Paul Mealor: A Musical Meditation for Good Friday
Professor Paul Mealor OStJ OSS PhD DMus FRSA
Pro Coro Canada Composer-In-Residence 2015-2017
We live in unusual times. Well, that is certainly an understatement. Here, in my house and studio in the North East of Scotland, feeling miserable for not being able to see the ones I love and not being able to hear Pro Coro sing my music this Eastertide, I found myself turning to the message of Good Friday. As a Christian, Good Friday teaches me that, ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Good Friday is that moment when the Son of God takes on the sins of the world and dies for all of us so that we can be reborn in him. The darkness of Good Friday is part of the light of Easter Sunday – the pain is part of the joy. This dichotomy of light in the darkness, pain in the beauty, life in death, is central to biblical teaching and has always been something of profound beauty to me.
I try, in my music, to realise these two apparent contradictions. In my setting of ‘The Shadow of Thy Cross’ I created an anthem that is at once ‘of this world’ – deep, strong, tonal bass lines that are rooted in this world and, also in opposition, a stratospheric soprano line which is very definitely otherworldly, heavenly. I also created a chord that, when looking at it on the page, resembles the cross – the cross or ‘pain’ chord. This chord is the emotional heart of the entire anthem and within its tense construction, one can hear two worlds of pain and joy, life and death coming together in an almost inevitable satisfaction.
My setting of the Stabat mater – perhaps one of my most profoundly personal pieces – is another Easter meditation. Here, the vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross is one of immediate love, devotion and true pain. We are asked, in this text, to join Mary in her sorrow and by joining her, allow her and Christ to grant us a place in the kingdom to come. Again, loss and love, darkness and light are key images – Life in death, the truest oxymoron. I composed this piece as an antidote to the pain I felt on my grandmother’s death and, in the notes of the music – particularly the second movement – her voice can be heard. Also, in this second movement, the voice of ‘the mother’ is heard as the choir sing chants of acceptance underneath and the orchestra almost acts like rising incense. This is music of pain, but of the beauty and peace which tends to follow pain if our hearts are open.
As the whole world enters into a lockdown and state of real emergency, many of us are turning this way and that for answers. Many feel completely lost. It is in these moments that some of us turn to our faith and the Easter message of hope in despair, of light in the darkness and of love in pain. We also, turn to music and through music and within music we allow ourselves to fully meditate upon the true human condition, our fragility, our inability to comprehend the immensity of creation and our apparent insignificance. Music is able to transport us and show us, for the briefest of moments, a glimpse into a glimpse of the divine – the shadow of the shadow of the true light of Christ. And, even in this most human of creations – music – we see a shadow of the reflection of creation itself. We are able in Bach’s St Matthew Passion to begin to comprehend the Easter story. In the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven we are able to begin to feel the true brother-and-sisterhood of humanity and what we can achieve if we work together. And, in Mahler, Sibelius, Brahms and Bruckner, we see worlds within worlds where we as human beings are able to touch the shadow of the face of God. We are saved because we can feel, because we can see, because we are allowed to believe.
This crisis will deepen and many will fall ill and for many this will be their final darkness. My heart and prayers are with all who are touched by this and for all those medics and care-workers who are risking their lives to help us – they are the true heroes in all of this and, though they will bear the greatest scares, their hearts will also be granted the fullest joys.
Music can carry us through this dark time and remind us of what matters in life. I set this poem by ee cummings as a gift for two very special friends and, to be honest, I find the best moments of my life comes from friendship. I pray for Michael and all my wonderful friends in Pro Coro and definitely carry their hearts with me…
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
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