Paul Crabtree’s Tenebræ Responsories on Songs by Bob Dylan ends softly with “Seniores populi/Changing of the Guards”, the ninth of nine responsories for Maundy Thursday. The responsory is taken from Matthew: When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son [...]

As we approach the end of the Responsories, composer Paul Crabtree introduces the eighth movement and, at the same time, explores his thoughts on how we interpret and experience Jesus. This audio clip wanders over to this broader subject and Paul makes a point about the difference between Jesus as a ‘character in a book’ [...]

“Una hora non potuisti vigilare” is the eighth of nine responsories and depicts a Jesus full of frustration. As the narrative continues, Jesus shows that he knows he’s been betrayed and, at the same time, the disciples who he’s asked to sit up and wait with him have fallen asleep. Indeed, the life Jesus has [...]

Listen below as BCE’s music director Miguel Felipe chats with composer Paul Crabtree. In this segment, the two walk through “Eram quasi agnus/In The Garden”, the seventh of nine responsories. Paul pays particular attention to form and text setting in this dark and vengeful text. See yesterday’s post as you listen to read along with [...]

“Eram quais agnus”, “I was like a lamb” begins the final trio of works in the Responsories. Considered the most difficult of the pieces by Crabtree, this movement runs over five minutes. The connection to Dylan—lyrics aside—lies in the unusual harmonic shifting of the work’s first half. In both Crabtree and Dylan, unusual minor progressions [...]

Composer Paul Crabtree chats with BCE’s music director, Miguel Felipe, about the sixth movement of his Tenebræ Responsories on Songs by Bob Dylan. Closing the central three-movement group, “Unus ex discipulis meis” depicts a Christ reflecting on the thought of a dear friend and disciple betraying him to his own murder. Listen as Paul talks about [...]

Paired with Dylan’s “Slow Train”, Crabtree’s “Unus ex discipulis meis” lifts Dylan’s harmonic progression to set Christ’s coming to terms with his betrayal. The movement includes, as the previous movements, the phrase “It had been better for him if he had never been born.” In each movement, Paul sets the music differently to depict the [...]

BCE’s Miguel Felipe and composer Paul Crabtree chat about the fifth movement of Paul’s Tenebræ Responsories on Songs by Bob Dylan. A setting of an anonymous text, this particular movement depicts the angry, unhinged crowd responding to Christ’s sentencing. The segment ends with a short musical excerpt. [02:38] [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The fifth movement, “Judas mercator pessimus” is paired with Bob Dylan’s “The Wicked Messenger”. Like the others responsories in this nocturn at the center of the work, “Judas mercator pessimus” makes much of the text: “It had been better for that man if he had never been born.” It also has a raucous, Handel-like section [...]

Listen to this exchange between BCE’s Miguel Felipe and composer Paul Crabtree about the fourth movement of Paul’s Tenebræ Responsories on Songs by Bob Dylan. This movement begins the second group of three works (a ‘nocturn’) and was the connection that inspired the entire set of Responsories. [01:49] [Audio clip: view full post to listen]