Music & the Liturgy Paper - Essay Example

?Music and the Liturgy: An analysis and comparison of the liturgical setting and use of the chant in the Stabat Mater (Dolorosa) by Palestrina, Part and Penderecki’s St. Luke’s Passion. The history of sacred music is a long one, and there have been many transformations through the ages which have reflected the developing theological views and the changing musical tastes of each successive generation. A core element which has changed little in over two thousand years has been the biblical texts which were put to music both as simple chants used as devotional listening pieces and integrated within the liturgy, and as more elaborate hymns, choruses and longer pieces which were reserved for special occasions. The Psalms feature strongly, prefiguring the life of Christ, and particular festivals bring into focus scenes such as the Nativity and the Passion of Christ which were then the subject matter of hymns and sequences. The major festivals of Christmas and Easter create the setting for the composing of new sacred music, and many of the great composers produced multiple settings of the same texts, giving the world a rich collection of variations which, when compared, give an insight into the subtle changes in Christian musical and religious sensibility through the ages. This paper considers in particular three settings of one of the world’s favourite Latin hymns known as Stabat Mater Dolorosa. The origins of the text itself are obscure, but scholars date it to the thirteenth century. The essence of its meaning is a reflection on the sorrowing figure of Mother of Christ, standing beneath the cross and weeping for the death of her son. The subject matter is emotive, and yet in its linkage of suffering with the path to salvation, it has a positive message for believers, encouraging them to bear their troubles bravely and look to a blessed future with Christ in Paradise. This text has been reworked many times, using elements of secular music through the ages to enhance its relevance in successive generations. The reasons for the diverging approaches to Church music in different parts of Europe are linked to the cataclysmic events surrounding the Reformation. At the heart of this debate lay fundamental differences in the way that the Biblical text was perceived. In the protestant parts of Europe there was a growing desire to centre the literal text of scripture as the source of fundamental truth, and to place human additions such as preaching, music and the use of other devotional aids including the liturgy as secondary aids to the interpretation of this main truth. Polyphony in this context was an opportunity to explore hidden meanings in a text, having different voices express different aspects of its message for example. Emphasis and amplification could be achieved in this way. In the Roman Catholic tradition, on the other hand, the holy scripture was combined with apostolic traditions as the source of truth, leading to a higher status for the liturgy and a tendency for musical contributions to become bearers of the doctrine as much as the readings from the Bible itself. It is this emphasis on the importance of the liturgy that caused the Roman Catholic Church to clamp down on secular influences creeping into worship. The lively motet tradition, with its celebration of secular and even bawdy themes was seen as a negative influence, and this is why a return to the purity of Gregorian chant was advocated by the Church authorities. The role of the Stabat Mater was a cause of much debate in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries because it was at the same time much loved by the population but also clearly non-Biblical in content. It became part of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at in 1413 at the Council of Cologne and this hymn became part of the liturgy in Northern Europe from that time onwards. In the south, however, the piece was sporadically performed, but did not become such a firm part of the liturgical programme. It has been noted also that some such pieces were performed on the edge of the formal liturgy, for example by the congregation as they took part in processions, or in private ceremonies of various sorts (Jeffrey, 1992, p. 70). The Stabat Mater sequence lent itself for use as a devotional piece, especially for women, and there is no doubt that influence from the secular tradition of the lament crept into compositions of this type. This text is ideally suited for rendition at funerals or in memorial services, as well as in connection with the Easter feast days. In fact one of the main concerns of the Council of Trent of 1545 was to make a clear distinction between the sacred and the profane, applying this objective to the inclusion or exclusion of non-Biblical texts in the liturgy. Partly in response to the objections of the reformers against indulgences, Mariolatry and increasing secularisation in the Roman Catholic Church, and partly as a continuation of internal reforming processes, the Council of Trent made some recommendations on the exclusion of non-Biblical texts and complex polyphony from the mass and the liturgy, with only certain approved exceptions. The objective was to remove secular emotional content and distracting human complexity, and concentrate again on the divine simplicity of the Biblical text itself. The Council issued its “Canon on Music to be Used in the Mass” as part of a sustained “intelligibility crusade” which was to be carried out by bishops each in their local context (Taruskin, 2005, p. 648) The actual text does not prescribe specific pieces for use in the liturgy, but rather recommends principles which should guide clerics in their work, signifying a step-change in the way that music was being used up until that point: “What is customarily rendered with musical rhythms and instruments should have intermingled with it nothing profane but only the divine phrases of hymnody” (Acta Concilii Tridentini, quoted in Fellerer, 1953, p. 576). This had an important effect on musical production in the south of Europe, since in some churches musical instruments were removed from many Churches, and there was a return to the purity and simplicity of Gregorian chants, with its single melodic line, and crystal clear enunciation of the Bible text. In other places, however, polyphony and instruments were retained, albeit with a clearer focus on sacred elements. This debate was at its peak in the lifetime