.

January 16, 2022 iacobusm Uncategorized

The Drama of Salvation: Agnus Dei from Mozart’s Coronation Mass

Sacrificial Lamb Josefa de Obidos — **Sacrificial Lamb,** by Josefa de Obidos, 1670-1684

Catholic Christianity has been blessed with a vast array of artists of every sort whose manifold talents have brought glory to God. There are poets as different as Dante Alighieri and Gerard Manley Hopkins, we have Carravaggios and Michelaengelos in the visual arts, and there are a whole list of Catholic composers including Monteverde, Vivaldi, Haydn and countless others.

There is no other artist, however, Catholic or otherwise, quite like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was a child prodigy who showed off his keyboard skills on a tour of the noble courts of Europe at six years old and who composed his first symphony at eight. Before his death at thirty-four years old he had produced over six hundred major compositions in which he displayed mastery of every major musical genre of his time, including both sacred and secular music.

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Mozart at the spinet, performing selections from ‘Don Giovanni’ for the first time to a small company, 19th century illustration by Edouard Hamman (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)

Mozart’s musical brilliance, unfortunately, did not carry over into his personal life. He was not a good manager of his personal affairs, and his family always struggled financially. Also, while he always considered himself a Catholic, his relationship to the Church was at times rather complicated. Nevertheless, Mozart seemed to have a deep and personal understanding of the allure of sin and the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. This intuitive grasp of the drama of salvation and damnation permeates not only his religious music (particularly his Requiem Mass, which remained unfinished when he died), but even secular works such as the magnificent opera Don Giovanni, which concludes with a band of demons hauling the wicked old sinner Don Juan off to Hell.

The clip below features the Agnus Dei from Mozart’s Coronation Mass in C major. The composer finished the Mass on March 23rd, 1779. It was performed at the crowning of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II in 1792, and became a standard feature of coronations over the next century (from which it derived its nickname).

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Featured image top of page: The Sacrificial Lamb, by Josefa de Obidos (Josefa de Ayala), c. 1670-1684 (Walter Museum of Art)

November 7, 2021 iacobusm Uncategorized

Things Old and New: Berthier’s “Laudate Dominum”

The Twentieth Century is known for many things, but beautiful art, whether in the visual arts or music, is not one of them. There are nonetheless some lovely creations hidden among the experimental and the transgressive and the deconstructed offerings cluttering the past century. You can hear one of those sparks of beauty in the clip below: “Laudate Dominum,” composed by Jacques Berthier.

Berthier, who died in 1994, wrote extensively for the Taizé Community, a non-denominational Christian community founded in France by Roger Schütz (more commonly known as “Brother Roger”) in 1940. Despite his community’s monastic character, Br. Roger was himself a reformed Protestant, and the first Catholic member of Taizé didn’t join until 1969. Fourteen years before that, in 1955, Br. Roger asked the Catholic Berthier to compose some music for the community. Music has always played a dominant role in Taizé worship, as explained on the group’s website:

Singing is one of the most essential elements of worship. Short songs, repeated again and again, give it a meditative character. Using just a few words they express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being. Meditative singing thus becomes a way of listening to God.

These songs are generally drawn from scriptural sources. “Laudate Dominum,” for instance, is a meditation on Psalm 117. This is the shortest of Biblical Psalms, consisting of only two verses:

[1] Laudate Dominum, omnes gentes,

laudate eum, omnes populi.

[2] Quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia ejus,

et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.

[1] Praise the LORD, all nations!

Extol him, all peoples!

[2] For great is his steadfast love toward us;

and the faithfulness of the LORD endures for ever.

Praise the LORD!

Berthier picks up and repeats the first Latin line of the Psalm, punctuating it with an exultant “alleluia!”:

Laudate Dominum,
laudate Dominum
omnes gentes! alleluia!

Taizé songs are often rendered in a meditative, chant-like drone. “Laudate Dominum,” however, is a is characterized by a joyful, rhythmic vigor. In the music and in the interplay of voices we hear echoes of an earlier era of sacred composition. This is a far cry from “On Eagles Wings.”

“Meditative singing thus becomes a way of listening to God.”

Taizé founder Br. Roger Schütz with Pope St. John Paul II

One of my aims in this blog is to preserve and share some of the beautiful treasures of Christian art and music. Not all of them are the product of earlier generations. Our Lord tells us, “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52). Surely Berthier’s “Laudate Dominum” (first published thirty short years ago) is one of those new treasures.

Featured image top of page: “The Assumption of the Virgin” By Francesco Botticini, 1475-1476

Laudate Dominum · Taizé · Jacques Berthier · DR

Joy on Earth

℗ Ateliers et Presses de Taizé

Released on: 1999-11-22

Artwork: “The Assumption of the Virgin” By Francesco Botticini (1475-1476)