Join us for this meditative service of music and readings for Good Friday. The choir will sing Dietrich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, interspersed with readings, hymns, prayers, and time for silent meditation or reflection. The service last three hours, but if you can’t stay for the whole time, you can slip out during a hymn.
Membra Jesu Nostri
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707) was born in Oldesloe where his father, Johannes Buxtehude, was organist and schoolmaster until 1638. Soon afterward the Buxtehudes moved to Helsingor where father Johannes became organist. After succeeding his father in Helsingor, Dietrich Buxtehude accepted the position of Organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, Germany in 1668, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1673 he organized a series of Advent evening musical performances known as Abendmusiken, which attracted an audience from far and wide, and remained a feature of the church until 1810. In 1705 Bach travelled over 200 miles on foot from Arnstadt, staying nearly three months to hear the Abendmusiken, meet the pre-eminent Lübeck organist, hear him play, and as Bach explained, “to comprehend one thing and another about his art.” The Abendmusiken were not simply sacred music concerts but were large-scale oratorio-like performances involving soloists, choir, instrumentalists, and organ works, some being performed over a two evening period, giving us a hint at the magnitude of these events.
Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri consists of seven sacred concertos based on the medieval Latin poem Rhythmica oratio (“Salve mundi salutare,” traditionally attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, but more recently to the medieval poet, Arnulf von Löwen), in which the imaginary observer of Christ’s sufferings gradually directs his gaze upwards, from the feet (no.1, “Ad pedes”) to the face (no.7, “Ad faciem”) by way of the knees, the hand, the side, the breast and the heart. (The passion chorale, O Sacred Head, is also based on this poem.) Each concerto opens with an instrumental sinfonia, followed by a chorus, then a number of solo or ensemble arias over the same bass line, ending with a repeat of the opening chorus (with the final “Ad faciem” being the exception, ending in a closing “Amen” instead). The choruses are based on biblical texts which allude metaphorically to the devotional significance of the parts of Christ’s dying body to be contemplated, while the arias are settings of the Latin poem. As this work does not claim a place in the Lutheran liturgy, this cycle of sacred concertos can be understood as an expression of Buxtehude’s own religious experience and personal devotion, and is considered one of his finest and most moving choral compositions