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 tombe pour la troisième fois

Although present to the ear of an analyst, the connections between this third fall and the previous two are less evident in the surface of the music than the connections between the first two in themselves. The chaos and pressure of the situation are coming to a head. The crowd is jostling in, the heat of the day is perhaps increasing, the soldiers want to get the hard work of their job done; all this is quite overwhelming. Unlike the previous falls, there is a rising motif that repeats within the music; the pressure here keeps things going and even lifts the energy – until the fall. The surface commonality of the three fall movements however, is that having raised the tension the fall itself comes at the end as something of an interruption, or even anti-climax. All three end quietly, and with a change of texture. Christ is down – and we are waiting for Him to be lifted up…

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