Saint Mark's Church

MEDITATIONS OF SORROW & PASSION

IN MUSIC

Intimate performances of music that reflects on the themes of Lent.

Fridays following Evening Prayer and Stations of the Cross.

5:30 pm – Evening Prayer and Stations of the Cross in the Church

6:30 pm – Performance in the Choir Room (Parish House , 2^nd Floor).

26 February

The Five Sorrowful Mysteries

from the Rosary Sonatas, Heinrich Biber (1644-1704)

Rebecca Harris, Violin; Matthew Glandorf, Continuo

The Bohemian/Austrian composer and violin virtuoso Heinrich Biber spent the majority of his career in Salzburg.  The 15 “Rosary” Sonatas are based on the traditional groupings of meditations  - the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries – of the Rosary.  Biber most likely intended the pieces to be played as meditation during the devotion of recitation of the Rosary.

5 March

I. The Lamentations of Jeremiah  

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 1585)

Members of the Saint Mark’s Choir, Veronica Chapman Smith and Maren Montalbano, Matthew Glandorf

The two sets of Latin texts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah were set to music  during the reign of Elizabeth I.  Although the texts are the proper responsories for the Office of Matins for Maundy Thursday, scholars believe that these musical settings served no liturgical function but would have been sung at the private devotions of loyalist Catholics of the time.

II. Leçons des Tenébre

Francis Couperin (1668-1733)

Heather Gardner, Maren Montalbano, Matthew Glandorf

During Lent and Holy Week when the theatres were closed, the great opera stars of Paris went to the various convents of the city to offer their services for devotions and masses during the season.  Couperin held the title of Organist and Composer of the Royal Chamber, in this case, Louis XIV, the Sun King.  His setting of the Lamentations for Holy Wednesday were written in 1714 for the Abbey of Longchamps.

March 12

Sorrow and the African American Experience

in the Spiritual

Veronica Chapman-Smith, Soprano

Spirituals are religious folks songs created and first sung by Africans brought into slavery in America.  “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot;” “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho;” Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child;” “Go Down, Moses;” “Stea; Away;” “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?” “Wade in the Water;” these are some of the best known of the hundreds of remarkable spirituals that were created and sung by slaves.  In fact, many more recent generations of Americans from many different ethnic backgrounds now embrace these songs and remember growing up with them.  Although they come from a circumscribed community of people in bondage, the spirituals eventually came to be regarded as the first “signature” music of the new American nation.

March 19

The Seven Last Words

Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)

Rebecca Harris leads a String Quartet

This is a transcription of a work originally written for an orchestra.  The piece was commissioned in 1787 for the Good Friday service at the Grotto Santa Cueva near Cádiz in southern Spain.  Haydn wrote about the service for which the meditations were written: “The walls, windows, and pillars of the church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp hanging from the center of the roof broke the solemn darkness. At midday, the doors were closed and the ceremony began.”  His music punctuated sermons by the bishop on the traditional texts preached on Good Friday.

March 26

Stabat Mater

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)

Heather Garner, Soprano; Jennifer L. Smith, Mezzo-Soprano; Chamber Ensemble led by Matthew Glandorf

The image of Mary, our Lord’s mother, standing at the foot of his cross is one of the enduring, heart-rending images of Good Friday. The Sequence,  Stabat Mater daes, from the thirteenth century is an extended reflection on this image; many composers have set this text to music, from Palestrina to Rossini.  Pegolesi) set the poem in 1736 for soprano,  alto, and chamber ensemble which is his best known sacred work. It was commissioned by the Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo (the monks of the brotherhood of San Luigi di Palazzo) for Good Friday.

NB This evening begins with Choral Evensong, Stations of the Cross, and Benediction

The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania has allowed Saint Mark's to adopt the Church of Saint James the Less as a mission of our parish.  Saint James the Less was vacated more than two years ago by its congregation following lengthy litigation with the diocese.  The parish had grown disaffected with the diocese and the Episcopal Church.

The work of restoring worship and ministry to this beautiful place in a demanding part of the city now falls to Saint Mark's and those partners we can gather to work with us.  The first important steps will involve prayer and discussion to discern what ministry God is calling us to, as well as efforts to reach out to the local community.

More news will be posted about our ministry at Saint James the Less as it takes shape.