The Vermeer String Quartet Performs Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ Thursday, April 10
	Back to the main story		Franz Joseph Haydn   THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF CHRIST Vermeer String Quartet Shmuel Ashkenasi, violin Mathias Tacke, violin Richard Young, viola Marc Johnson, cello Thursday, April 10, 2003 Finney Chapel Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio 8 p.m. lecture by Richard Young & Marc Johnson: 7 p.m. PROGRAM NOTES In 1785 the cathedral at Cadiz in southern Spain commissioned Haydn to write a passion, intended for annual presentation during Holy Week.  It would consist of seven slow sonatas, each based on one of Jesus’ seven last utterances.  Two additional movements frame these sonatas: a solemn Introduction and a fiery Finale depicting the earthquake which followed Jesus’ death. Composed in 1786, The Seven Last Words of Christ was first presented on Good Friday in 1787.  The setting was the austere underground grotto of Santa Cueva which was completely dark, but for the glow from the wick of a single lamp, hung from above.  Following the Introduction, the bishop recited the first of the Seven Last Words, which served as the basis for a short spoken meditation.  The first of Haydn’s sonatas was then played.  Each of the remaining sections followed the same pattern: the bishop would introduce one of Jesus’ final utterances, and the music that it inspired would immediately follow. This masterpiece was conceived in a spirit of profound religious conviction.  Despite its length and emotional urgency, it is a model of simplicity and sophistication.  Above all, Haydn wanted it to be accessible to everybody, regardless of one’s musical or religious background.  He wrote: “Each sonata, or movement, is expressed by purely instrumental music in such a way that even the most uninitiated listener will be moved to the very depths of his soul.” The work was originally scored for full orchestra.  While these parts were being printed in 1787, Haydn crafted an alternate version for string quartet.  Later that year, under Haydn’s supervision, the publisher made a piano reduction of the orchestra score.  Various arrangements for choir were also done, including one by the composer. In the hands of a mere four string players, this music cannot achieve the volume and tonal diversity of a symphony orchestra or choir.  Nevertheless in the four-voice setting, with only one instrument on a part, it is imbued with a heightened intimacy which larger ensembles cannot possibly match.  This music’s emotional and psychological impact is best conveyed through the most subtle variations of timbre, voicing, rhythm, and tempo – techniques ideally suited to a string quartet.  Therefore this simplest of all versions may indeed be the most affecting.  No less compelling than its more grandiose cousins, it is inherently more personal. Haydn considered this to be one of his greatest works.  But to hear the music by itself, however powerfully it stands alone, is to experience it in only part of its glory.  Reunited with the words that served as its inspiration, it takes on a spiritual dimension rarely found in even the most profound compositions.  Though its message is decidedly Christian, it transcends the focus of any particular faith.  This is music which cuts across religious and social lines and speaks sincerely, eloquently, and passionately to everyone, via the common denominator that exists in the soul of all humanity. Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF CHRIST Op. 51 (Hob. III:50-56) Introduction Maestoso ed Adagio The Seven Last Words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  (Luke 23:34)  Largo “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.”  (Luke 23:43) Grave e cantabile “Woman, behold thy son.  Behold thy mother.”  (John 19:26-27) Grave “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  (Matthew 27:45-46)  Largo “I thirst.”  (John 19:28-29) Adagio                       “It is finished.”  (John 19:30) Lento “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”  (Luke 23:46) Largo The Earthquake  (Matthew 27:51-54) Presto e con tutta la forza VERMEER STRING QUARTET With performances in practically every major city in North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Australia, the Vermeer Quartet has achieved an international stature as one of the world’s finest ensembles.  Formed in 1969 at Marlboro, they have been resident artists at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb since 1970.  They are also Fellows at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, where they’ve given annual master classes since 1978.  They make their permanent home in Chicago where they have been the resident quartet for Performing Arts Chicago since 1984.  Their recordings include the complete string quartets of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, plus various other works by Schubert, Brahms, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Schnittke, Verdi, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Dvorak.  Their CDs of the complete Bartok quartets will be released later this year.   The Vermeer Quartet’s Grammy-nominated CD of The Seven Last Words of Christ [Alden Productions: CD 23042] features spoken introductions by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Evangelist Billy Graham, Father Raymond Brown, Dr. Martin Marty, Dr. Dallin Oaks, Rev. Kelly Clem, Pastor T.L. Barrett, Father Virgil Elizondo, and Jason Robards.  Rev. Theodore Hesburgh (President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame) writes, “It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate group of theologians and preachers for the Vermeer’s Seven Last Words of Christ recording.  