This Lent our parish’s smaller polyphonic choir (Schola Marianum) is learning Lotti’s Crucifixus. Baritone has been assigned to learn the Bass I line, and I have been assigned to learn both the Soprano I and Soprano II lines (in this way our director has flexibility should another soprano be absent/sick and we need to shuffle the ladies’ voices around).
This piece reminds me of the painting featured at the top of this post called Ecce Homo, painted by Antonio Ciseri in 1871.
From the Wikipedia article linked above:
Ecce homo (“behold the man”) are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of John 19:5, when he presents a scourged Jesus Christ, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before His Crucifixion.
Antonio Ciseri’s 1871 Ecce Homo portrayal presents a semi-photographic view of a balcony seen from behind the central figures of a scourged Christ and Pilate (whose face is not visible). The crowd forms a distant mass, almost without individuality, and much of the detailed focus is on the normally secondary figures of Pilate’s aides, guards, secretary and wife.
The raw emotion in the music is haunting and quite beautifully parallels that of the painting. Treat your ears to a listen (or two, or three, or twelve…if you’re like me 🙂 ).