DIGEST

Music ‘must-haves’ for Easter
The dramatic events of Holy Week and
Easter have been the inspiration for artists
of all kinds, particularly composers
across all musical periods and styles,
and the selection of music for services at
this time of year is a daunting task when
facing such a broad wealth of repertoire.
However, there are a number of works
which stand out as ‘must-haves’, and
two of these works, which will be sung
by the Cathedral Choir during the Easter
season, are the focus here.
Cavalleria Rusticana was Mascagni’s
first and most successful opera.
Mascagni heard of a competition for a
one-act opera just two months before the
closing date, and submitted his entry on
the very last day for submissions.
Selected entries were staged, and,
although it opened to a half-empty
house, it was quickly recognised for the
quality of both libretto and music, and
the tightness of the plot, and has been a
firm favourite of opera companies worldwide
since.
Pietro Mascagni’s
‘Easter Hymn’ is a
rare and welcome
intrusion of the
secular canon
into the sacred
world. The opera
from which it
comes, Cavalleria
Rusticana
(‘Rustic Chivalry’), is a tragedic portrayal
of village life, adultery, and murder. It is
set around a community’s celebrations
of Easter Sunday, and one of the main
scenes is this entirely-sacred hymn of
praise during which villagers take part in
a typically-European procession through
their town. It begins with the Regina
Coeli of the formal church service, but
this quickly gives way to a less-formal
and increasingly-exciting hymn:
Pietro Mascagni (1863 – 1945)
Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto.
Ei fulgente ha dischiuso l’avel.
Inneggiamo al Signore risorto—
oggi asceso alla gloria del Ciel!
Let us sing hymns, the Lord is not dead.
Shining, he has unsealed the tomb,
Let us sing hymns to the risen Lord—
ascended today to the glory of Heaven!
John Taverner’s
‘Dum transisset
Sabbatum’ is firmly
in the sacred choral
music mould, but
no less beautiful.
The text tells
of the women who
came early on
Easter morning to
anoint Jesus with
spices and found
the tomb empty. At least 470-years-old,
this work is a rare survival – very little
pre-Reformation English cathedral music
is still extant. In fact, the basis of this
work is substantially older – Taverner
took the plainsong melody for the text,
and set it in slow notes, around which he
weaved beautiful polyphony. Although
the music is very ‘correct’ in its accordance
with compositional techniques of
the day, it still displays Taverner’s ability
to respond to text – the slowly-growing
opening in imitation of the rising sun, the
A possible likeness of John
Taverner (c. 1490 – 1545),
from a c.1520 manuscript.
rising and falling ‘aromata’ motif (one can
almost spell the spices!), and the grand,
over-lapping ‘alleluias’ all combine to
make this such a wonderful piece, still
performed nearly five centuries after its
composition.
Cathedral Digest 7