“The Stations of the Cross” (Le Chemin de la Croix) by Marcel Dupré
“Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace.” (The Liturgy of the Palms, BCP) On Friday evening, February 22, we will have an opportunity to hear one of the most significant and deeply spiritual musical works of the twentieth century in a performance that closely mirrors the circumstances under which this great work of art had its genesis. Dr. Robert Delcamp, Professor of Music and University Organist at the University of the South (Sewanee) will play this magnum opus of Marcel Dupré on the great Kleuker organ in our church. Each of the fourteen movements (the “stations”) will be preceded by a dramatic reading of the poetry of Paul Claudel by Dr. David Landon, Professor of Theater Arts and Speech at the University of the South. Prof. Landon (with a doctorate in French) has prepared a fresh and compelling English translation of the Claudel texts bringing out a number of subtleties for the spoken word missing in the standard translation. The juxtaposition of the dramatic spoken work and this extraordinary and powerful music will be an unforgettable moment in our collective walking “the way of the cross” this Lent. I would like to tell you a little more about this singular piece of music. Many attentive parishioners at the Chapel of the Cross will recognize the name of Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) as a composer whose organ works are often heard in our services. It was probably no exaggeration when Dupré’s most famous pupil, Olivier Messiaen, called his maitre “the greatest organ virtuoso who ever lived.” With a prodigious technique, photographic memory, mastery of musical analysis and compositional skills, pedagogical talents, rich artistic imagination, and deep religious conviction Dupré dominated the “organ world” of the last century, and was for much of the century an international celebrity in the wider cultural ambiance of both Europe and America. In addition to his work as concert artist, organist at the great Parisian Church of St. Sulpice, professor at the Paris Conservatoire, and composer, Dupré excelled in the art of improvisation traditionally cultivated by French organists. And that is how this major work came to be. A professor at the conservatory in Brussels approached Dupré about a recital of poetry and organ improvisation. Her proposal for the poetry was a lengthy, intensely personal and theatrical poem by the celebrated French poet Paul Claudel (1868-1955). Her plan was to read separately each of the fourteen stanzas of Le Chemin de la Croix with Dupré improvising a musical evocation of and commentary upon the scene just described. They did a dry run of this at Dupré’s church in Paris jus for their respective spouses and decided that it would work. The actual concert took place in Brussels in February of 1932. The effort was so successful that Dupré wrote down his improvisation (no doubt improving upon his memory of it) and a year later the work was performed in Paris. It appears that Dupré was perhaps more moved by the traditional personae and actions embodied in the artistic renderings of the stations that he had seen in churches throughout his life and by Catholic theology than by Claudel’s poetry. Nevertheless, the music and poetry together are a powerful, disturbing, and deeply devotional evocation of the fourteen events through which our Lord’s redemptive passion unfolds. The “improvisations” are not based on musical “themes” from the chant or other kinds of musical tunes as we would usually expect. Dupré himself constructed the themes in advance, based on musicological research and his own imagination. Some are based on what he calls “traditional symbolism,” such as patterns of intervals between notes which symbolize the “cross” in works of Bach, Handel, and Heinrich Schütz, or a pattern of melody symbolizing “redemption” in Messiah, Bach’s St. John Passion, and Wagner’s Parsifal. Indeed these “themes” are very much like the leitmotiv in Wagner’s works: musical ideas or motifs associated with particular characters, situations, or ideas that are interwoven within a complex musical composition to evoke an instant recognition of that particular character or whatever in the mind of the canny listener. Altogether there are twelve of these melodic themes, symbolizing, for example, the Cross, suffering, Mary, pity, Incarnation, and so on. In addition, there are six thematic (what he calls “onomatopoeic”) rhythms symbolizing the crowd, flagellation, ropes, stumbling, weariness, and Barrabas (the rhythm of his name). It is these themes, apparent to the careful listener whether ones knows their meanings or not, which give artistic and spiritual unity to a long work which would otherwise seem fragmented and disjointed. Above all Le Chemin de la Croix tells the story of God’s redemptive acts on behalf of fallen humanity as they unfold in the last hours of Jesus’ life. There are two principal characters in this drama, Jesus and his mother, as well as a number of minor figures. The first scene is the court of Pontius Pilate where the crowd chooses Barrabas and Jesus is condemned to death. Jesus then takes up his cross and begins the painful journey to Calvary. Along the way he meets his mother, has his cross taken up by Simon of Cyrene, has his faced wiped by Veronica, comforts the women of Jerusalem who are keeping watch with him, and falls three times. Arriving at Calvary Jesus is stripped of his clothes and nailed to the cross. Jesus dies upon the cross and we are musically reminded of the Incarnation which set the stage for this supreme redemptive moment. Jesus body is taken down from the cross, placed in his mother’s arms, and finally laid in the tomb. A French commentator, the Abbé Delestre, has written that as a person of faith Marcel Dupré has placed himself in the forefront of the drama, a first-person witness who seems to say in the words of the Apostle John: “That which we have seen, that which we have heard, this we proclaim to you.” “Could you not watch with me one hour?” Jesus asked his sleeping disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. The music and poetry of Le Chemin de la Croix are difficult and demanding listening, as befits the seriousness and depth of its subject. In the final station, however, a new theme is introduced, “The Fruits of Redemption,” a transformation and inversion of the theme of “suffering,” a theme which rises rather than falls. As Graham Steed points out, the first two notes heard in the piece on a trumpet stop, an hour and a half (including the poetry) later are turned upside down in the last two gentle note of the organ flute stop, both a musical and theological master stroke! “As for the way of the wicked, he turneth it upside down.” So the works ends and we are left (I borrow Cardinal Newman’s words) ‘In the mid-glory…sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.’” (Material for this essay was taken from these sources: the score of Le Chemin de la Croix; Marcel Dupré, Recollections; Abbé R. Delestre, L’Ouevre de Marcel Dupré; Graham Steed, The Organ Works of Marcel Dupré).
