Resident and guest musicians present Karl Jenkins’ Stabat Mater and Joseph Jongen’s Hymne on Friday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. ppcmusic.org (Click on image to enlarge)
Stabat Mater by Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins is the featured work for the 25th annual Good Friday Devotional Concert presented by Friends of Music at Pasadena Presbyterian Church on April 15 at 7:30 p.m. The church is located at Colorado Blvd. and Madison Ave. in the Playhouse Village neighborhood of downtown Pasadena. There is no charge for admission (freewill donations will be gratefully accepted). Free parking is available around the church, which is also accessible via the Metro gold Line and Metro and Foothill Transit buses.
Dr. Timothy Howard, the church’s Director of Music and Organist, will conduct PPC resident and guest singers and the Friends of Music orchestra in the concert. The evening will conclude with the rarely-heard Hymne for organ and strings by Joseph Jongen featuring PPC’s magnifi-cent Æolian-Skinner pipe organ. Bonnie Snell Schindler is the alto soloist for the Stabat Mater, and Michelle Kardos is organist for the Hymne.
Jenkins’ Stabat Mater has had hundreds of performances worldwide, among them Friends of Music’s 2010 Good Friday concert just two years after the work’s premiere in 2008, with some of those singers joining choirs from around the United States to perform the piece in 2011 at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall. The piece’s popularity is remarkable in an era where much “new music” struggles to get even a second hearing.
The reasons for this popularity, according to Dr. Howard, are straightforward. “When I discovered this piece,” he says, “I fell in love with Jenkins’ style of writing and his musical language. It’s accessible music, very easy for any person to understand and embrace, and Jenkins’ inclusion of non-traditional Western musical and textual elements is masterful. The result is a beautiful, unpretentious work that’s a good fit for our Good Friday concert.”
The Stabat Mater is a 13th century Roman Catholic hymn, written in Latin by Jacopone da Todi. Its name derives from the opening line, “Stabat mater dolorosa,” (“the mother stood weeping”). The text has been set by dozens of composers through the centuries, including Dvořák, Rossini, and Verdi. While Jenkins used all 20 of the original couplets throughout the hour-long piece, he also added texts written in English, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, each of which adds to the work’s sensual and dramatic portrayal of Mary, the mother of Jesus, standing at the foot of the cross while her son is being crucified on what Christians now call Good Friday.
One of the ancient texts, “Are you lost out in darkness?” comes from the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” the world’s oldest written story, recorded on clay tablets in the 7th century BCE and based on material from the third millennium BCE. Another movement, “Now my life is only weeping,” is by Jalal al-Din Rumi, the 13th-century Persian mystic poet. Another textual addition is “Lament,” written especially for this Stabat Mater by English poet Carol Barratt, who also happens to be Jenkins’ wife.
Joseph Jongen wrote Hymne, Op. 78, in 1924 for harmonium and piano, and recast it in 1926 for organ and string orchestra. Hymne is one of Jongen’s more infrequently heard works (rarely live, with fewer than a handful of commercial recordings), though parts might sound familiar because he subsequently incorporated many of the musical ideas into his better known Symphonie Concertante. The organ’s role is as a soloist, yet it is never overwhelming, rather adding both depth and support to the orchestra. A mood of anticipation permeates the music, which is resolved in a peaceful ending.
Friends of Music is an outreach and service of Pasadena Presbyterian Church to Pasadena and surrounding communities. An annual series of major concerts and recitals at the church features the resident ensembles, the professional Friends of Music Orchestra, and visiting artists. Music at Noon presents local and visiting performers in thirty-minute concerts every Wednesday; currently, the Music at Noon concerts are premiered on Friends of Music’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Pasadena Presbyterian Church’s Æolian-Skinner organ, among the largest and most versatile pipe organs in Southern California, is heard often on Friends of Music and Music at Noon concerts, in addition to its duties as the primary instrument for PPC’s worship services. With more than 6,300 pipes, the organist blends the instrument’s many tone colors and dynamic capabilities to fit a wide range of repertoire. For this concert, it serves as both soloist and ensemble member.
For more information about Friends of Music at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, visit https://ppcmusic.org
