{"id":1070,"date":"2024-03-28T09:14:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T13:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2024-03-28T09:14:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T13:14:46","slug":"how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez<\/a>, guest contributor\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hawar Tawfiq<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pain is universal, and\u00a0classical concert music<\/a>\u00a0is a vast canvas used by people all over the world to communicate and empathize. Born in Sulaymaniya (Kurdish northern region of Iraq), Hawar Tawfiq fled his homeland in 1998, finding asylum in the Netherlands. There his musical talents were discovered by a teacher who worked in the refugee center where he stayed. He is not religious, but was interested in setting the\u00a0Stabat Mater\u00a0<\/em>(2013) because he resonated with its depiction of a mother\u2019s pain.<\/p>\n

Tawfiq remembers accompanying his mother to funeral wakes as a child, and describes the Kurdish mourning tradition in which \u201cthe next of kin of the deceased would sit in the middle of the room and the other guests, such as neighbours and acquaintances, would gather around them. Then, out of the blue, the women present would begin to cry out loud and their spontaneous laments would gradually come to resemble the howling of wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tawfiq found creative ways<\/a>\u00a0to musically depict this lamentation as well as the horrific scourging of Christ using percussion and strings to illustrate the physical violence. Christ\u2019s death is symbolized by a slowly weakened musical pulse which eventually stops, reflecting the halted heartbeat of the crucified one.<\/p>\n

Tawfiq\u2019s music typically explores \u201cexotic, nostalgic, non-Western\u201d sounds, and in his\u00a0Stabat Mater \u2018An Instrumental Dialogue with the Gregorian Version\u2019,\u00a0<\/em>he explores connections between Gregorian chant and Kurdish sounds, striving to communicate \u201cpurity and the suggestion of infinity, moving and reverent.\u201d<\/p>\n

While his setting offers moments of intimate dialogue between the harp, solo violin, and percussion, many moments are appropriately far from comforting, instead exploring Mary\u2019s grief, terror, and loneliness. \u201cNo matter how much one feels for the grieving mother, in the end no one else can completely share the state of mind of a woman whose thoughts are not only taken up by the inhuman suffering inflicted on her son but also by flashes of memories of happier times.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>Click<\/a>\u00a0to hear excerpts from the composer\u2019s website (music begins at 3:08).<\/p>\n

Make me gently to weep with you,<\/em><\/p>\n

and to feel the pain of the crucified,<\/em><\/p>\n

until I will have lived.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Paul Mealor<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Welsh composer Paul Mealor, music began through a spiritual experience at the age of nine when he fell into a river. He recalls, \u201cI was being dragged under and I fought [to get out] but then something happened\u2026 [as I thought I was about to die] I surrendered. And at that moment, the most amazing thing happened: this warmth came all over my body\u2026 and I realized at that moment that death was not such a bad thing, and it was a beautiful thing. I was dragged out of the river and resuscitated and from that moment on\u2026 I knew there was a spiritual life, and I wanted to know more about it. And that led me to the Anglican church.\u201d<\/p>\n

His subsequent encounter with choral music at St. Asaph Cathedral in north Wales completely astounded him, clarifying his calling to composition. Mealor\u2019s music resonates deeply with both choirs and audiences around the world. In works like\u00a0Ubi Caritas<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0She Walks in Beauty<\/em><\/a>\u00a0recorded by Decca Records, Mealor\u00a0invites listeners on a breathtakingly beautiful journey through melodies reminiscent of early church music reharmonized with sonorities more commonly heard in contemporary popular music and film scores.<\/p>\n

Mealor\u2019s\u00a0Stabat Mater<\/em>\u00a0(2009) is perhaps one of his most profoundly personal pieces. He\u00a0writes<\/a>, \u201cWe 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\u2014Life in death, the truest oxymoron.\u201d This work was composed \u201cas an antidote to the pain I felt on my grandmother\u2019s death\u2026 in this second movement, the voice of \u2018the mother\u2019 is heard as the choir sing[s] 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.\u201d You\u2019ll find an excellent example of what Mealor describes here<\/a> (around 10 mins into the work).<\/p>\n

