Holy Week, the final week before Easter Sunday has been observed as a whole since at least the fourth century. It consists of the holy days of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday,Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The other three days are also known as Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday. There are also special services called Tenebrae which are observed on the day before or in the early morning hours of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (i.e. Tenebrae for Holy Thursday could be on Wednesday or Thursday after midnight).
Holy Week begins with Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord, more commonly known as Palm Sunday. Before the start of the mass, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is recalled starting with the blessing of palm branches, a prayer and the reading of the particular Gospel passage that recalls this.
I have been at a conference on solid organ transplantation in Denver since Sunday so I have been unable to give as much of my attention to this diary as I’d have wanted to so here it goes. I’ll probably still be editing this as you read it, as I just got back from Holy Thursday mass.
Palm Sunday musically begins with the Introit Hosanna Filio David. The text is Matthew 21: 9 Here are three different settings of the text, the traditional Chant...
and the settings of the text in English by Thomas Weelkes (c.1575-1623), for 6 voices..
Mostly known for his madrigals and church music, received his musical training at New College Oxford and eventually became the instructor of the choristers at Chichester Cathedral. Over time he had gotten in trouble at the cathedral for his drunkeness and eventually was dismissed from his position.
and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1685) also for 6 verses...
Orlando Gibbons was one of three musical brothers. He is known for his choral music especially his chruch music, but he also wrote a quantity of keyboard works. His most famous works include This is the Record of John and the madrigal, The Silver Swan. He served as organist of the Chapel Royal until his death. He died at an early age and since the plague had been rife in England that year an autopsy was performed.
After the conclusion of the gospel passage, the mass begins either with a hymn (most commonly All Glory, Laud and Honor) or the proper antiphon and verse (Pueri Habraeorum).
Randall Thompson, Pueri Hebreaorum for Double Wormen’s Chorus
Randall Thompson (1899-1984) was an American Composer and teacher mostly known for his choral works. He is known as an expert in setting music for voices and has written such notable works as The Testament of Freedom (Text: Thomas Jefferson) for chorus and either orchestra or band, Americana (a cantata using texts from newspaper and magazine articles, a musical art style known as “News Items”), The Peaceable Kingdom (a Choral Cycle of texts taken from the book of Isaiah but inspired by the painting by Edward Hicks). His short Alleluia is his most performed and famous piece.
The Liturgy of the Word (Old Testament Reading, Psalm, Epistle, Gospel acclamation and Gospel) then occurs after a short prayer, The Gospel at this time is one of the Passions.
My church choir sings what is possibly the most famous setting of Psalm 51 on Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Good Friday: the setting by Gregorio Allegri. The following video includes a brief introduction describing the work, it has also been slightly abridged by the person who posted it.
Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) was a composer and contralto in the Sistine Chapel choir. Although he is well known for his choral music, he was also one of the earliest composers of works for stringed instruments. His choral music remains in the stille antico style of Palestrina but his instrumental music was in the more progressive early Baroque concertato style.
This famous piece was at one time forbidden by the Vatican to be sung or published outside of Rome. As history records it, a teenage Mozart visitied there where he heard it twice and then transcribed it from memory. It was for a time erroneously attributed to the young Mozart.
Other works that coould be sung on this date (and subsequently Good Friday) are
Karl Heinrich Graun’s (1704-1759) Surely, he hast born our griefs, a movement of his Cantata, The Death of Jesus. The recording is of my church choir, from Sunday’s Palm Sunday Mass. The text is Isaiah 53:4.
Mostly known for his Italian operas, Graun’s The Death of Jesus, quiclkly surpassed both of Bach’s passions in popularity. However, today it is mostly forgotten. His brother Johann was also a composer. Karl was an opera chorus member in Dresden and eventually a Kapellmeister to Frederick II of Prussia.
In Manus Tuas à5 (Thomas Tallis)
Thomas Tallis (c.1505 -1585) Tallis is considered to be one of the best of Englands early composers. Litttle is known about his life and the first portrait of him dates from 150 year after his death. He along with William Byrd were granted the exclusive patent to print and publish music by Queen Elizabeth, a patent which lasted 21 years. He remained a Roman Catholic (as did Byrd) throughout his life.
The text of In Manus Tuas Domine is taken from Luke 23: 46 “Into your hands, O Lord, I Commend my Spirit”.
Holy Thursday
On Holy Thursday there can be no other masses celebrated besides the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper (the exception is the Crism Mass which is only celebrated by the diocesan bishop where the holy oils are blessed).
The Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper begins what is called the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.). As it’s name suggests it commemorates the Last Supper Jesus had with his Twelve Apostles, but it also commemorates the instittution of the Eucharist and of the priesthood. The Gloria which has not been sung the entire season of Lent is sung in this mass after which the organ is supposed to fall silent and not be heard until the Gloria sung at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.
Chant Gloria from Mass VIII “Missa de Angelis” sung with organ accompaniment.
After the homiliy the celebrant usually celebrates the rite of washing the feet (this is usually accompanied by some antiphon, hymn or motet) before the mass continues as normal.
