Rising – Ešenvalds, O salutaris Hostia
Ēriks Ešenvalds – O salutaris Hostia
Sunrise, Tuesday April 21
The week comes into focus. Maybe we kneel a little. Perhaps it’s yoga. Prayer? Keeping the noise at bay. Or, gratitude for having some connection through this screen, to each other, to music.
One thing we now know: These machines will never substitute for a Human making music in the presence of another Human. Important word, newly contextualized: Human. Us.
Thomas Aquinas was human. For sure. Parts of his O salutaris Hostia read like a present-day national anthem:
Hostile wars press.
Give strength; bear aid.
This 13th-century hymn is a fraction – the last two stanzas – of a larger one Aquinas wrote for Corpus Christi celebrating The Last Supper and Passion. Fitting. For Today. We crave communion. Communication. We miss you.
So many unusual aspects for The Crossing’s work in today’s Rising w/:
It’s in Latin, an archaic, non-spoken language lingering in church settings.
It features two soloists throughout, over the background of an ever-increasingly intense choral cloud.
Its harmonic journey is minimal and conventional.
And yet, even if Ēriks Ešenvalds’ O salutaris had no text, his music would reach our ears – and brain and heart – with such immediacy. We know exactly why he wrote it, how he feels about it, what he wants us to know about that. We love to sing it because, in it, we’re an entire unit; the soloists (here Kelly and Rebecca defining grace) depend on the support of the choir - they roll out from, around, and above our shifting colors, while they in turn inform the choir’s pacing and direction – even our timbre.
Listening to each other…
…giving life …
…to us in our homeland.
The Sun is up.
We’ve made just one goal for today:
to tell people
who may not know it
that
we love them.
– The Whole Team @ The Crossing
O salutaris Hostia
music by Ēriks Ešenvalds
words by Thomas Aquinas
recorded live in concert at The Crossing @ Christmas
December 21, 2012 at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
audio by Paul Vazquez of Digital Mission Audio Services
video art "Dry" by Christopher St. John (mixed media on paper, 2019)
* * *
O salutaris Hostia,
Quae caeli pandis ostium:
Bella premunt hostilia,
Da robur, fer auxilium.
Uni trinoque Domino
Sit sempiterna gloria,
Qui vitam sine termino
Nobis donet in patria.
Amen.
O saving Victim,
Who expands the door of heaven,
Hostile wars press.
Give strength; bear aid.
To the Lord One and Three,
May there be everlasting glory;
that he may give life without end to
us in our homeland.
Amen.