As some of you know, my other ‘hat’ is that of a church musician. In my role of organist and choir director at St Peter’s church in Stockbridge I get to do many interesting and fun things, and I am very grateful for the freedom I am granted to be creative.
This Lent I was excited to be able to prepare for Easter by putting on a Good Friday service that drew together local writers, actors, musicians and congregation and brought the text of St John’s gospel to life in an engaging way.
The service opened with a united benefice choir singing the spiritual “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” unaccompanied.
the first witness
As the sound died away a voice spoke up from the body of the church saying “I was there!”. Heather Bradford, a local writer and actor, then continued, putting herself in the shoes of a young servant girl who had been sent by her Roman mistress to buy silk at the market. She happened upon the scene of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey on the first Palm Sunday. She described the delight and noise made by the crowds as they cheered their ‘king’, just days before Jesus was arrested and falsely accused by the Jewish religious elite.
a joyful crowd
The choir then stood to sing “Hosanna to the Son of David!” by Noel Rawsthorne, capturing the joy and excitement of that day.
the voice of authority
Then a hush fell as Pontius Pilate (Written and read by John Baxter) strode up to the pulpit summoning all the authority of Ceasar’s representative, to deliver his account of the show trial and expressing his cynical view of the Pharisees and exasperation with Jesus, who would not speak out to defend himself against them. Baffled and literally washing his hands of the deed he turns the innocent man over to be crucified.
As if to answer Pilate’s confusion over what is going on, the choir sang Mozart’s Ave Verum, using, unusually, an English translation to make clear that Jesus was the ‘sacrificial lamb’ dying to save the sins of the world.
the man who got off
Next, Barrabas (written and read by church warden John Oldfield), a hardened criminal, growled from a shady corner of the building, gruffly and briefly describing his delight in being freed in place of Jesus and his scorn for the innocent victim of the mob’s shallow sympathies.
quartet
A quartet then sang a short, achingly sad chorale by Johann Cruger entitled “Ah, holy Jesu, how hast thou offended?”, which drew us in to a personal view of the saviour as he suffered derision and cruelty on the cross.
the hired hand
“I was there!” Paddy Melville as a Roman soldier and ‘jobsworth’, lip curled, strode around the entrance to the church spitting out a few cursory sentences describing what was all just in a day’s work for him.
solo
In contrast to this Lois Opperman sang the beautiful aria “He was Despised” from Handel’s Messiah, with beautiful care and attention and accompanied with great sensitivity and skill by our guest organist, Mark Zarb-Abani.
congregational singing
At this point the congregation were invited to join in physically with the singing of the Bach passion chorale hymn “O Sacred head, surrounded by piercing thorn”.
turning point
The next dramatic reader changed the atmosphere as, for the first time, we heard from a character who had known and understood Jesus personally. Young writing talent Gabriella Whittley brought to life the character of Mary Magdalene, whose life was transformed by Jesus. She spoke emotionally about the man she loved, watching his suffering through her tears. (Gabriella also took on the soprano part in the quartet at very short notice when her mother was unfortunately ill)
This was followed by the tender choir anthem, “Drop, drop slow tears” by the great Tudor composer Orlando Gibbons.
The congregation were on their feet again after this, singing the much loved hymn “When I survey the wondrous cross”
did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Then Mike Sassi turned heads as he took on the persona of the disciple Peter, the ‘rock’ on which Christ hoped to build his church. I loved this speech as soon as I first read it in the initial planning stage. Mike had really put himself into the mind of the man tortured by guilt at how he had pretended not to know Jesus at the time of his arrest, how his initial reaction had been to fight against Pilate’s soldiers and then how he had felt frightened and scared when admonished by Jesus for using violence, because he didn’t know how he was supposed to respond without fighting, and now his pain at watching Jesus die in agony. In order to make any sense of all the awfulness he fixes on the teachings of his master and his own determination to carry on His work.