of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (circa 1525-1594). He was born in the town of Palestrina at a time when polyphony had become a highly developed part of the Renaissance flowering of arts and literature. Because of his location near Rome he was immersed in religious music from a very early age. He was a prolific composer, and unlike many of his contemporaries, he composed both sacred and spiritual works, making use of the techniques of the reformers in Northern Europe and those of the counter-reformers in the south, taking the best of both styles and refusing to be confined to the narrow rules set down by the Council of Trent. Leichtentritt notes that Palestrina learnt his compositional techniques from Dutch reformist masters, but tailored it to suit the tastes of his Italian audience: “What makes it unique and incomparable is the fact that this master alone knew how to apply to the severe and complex Dutch art of design and construction, the Italian accent, voice, and melodic bent, sense of color and proportion, the Italian accent, voice and soul” (Leichtentritt, p. 87). Palestrina was charged by Pope Gregory XIII to revise the original Gregorian plainchant form for contemporary consumption. This reflects the Roman Catholic reliance of the tradition handed down by that other illustrious Pope Gregory, who gave his name to this form and it implies for some a “ritualized and impersonal attitude towards composing – a “catholic attitude” (Taruskin, 2005, p. 633). For others, and no doubt for Palestrina himself, this was not so much a doctrinal decree, as an opportunity to rediscover the purity of melodic line and bring it back from the excesses of polyphony that had been developing in the late Renaissance period. Palestrina treads a skilful line between the dramatic potential of the secular madrigal and the classical purity of Gregorian chant. His score requires two choirs which alternate ach taking sections of the text for a short time, and then passing the narrative line to the other, which creates a balanced and interesting narrative, showing different perspectives on the scene. There are eight voices, Soprano, alto, tenor and bass, and these are divided equally in the two choirs. The serene female voices urge the listener to identify with the suffering, but also the faith of Mary, guiding the narrative to its predictable, safe conclusion within the traditional motet structure. When we look at modern versions of the same hymn it is very clear that that something of a schism developed between the disciplines of theology and music in the early twentieth century (Begbie, 2000, p. 3). Contemporary music is much more dissonant, making it difficult for composers to attain the serenity and calm of previous religious music types. Krysztof Penderecki was born in 1933 in Debica, Poland, and as a young composer was inspired by the avant garde movement in art, music and literature. He was brought up in the Roman Catholic tradition of Poland, experiencing the Latin liturgy at first hand as a child taking part in regular worship. Mirka notes that his St Luke Passion represents “one of the last testimonies of the influence of the living tradition of the Latin liturgy exerted on contemporary music” (Mirka, 2002, p. 202) but this is not to say that his work preserves the sacred music tradition in quite the same way as it preserves the text. On the contrary, Penderecki’s experimental approach to composition seems at first incompatible with the chant traditions of the Church, with its highly controversial structures and techniques. Nonetheless he integrates some pockets of choral harmony within his work, creating an unusual compartmentalised mix of styles that recalls the earlier history of sacred music while at the same time pushing forward for new means of expression. The first performace of his St. Luke Passion during Lent in the Cathedral in the German town of Munster caused quite a stir because it was one of the first avant garde sacred pieces to achieve phenomenal popularity across Europe and beyond. It is uncompromising in its commitment to unusual sound effects, including “clusters, glissandi, atypical playing techniques, and aleatoric play characterized by indefinite time relations between individual sounds” (Mirka, 2002, p. 190). There is evidence in Penderecki’s work of an awareness of the conception of space and time in terms of modern physics, in other words as something experimental which must be explored to the limits of human ability, both to perform and to comprehend. The Stabat Mater stands out from the rest of his work as one of the few pieces which uses traditional notation and familiar structure, in this case the rondo form (Sitsky, 2002, p. 376). The spoken text elements recall the earlier oratio and recitative styles, and it is as if he is dipping back into a previous idiom to pull out of it all the expressive potential that he can muster. The consequence of this perspective on the work as a whole is to highlight not so much the suffering of Mary, but the suffering of Christ. The Stabat Mater was composed by Penderecki in 1962, several years before the rest of the main text, and inserted into the St Luke Passion for reasons more to do with the importance of this subject matter in Polish religious tradition than with fidelity to the mainstream Biblical or liturgical requirements (Mirka, 2002, p. 203). The sequence uses twelve-tone techniques, incorporating descending semitones performed by three mixed choirs. The setting for a cappella choir is reminiscent of the late Renaissance tradition that flourished just before the Council of Trent’s restrictive rulings. By giving each entry a position just a semitone from the last, a rich texture is achieved, and this is contrasted with the monotone of the recitative-like narrative line. Dissonance is very evident in the piece and there is at times an uncomfortable clustering when all voices are singing together, but the whole piece comes to a defining climax with a solid final chord in D major, as if to symbolise the resolution of Christ’s suffering in his arrival into paradise. The political and cultural context of Penderecki’s composition, as an Eastern European composer writing under the Communist regime but presenting a clearly religious musical piece contributed no doubt to its resonance with the public. It came to symbolise the gradual return of Poland and other Soviet satellite countries into the fold of Christianity, bringing a new endorsement