Music Notes from Organist Michael Latsko:

The prelude is Bach’s Prelude in e minor, BWV 555, one of the so-called Eight Little Preludes and Fugues which I’ve played before and about which I’ve said “they are charming works and appropriate for many liturgical uses and moods, happy and sad.” This particular work is dark, brooding and evocative of dark storm clouds, perfect as an introduction to Good Friday’s liturgy.

The music following the homily is also Bach. His chorale prelude “Alle Menschen müßen sterben,” BWV 643 is one of the most perfect examples of Bach's Orgelbüchlein style. The text literally translates “all men must die,” but I prefer the rather Victorian elaboration “Hark, a voice sayeth, all men are mortal”. I found this compelling commentary on the work: “A mood of ecstasy permeates this chorale prelude, a funeral hymn reflecting the theme of heavenly joy. The simple melody sings in quarter notes above an accompanying motif of three semiquavers (16th notes) followed by two quavers (eighth notes) that echoes between the two inner parts and the pedal. [Bach scholar and organist Dr. Albert] Schweitzer (1905) describes its use by Bach as a motif of ‘beatific peace,’ commenting that ‘the melody of the hymn that speaks of the inevitability of death is thus enveloped in a motif that is lit up by the coming glory.’ Despite the harmonious thirds and sixths in the inner parts, the second semiquaver of the motif produces a momentary dissonance that is instantly resolved, again contributing to the mood of joy tinged by sadness. As [Bach biographer Philipp] Spitta (1899) comments, ‘What tender melancholy lurks in [this] chorale...what an indescribable expressiveness, for instance, arises in the last bar from the false relation between c♯ and c', and the almost imperceptible ornamentation of the melody!’" All this to say, it’s beautiful Bach in both its simplicity and its complexity and supremely ideal, I think, as Good Friday music.

The postlude is a setting of the hymn "O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid" (Oh darkest woe, oh heart's pain) (#173 in The Hymnal 1982), written by Johann Rist (1607-1667) especially for Good Friday. The hymn has been described as a “miserable song to be sung at the grave about the mournful burial of our Savior Jesus Christ.” American composer Wilbur Held’s setting (you can read more about him in the notes for Maundy Thursday) is melancholy, dense and death-filled, a fitting book end for the Good Friday liturgy as the world waits in joyful hope for the coming resurrection.

Officiant and Homilist: The Rev. G. Miles Smith

Liturgical excerpts: The Book of Common Prayer 1979

The Reading from the Gospel of John 18:1 – 19:42 is from the Contemporary English Version