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) French 20th century composer of works for organ chorus. Many of his works take as their inspiration gregorian chant. This is never more noticable than in his Quatre Motets sur es thèmes grégoriens op. 10 for choir a capella. My favorite is the first of the set: Ubi caritas et amor.
Very critical of his own compositions he continued to edit and change compositions even after they had been published.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Ave Verum
Liszt gained fame as a performer, composer, teacher and conductor. While his orchestral and piano music is highly virtuosic and firmly rooted in the period, his sacred choral music is ‘very devout’ while using an expanding tonal language. While Liszt was never a priest he took minor orders in the Franciscan Order.
Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992) O Sacrum Convivium
Oliver Messiaen, composer and organist, is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. He was inspired by diverse influences such as Japanese music, Hindu rhythms and birdsong.
At the “end” of the mass, there is a procession of the Eucharist to a place away from the main church where it will repose. The procsession is accompanied by a chanted latin hymn, the Pange Linngua. The hymn is made up of 6 verses, of which the final two are reserved for when the Eucharist reaches its place of repose. The other four can be repeated as many times as needed until then. There is no dismissal because the mass has not ended. Those that wish to, may remain and contemplate the Eucharst or they may leave.
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) Pange Lingua in the Phyrigian Mode
Anton Bruckner is known mostly for his symphonies, but his sacred music is beautiful in its own right. He is known to have written seven masses and numerous motets. The Pange Lingua heard here sets the first three verses of the hymn that is used as a processional in which the Blessed Sacrament is carried to a place outside the church proper.
The final two verses of the Pange Lingua are called the Tantum ergo.
Durufle:
Tantum Ergo fr. Quatre Motets Op 10
The mass doesn’t end on this day, technically it extends through Good Friday and all the way to the end of the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass.
Good Friday:
As the mass on Holy Thrursday had no end, this one has no beginning. It starts with the first reading of the liturgy of the word. The Passion According to St. John is traditionally chanted during this service with choral sections called Turba choruses which take the parts of the crowds. In the Catholic church there is an adoration of the cross which takes place.
While I’ve incorporated much of the music that can be sung at this service in the section above “Palm Sunday” we can add a few more pieces here...
Richard Proulx, 1937 - 2010, possibly the most prolific church composer of the twentieth century, composed this piece in the the style of orthodox chant, (the video is not very good.) My church choir is singing this tomorrow so I'll try to convert to a video.
Pablo Casals, (1876-1973) known as perhaps the greatest cellist in history was also a composer and conductor. As a composer he is mostly known for his choral music. Although he is best remembered for his recording of the Bach Cello Suites.
Communion is given out during this service but it was not consecrated during the service like in a regular mass, it was consecrated during the Holy Thursday mass. The service ends just like it began.
Holy Saturday -
There is no mass celebrated to commemmorate Holy Saturday, the time in which Jesus spent in the tomb. The mass that is celebrated is the Easter Vigil, it begins at sundown and starts in complete darkness. Outside the entrance to the church the celebrant lights a bonfire, blesses it and begins preparing the Paschal Candle. The Paschal Candle is then lit from the bonfire and processed into the dark church. The light from the candle is passed amongst the congregants until it reaches the place where it will remain. The Exultant is chanted by the priest, deacon or cantor and the candles are extinguished.
What follows is the liturgy of the word, on this day, seven (the minimum number is three) Old Testament readings are proclaimed, each with a responsorial psalm and prayer that follows. Then we hear the organ for the first time since Holy Thursday in the Gloria of the mass.
One of my favorite Glorias is this one by composer Grayston Ives from his Missa brevis. The video that is linked has the composer conducting.
Here is the Gloria from the Messe Solennelle Opus 16 for chorus and two organs by Louis Vierne (1870-1937).
Following the Gloria the Liturgy of the Word continues with the reading of the epistle, the gospel and the celebrant’s homily. After this the sacraments of initiation and the rite of reception occurs. This is when the people who are converting to Roman Catholocism are baptized and confirmed as well as those people people who might have been baptized Roman Catholic but have for some reason never received the sacrament of confirmation are also received into ‘full’ membership in the church. After this the mass continues with the Liturgy of the Eucharist as usual.
Edward C Bairstow (1874-1946) was an organist and composer of church music in Sing ye to the Lord (brass are not present in his original) he used the verse from the Song of the Sea in Exodus Chapter 15, and verses of the Easter hymn, At the Lamb’s High Feast.
Charles Wood (1866-1926) Organist, Composer and Teacher, is known for his church music and his pupils (Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbet Howells). The Motet ‘Tis the Day of Resurrection for double choir based on John Mason Neale’s translation of a greek hymn by St. John of Damascus and is one of my favorites.
Jacob Handl (Jacobus Gallus) (1550-1591) mixed the style of high renaissance Franco Flemish and Venetian Schools. Over 500 works are attributed him, both sacred and secular. This one, Haec est Dies for double choir, uses as the text Psalm 118 Verse 24.
No need to describe the following:
Sergei Rachmaninoff setting of Psalm 104
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem, Anthem for Chorus and Organ
There are probably plenty of works I missed, please post your favorite ones in the comments if you so desire.