Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today, I must confess to being in the grip of preparations for an upcoming concert of Arvo Pärt works. That being the case, I want to simply share Pärt’s setting of the Salve Regina with you, and say one or two things about it.

First, like any good literary treatment, Pärt turns the prayer into a chiasm, which is to say, the prayer can be laid out in a parallel structure moving in a spiral towards its center: ‘Come, then, our Advocate’. Pärt takes the remainder of this central segment, marked with as two bold lines, and turns it into a sort of primeval wail. He encapsulates marvelously the painful corporate memory of Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the fact of our fallen existence in a world filled with the shadows of our sinfulness.

Beyond this central outpouring, the prayer ends in an open-ended, upward, and hopeful fashion, gesturing towards a future where the problems of existence may be answered.

I hope this music speaks to you.

Yours in Christ,
Justin

Mother of mercy, hail, O gentle Queen!
   Our life, our sweetness, and our hope, all hail!
      Children of Eve,
         To thee we cry from our sad banishment;
            To thee we send our sighs,
               Weeping and mourning in this tearful vale.
                  Come, then, our Advocate;
               Oh, turn on us those pitying eyes of thine:
            And our long exile past,
         Shew us at last
      Jesus, of thy pure womb the fruit divine.
   O Virgin Mary, mother blest!
O sweetest, gentlest, holiest!

Translation by Edward Caswall

(Move the video to 45:40 to see the performance of the Salve Regina.)