In Western Christianity, Tenebrae occurs in the final days of the Holy Week, and commemorates the sufferings and death of Christ. It involves the gradual extinguishing of candles, leading to a void of darkness.
Metaphorical darkness, light, and space formed the inspiration for Tenebrae, a 2002 chamber work by Argentine composer, Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960). (The piece was originally scored for soprano, clarinet, and string quartet, and later adapted for strings alone). In his program note, Golijov explains the genesis of the piece:
I wrote Tenebrae as a consequence of witnessing two contrasting realities in a short period of time in September 2000. I was in Israel at the start of the new wave of violence that is still continuing today, and a week later I took my son to the new planetarium in New York, where we could see the Earth as a beautiful blue dot in space. I wanted to write a piece that could be listened to from different perspectives. That is, if one chooses to listen to it “from afar”, the music would probably offer a “beautiful” surface but, from a metaphorically closer distance, one could hear that, beneath that surface, the music is full of pain.
Sounds of the past emerge in the form of “haunting melismas” from François Couperin’s 1714 choral set, Leçon de Tenebrae. (A melisma is a group of notes sung to one syllable of text). The Couperin quotes become “sources for loops,” interspersed with new interludes. Golijov imagined the music “as an orbiting spaceship that never touches the ground.”
Couperin: Trois Leçons de Ténèbres
Now that we have heard Golijov’s Tenebrae, let’s listen to the meditative French Baroque music on which it is based. The “Readings for one and two voices” were first performed at the Abbey of Longchamp, a convent founded in 1255 and destroyed during the French Revolution. The text depicts the anguish of Jeremiah.
Recordings
- Golijov: Tenebrae, Brodsky Quartet orchidclassics.com
- Couperin: Troisième Leçon de Ténèbres à 2 voix, Pierre Hantaï, Montserrat Figueras, Maria Cristina Kehr, Jordi Savall, Rolf Lislevand Amazon
Featured Image: photograph by Stephanie Berger
These poignant recordings and the story behind them are truly captivating. Both recordings are haunting and very beautiful. As I listened, two books I’m currently reading came directly to mind. The first association happened as I read the line: “the earth as a beautiful blue dot in space.” It brought to mind a scene from “Orbital,” an extraordinary novel by Samantha Harvey, which is about astronauts in space making a total of sixteen orbits around the earth in a single day. How the astronauts described the experience of seeing the colorful beauty of the earth from their spaceship. The second remarkable book is a memoir by Gary Shteyngart called “Little Failure,” about growing up in the USSR and emigrating to the US. I immediately thought of the author as I read the line in your narrative: “one could hear that, beneath the surface the music is full of pain.” Thank you for posting this unforgettable music. BTW, I highly recommend these two books!