Livret - Les Voix Baroques

he number 7 [...] consists of a ternary
Tof creative principle together with a
quaternary of matter encompassing the
4 elements and the corresponding sensual
powers. Such a division of the 7 into these
two constituent principles, the spiritual 3
and the material 4, was used time and again
in medieval hermeneutics and is also at the
basis of the division of the 7 liberal arts into
the trivium and the quadrivium. [...]
Periodicity is always connected with 7, be it
in music, where the 7 notes of the scale
return to the first one in the octave. [...]
Seven appears as the number of planets
[and] these 7 planets are in turn part of the
7 heavenly spheres. [...] Medieval exegetes
discovered many important features in the
number 7. As the number of perfection, it is
the day of God’s rest but also points to the
passing of time, since eternity begins only
with Christ’s resurrection on the eight day.
The 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit are
counterbalanced by the 7 deadly sins.
The 7 sacraments were divided according
to the classical practice [to] perpetuate the
image of the 4 cardinal virtues and
3 theological ones, related to body and
soul respectively.
ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL,
THE MYSTERY OF NUMBERS, 1993.
On the manuscript the composer has indicated
that Membra Jesu Nostri should be sung “with the
most humble devotion and from the bottom of the
heart.” We do not know whether he intended the
seven cantatas for a single religious rite, probably
that of Good Friday, or if each cantata was to be
used separately on each of the holy days starting
with Palm Sunday. In transcribing the cantatas
from tablature to ordinary notation, Düben noted
that the sixth cantata was suitable for Passion
Sunday, and the first, “for Easter or any other
time.” But the cycle of linked keys and the great
final Amen suggest a performance similar to that
given, a century later, to Haydn’s The Seven Last
Words of Christ on the Cross: its movements
were performed on Good Friday in alternation
with the spoken sections of the liturgy used in the
Cathedral of Cadiz.
Like many religious compositions of the period,
Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri is often
linked to the Pietist movement, launched by the
publication in 1675 of Pia Desideria by Philipp
Jakob Spener. The goal of this important spiritual
movement, and what led to its break with orthodox
Lutheranism, was to intensify individual piety
so as to recover the purity of primitive
Christianity. According to François Sabatier, the
Pietists defended “a better theological culture and
a more fervent interior life for the faithful, whose faith should not just foster personal perfection,
but also collective action helping the poor and the degenerate.” The Pietists wanted to
be outside of formal institutions, to indulge in “religious emotions that favored compassion
and guilt and that were fuelled by the most violent evocations of the Passion,” and they did not
shrink from “a woefulness based on tears, bloodshed, grief, and lamentations.”
One might expect that, for them, music was the ideal vehicle for exciting emotions in the
hearts and souls of believers. The Pietists, however, were suspicious of music and they did not
use art music in the few churches they controlled. True devotion, in their view, should bypass
the senses, whereas orthodox Lutheranism could not conceive of liturgy without music. The
relations between musicians and the Pietist movement were quite ambiguous — one thinks
of Bach, caught in Mülhausen between the two pastors, Frohne and Eilmar. But, beyond this
paradox, we must agree with Carl de Nys that Pietism is “the source of [innumerable] pages
of music that are at the same time both lyrical, intense, nostalgic, and intimate”.
The exceptional value of Buxtehude’s organ work has long been well known; it is rated in
importance second only to that of Bach. But, in the opinion of Carl de Nys, it is “actually less
original relative to what was being produced then than Buxtehude’s vocal work.” Buxtehude’s
vocal work is indeed much less well known than his organ work. Even though we can quibble
with de Nys’ opinion, it is clear that the cycle Membra Jesu Nostri remains at the summit
of Lutheran sacred music.
© FRANÇOIS FILIATRAULT, 2007.
TRANSLATED BY SEAN MCCUTCHEON
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