Classical Girl’s Top 10 works for Holy Week

As a lifelong Catholic, I’ve always taken Holy Week seriously in a personal way, and the reading of The Passion on Palm Sunday always deeply affects me. You’d think I’d never heard the story before, of Jesus’s triumphant arrival into Jerusalem, his Last Supper, praying in the garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal by one of his own, being tried like a criminal and dying on the cross. I’m just an emotional puddle by the end of the Mass.

As part of this year’s Lenten observation, along with giving up chocolate and wine (and yes I’m counting the days to Easter), I’ve immersed myself in spiritual, religious reading. In addition to a subscription to the publication, Give Us This Day, a enjoyable monthly paperback offering readings, daily Mass and related essays, I’m reading Anam Ċara – A Book of Celtic Wisdom, by John O’Donohue; The Places That Scare You, by Pema Chödrön; Seeing With the Heart – A Guide to Navigating Life’s Adventures, Kevin O’Brien, SJ and The Book of Longing, a novel by Sue Kidd Monk. Suffice to say, my spirituality draws from many sources, which is reflected in my rather eclectic Top 10 playlist. More on that in a moment.

Yesterday afternoon when I took a hike, I felt a great spirituality arise in me. As I reached the crest of the biggest hill and looked down and around, it was nothing short of a holy moment. You add up my intensive researching of holy music for this blog, tied in with my Lenten reading, an endorphin rush from having just ascended a steep trail for twenty-five minutes, and wow, yeah, I was utterly transported, literally and figuratively. It was a spirituality grounded both in the present and the past, in nature and in history. All of it pulsing with life, and with relevance, represented in the music I’ve selected.

And so, without further ado …

Classical Girl’s Top 10 works for a Holy Week

1. “The Feeling Begins,” Peter Gabriel, Passion: Music from The Last Temptation of Christ
2. “Lascia ch’io pianga,” from Rinaldo, George Frideric Handel
3. Mass in C minor, “Kyrie,” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
4. “Fratres for String and Percussion,” Arvo Pärt
5. Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Ralph Vaughan Williams
6. “Nine Psalm Tunes,” Thomas Tallis
7. Stabat Mater, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
8. “Adagietto” from Symphony No. 5, Gustav Mahler
9. Enigma Variations, “Nimrod,” Edward Elgar
10. Messiah, George Frideric Handel

 

1) “The Feeling Begins,” Peter Gabriel

I know, this isn’t classical music, and you’d expect The Classical Girl to start such an important list with something classical. But here me out: this is sooooooo spiritual and perfectly sets the tone for me of  what it must have been like to be there, in biblical Judea, with Jesus and his disciples. Further, the instruments and musicians are from all over the world and there is nothing quite like the melding of it all. Suggestion: shut your eyes, crank up the volume, and feel yourself transported to the ancient Near East, feeling the sun beating down on you, the gravel beneath your feet, the desert winds sending puffs of hot air.

2) “Lascia ch’io pianga,” from Handel’s opera, Rinaldo

“Leave me to cry.” I believe that’s the full translation. That, for me, means Palm Sunday, post-Mass. I’m always profoundly stirred, weepy, even, and just want to get myself a coffee, hide in a private corner, and process it all. Doesn’t matter that I’ve been attending this service for over half a century. I still go in deep.

3) Mass in C minor, “Kyrie,” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

You might know Mozart’s Mass in C minor, the “Kyrie” from the 1984 film, Amadeus. That’s where I first heard it and fell in love with it. It’s the epitome of solemn, although in the movie, it played as Mozart and Constanze were getting married, so it wasn’t sad, by any means. Instead it’s profound and soul-stirring. A comment on YouTube about the [7 minute and 14 second] piece reads, “When the doctor has said you have 7 minutes and 14 seconds to live.” Witty and a great description of its solemn power.

4) “Fratres for String and Percussion,” Arvo Pärt

This is another piece one you’ll want to make space for. It’s very subtle, very post-Palm Sunday and pre-Holy Thursday. I call it my “Monday of Holy Week” piece. So wait till your world is quiet, meditative. Close that door, crank up the sound — for entirely different reasons than for “The Feeling Begins” — and revel in its ever-increasing, unearthly power.

In his early career, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s (b. 1935) was associated with modernist, avant-garde and twelve-tone compositions. At the end of the ‘60’s, he abruptly paused his compositional work in order to study medieval and Renaissance music. Early chants and Renaissance polyphony fascinated him. Around this same time, he also converted to the Russian Orthodox faith. When he returned to composing, in 1976, he was a different composer entirely. The end result is powerful in so many ways. I blogged about him and music HERE.

5) & 6) Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Ralph Vaughan Williams 

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born to an illustrious family, had a genteel upbringing that included studies at London’s Royal College of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge. He found much inspiration for composing in going out in the field with friend and fellow student Gustav Holst, to research and retain the traditional English folk music they both admired. In later work of editing The English Hymnal, he came upon a gem from 16th century composer Thomas Tallis. The third psalm of his “Nine Psalm Tunes for Archbishop Parker’s Psalter” inspired the beautiful Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. (You can give those Nine Psalms a listen HERE and read my blog on this composition HERE.)

7) Stabat Mater, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 

I landed first on the Pergolesi last year in my attempt to incorporate a Stabat Mater into my Holy Week listening, and I just haven’t gone elsewhere. But there are a plethora of Stabat Mater compositions. Over at The Ultimate Stabat Mater Website, they’ve logged in 600 versions, 300 of which are recorded and archived there. Most people think first of renditions by Vivaldi, Rossini, Dvořák, Pergolesi, Poulenc, Arvo Part, and someone on Reddit gave an enthusiastic vote for Szymanowski, so we’ll include him here too.

8) Gustav Mahler’s “Adagietto” from his Symphony No. 5

Nowhere else will you find more perfect music for the evening of Good Friday, after all the drama has played out. This is one of two works I consider to be post-Good Friday and pre-Easter Sunday. This work makes it to all my serious-music lists, like “Music for Grace, a Top 10 Playlist for Dying.” Warning: have Kleenex handy.

9) Enigma Variations, “Nimrod,” Edward Elgar

This piece of music has got Holy Saturday written all over it. We’re emotionally depleted from the pathos of Good Friday, the intensity of Holy Week, not to mention all of Lent, and this encompasses a post-grief kind of vibe. I wrote more about Elgar (who, by the way, was a devout Catholic) and the story behind his Enigma Variations HERE.

10) Messiah, George Frideric Handel

Another great one for Holy Saturday and letting it segue into Easter Sunday (perfection is hearing the glorious “Hallelujah Chorus” first thing in the morning. Want to know some fun facts about Handel’s iconic oratorio? I blogged about it several years back and you can read it HERE.

Wishing all of you a happy spring (or fall in the Southern Hemisphere) and an early Happy Easter from my home and my beautiful local Quail Hollow Ranch walk. May spirituality flow forth from you however you worship the divine act of creation at play throughout nature and the world. Beauty is there. I promise. Just kinda … hidden these days sometimes. Which is why you need to unplug from the world right now and listen to these glorious songs a second, and third, and fourth time.