The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross — Joseph Haydn

Introduzione: maestoso ed adagio

Sonata 1 : largo

Pater, dimitte illis, quia nesciunt quid faciunt

(Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do)

Sonata 2: grave e cantabile

Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso

(Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise)

Sonata 3: grave

Mulier, ecce filius tuus

(Woman, behold they son)

Sonata 4: largo

Deus meus, Deus meus, ut dereliquisti me?

(My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?)

Sonata 5: adagio

Sitio

(I thirst)

Sonata 6: lento

Consummatum est

(It is finished)

Sonata 7: largo

Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum

(Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit)

Il Terremoto: presto e con tutta la forza

“About fifteen years ago I was requested by a canon of Cadiz to compose instrumental music on The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross. It was customary at the Cathedral of Cadiz to produce an oratorio every year during Lent, the effect of the performance being not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The walls, windows, and pillars of the church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp hanging from the centre of the roof broke the solemn darkness… After a short service the bishop ascended the pulpit, pronounced the first of the seven words and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he left the pulpit, and prostrated himself before the altar. The interval was filled by music. The bishop then in like manner pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the orchestra following on the conclusion of each discourse… It was no easy task to compose seven adagios lasting ten minutes each, and to succeed one another without fatiguing the listeners….”

Haydn’s own account of how, in 1787, he came to write the Seven Last Words is an illuminating introduction to what he considered “the very finest” of all his works. It is true that the Cadiz performance took place in the grotto church of Santa Cueva rather than the Cathedral and he does not mention the additional challenges he had to face in providing both an Introduzione and a Terremoto (Earthquake) finale, making nine orchestral pieces in all. If the Introduzione, which had to be another slow movement, was a particularly acute problem, Haydn was particularly inspired in solving it in a dramatically concentrated Adagio in D minor motivated throughout by its persistent dotted rhythms.

The seven central movements are all sonata-form constructions (Haydn himself referred to them as “sonatas’), each one based on a theme derived from the rhythm and pitch inflections of the Latin utterance it is about to contemplate. So, while there is no extended melody anywhere, the thematic material might be as long as that of the first Sonata, as poignantly brief as the two notes of the fifth (Sitio) or as concise as the five-note motif of the contrapuntally masterful sixth (Consummatum est). As for the harmonies, surprisingly much of the work is in major keys: only the despairing fourth Sonata, at the very centre of the construction, begins and ends in the minor. Whether for the sake of musical variety or as an expression of Haydn’s optimistic faith, the other two Sonatas that begin in the minor, the symmetrically placed second and sixth, end in and exalted major.

The fiercely articulated Terremoto, which begins in C minor and ends ambiguously, is the best of all arguments for performing the work in the original orchestral version rather than in the more familiar string-quartet arrangement. The oratorio version, which includes yet another slow movement between Deus meus and Sitio, was completed in 1796.