J.D Zelenka - 6 Lamentationes pro hebdomada sancta, ZWV 53

#jan #dismas #zelenka #score #sheetmusic #zwv #53 Score / sheet music to Zelenka's 6 Lamentationes pro hebdomada sancta, /Z. 53/. Composed in Dresden, and dated 1722, these lamentations were no doubt intended as liturgical pieces for the electoral chapel. Although not many polyphonic settings of the traditional Lamentations texts /extracts from the biblical book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, used as lessons at Matins in Holy Week/ survive from central Europe at this period, Heinichen also set them for Dresden, and indeed some were even published for use by parish church choirs; so the tradition is not unique. Zelenka’s setting includes the first two Lamentations from Matins of Maundy Thursday, the first two from Matins of Good Friday, and the first two from Easter Eve. These are two of the first three lessons read at the services, which were traditionally set to music; lessons 4 to 9, from St Augustine and from the New Testament Epistles, were read. Each of these services was celebrated as ‘Tenebrae’ the previous evening, a circumstance which leads to Zelenka’s confusing nomenclature as Lamentations "for Wednesday", "for Thursday" and "for Friday". Whether the missing third Lamentation for each day was sung to plainsong, or whether some other music replaced it, is unknown; the possibility that further settings have simply been lost would seem rather less likely. The Lamentations are structurally unlike most other concerted music of the time, in that the usual recitative/aria alternation is abandoned in favor of a more fluid alternation of short passages of arioso and recitative. This structure is paralleled by that of the texts. Since the Middle Ages it had been traditional in the chant prescribed for these texts to sing the Hebrew letters introducing each short subdivision to a melisma, and for the texts of the lessons themselves to be set to a psalmodic recitation, used also for the formal introduction /"Incipit lamentatio …"/. In this way, the Hebrew letters, though meaningless in themselves as texts, turn into occasions for brief meditative preparation, in which the music can flower in its own right, for the purely narrative texts that follow them. This appears to be the purpose also of the affective settings of the Hebrew letters which often occur in polyphonic Lamentations in the Renaissance. Quite analogously, Zelenka sets the Hebrew letters as affective arioso passages, contrasting for the most part with simple recitative for the actual Lamentation texts. In doing so, he places himself in a direct line of descent from the older tradition, with which he was doubtless familiar. Thus his Lamentations represent a reinterpretation in Baroque terms of an older Renaissance tradition. Other aspects of Zelenka’s settings also represent immediately recognizable traditional allusions: examples are the intense chromaticism /for example, in the first Lamentation of the first pair/, and the restriction of the voice-types to the lower ranges, alto /countertenor/, tenor and bass. In other respects, however, Zelenka’s Lamentations mark a departure from tradition. In the Gregorian originals, as also in many Renaissance settings, the calls to repentance with which each Lamentation ends /"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum"/ are set to the same music; in the Gregorian, this is simply a continuation of the simple psalmodic recitative, and each time it leads straight into a responsory which sets the Lamentation in the context of the Gospel Passion narrative. On the contrary, Zelenka throws much more rhetorical weight on the calls to repentance, which are set afresh each time: they are greatly extended in length, and are given the functions of responding affectively to, and rounding off, the preceding narratives. To achieve variety, Zelenka takes full advantage of the differing moods implicit in the texts of the individual Lamentations. It is very noticeable, for instance, how the heavy mood of the minor-key Lamentations of Thursday and Friday is lightened for the major-key Lamentations, particularly the two for Saturday, and this corresponds directly with the more hopeful mood of the first Saturday Lamentation, which is in A major. I: Lamentation pro Die Mercurii Sancto No.1 - 00:00 II: Lamentation pro Die Mercurii Sancto No.2 - 13:47 III: Lamentation pro Die Jovis Sancto No.1 - 22:09 IV: Lamentation pro Die Jovis Sancto No.2 - 31:08 V: Lamentation pro Die Veneris Sancto No.1 - 41:51 VI: Lamentation pro Die Veneris Sancto No.2 - 55:05 Performer(s):    • Jan Dismas Zelenka 1. Lamentationes Ieremi...      • Zelenka: The Lamentations of Jeremiah The ...