Music for the Paschal Triduum

Today is Maundy Thursday, the start (for the West) of the Paschal Triduum. Like many Christians, music is for me a welcome companion throughout Holy Week. It adds yet another layer of meaning on top of an already fulsome moment in liturgical time.

I'm the kind of person who's easily attached to music. I tend to mark time by certain artists, albums, or songs which have the greatest significance for me in a given moment or season of life. For instance, John Mayer's album Continuum defined two years of my life (2006-2008) where I seemed to mature and come into my own as a person. Even now when I hear "Stop this Train," one of my favorite songs on the album, copious memories come to mind that remind me of a really good time in my life.

Or when I hear the somber, delicate tones of Ray Lamontagne's song "Can I Stay" I'm instantly taken back to the anguished pain of love gone bad. Music carries weight. With it comes more than memories of a distant past. The same feelings I once felt when a song was most alive for me come back when I hear it again, even many years later. Roger Scruton is right when he says that, "[m]usic is a wonderful example of something that’s in this world but not of this world. Great works of music speak to us from another realm even though they speak to us in ordinary physical sounds.”

Since music is so meaningful to me, especially during times like Holy Week, I thought it would be nice to introduce some of you to a piece I've listen to quite a lot this week. It's Bach's magisterial St. John Passion performed by the Netherlands Bach Society. This oratorio was first performed for Good Friday Vespers at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig, Germany in 1724 A.D. It's a stirring piece of music that instantly draws us into the drama of Christ's passion according to St. John's Gospel. Put to music, the opening coro is breathtaking:

O Lord, our Lord, whose glory is magnificent in all the earth!

The German Reformation gave the world two gifts: Justification by Faith and Bach. I treasure both. And I hope you will at least treasure Bach and the beauty of his music as we enter the Passion of Christ. All royal coronations are set to music. As I pray and contemplate the royal coronation of King Jesus, I hear Bach playing in the background as Christ ascends to his rightful throne.