Tenebrae

« Lumen Valo perform in the Swedish Methodist church in Töölö. »

One of the few things we actually managed to do over the long Easter weekend was to attend a Lumen Valo performance of Tomás Luis de Victoria's Tenebrae responsoriot in a local church. I've listened to their music for a few years and was pretty excited to see them perform live in such an appropriate setting. It's the kind of music that is so quiet and reverent that you're almost afraid to breathe lest you make too much noise. The Leica is supposedly the most quiet camera in the world but even it seemed like an imposing amount of noise when I took a couple pictures while lurking behind a pillar. The only light in the church were the lectern lamps, the spot on the crucifix and six candles.

Judging by the age of the small crowd that came to the performance and that I've had to enter the CDDB information for all of the albums of theirs I own, I'm guessing that the music isn't very popular with the young wired crowd in Finland. It's a pity as their voices are so beautifully harmonic and the music so ethereal. The following liner notes from Gimmel Records explains the Tenebrae in more detail.

The publication which contains these eighteen Responsories first appeared in Rome in 1585 under the official title, as it then was, of Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae. It consists of considerably more than the Responsories, since Victoria set not only the nine Lessons from the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet but hymns, motets, the Reproaches, the two sets of Passion choruses and other music from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday. Taken together, these pieces represent the most complete cycle of music for Holy Week by any leading Renaissance composer. Gesualdo set all the Responsories (at considerably greater length than Victoria), but none of the Lamentations. Lassus set the same Responsories and the nine Lamentations, and Palestrina composed five sets of Lamentations but no Responsories. It is interesting to observe that settings of the Lamentations have received more concert performances than have settings of the Responsory texts. This must have something to do with the strict liturgical structure of the latter and the resulting impression that a concert is not quite the right place for them. They are well represented in recordings, however, where one may listen to them as they were intended to be heard, in three separate groups, one each for Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Holy Week.

Originally, on these seminal days of the Church's year, the Responsories were sung early in the morning during Matins which was followed by Lauds. Later, these Offices together became called Tenebrae and were performed during the evening of the preceding day. In this service, the only light in the church came from a triangular stand holding fifteen candles (representing the eleven faithful apostles, the three Marys, and Christ), and from six candles on the altar. As each psalm was chanted, a candle was extinguished, so that after the fourteenth psalm only the highest candle (which represented Christ) was still burning. During the concluding recitation (the Canticle of Zachary) the six candles on the altar were also put out one by one until, as the Office of Lauds drew to a close, the only candle which was still burning was concealed behind the altar; thus the church was left in tenebris - in darkness. The rite symbolised both the darkness which covered the earth as Christ was crucified (2), and his burial. After the closing prayers the worshippers made a certain amount of noise to represent nature in turmoil at the death of Christ. Once the noise had died away, the remaining candle was brought out from behind the altar (a sign of the resurrection), returned to the stand and extinguished.