Prelude — Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 27, No. 2, Mvt. 1 “Moonlight”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1801) · piano
Beethoven completed this sonata in 1801 and titled it Sonata quasi una fantasia — “a sonata in the manner of a fantasy.” The nickname “Moonlight” came years later, when a poet compared the first movement to moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne. What Beethoven actually wrote is something more interior: a slow, unbroken stream of arpeggios beneath a melody of almost unbearable tenderness.
On the night Jesus broke bread with his friends for the last time, this prelude sets the room.
Hymn — O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Attr. Bernard of Clairvaux, melody: Hans Leo Hassler · HPP #183
The origins of this Passion hymn stretch back to a medieval poem, whose seven sections each meditate on a different part of Christ’s body on the cross. The melody comes from a secular love song by Hans Leo Hassler. That a tune written for earthly longing should carry the weight of divine suffering feels entirely right on Maundy Thursday.
Anthem I — Were You There
arr. Roy Ringwald · choir & organ · Ruth Warren, solo
This is one of the oldest African American spirituals, with roots reaching deep into the oral traditions of enslaved communities. It dares to collapse time — placing the singer at the foot of the cross, trembling. Roy Ringwald’s arrangement honors the spiritual’s stark, unadorned power and refuses to allow the question to feel rhetorical.
Were you there?
Anthem II — Tenebrae factae sunt MH 162
Michael Haydn (1737–1806) · choir & organ
Michael Haydn — the less-famous younger brother of Joseph — was the court musician and organist at Salzburg Cathedral, where he composed this beautiful Tenebrae setting. The Latin text describes the moment darkness covered the earth as Jesus hung on the cross: “Darkness fell when they crucified Jesus.”
Haydn’s approach is spare and austere, the harmonies tightening like a vise, until the cry of “Father!” parts the clouds. The darkness here is not metaphor. It is the lights going out.
Communion — Ave Verum Corpus K. 618
W. A. Mozart (1791) · organ
Mozart composed this short motet in June of 1791 — just six months before his untimely death. Despite — or because of — its brevity and simplicity, it is among Mozart’s most moving works: a Eucharistic hymn that addresses the body of Christ directly — “Hail, true body, born of the Virgin Mary, who truly suffered, sacrificed on the cross for humankind.”
Tonight, at this table, the words could not be more precise.
Hymn — Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended
Johann Heermann (1630) · HPP #193, vv. 1, 2, & 4
The hymn’s opening question — “How hast thou offended?” — is immediately answered by its own singer: "‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee." Few hymns so directly refuse to let us remain spectators. Tonight we are participants, whether we like it or not.
Tenebrae Response to Readings — Etude No. 5 (excerpts)
Philip Glass · piano
The music of Philip Glass creates a meditative emotional space where deep introspection and profound, almost inexplicable catharsis coexist simultaneously. Etude No. 5 is built on slowly shifting repetitive patterns — music that circles without resolving, each iteration slightly different from the last.
Between tonight’s Tenebrae readings, short excerpts from this etude will serve as a sonic response to each reading. As the light diminishes, the music persists, keeping vigil.