Catholic Living

This longer composition is a meditation in music on the seven last words or phrases that Christ spoke while he was dying on the cross. It has been the focus of my Lent in many ways, and it is fitting that it was completed today, the feast of St. Joseph.

This setting is also rather different from others because it pulls phrases spoken by Our Lady into the text as a sort of reflection of Christ’s words. In so doing, it seems to recount a story, as it were, from Christ’s conception to his death. I describe more about observations concerning the text I used in this post from last year.

This setting of Septem Verba Christi in Cruce was written for men’s and women’s choirs (TBB and SSA) with optional seventh voice (Soprano) having descants at the end. Overall, the piece is about 12 minutes in length, especially if proper ritardandos and pauses are taken (the computer tends to rush through the transitions).

Septem Verba Christi in Cruce

I am releasing the score under Creative Commons, and the PDF is available at the bottom of this post.

Update 2021-05-29

After receiving some feedback from one who is a better Latinist than I, I have changed the subtitle in the PDF to In Verbis Mariae Spectata or “Contempated in the words of Mary.”

Exposition

There is something of a main theme and two minor themes to this setting, but they are not written in a formal pattern. I let the words select the theme to use, as it were; and some of the music is altogether unique to a single passage.

The Amen at the conclusion of the piece reuses the theme from Consummatum est, which seems fitting. In the third iteration of the Amen, all six (or seven) voices come together. As usual, I have not marked many dynamics, leaving the piece open to interpretation. A notable exception is the final Amen where I feel there must simply be a swelling or outpouring of sound.

Final Thoughts

Going through this exercise of pairing the last words of Christ with those of his holy mother and setting them to music, one finds parallels that seem to intertwine Christ’s earlier days with his sacrifice on the cross. From the cross, Christ says, “I thirst.” Some three years before, Mary had said to him, “They have no wine.” And now at the foot of the cross, those words come back; for in his thirst, he is given a mixture of gall.

While these parings are but my own observation, through them I feel I have come to a more profound sense of the mystery of Jesus and Mary on Calvary and perhaps a glimpse of some unspoken dialog that may have been going through their hearts.

About the Featured Image

The featured image is Wüger’s Kreuzigung. It is in the public domain in the United States, according to Wikimedia.