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The Way of the Cross

The Way of the Cross refers to the journey of the final hours of Jesus Christ’s life, as he walks to the crucifixion. This spiritual ‘walk’ is measured in ‘stations’ – moments of deep significance to Christians. The Stations of the Cross number fourteen and, in today’s church are intended to help the faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer.

My composition for String Trio and String Orchestra is a meditation upon the ‘Stations of the Cross’ and is constructed as a long processional. It begins with a powerful explosion of sound and the presentation of an eastern mode as the solo cello sings a lament. The piece then develops into an intense aria, punctuated at one point by the return of the cello’s lament as Jesus falls. The work is a kind of ‘song without words’ and rises from the lowest notes of the cello to the very highest harmonics of the violin in an attempt to paint an image of the final, powerful hours of Christ’s life. The ancient Christian plainchant, ‘Te lucis ante terminum’ (before the ending of the day) is used as a structural backbone to the harmony, and colours the aria’s line.

Again, my fascination in presenting two opposite musical ideas together (as in ‘Spectred light’) is explored here – the slow-moving harmony and pulsation of the string orchestra’s detached, repeated minims are set against the legato lines of the solo trio. For me, this represents a ‘coming together’ of the physical and spiritual worlds. This is further enhanced in section D, when the soloists’ tones give way to the human voice as the players are asked to sing.