Via crucis, 2000
category: 1. oratories
orchestral parts: PWM bmo@pwm.com.pl
listen here
!!!LOOK AT THE VIA CRUCIS WEB PAGE!!!
Paweł Łukaszewski THE MYSTERY OF VIA CRUCIS
Summary
The Way of the Cross is a service of the Christian congregation known for all the catholic community. This service commemorates scenes when Christ went on streets of Jerusalem with cross on His arms from Pilatus’ pretorium, that was the place where the verdict had been brought in on the Saviour, to mountain of Golgotha, where the verdict of crucifiction was executed upon Him. The spiritual core of the service of the Way of Cross consists on contemplation of the Christ’s passion simultaneously walking through a symbolic trail of the Way of the Cross, marked with 14 crosses to be a kind of remembrance of hurtful occurences of the Saviour’s torment. The particular crosses along the Way of the Cross are called ‘stations’. The number of stations changed along centuries. Recently, advised by the Second Vatican Council, the fifteenth was added to point the goal of the Way – the Resurrection.
The form of the Way of the Cross is rarely met in the music history, we can find it in barely few composers’ output: Franz Liszt (for piano), Marcel Dupré (Chemin de la Croix for organ), and also some Polish contemporary composers: Sławomir Czarnecki (for organ), Marian Sawa (for solo voices, choir and brass orchestra, with text of cogitations in Polish), Stanisław Moryto (for percussion and actor, with poetic text in Polish).
Via Crucis, written by me in 2000 (for contratenor, tenor, baritone, reciter, mixed choir organ and symphony orchestra to the texts from the Bible in Latin) is a composition of duration of 60 minutes. It evolves by a manner of “mega-rondo”, i.e. a large rondo, wherein each of the thirteen stations is opened and closed by a very similar formula (in shape of refrain), built of a name of a station (choral male voices), an invocation :”Adoramus Te, Christe...” (choral female voices) and finally a lamentation “Qui passus est pro nobis...” (choral female voices), and instrumental interludios, based on themes of Polish Lenten songs, which symbolize passing between stations* (scanned sounds in wood winds on a background of low bourdons of brass). One of the next element serving for consolidation of the formal construction of the whole are strokes (chord horizontals of all instruments, from one to fourteen strokes) which are to be recognized as numbering of stations (listener recognizes the idea starting with third/fourth stroke). The most distinguishing character can be noticed in Stations of the descent from the cross and of the burial (dynamics in refrains of inter-station passages and in the strokes numbering stations is softened).
There are many elements of archaizing of compositional language in Via Crucis. In the very sound layer it is achieved by numerous bourdons to stress austerity of harmony, frequently used low brass and high, a sort of medieval “pipes” (wood-winds in inter-station passages, in the ways between stations) and general roughness (tartness) of sound timbre; in a melodic layer – harmonically severe recitatives and melodeclamations; in choir texture – opposition: female voices–male voices, after the fashion of antiphonal chants (this concerns all “refrain” parts of choir as well as some “plot” parts, e.g. Third Station, Seventh Station). I also revert to practice of figures of speech (in terms of musical rhetorics) to maximally visualize my sound language. Due to this quite vivid pictures are achieved, like in the Third Station (sequence of invocations of singular voices of a cappella choir with last syllables lengthened in bourdon-like manner); Seventh Station (exclamations imagining groans and sighs of tormented Christ); Ninth Station (sounds going astray to illustrate Isaiah’s words: “Omnes nos quasi oves erravimus”); Tenth and Eleventh Station (culmination of the suffering of crucifiction has its equivalent in drammatic commotion in music and vibration of choral-orchestral texture); in the Stations of agony, descent from the cross and burial (dilution and congealment of musical occurences). Moreover in the last Station of the Way of the Cross I introduced a melody of a sad Polish Christmas carol in mood of lullaby “Jezus malusieńki”. This quotation symbolizes a birth for a new life while the death of a body. Such quotations are motivated by me in terms of expression, formal construction, idea and rhetorics.
While I consciously limited myself in “refrain” parts, in all fourteen Stations, and in the fifteenth which acts as coda, one can follow and perhaps experience an increasing dramaticism of the work. It reaches its summit in Golgotha-Stations (ten to fourteen) and in the final Fifteenth Station (Resurrection). Beside of general assumption of a kind of asceticism (less speaking – far more can be said than speaking much) listeners are envolved in the plot as it develops. I am interested in secrets of psychology of how large (long) works are perceived and I seek for my own assemblage of means of expression. The use of the “refrain” sections, apparently identical but still various each time, can somehow cancel, erase in receiver’s memory all that has happened. Thus after each Station listener stands as if in front of a new picture. This “reset”-function was acted by amorphic section of inter-station passage. In primordial “plot” sections (based eleven times upon the Bible and three times upon words of Isaiah, at the Stations of Christ’s falls – 3, 7, 9**) we can find the music action very rich and varied: from ascetic fragments based only upon narrative parts (spoken or melodiously declaimed***), through Stations of choral a cappella, up to very dramatic moments that use the rich choral and orchestral outfit (Stations no. ten, eleven and fifteen). In fifteenth Station I used organ (in C major), for it resounds on the day of the Resurrection during services in the Church.
