Saturday, March 26, 2005 AD
The "for-usness" of The Crucifixion
The latest in Pr Joel Humann's wonderful Holy Week series of insubstantial parts of Luther's Holy Week sermons for 1529 is essential reading: The Heart of a Thief, in which Luther holds up the Penitent Thief as a model of true sainthood.
Reading this called to mind a CD I was listening to yesterday afternoon: a recording of John Stainer's oratorio, The Crucifixion. The Crucifixion - subtitled "Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer" - is one of the highlights of Victorian church music. With its mixture of Gospel narrative, meditative arias, choruses and congregational hymns, it is clearly influenced by JS Bach's Passions (which had been popularised in 19th Century England by Felix Mendelssohn).
But there is another way in which the influence of Bach is felt in the piece, one which only became apparent when I put on the next CD in the pile, Charles Wood's St Mark Passion. This has its moments - particularly the opening chorus of "Sing My Tongue, The Glorious Battle" - but somehow I always find it rather unaffecting. (And it has to be said that if your depiction of the Passion of our Lord is leaving your audience a bit cold, then you're failing on a pretty fundamental level).
Listening to the two in succession, the big difference is that Stainer's work has much more of what Martin Luther called the "for-usness" of the Gospel than does Wood's. This "for-usness" - a quality that Bach's Passions also have, of course - is thanks both to the Revd J. Sparrow-Simpson's libretto and Stainer's rich musical setting. Herman Klein said, after hearing the first performance, "such music enters into the hearts of the people and lives there" - which would explain the enduring popularity of the work. (The fact that it is well within the ability of any competent parish church choir is another reason for its popularity: back when I was a treble in my local church choir, we once performed the whole piece, and frequently sang the chorus "God so loved the world" as an anthem.)
Where all this ties in with Pr Joel's post is that listening to the CD yesterday, I was struck by how the climax of the whole piece comes with the exchange between Jesus and the penitent thief:
The Crucifixion was premiered in 1887, the height of Victorian England - a time when people were very much more conscious of death than today. The promise of eternal life with Jesus in "paradise" would have carried even greater resonance and power for the original listeners - for whom that time could easily be little further off than it was for the thief - than it does for us today. Hence, no doubt, the emphasis placed on it by Stainer. Just one of many examples of the "for-usness" of Stainer's (and Sparrow-Simpson's) work.
My perception that the work was, in that respect, very "Lutheran", was only reinforced by the final hymn, "All For Jesus", which contains the following lines:
Reading this called to mind a CD I was listening to yesterday afternoon: a recording of John Stainer's oratorio, The Crucifixion. The Crucifixion - subtitled "Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer" - is one of the highlights of Victorian church music. With its mixture of Gospel narrative, meditative arias, choruses and congregational hymns, it is clearly influenced by JS Bach's Passions (which had been popularised in 19th Century England by Felix Mendelssohn).
But there is another way in which the influence of Bach is felt in the piece, one which only became apparent when I put on the next CD in the pile, Charles Wood's St Mark Passion. This has its moments - particularly the opening chorus of "Sing My Tongue, The Glorious Battle" - but somehow I always find it rather unaffecting. (And it has to be said that if your depiction of the Passion of our Lord is leaving your audience a bit cold, then you're failing on a pretty fundamental level).
Listening to the two in succession, the big difference is that Stainer's work has much more of what Martin Luther called the "for-usness" of the Gospel than does Wood's. This "for-usness" - a quality that Bach's Passions also have, of course - is thanks both to the Revd J. Sparrow-Simpson's libretto and Stainer's rich musical setting. Herman Klein said, after hearing the first performance, "such music enters into the hearts of the people and lives there" - which would explain the enduring popularity of the work. (The fact that it is well within the ability of any competent parish church choir is another reason for its popularity: back when I was a treble in my local church choir, we once performed the whole piece, and frequently sang the chorus "God so loved the world" as an anthem.)
Where all this ties in with Pr Joel's post is that listening to the CD yesterday, I was struck by how the climax of the whole piece comes with the exchange between Jesus and the penitent thief:
And one of the malefactors which were hangedWhat you miss reading the words here is the musical setting of those last two lines, sung by the tenors and basses of the choir, and easily the most beautiful and moving phrases in the whole work. Enough to reduce a grown man to tears.
railed on Him saying:
"If Thou be the Christ,
save Thyself and us."
But the other answering, rebuked him, saying,
"Dost not thou fear God
seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly;
for we receive the due reward of our deeds:
but this man hath done nothing amiss."
And he said unto Jesus:
"Lord, remember me
when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom."
And Jesus said unto him,
"Verily I say to thee,
today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise."
The Crucifixion was premiered in 1887, the height of Victorian England - a time when people were very much more conscious of death than today. The promise of eternal life with Jesus in "paradise" would have carried even greater resonance and power for the original listeners - for whom that time could easily be little further off than it was for the thief - than it does for us today. Hence, no doubt, the emphasis placed on it by Stainer. Just one of many examples of the "for-usness" of Stainer's (and Sparrow-Simpson's) work.
My perception that the work was, in that respect, very "Lutheran", was only reinforced by the final hymn, "All For Jesus", which contains the following lines:
All for Jesus – at Thine altarAgain, here is a reminder that the "for-usness" of the Gospel - that which connects us to the historical events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday - is not something merely abstract, but takes concrete, physical form in the waters of Baptism, the preaching of the Gospel, and above all in the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Thou wilt give us sweet content;
There, dear Lord, we shall receive Thee
In the solemn Sacrament.