When my body dies,<\/em><\/p>\n

grant that the glory of heaven<\/em><\/p>\n

be given unto my soul. Amen.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just as Job from the Old Testament, we may never understand the \u201cwhy\u201d behind a tragic event. But grounded in the \u201ctruest oxymoron\u201d\u00a0of Christ\u2019s cross\u2014life in death\u2014the empathetic poetry of\u00a0Stabat Mater\u00a0<\/em>and its many-faced multicultural musical interpretations reminds us that we are not alone in our grief. It is this astounding promise rooted in the image of the cross\u2014a symbol of death transformed into a symbol of life\u2014that gives transcendent meaning and hope to all who believe.<\/p>\n

Josh Rodriguez<\/p>\n

Note: This is a lightly edited article that originally appeared on a Forefrontfestival.com blog on July 20, 2020. Reprinted with permission from author and previous publisher.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here. \u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez, guest contributor\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Hawar Tawfiq Pain is universal, and\u00a0classical concert music\u00a0is a vast canvas used by people all over the world to communicate and empathize. Born in Sulaymaniya (Kurdish northern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4402,"featured_media":1076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,89,110,116,119,52,103,58,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-choir","category-classical-music","category-easter","category-good-friday","category-holy-week","category-jesus","category-mary","category-music","category-passion"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today - Part 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here. \u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez, guest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today - Part 2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here. \u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez, guest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Alleluia! Music and the Christian Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-28T13:14:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1349\/2024\/03\/good-friday-2264164_1280-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Delvyn Case\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Delvyn Case\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/\",\"name\":\"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today - Part 2\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-28T13:14:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-28T13:14:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#\/schema\/person\/a8bb70a36edadf7806b46cf8db75d6bc\"},\"description\":\"This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here. \u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez, guest\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today – Part 2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/\",\"name\":\"Alleluia! Music and the Christian Life\",\"description\":\"From hymns to Handel to hip-hop, musician and educator Delvyn Case explores the rich and often unexpected intersections between music and the Christian faith.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#\/schema\/person\/a8bb70a36edadf7806b46cf8db75d6bc\",\"name\":\"Delvyn Case\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d5fdcc0831f60dae57d5c86d2d99dc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d5fdcc0831f60dae57d5c86d2d99dc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Delvyn Case\"},\"description\":\"Delvyn Case is a professional musician, scholar, educator, speaker, and writer who works on the intersections of music, faith, and theology. He is a composer of contemporary classical music whose works have been performed by over 80 orchestras around the world. His most recent research project explores the ways Jesus has appeared in secular pop music.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/author\/dcase\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today - Part 2","description":"This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here. \u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez, guest","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today - Part 2","og_description":"This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here. \u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez, guest","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/","og_site_name":"Alleluia! Music and the Christian Life","article_published_time":"2024-03-28T13:14:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":575,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1349\/2024\/03\/good-friday-2264164_1280-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Delvyn Case","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Delvyn Case","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/","name":"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today - Part 2","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-03-28T13:14:46+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-28T13:14:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#\/schema\/person\/a8bb70a36edadf7806b46cf8db75d6bc"},"description":"This is part 2 of an article exploring musical settings of the Stabat Mater. To read the first part, click here. \u00a0 By Josh Rodriguez, guest","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/2024\/03\/28\/how-a-13th-century-lament-resonates-today-part-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How a 13th-Century Lament Resonates Today – Part 2"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/","name":"Alleluia! Music and the Christian Life","description":"From hymns to Handel to hip-hop, musician and educator Delvyn Case explores the rich and often unexpected intersections between music and the Christian faith.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#\/schema\/person\/a8bb70a36edadf7806b46cf8db75d6bc","name":"Delvyn Case","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d5fdcc0831f60dae57d5c86d2d99dc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d5fdcc0831f60dae57d5c86d2d99dc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Delvyn Case"},"description":"Delvyn Case is a professional musician, scholar, educator, speaker, and writer who works on the intersections of music, faith, and theology. He is a composer of contemporary classical music whose works have been performed by over 80 orchestras around the world. His most recent research project explores the ways Jesus has appeared in secular pop music.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/author\/dcase\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alleluiamusicandthechristianlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}