Holy Week is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, which includes Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Lutheran traditions, Holy Week occurs the week after Lazarus Saturday and starts on the evening of Palm Sunday. In the denominations of the Western Christianity, which includes the Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Moravianism, Anglicanism, Methodism and Reformed Christianity, it begins with Palm Sunday and concludes on Easter Sunday. For all Christian traditions it is a moveable observance. In Eastern Rite Churches, Holy Week starts after 40 days of Lent and two transitional days, namely Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday. In the Western Christian Churches, Holy Week falls on the last week of Lent or Sixth Lent Week.
Tomás Luis de Victoria was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlande de Lassus as among the principal composers of the late Renaissance, and was "admired above all for the intensity of some of his motets and of his Offices for the Dead and for Holy Week". Unlike his colleagues, however, his surviving oeuvre is almost exclusively sacred and polyphonic vocal music, set to Latin texts. As a Catholic priest, as well as an accomplished organist and singer, his career spanned both Spain and Italy. However, he preferred the life of a composer to that of a performer.
Collegium Vocale Gent is a Belgian musical ensemble of vocalists and supporting instrumentalists, founded by Philippe Herreweghe. The group is dedicated to historically informed performance.
Pomponio Nenna was a Neapolitan Italian composer of the Renaissance. He is mainly remembered for his madrigals, which were influenced by Gesualdo, and for his polychoral sacred motets, posthumously published as Sacrae Hebdomadae Responsoria in 1622.
Tenebrae is a religious service of Western Christianity held during the three days preceding Easter Day, and characterized by gradual extinguishing of candles, and by a "strepitus" or "loud noise" taking place in total darkness near the end of the service.
A responsory or respond is a type of chant in western Christian liturgies.
The year 1611 in music involved some significant events.
O vos omnes is a responsory, originally sung as part of Roman Catholic liturgies for Holy Week, and now often sung as a motet. The text is adapted from the Latin Vulgate translation of Lamentations 1:12. It was often set, especially in the sixteenth century, as part of the Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday. Some of the most famous settings of the text are by:
Leçons de ténèbres is a genre of French Baroque music which developed from the polyphonic lamentations settings for the tenebrae service of Renaissance composers such as Sermisy, Gesualdo, Tallis, and Tomás Luis de Victoria into virtuoso solo chamber music.
The Tenebrae Responsories by Tomás Luis de Victoria are a set of eighteen motets for four voices a cappella. The late Renaissance Spanish composer set the Responsories for Holy Week known as Tenebrae responsories. They are liturgical texts prescribed for use in the Catholic observances during the Triduum of the Holy Week, in the Matins of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The compositions were published in Rome in 1585.
Christus factus est is taken from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians. It is a gradual in the Catholic liturgy of the mass. In the classical Roman rite, it was sung as the gradual at mass on Maundy Thursday, however since the promulgation of the new rite of mass by Pope Paul VI in 1969 it has been employed instead as the gradual on Palm Sunday. Up until 1970 it was also sung daily at the conclusion of Tenebrae on the last days of Holy Week. It appeared first at Tenebrae of Maundy Thursday, but was not recited in full, ending with ...'usque ad mortem'. The following day at Tenebrae of Good Friday it was sung from the beginning until ...'mortem autem crucis' and at Tenebrae of Holy Saturday it was sung in full. Up until the reform of the Holy Week liturgy promulgated by Pius XII in 1955 these Tenebrae services were sung in the late afternoon and evening of the previous day, and were well attended by the laity. Thus Tenebrae of Maundy Thursday was sung during the evening of Spy Wednesday; Tenebrae of Good Friday in the evening Maundy Thursday etc. For this reason Christus factus est was set by many composers of church music. From 1956–1969, and in the liturgical books of 1962 which are currently in use as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, these services have been 'restored' to the early morning of the last three days of Holy Week, with the effect that complex musical settings of this text are rarely heard in their authentic liturgical context.
Tristis est anima mea is the Latin phrase with which Matthew 26:38 starts. It is Tristis est anima mea (responsory), the second responsory of the Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday which was often set to music. It may also refer to:
Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence, FP 97, are four sacred motets composed by Francis Poulenc in 1938–39. He wrote them on Latin texts for penitence, scored for four unaccompanied voices.
Tristis est anima mea is the second responsory of the Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday. The Latin text refers to Christ's Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, a part of his Passion.
Tenebrae responsories are the responsories sung following the lessons of Tenebrae, the Matins services of the last three days of Holy Week: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Polyphonic settings to replace plainchant have been published under a various titles, including Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta.
The righteous perishes are the words with which the 57th chapter of the Book of Isaiah starts. In Christianity, Isaiah 57:1–2 is associated with the death of Christ, leading to liturgical use of the text at Tenebrae: the 24th responsory for Holy Week, "Ecce quomodo moritur justus", is based on this text. More generally, the text is associated with the death of loved ones and is used at burials. As such, and in other versions and translations, the Bible excerpt has been set to music.
The Gesualdo Six are a British vocal consort, directed by Owain Park. The group was founded in Cambridge in 2014 for a performance of the Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday by Carlo Gesualdo, in the chapel of Trinity College. The Gesualdo Six perform a wide range of music from the middle ages to the present day.
Sept répons des ténèbres, FP 181, is a piece of sacred music composed by Francis Poulenc in 1961. He wrote the work in seven movements on Latin texts from the Responsories for the Holy Week and scored it for soprano, choir, and orchestra. Written on a commission from the New York Philharmonic, it was first performed in New York's Lincoln Center in April 1963 after the composer's death.