In 2002 my Via Crucis was performed in four Polish philharmonies. Each of the performances took place in the other city, in participation of the other orchestras and soloists. The last concert, with excellent soloists from London, was broadcast by the Polish Radio.
Translation: Aleksander Kościów
VIA CRUCIS
TEXTUS
Coro
1. VIA CRUCIS
2. STATIO PRIMA (I)
Coro
Iudicium a Pontio Pilato pronuntiatum est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Narrator (reciter)
Universa turba succlamabat dicens:
Coro
„ crucifige, crucifige eum”.
Narrator (reciter)
Pilatus autem tertio dixit ad illos:
Pilatus (tenore)
„Quid enim mali fecit iste? Nullam causam mortis invenio in eo: corripiam ergo illum et dimittam”.
Evangelista (countertenor)
At illi instabant vocibus magnis postulantes, ut crucifigeretur: et invalescebant voces eorum. Et Pilatus adiudicavit fieri petitionem eorum. Dimisit autem illis eum, qui propter homicidium et seditionem missus fuerat in carcerem, quem petebant, Iesum vero tradidit voluntati eorum.
Secundum Lucam 23, 21-25.
Coro
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
3. STATIO SECUNDA (II)
Coro
Iesus crucem sustinuit.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Narrator (reciter)
Dicebat autem Iesus ad omnes:
Jesus (baritone)
„Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum et tollat crucem suam quotidie, et sequatur me.”
Secundum Lucam 9, 23.
Coro
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
4. STATIO TERTIA (III)
Coro
Iesus sub cruce primum prolapsus est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
”Quis credidit auditui nostro? Et brachium
Domini cui revelatum est ? Et ascendet sicut virgultum coram eo et sicut radix de terra si-tienti: non est species ei neque decor et vidimus eum, et non erat aspectus, et desideravimus eum, despectum et novissimum virorum, virum dolorum, et scientem infirmitatem, et quasi absconditus vultus eius et despectus, unde nec reputavimus eum.
Isaiae 53, 1-3.
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
5. STATIO QUARTA (IV)
Coro
Mater obviam amantissimo Filio occurrit.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Narrator (reciter)
Senex Simeon prophetizans dixit ad Mariam, matrem Iesu:
Simeon (Tenor)
„Ecce positus est hic in ruinam et in resurrectionem multorum in Israel: et in signum, cui con-tradicetur: et tuam ipsius animam pertransibit gladius, ut revelentur ex multis cordibus cogitationes.”
Secundum Lucam 2, 34-35.
Coro
Dolorosa et lacrimabilis es, Virgo Maria!
Quia in passione Christri animam tuam doloris gladius pertransivit.
6. STATIO QUINTA (V)
Coro
Iesus a Simone Cyrenaeo in baiulatione crucis adiutus est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Evangelista (countertenor)
Exeuntes autem invenerunt hominem Cyrenaeum, nomine Simonem: hunc angariaverunt, ut tolleret crucem eius.
Secundum Matthaeum 27, 32
Coro
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
7. STATIO SEXTA (VI)
Coro
Veronica vultum Christi sudario detersit.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Evangelista (countertenor)
Auferet Dominus Deus lacrymam ab omni facie et opprobrium populi sui auferet de universa terra; quia Dominus locutus est. Et dicet in die illa:
Evangelista (tenor)
„iste Dominus, sustinuimus eum, exultabimus et laetabitur in salutari eius, quia requiescet manus Domini in monte isto”.
Isaiae 25, 8-10.
Coro
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
8. STATIO SEPTIMA (VII)
Coro
Iesus iterum sub cruce prolapsus est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Vere languores nostros ipse tulit et dolores nostros ipse portavit, et nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum, et percussum a Deo, et humiliatum. Ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras, attritus est propter scelera nostra: disciplina pacis nostrae super eum, et livore eius sanati sumus.
Isaiae 53, 4-5.
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
9. STATIO OCTAVA (VIII)
Coro
Mulieres Iesum Christum lamentabilem lamentabantur.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Evangelista (countertenor)
Sequebatur autem illum multa turba populi et mulierum: quae plangebant et lamentabantur eum.
Narrator (reciter)
Conversus autem ad illas Iesus dixit:
Jesus (baritone)
„Filiae Ierusalem, nolite flere super me, sed super vos ipsas flete, et super filios vestros. Quoniam ecce venient dies, in quibus dicent: „Beatae steriles et ventres, qui non genuerunt, et ubera, quae non lactaverunt. Tunc incipient dicere montibus: » Cadite super nos «; et collibus: » Operite nos «. Quia si in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid fiet ?”
Secundum Lucam 23, 27-31.
Coro
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
10. STATIO NONA (IX)
Coro
Iesus Christus sub cruce tertium cecidit.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Omnes nos quasi oves erravimus, unus-quisque in viam suam declinavit et posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum. Oblatus est, quia ipse voluit, et non aperuit os suum: sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur et quasi agnus coram tondente se obmutescet, et non aperit os suum.
