Rising – Buxtehude, Ad genua
Dieterich Buxtehude – Membra Jesu nostri
II. Ad genua
Sunrise, Tuesday April 7
Listening to Caroline Shaw's music and its 17th-c. references yesterday reminded us of how much we loved singing Dieterich Buxtehude's seven-cantata oratorio Membra Jesu nostri, the inspiration for Seven Responses in 2016.
No, we didn't lose our identity, nor start singing lots of early music. We are a contemporary-music family; we like our niche. But, in Seven Responses, that niche led us to consider the suffering of others — our relationship to that suffering. And, we were inspired to compare it to the way in which previous generations would do that - specifically, through the words of the medieval poem on which Membra is based, considering the suffering of Christ on the cross and the poet's relationship to it.
One of the great 'reveals' of the project was just how much we discovered about our singing in Buxtehude's early-baroque music, brought to life through the nuanced, informed playing of our 'band,' Quicksilver Baroque. Buxtehude is so inventive - his music feels so spontaneous. It "falls forward" in such natural ways. It's remarkable what a composer can achieve with, from our perspective, such limited resources — strings, theorbo, chamber organ, voices. He takes Isaiah's lovely image of motherhood:
To the knees
You will be brought to nurse
and dandled on the knees
... and writes music that sounds exactly like a baby being bounced on a mother's knee. Even the Latin "Ad ubera portabimini," in Buxtehude's composing hands, turns into baby talk. Amazing!
This is a departure. A baroque cantata. We seldom sing sacred music and we (almost) never sing historic music. Yet, we loved singing this.
These ancient words capture our feelings for every person in our lives. Today:
That I may seek You with pure heart,
Be my first care,
It is no labour nor shall I be loaded down:
But I shall be cleansed,
When I embrace You
— The Whole Team @ The Crossing
Membra Jesu nostri
II. Ad genua
music by Dieterich Buxtehude
text from Isaiah and the Rhythmica Oratio of Arnulf of Louvain
recorded live in concert at Seven Responses
June 24, 2016 at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral
with Quicksilver Baroque
audio by Paul Vazquez of Digital Mission Audio Services
video art by Dan Cole
* * *
1. Sonata
2. Concerto
Ad ubera portabimini,
et super genua blandicentur vobis
To the knees
You will be brought to nurse
and dandled on the knees
[of Jerusalem, portrayed as a mother]
(Isaiah 66:12)
3. Aria: tenor
Salve Jesu, rex sanctorum,
spes votiva peccatorum,
crucis ligno tanquam reus,
pendens homo verus Deus,
caducis nutans genibus
Hail Jesus, King of Saints
Hope of sinners' prayers,
like an offender on the wood of the cross,
a man hanging, true God,
Bending on failing knees!
4. Aria: alto
Quid sum tibi responsurus,
actu vilis corde durus?
Quid rependam amatori,
qui elegit pro me mori,
ne dupla morte morerer
What answer shall I give You,
Vile as I am in deed, hard in my heart?
How shall I repay Your love,
Who chose to die for me,
Unless I die a second death?
5. Aria: two sopranos and bass
Ut te quaeram mente pura,
sit haec mea prima cura,
non est labor et gravabor,
sed sanabor et mundabor,
cum te complexus fuero
That I may seek You with pure heart,
Be my first care,
It is no labour nor shall I be loaded down:
But I shall be cleansed,
When I embrace You
6. Concerto (da capo: Ad ubera portabimini)
— Rhythmica Oratio,
att. Arnulf of Louvain (early 13th c.)