Musical Moments #8

“Music is the harmonious vice of creation; an echo of the invisible world.”
–Giuseppe Mazzini

Today's Piece: The Seven Last Words of Christ (Sixth and Seventh Words)
Theodore Dubois (1837-1924)

The first paragraph is similar to an earlier “Musical Moments.”

Charles Dubois never quite received recognition as one of the great French composers, primarily because he was a traditional Romanticist in an emerging impressionistic France.  As a student, he had attended the Paris Conservatory, and later in life as a prominent organist, he succeeded the likes of Cesar Franck and Camille Saint-Saens in church positions. He eventually became the director of his alma mater, and it was there that his rigid pedagogical, anti-modernist beliefs, his hostility to his student Maurice Ravel, and his forbidding students from attending concerts of Claude Debussy’s music contributed to Dubois’s early retirement and his being replaced by Gabriel Faure’, a true impressionist.

Dubois had hoped for a career writing opera, but his attempts never garnered the attention he received for his best-known oratorio, Les Sept paroles du Christ (The Seven Last Words of Christ). He also composed a large quantity of religious music, ballets, oratorios, symphonies, and organ works that have all but disappeared over the last century.

Today’s musical selections are the sixth and seventh words of The Seven Last Words of Christ. Our recording of a live performance from last April features audience favorite soloists Mary Wilson, soprano and Robert Breault, tenor.

The passages for the sixth word and seventh word are: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my soul” and “It is finished,” followed by a truly sublime chorale using the “Adoramus te” text, often featured in Good Friday liturgy. Its translation is below:  

We adore Thee, O Christ,
and we bless Thee,
who by Thy Holy Cross
hast redeemed the world.
Thou, who has suffered death for us,
O Lord, O Lord, have mercy on us.

For an unknown reason, Dubois reversed the traditional order of The Seven Last Words of Christ’s text. Perhaps he did so to explore through his orchestral writing the Biblical account of the angst, fear, and confusion that resulted when Christ died, or as some refer to this as crucifixion darkness. 

Whether these selections speak to your faith or your musical soul, please enjoy a rarely heard masterpiece.

–John V. Sinclair, Artistic Director and Conductor

Listen to the Sixth Word on YouTube
Listen to the Sixth Word on Spotify

Listen to the Seventh Word on YouTube
Listen to the Seventh Word on Spotify