Isaiae 53, 6-7.
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
11. STATIO DECIMA (X)
Coro
Iesus vestibus nudatus et felle potatum est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Mittes ergo cum crucifixissent eum, acceperunt vestimenta eius, et fecerunt quattuor partes; unicuique militi partem et tunicam. Erat autem tunica inconsutilis, desuper contexta per totum. Dixerunt ergo ad invicem: „Non scindamus eam, sed sortiamur de illa cuius sit.” Ut Scriptura impleretur, dicens: „Partiti sunt vestimenta mea sibi: et in vestem meam miserunt sortem.” Et milites quidem haec fecerunt.
Secundum Joannem 19, 23-24.
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
12. STATIO UNDECIMA (XI)
Coro
Cruciatores Iesum Christum crucifigaverunt.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Et perducunt illum Golgotha locum: quod est interpretatum Calvariae locus. Et dabant ei bibere myrrhatum vinum: et non accepit. Erat autem hora tertia: et crucifixerunt eum. Et erat titulus causae eius inscriptus: REX IUDAEORUM. Et cum eo crucifigunt duos latrones: unum a dextris, et alium a sinistris eius. Et impleta est scriptura, quae dicit: Et cum iniquis reputatus est.
Secundum Marcum 15, 22-28.
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
13. STATIO DUODECIMA (XII)
Coro
Iesus Christus in cruce mortuus est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Narrator (reciter)
Stabant autem iuxta crucem Iesu mater eius, et soror matris eius, Maria Cleophae et Maria Magdalene.
Evangelista (countertenor)
Cum vidisset ergo Iesus matrem et discipulum stantem, quem diligebat, dicit matri suae:
Jesus (baritone)
„Mulier, ecce filius tuus.”
Evangelista (countertenor)
Deinde dicit discipulo:
Jesus (baritone)
„Ecce mater tua.”
Evangelista (countertenor)
Et ex illa hora accepit eam discipulus in sua.
Narrator (Recytator)
Postea sciens Iesus, quia omnia consummata sunt, ut consummaretur Scriptura, dixit:
Jeus (baritone)
„Sitio.”
Evangelista (countertenor)
Vas ergo erat positum aceto plenum. Illi autem spongiam plenam aceto, hyssopo circumpo-nentes, obtulerunt ori eius.
Narrator (reciter)
Cum ergo accepisset Iesus acetum, dixit:
Jesus (Baryton)
„Consummatum est.
Narrator (Recytator)
„Et inclinato capite tradidit spiritum.
Secundum Joannem 19, 25-30.
Coro
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
14. STATIO TERTIA DECIMA (XIII)
Coro
Corpus Iesu Christi de cruce depositum est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Evangelista (tenor)
Iudaei ergo (quoniam Parasceve erat), ut non remanerent in cruce corpora sabbato erat enim magnus dies ille Sabbati, rogaverunt Pilatum, ut frangerentur eorum crura, et tollerentur. Venerunt ergo milites: et primi quidem fregerunt crura et alterius, qui crucifixus est cum eo.
Evangelista (countertenor)
Ad Iesum autem cum venissent, ut viderunt eum iam mortuum, non fregerunt eius crura, sed unus militum lancea latus eius aperuit, et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua.
Secundum Joannem 19, 31-34.
Coro
Qui passus est pro nobis.
Iesu Christe, miserere nobis.
15. STATIO QUARTA DECIMA (XIV)
Coro
Corpus Christi sepulchro conditum est.
Adoramus te, sanctissime Domine Iesu Christe...
Narrator (reciter)
Post haec autem rogavit Pilatum Ioseph ab Arimathaea (eo quod esset discipulus Iesu, occul-tus autem propter metum Iudaeorum), ut tolleret corpus Iesu. Venit autem et Nicodemus, qui venerat ad Iesum nocte primum, ferens mixturam myrrhae et aloes, quasi libras centum. Ac-ceperunt ergo corpus Iesu et ligaverunt illud linteis cum aromatibus, sicut mos est Iudaeis se-pelire. Erat autem in loco, ubi crucifixus est, hortus: et in horto monumentum novum, in quo nondum quisquam positus erat. Ibi ergo propter Parasceven Iudaeorum, quia iuxta erat monumentum, posuerunt Iesum.
Secundum Joannem 19, 38-41.
16. STATIO ULTIMA (XV)
Coro
Una autem sabbati, Maria Magdalene venit mane, cum adhuc tenebrae essent, ad monumen-tum: et vidit lapidem sublatum a monumento. Cucurrit ergo et venit ad Simonem Petrum, et ad ilium discipululum, quem amabat Iesus, et dicit illis: „Tulerunt Dominum de monumento et nescimus ubi posuerunt eum.”
Secundum Joannem 20, 1-2.
Tertia die resurrexit Victor mortis.
Iesu, Tibi sit gloria,
Qui passus es pro servulis,
Cum Patre et almo Spiritu
In sempiterna saecula.
17. CHRISTUS VINCIT
Coro
Christus vincit,
Christus regnat,
Christus imperat.
