Good Friday Music Notes

On Good Friday we participate in the Ancient Office of Tenebrae, led by Mary Gene Boteler, Jim Dowd, Betty Dowd, Mike Willock, and Barbara Willock.

Tenebrae is Latin for “darkness” or “shadows.” The Tenebrae service commemorates the death of Jesus Christ. Typically, candles are gradually extinguished throughout the service, until only a single candle – a symbol of Christ – remains. We use the progressive darkness as an opportunity to reflect on the emotional and physical pain of Jesus Christ on that evening. A pain which we try to imagine, but a pain the magnitude of which surely far exceeds the emotional and physical pain any of us has personally experienced.

Some versions of the Tenebrae service feature a “great noise” at the end of the service (ours will not) – the shudder and rattle of the earth at the time of Christ’s death (Matthew 27). Some understand the tearing of the temple veil at this moment to represent a newfound direct access to God for forgiveness of sin – bought for us by Christ.

SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 26:20-25; 30-35 (The Betrayal)
Mark 14:32-42 (The Desertion)
Matthew 26:47-56 (The Betrayal of Judas)
Luke 22:54-62 (The Denial of Peter)
Matthew 27:11-31 (The Trial)
Luke 23:33-49 (The Crucifixion)
Matthew 27:57-66 (The Burial)

ANTHEM: When Jesus Wept, arr. D. Wagner

Terree will sing “The Crucifixion,” S. Barber. Although some Protestants venerate Mary, her devotional and doctrinal position in the Catholic tradition can feel somewhat foreign to many of us. Barber’s anthem expresses a human side of Mary (and of Jesus Christ) with which everyone can surely empathize. This simple and barest of humanities is often lost in the midst of our Holy Week focus on the Godly power and sacrifice of Jesus Christ:

At the cry of the first bird
They began to crucify Thee, O Swan!
Never shall lament cease because of that.
It was like the parting of day from night.

Ah, sore was the suff’ring borne
By the body of Mary’s Son,
But sorer still to Him was the grief
Which for His sake
Came upon His Mother.

HYMNS:
Martyrdom
Jesus Walked this Lonesome Valley
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Were You There?
Jesus, Remember Me

OTHER ITEMS:
Prelude: Le Banquet Celeste, O. Messiaen

He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me, and I in him. John 6:56.

Messiaen’s Le Banquet Céleste is a meditation on the sacrament of Holy Communion.

The Eucharist transcends time, as through it we again and again experience the reality of Christ’s sacrifice for us. Music is, of course, among the most time-conscious of the arts. Nonetheless, Messiaen manages to capture the timelessness and “other worldliness” of the sacrament, by separating rhythm from meter. The chord progressions of the piece move so slowly that the work it is nearly devoid of beat, devoid of time.

Messiaen experienced a mild form of synaesthesia, in which sound manifests in color. In other words, he saw color while hearing music, literally. Even for those of us who are not synesthetes, the “colors” of Messiaen’s chords are vivid. His vision of the celestial banquet of the Eucharist was clearly a magnificent one, perhaps reflecting his vision of the love God showed for us through the sacrifice of His son, for the remission of our sin.

Through the lush chords, listen for bursts of sound in the pedal line, like drops of water. And hear the blood of Christ, as it drips to the ground.

Le Banquet Céleste is a profound devotional. Some may find its unusual sonority and notion of time unnerving. Fittingly so, as we prepare to hear the story of Jesus’ last days.