As we journey through Holy Week, the blog is taking a slightly different format with short reflections on Marcel Dupré’s Le chemin de la croix, a musical version of the Stations of the Cross. Instead of one reflection released on Wednesday, these episodes are to appear through the week from Palm Sunday until Good Friday.

Jésus est chargé de la Croix

If the first station is created from a minor third, the second movement revolves around the perfect fourth. The weight of the cross is represented in both a Lento tempo and it’s low tessitura. The other motif audible through most of the movement is an ascending couplet in Lombardic rhythm (short-long); it may be fanciful but I hear in this the action of lifting, in the sense of equal and opposite reaction from having the cross put upon him. Though the weight is undeniable, the Lord lifts the cross and bears it. Where the music of the first station rages against the circumstance, this second station reflects an acceptance of the cup that His Father has given Him.

Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi: quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum