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 détaché de la Croix, et remis à sa Mère

Another diptych, this time in which the title gives the two parts separate valence. The first half, in which constant quavers in triple time tend downwards accompanying flutes moving in ascending chords in each phrase although also tending downwards over the section, is the lowering of the Body from the Cross. The second half directly references the music of movement IV (Jésus rencontre sa mère) to illustrate the two reunited in the moving image of the Pietà. The love of the disciples for the Christ, as well as the tender pain of the Mother, are reflected in the care for His Holy Body even at this point in which the sinfulness of the world is laid most bare.

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