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Chaconne: Passion Chorale

Good Friday (which this year is the last Friday in March) at the end of Holy Week is the time when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a humbling occasion marked by mournful solemnity and affords a time for reflection and veneration of the ultimate expression of God's love in this act of supreme sacrifice. 'O Sacred Head, Now Wounded' is a Passion hymn based on a Latin text written during the Middle Ages. Paul Gerhardt (1607 - 1676) wrote a German version which is known by its incipit: 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden'. The hymn is based on a long medieval Latin poem, 'Salve mundi salutare', with stanzas addressing the various parts of Christ's body hanging on the Cross. The last part of the poem, from which the hymn is taken, is addressed to Christ's head, and begins: ‘Salve caput cruentatum’. The poem is often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (1091 - 1153), but is more probably the writing of the medieval poet, Arnulf of Leuven, who died in 1250. Surprisingly, the hymn tune first began life as a secular love song composed by Hans Leo Hassler (1564 - 1612). Hassler came from a family of famous musicians and he served as organist and composer in Augsburg, then director of town music and organist in Nuremberg, and finally as court musician in Dresden. The original melody first appeared in print in 1601, composed for the song: ‘Mein G’mut ist mir verwirret’ and this 'pop tune' of its day was then appropriated and simplified for Gerhardt’s hymn in 1656 by Johann Crüger. Last year I challenged myself to write my own arrangement of this melody and I chose a ‘chaconne’ structure with a circle of fifths in a seven bar pedal ground bass (A, D, G, C, F, B and E). The repeating bass symbolises the cycle of remembrance as Christians ponder each year the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, with the promise of eternal life for all believers when the circle finally ends with The Second Coming. I first recorded this composition last year, along with two other settings of the ‘Passion Chorale’, by way of contrast. Usually when I have finished a work, I move on and rarely revisit the score . . . but this week I was pleased to reacquaint myself with my composition, which was dedicated to Dr Vidas Pinkevicius (you can hear his performance on the wonderful St John’s Organ at Vilnius University in Lithuania by following this link:    • Chaconne: Passion Chorale | Graham Twist |...  ). For this new recording, I chose the Hauptwerk sample set of the Casavant Organ, opus 3742 (1995), at the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, Washington, produced by Sonus Paradisi (with a little added Hauptwerk reverberation). If you would like a copy (gratis) of the score, just message me on Facebook or send an email to: [email protected] and it will be my pleasure to share my ‘Chaconne’ with you.