of the Roman Catholic sensibility, especially in terms of the role of the Mother of Christ, and aligning itself with a new radicalism that culminated ultimately in the overthrow of communism. It is this wider cultural context that gives extra meaning to his fusion of avant-garde and traditional elements. Another modern composer, Arvo Part was born in 1935 in Estonia and was influenced by Russian tonal techniques as well as medieval plainsong and renaissance polyphony. He is seen as a key representative of a twentieth century movement known as “New Spiritual Music” which engages with the public in an eclectic, post-modern way, drawing on multiple sources of inspiration from many ages. This fusion of old and new was achieved by means of a classic method of retreat from the world for a long period of learning and reflection. Part ceased composing for several years in the middle of his career, renouncing modernism and going back to the ancient Gregorian chant for inspiration to start a new phase of writing. The outcome of this retreat was a new style which he called his “tintinnabuli style” after the sounds of bells. It is based on two fundamental principles: a voluntary renunciation of compositional possibilities that pares his music down to the essentials, and simultaneously also an adherence to strict organizational procedures (Sitsky, 2002, p. 358). Critics are impressed by the cool and spare way that Part constructed his version of the Stabat Mater: “Part places composed segments, characterized by an utmost structuring, an almost mechanical and mathematical logic.” (Cobusson, 2008, p. 117). Instead of the full and at times overwhelming sound of Penderecki’s three choirs, Part chooses to allocate the text to just three solo voices: soprano, alto and tenor. This allows some intertwining polyphony, but at the same time the complexity is kept within comprehensible bounds, and there is an intimacy that recalls chamber music rather than the public worship context (Hillier, 1997, p. 145). It is more sparse, even, than Palestrina’s version, and pulls the listener back to the early middle ages and the period in which Gregorian chant first emerged. A key feature of Part’s music is the way that it uses silence and stillness to aid reflection and give a spiritual dimension to each performance. This is not the same as the kind of mystic excesses of late Renaissance devotional music. The modern audience is not lost in a tide of overwhelming admiration, but is rather reluctantly persuaded to take a break from the hustle and bustle of modern life to face up to the unsettling questions of human existence: “From the one point of view, silence is filled with an apprehension of presence and compassion, while from the other it presents us with a sense of utter aloneness” (Hillier, 1997, p. 10). Part’s Stabat Mater is separated out from the rest of the Passion by means of instrumental passages accompanied by the word “Amen” only, as if to draw attention to the importance of this scene in the work as a whole, and create a kind of “ritual space” (Hillier, 1997, p. 146) for its singular message to be revealed. The scoring retains the rhythmic structure of the original Latin sequence, and this emphasises the link with earlier musical forms for a modern audience. Part occupies a unique position, therefore, in that he uses the traditional Stabat Mater motifs, and many of its musical origins, in a way that is both utterly faithful and radically different: “His music - often described as a contemporary Northeast European mixture of medieval music, Orthodox Church songs and minimalism – accommodates everything the advocates of New Spiritual Music consider as essential characteristics: tonality (or modality), slow tempi, stasis, simplicity, repetition, and tranquillity.” (Cobussen, 2008, p. 111) Hillier notes that “it takes a gifted performer to meet the challenge of playing the notes in a way that does not do violence to the music’s essential serenity” (Hillier, 1997, p. 106). Overall, Part’s Stabat Mater has had a significant influence on modern music, not so much because of any technical innovation, but because of its aesthetic appeal. Part has done much to bring a taste for the elegance and simplicity of Gregorian chant back into the modern world so that many a contemporary listener comes to the work of Palestrina via this modern route. All three composers have sought to go back in time for inspiration, but each has also added elements of their own consciousness in an effort to provide a bridge for modern listeners to cross the troubled waters of a society dominated by strife and faithlessness and find spiritual meaning again. The uplifting spiritual message of the Stabat Mater has therefore age-old significance coupled with newer connotations which are different for each successive context. Palestrina’s age was a turbulent struggle for purity and simplicity in a return to simpler forms, while Penderecki seeks to adapt radical new forms to an ancient message. Part provides the most radical fusion of all, stripping his music of extra elements and going back to the tightest textual representation possible. Each composer reflects the pressures of his own context and finds a solution to religious,and moral chaos tension through the disciplined application of the earliest polyphonic techniques. Primary Sources Palestrina St Luke’s Passion. Part, A. 1966. St Luke’s Passion. Penderecki (1963-68) St Luke’s Passion. Secondary References Fellerer, K.G. 1953. Church Music and the Council of Trent. The Musical Quarterly 39 (4), pp. 576-594. Hillier, P. 1997. Arvo Part. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jeffery, P. 1992. Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures: Ethnomusicology in the Study of the Gregorian Chant. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cobussen, M. 2008 Thresholds: Rethinking Spirituality Through Music. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. Begbie, J. S. 2000. Theology, Music and Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leichtentritt, H. 1938. Music, History, and Ideas. Harvard: Harvard College Press. Mirka, D. 2002. The Passion According to Penderecki. In S. Bruhn, (Ed.) Voicing the Ineffable: Musical Representations of Religious Experience. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, pp. 189-232. Sitsky, L. 2002. Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Taruskin, R. 2005. Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More