Holy Week Preview – A Musical Feast

Holy Week at Marble offers a rich variety of music with many layers of spiritual depth and meaning. 

Maundy Thursday Stations of Love is the title of this year's service which will focus on Jesus' commandment to love and his example of that love by the washing of His disciples' feet. This is where the word Maundy originates: 'mandatum' – or 'commandment' to love. (John 13:34) Exquisite choral music with spine-tingling beauty and profound emotion will be embedded among dramatic readings from the gospel of John, chapters 13-17. The gradual extinguishing of candles represents the encroaching darkness of Friday's crucifixion. The actors, under the direction of Siobhan Tull, will be joined by soprano soloist Camellia Johnson, cellist Adrian Daurov and the Sanctuary Choir. (7:00pm service; includes Communion.) View a PDF of remarks about Thursday's music.

Listen to audio samples from the music for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services.

Good Friday A 30-minute musical prelude begins at 11:30am featuring Voxare String Quartet, a dynamic ensemble of recent Juilliard graduates. They will perform sublime works of Bach, Schumann and Haydn, concluding with one of the most moving pieces of music I know, the famous Barber Adagio for Strings. At noon the combined Festival of Voices and Sanctuary Choirs with chamber orchestra will sing excerpts from Dvořák's Requiem and Poulenc's Stabat Mater. The music will be interspersed with the traditional Good Friday Liturgy and reading of the Passion. View a PDF of remarks about Friday's music.

Palm Sunday – A Study in Contradictions

Palm Sunday is a day of contradictions.  It's festive, triumphant, and joyous. Yet we are also aware of Jesus' supreme courage as He "set His face toward Jerusalem," knowing the agony that awaited Him.

We will reach across two millennia to join our voices with the crowds shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David!" The word 'Hosanna' is derived from the Hebrew for "Save us, O Lord!" or "Deliver us!" It is a cry for divine mercy, as in Psalm 118:25 – "Save us, we beseech You, O Lord!  O Lord, give us success!"  But because we already know the next chapter in the story, we know how quickly those 'Hosannas' evaporated. Perhaps no hymn text recounts this tragic shift more beautifully and succinctly than a verse from Samuel Crossman's text,

My Song Is Love Unknown:

Sometimes they strew His way and His sweet praises sing,
Resounding all the way Hosannas to their King.
Then "Crucify!" is all their breath, and for His death they thirst and cry.

Surround-Sound Hosannas

The combined Festival of Voices and Sanctuary Choirs will begin our worship with the majestic Hosanna and Benedictus from the Mass in G Minor by Vaughan Williams, sung from the side aisles of the sanctuary main floor. As the antiphonal choirs answer each other, tossing the theme back and forth, one can easily envision the crowds gathered on each side of the road exchanging Hosannas at Jesus' triumphant arrival into Jerusalem.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was one of the leaders of a 20th-century revival of English music. His teachers included C. Hubert Parry, Charles Wood, and Charles Villiers Stanford. He was an avid collector of English folksongs, and the music of his native countrymen became a life-long influence on his own.  Vaughan Williams' compositions frequently use modal harmonies, evidence of the influence of folksong and of Impressionists such as Ravel and Debussy. (In this piece that means the G major scale contains a flatted seventh, or F natural instead of F sharp.) Though composed in the 20th century, the music hearkens back in time with its rich polyphony (imitative vocal writing), antiphonal forces (double choirs) and chant-like melodies. The work conveys an intense spirituality, particularly in the mystical-sounding middle section – the Benedictus – which is similar to the great 16th century masses of Byrd or Palestrina.

From South Africa to Mexico

The combined Amazing Grace and In Harmony Children's choirs will grace our worship with songs from two different continents.  Processing down the center aisle waving palms they will be joined by the adult choirs in singing a South African folksong, Sanna Sannanina, accompanied by djembe, a traditional drum of West African origin. When I arranged the piece I was inspired to experiment with intricate cross-rhythms I'd heard from groups like Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Following immediately will be a Spanish piece, Mantos y Palmos, (Mantles and palms) sung by the children's choirs with guitar and percussion. It takes on the character of its Mexican roots, with a mariachi feel that suggests a dance-like fiesta. The composer Rubén Ruíz (b. 1945) was born in Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico. His father was a Methodist bishop in Mexico. Mr. Ruíz received his education at Insituto Mexicano Madero where he also served as choir director. Stanza one of the hymn (which will be sung in Spanish) begins with an historical account of the Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. At the refrain, "mil voces" (a thousand voices) join the procession and in a "gran exclamación" sing in "con voz triumphal" (with a triumphal voice): "¡Hosanna al Rey!" ("Hosanna to the King").

A Jane Marshall Encore

You may remember that last Sunday the Sanctuary Choir sang a beautiful anthem with cello, None Other Lamb by Jane Marshall (b. 1924). Our extraordinary cellist was Brad Ritchie, a member of the Atlanta Symphony and Atlanta Chamber Players. I've had many comments about how deeply moving this piece was.

This Sunday we are doing another Jane Marshall work which was composed in 1954: My Eternal King. This has become one of the most beloved and widely performed anthems in the choral repertoire, although this will be its first hearing at Marble. Based on a 17th century Latin text, the music begins delicately with a single note and eventually builds to a grand, exalted climax in which the heavens themselves seem to open up. 

The text invites us to examine our true motivation for loving God: Is it out of hope for eternal reward? Is it in fear of judgment or to avoid condemnation? Is it to win divine favor or worldly gain? No! As text and music are woven together to reveal the message it becomes clear there is but one way in which we are called to love God: The way God has loved us.  God's amazing love as demonstrated through Christ is the model for how we must love God in return – unconditionally, "solely because Thou art my God, and my Eternal King."

The Heart of it All

The author and composer of our closing hymn, The Old Rugged Cross, is George Bennard (1873-1958). A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Bennard worked for eight years in the Salvation Army. He was later ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, becoming an evangelist and conducting revivals throughout the Midwest. Around the age of 40 he went through some sort of profound spiritual struggle and began spending long hours in prayer and meditation, centering on the apostle Paul's words in Philippians 3:10: "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death." 

In describing what inspired him in 1913 to pen words and music to our The Old Rugged Cross, Bennard  wrote, "I saw the Christ of the cross as if I were seeing John 3:16 leave the printed page, take form and act out the meaning of redemption. The more I contemplated these truths the more convinced I became that the cross was far more than just a religious symbol but rather the very heart of the gospel."  Surely that same cross lies at the very heart of our journey through Holy Week.