The makeup of this group suggests not only a certain moral authority, but a spirit of inclusiveness.  At the same time, in a most personal and effective manner, it reflects our religious and social diversity.”  The American Record Guide calls this CD “an experience unlike any other.”  The Vermeer has played The Seven Last Words of Christ all over the world.  Australia’s The Age writes, “The performance was magnificent: majestic in style, technically without flaw, and utterly persuasive.”  According to Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung, “This is music-making which reveals much of the inner-self: music-making of untamed necessity that goes far beyond that which is merely pleasing to the ear.  Poland’s Ruch Muzyczny sums up, “The Vermeer’s interpretation seems so nearly ideal that one can more easily appreciate music as universal harmony.”  Following their very first radio broadcast of this work in 1988, more than a hundred different speakers have collaborated with the Vermeer, including some of the most renowned religious figures of our time.  Their performances have by now reached an estimated 80 million listeners worldwide, thus demonstrating an enduring appeal that extends far beyond the traditional classical music audience.  (Urs: add individual bios & management info from the bio document) THE SPEAKERS Martin E. Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago where he taught for 35 years and where the Martin Marty Center has since been founded to promote “public religion” endeavors.  He was the founding President of the Park Ridge Center for Health, Faith, and Ethics and is now the George B. Caldwell Senior Scholar in Residence there.  Dr. Marty has been awarded the National Humanities Medal, the National Book award, the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Order of Lincoln Medallion (Illinois’ top honor), and 70 honorary doctorates.  He has been President of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History, the American Catholic Historical Association, and Interim President and Senior Regent of St. Olaf College.  An ordained Lutheran minister, he has written more than 50 books, including The One and the Many: America’s Search for the Common Good, the 3-volume Modern American Religion, and 4 co-authored with photographer Micah Marty.  Grover Zinn is Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the William H. Danforth Professor of Religion at Oberlin College.  He received his B.A. in Physics from Rice University, the B.D. from the Divinity School of Duke University, and the Ph.D. from Duke University.  He is an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church.  Professor Zinn has written on medieval Christian mysticism, iconography, and theology, and is the co-editor of Medieval France: An Encyclopedia (Garland, 1995).  His translation of the writings of Richard of St.-Victor, a 12th century French mystic, appears in the well-known series Classics of Western Spirituality.  The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he has twice received H. H. Powers grants from Oberlin to photograph European cathedrals, monasteries and pilgrimage sites.  He has served on the Council of the Medieval Academy of America, chairing a “Guidelines” committee to review the structure of the Academy, and has been elected twice to the Council of the American Society of Church History.    The Vermeer Quartet’s Grammy-nominated CD of The Seven Last Words of Christ – with spoken introductions by Dr. Martin Marty, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Father Raymond Brown, Dr. Dallin Oaks, Jason Robards, and others – may be purchased in the foyer.  POSTLUDE Now as we go out into the night, we reflect on Jesus’ seven cries, related by the Gospel-writers and reflected by Franz Joseph Haydn’s music.  Inevitably, whether in faith or nonfaith, we see our lives in the light of the remembered experience of those who first heard them. Some must have walked away in freedom, for Jesus had cried out loud enough that they could hear that they were forgiven.  Release, say the forgiven, still occurs. Perhaps relatives of one dead thief walked home taking comfort from recall of a cry of promise to him.  Promises remain compelling. Jesus’ cry had been loud enough for a woman to know she had gained a new son, and for a man to know that he was related to a new mother.  Many who hear the story gain new responsibilities. Jesus’ cry of godforsakenness was loud enough, is loud enough, for those who follow him to be assured that no one again need feel, or be, abandoned by God. Maybe the soldier who now had to rinse out a cup and squeeze out a sponge kept thinking about other things than the cry “I thirst”.  But he had done his duty that day and he had duties now at night.  Life goes on.  Everyone has duties to attend to. Anyone who later pondered, could remember the cry announcing that God’s work had been completed.  This promised a liberating charter for new ways of life.  The possibility of newness still beckons. And those of us who have spirits to commend in hope, have new reasons for doing so.  The spirit’s search remains urgent. Ages have passed, and Jesus’ seven last words resound not as mere words but as “cries”; announcements, as it were; declarations of his perfect love that still reshapes an imperfect world and many lives within it.  Reinforced by Haydn’s music, or reinforcing the music, the remembered cry and the silence that surrounds this love still haunt many and lure more. Martin Marty
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