Tenebrae factae sunt
[a la opening of WICKED]
GOOD FRIDAAAAAAAAY!
HE'S DEAAAAAAAD!
you know, i have no memories of good friday before my junior year of college, the year i started working as a staff singer at a church. that first year i was working at st. stephen's anglican catholic church. this was in every respect NOT what i was used to in organized religion.
in all fairness, my experience in organized religion consisted of a half-assed rearing in the methodist church, followed by nothing, followed by three years of baptist summer day-care that effectively turned me into a proselytizing little prude before my dad so wisely put me in my place. this was followed by an outright rejection of christianity which led me to study all the world religions, and i was a practicing wiccan for awhile. and still in my head i think more like a wiccan than anything else, i suppose, at least in terms of karma. but the devotional side of wicca fell aside as well, leaving me sort of agnostic.
singing at this anglican catholic church did not help my agnosticism.
the good friday ritual was in particular a surprising development. it was REALLY morose---stripping all the vestments and taking away the gold and covering the cross with black fabric. i mean, THEATRICAL. and then at the end of the service, after the organ and lights had been turned off, the three priests lay face-down prostrate before the cross. on the floor. i did NOT know what to do with myself, i thought it was so goddamn funny.
this is, of course, followed by the skull-shattering return of pomp and light on easter sunday, when a whole new set of vestments come in, new brass, more easter lilies than you could ever want, organ comes roaring back to life. it's kind of thrilling in the sheer spectacle, no matter what your beliefs.
it was definitely more extreme at the anglican church, but it turned out to be pretty much the same kind of thing at the methodist church i worked at the two years after that. the main difference being that the methodist church was a cavernous white sanctuary, so even in darkness and stripped of color, it still looked like a fairly inviting place. the anglican church looked like a meetinghouse out of the salem witch trials. especially from the outside, where it perched on a hill, set far back from the road, a somber gray little thing with its drab steeple pointed accusingly at the sky. i'm not making generalizations about catholics or even anglicans, but i found the worship at that church to be the most dry, joyless experience of my life. sunday after sunday of monotone and funny hats and about seven different books of worship to juggle.
oh yeah...also, the inept music director. his ridiculous choices of music, and his hammer-handed, talent-free playing of the organ sucked the happiness out of the only thing left to enjoy, which was the music.
and sad and creepy as the holiday is, tenebrae music includes some of the most gorgeous pieces i've ever sung...
Tenebrae factae sunt, dum crucifixissent Jesus Judaei:
et circa horam nonam exclamavit Jesus voce magna:
Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti?
Et inclinato capite, emisit spiritum.
There was darkness over the earth when the Jews crucified Jesus:
and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice:
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
GOOD FRIDAAAAAAAAY!
HE'S DEAAAAAAAD!
you know, i have no memories of good friday before my junior year of college, the year i started working as a staff singer at a church. that first year i was working at st. stephen's anglican catholic church. this was in every respect NOT what i was used to in organized religion.
in all fairness, my experience in organized religion consisted of a half-assed rearing in the methodist church, followed by nothing, followed by three years of baptist summer day-care that effectively turned me into a proselytizing little prude before my dad so wisely put me in my place. this was followed by an outright rejection of christianity which led me to study all the world religions, and i was a practicing wiccan for awhile. and still in my head i think more like a wiccan than anything else, i suppose, at least in terms of karma. but the devotional side of wicca fell aside as well, leaving me sort of agnostic.
singing at this anglican catholic church did not help my agnosticism.
the good friday ritual was in particular a surprising development. it was REALLY morose---stripping all the vestments and taking away the gold and covering the cross with black fabric. i mean, THEATRICAL. and then at the end of the service, after the organ and lights had been turned off, the three priests lay face-down prostrate before the cross. on the floor. i did NOT know what to do with myself, i thought it was so goddamn funny.
this is, of course, followed by the skull-shattering return of pomp and light on easter sunday, when a whole new set of vestments come in, new brass, more easter lilies than you could ever want, organ comes roaring back to life. it's kind of thrilling in the sheer spectacle, no matter what your beliefs.
it was definitely more extreme at the anglican church, but it turned out to be pretty much the same kind of thing at the methodist church i worked at the two years after that. the main difference being that the methodist church was a cavernous white sanctuary, so even in darkness and stripped of color, it still looked like a fairly inviting place. the anglican church looked like a meetinghouse out of the salem witch trials. especially from the outside, where it perched on a hill, set far back from the road, a somber gray little thing with its drab steeple pointed accusingly at the sky. i'm not making generalizations about catholics or even anglicans, but i found the worship at that church to be the most dry, joyless experience of my life. sunday after sunday of monotone and funny hats and about seven different books of worship to juggle.
oh yeah...also, the inept music director. his ridiculous choices of music, and his hammer-handed, talent-free playing of the organ sucked the happiness out of the only thing left to enjoy, which was the music.
and sad and creepy as the holiday is, tenebrae music includes some of the most gorgeous pieces i've ever sung...
Tenebrae factae sunt, dum crucifixissent Jesus Judaei:
et circa horam nonam exclamavit Jesus voce magna:
Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti?
Et inclinato capite, emisit spiritum.
There was darkness over the earth when the Jews crucified Jesus:
and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice:
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.