Music Notes for Sunday Masses
21 February 2021
The First Sunday of Lent
Choral Prelude
Ah, Holy Jesus – Johann Crüger (1598-1662)
Crüger’s deservedly famous melody Herzliebster Jesu is tender, expressive and is used by Bach in both the St. Matthew and St. John Passions. In translation here by English poet laureate Robert Bridges (1844-1930), “The most striking aspect of the text is its personalization: it was for my sin that Christ died!” *
Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended, that we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected, O most afflicted!
Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee!
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee.
Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered; the slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered.
For our atonement, while we nothing heeded, God interceded.
For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation.
Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
think on thy pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving.
Offertory Motet
Super flumina Babylonis – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)
If Palestrina’s Sicut cervus desiderat is his most famous motet, this is the second-most. Word painting is a musical device employed by composers of nearly every period and, naturally, Palestrina was a master at it. By “painting” the text of the Psalm verse – a song of the exile – we can actually hear, and perhaps feel a little bit, the anguish, mourning and longing of this people.
Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and we wept, as we remembered
you, O Zion. (Ps. 137:1)
Communion Motets
Angelis suis – Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Last week, we heard a smaller piece from this marvelous man from Lichtenstein, and this week a more substantial one. As we’ve discussed here, the Responsorial Psalm at Mass was called the Gradual before 1970; this Psalm text is that of the Gradual for the First Sunday of Lent. Underneath the baritone solo, the choir echoes his words, supported by a spare organ part. Rheinberger was a prolific Catholic composer and I'd say a fine addition to our Year of St. Joseph!
To his Angels he has given a commandment concerning you, to keep you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. (Ps. 91:11-12)
Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness (Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele) – Johann Crüger, harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750); poem by Johann Franck (1618-1677), translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)
This is but a simple chorale, but oh so much is in it! The tune came first (Crüger again), then the text (Franck). Johann Franck eventually writes over 100 hymn texts, while Winkworth, in a different time and place, makes poetic, English translations of 100 plus hymns. This translator is one about whom I have waxed eloquent before (mostly using the words others!). What an extraordinary gift she had!:
Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness; leave the gloomy haunts of sadness;
come into the daylight’s splendour: there with joy thy praises render,
to the One whose grace unbounded hath this wondrous banquet founded,
high o’er all the heavens reigneth, yet to dwell among us deigneth.
Sun, who all my life dost brighten; Light, who dost my soul enlighten;
Joy, the sweetest heart e’er knoweth; Fount, whence all my being floweth:
at thy feet I cry, my Maker, let me be a fit partaker
of this blessed food from heaven, for our good, thy glory given.
Jesus, Bread of Life, I pray thee, let me gladly here obey thee;
never to my hurt invited; be thou love with love requited.
From this banquet let me measure, Lord, how vast and deep its treasure,
through the gifts thou here dost give me, as thy guest in heaven receive me.
Finally, from the Rubrics of the Church Department:
“The organ and other lawfully approved musical instruments ... In Lent the playing of the organ and musical instruments is allowed only in order to support the singing. Exceptions, however, are Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities, and Feasts.: GIRM2011, No. 313
* ©Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1998
