Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

During Holy Week, the Old Testament lesson is a progressive reading from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. This is a special set of readings which have become associated with daily offices during the final days leading to Easter known as Tenebrae, the Latin word for ‘darkness’.

These evening offices, derived from matins and lauds, involved various liturgical elements, most notably ‘nocturnes’, a liturgical unit that contains psalms, a versicle and response, the Our Father, lessons and a reponsory. Also, candles, which were lit at the beginning of the office, were extinguished gradually throughout the service — earning this office the name Tenebrae. Finally, the strepitus, or loud noise, marked the end of the liturgy, symbolizing either the earthquake after Jesus’ death, or the closing of the tomb.

Each Tenebrae office involved three nocturnes, and each of these involved three readings from the New Testament, Saint Augustine’s writings, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

The Renaissance saw a flurry of musical activity around these Tenebrae services, and the Lamentations readings themselves acquired several settings, but non as remarkable as those by Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585). Tallis composed two five-part settings for the first two readings from the first nocturne for Maundy Thursday’s Tenebrae service. These are his Lamentations of Jeremiah I and II.

These are truly haunting works, and eminently fitting to this moment of transition from Lent to the Pascha of our Lord Jesus Christ. I must admit to being partial to the completely other-worldly recording by the Hillard Ensemble (1987), but for ease of listening and reading, I’ve linked to a video of the King’s College Chapel Choir singing in the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Have a Blessed Holy Week!
Justin