The choir then took up the theme of Jesus’ own words, set to music by Thomas Tallis
if ye love me, keep my commandments and I shall pray the father and he shall give you another comforter, that he may bide with you for ever in the sp’rit of truth
I will admit here that this was probably the anthem that as a choir we struggled with the most in rehearsals as we tried to co-ordinate the parts. The beautiful interplay of the voices, that sounds so pure and clear and effortless actually involves careful counting, listening and watching. Fortunately it all came together and sounded delicious in the flattering acoustic of the church.
bringing people together
Everyone joined in to sing “Holy Jesu” by Stainer. This hymn, from the composer’s popular cantata “The Crucifixion”, has a singable tune for the verses underpinned by harmony but a unison refrain. Thus the choir are singing parts for the verses but everyone sings the same tune in the chorus. Also, as our custom is to sing the refrain quietly, I turned to conduct the congregation in this way and they responded magnificently to this. As we don’t usually conduct hymn singing in services it added a degree of rapport I can’t usually get from the organ bench!
behold thy mother
One of the most moving parts of Stainer’s “Crucifixion” for me is the moment when Jesus looks down from the cross and brings together his mother, Mary, and his disciple, John, together as ‘adopted’ mother and son, to support one another when he is gone. It is sung by men’s voices only and the low rumbling of the organ in one section conveys menacing darkness as death approaches the Saviour.
the final witness
Mary, the mother of God, written and read by Georgie Bateman, is the last to speak. Positioned in the centre of the church, she had every eye upon her and brought many to tears. As the person who had known Jesus since before his birth and who had heard the prophecies and seen his miracles she was at the point where the ‘sword’ had ‘pierced her heart’ as the angel had told her it would long before this day.
Inevitably her mind races back to key moments in his birth, childhood and ministry. She had seen the impossible come true and….she cannot believe that this is the end. What does it all mean? What will happen now?
o saviour of the world
This anthem, the words of which derive from the Book of Common Prayer, with music by John Goss (1800-1880) starts gently and seeks to explain the significance of Christ’s death as the ultimate sacrifice of the willing and innocent human and Son of God, to pay for the sins of mankind. In tone it is warm and reverential. In rehearsal I marvelled at the cleverness of the harmony as it almost seems to sing itself, the musical structure creating a build up of emotion that seems to happen effortlessly and intuitively.
There is a green hill
Of course there was the green hill…how could I not have included this wonderful Passiontide classic for the congregation to sing to conclude the drama?
not quite the end!
Just when they thought it was all over.
Three voices gently started up from the alto section, singing “Were you there when he rose to eternal life?”
This brought us back to the spiritual sung at the beginning. The final verse, not previously sung, was gently passed between different voices in the choir until it reaches a crux of all singing together and then two beautiful soprano voices quietly finished the last line. The organ picked up the melody and Mark Zarb-Adani skilfully improvised it to a close. Just a small, gentle murmuring to raise a frisson of excitement in anticipation of Easter Day.
silence
There is something beautiful, in my mind, about the tradition of leaving a Good Friday meditation in silence. People left holding on to the moment and their intense feelings until they were back out in the open air and the busy life of Stockbridge enfolded them again.
This part had been planned and was signposted clearly by Rev John Rennie when he welcomed everyone and introduced the event and was also printed in the order of service.
Personally I was also very relieved that it ended like this. It had been a lot of work over the course of a few months and I was emotionally spent. I was incredibly grateful to all who had helped me along the way, especially Lois Opperman, who had worked so hard on the promotion, creating booklets, training the alto section, learning her own solo and generally being a fantastic personal support to me, but now I just wanted to go and hide in a quiet cave and not talk to anyone or have any responsibility!
And back to being normal
On the third day….Martin and I both finished our last Easter services and, leaving our busy ‘normal’ lives, packed only bare essentials in two rucksacks and set off to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela…just as ‘ourselves’, not as ‘directors of music’ or anything else!
I actually found it quite difficult listening to people talking about the “Witnesses” event afterwards. Even though the response was positive.
In a sense I had felt I had done it because I had felt it was the ‘right’ thing to do this year, as if it was an idea I had been somehow ‘given’ as a result of prayer, rather than ‘wanting’ to do it. It had been a bit of a trial at times and certainly felt like a responsibility. Rather perversely, though, I also felt slightly miffed when I was told several times that people had been amazed to hear I had put the whole programme together by myself, as if they had assumed I couldn’t possibly do that. I know it was meant kindly, but at the same time I was surprised. I have been an organist and choir singer and trainer for 20 years now as well as being involved in amateur dramatics so it wasn’t that much of a stretch. It made me wonder how I am perceived. I guess people make assumptions based on their own experience and possibly my age, gender and manner had created a particular impression in their minds. Perhaps I should brandish a champagne flute and practice saying “Dahhling?” in order to appear more professional?
The WItness statements
Several people have asked if I would make the Witness readings available and so after asking the various writers if this is ok I have decided to create another blog here where they can be read. Watch this space!