Prompt #2: Gesualdo Six at St. Martin-in-the-Fields

My trip to London has been an incredible adventure so far! I arrived here at my hostel from Hallstatt, Austria by way of ferry, three cross-country trains, two metro trains, a taxi, a plane, the tube, and a fair bit of walking. See below for a picture from our soggy final morning in Hallstatt. Amusingly, the most harrowing leg of my journey was the escalator up from the tube. A woman ahead of me was nearly sucked into the machine by her shoelace, and Lauren Alanna and I became an American sandwich with about eight Londoners, who piled up behind her in a heap of limbs and luggage. We all came out unscathed, though a little battered.

Despite my near-death experience (lol), I am so glad that I had already been in Europe for nearly a week when the rest of my classmates arrived. Lauren Alanna and I were finally over jet lag by the official start of the class, so I got to wakefully appreciate the Gesualdo Six concert in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields late Tuesday evening (my classmates, who had arrived at LHR early that morning, were struggling).

Reflections on the Venue: St. Martin-in-the-Fields

The Anglican church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, constructed in the early 18th century, once sat “in the fields”, outside the walls of the city of London. It existed originally as a colossal monument in an otherwise bucolic bit of the English countryside. Its context changed as the city expanded! St. Martin-in-the-Fields now occupies a corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster (in Central London), a bustling metropolitan area (see photo below).

From a lengthy conversation with one of the ushers, I learned that the crypt beneath the building (the evening's concert venue) was constructed at the same time as the church, in 1720. It functioned as a crypt until the last body was re-interred in 1930, at which point the former crypt became a space for the church’s homelessness ministry. St. Martin-of-the-Fields describes its ministries as a “yes” campaign. They strive to uplift and assist churchgoers/community members from all walks of life. The church attributes its commitment to community outreach to the history of St. Martin’s sanctification. The Saint, formerly a Roman soldier, tore his cloak in half to share with a beggar, who later returned to him in a dream as Jesus Christ. The mission of the church follows from this instinctive act of generosity. Today, St. Martin’s retains a robust homelessness ministry, hosts concerts and musical events to support up-and-coming musicians, offers historic building tours, runs a community cafe (often with sustainably-sourced ingredients), and hosts art exhibitions and workshops, in addition to its regular services and prayer hours. Their church functions almost like a community center, which I love!

Reflections on the Concert: "Fading"

    Gesualdo Six’s “Fading” concert is one of many classical music events on the docket for this season at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The group is named “Gesualdo”; I have two hypothetical explanations. The first is that “gesualdo” refers to (according to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine) “successful treatment of a facial attack of angioedema”. I quite doubt it. Alternatively, Gesualdo is a reference to the great Italian composer of sacred music.  According to the BBC, Gesualdo murdered his wife and her lover and later went on trial for witchcraft. Nonetheless, Gesualdo shone among the Mannerist composers for his innovative harmonies with dramatic chromatic movement.

Gesualdo Six is acclaimed for its tight, unaccompanied harmony singing. The six male vocalists sing bass, baritone, tenor, tenor, countertenor, and countertenor parts, respectively. They weave their voices together in an intricate tapestry of harmonies and polyphonic sound. Absorbing the sounds at one of their concerts feels a bit like gazing at an illuminated manuscript or an intricate ceiling mosaic (see below Chi Rho Iota from the medieval text The Book of Kells, and a picture I took of the early-20th-century ceiling mosaic in St. Paul’s Cathedral). The longer you stare into the intricate whorls of sacred art, the more potent and mesmerizing the colors and patterns become. Similarly, the sound of Gesualdo Six seemed to grow as I listened and sank deeper into the music, unpacking the layered harmonies.

  

     

The setlist for Fading included several songs in English, but lyrics were primarily in Latin and in one case, Italian. When I travel abroad, I always try to attend a church service with folks from the area, which means I often attend services in other languages. Most recently, on January 5th, I attended mass at the Catholic Parish Church in Hallstatt, Austria, where the liturgy, hymns, and homily were entirely in German. I find that Western sacred music does have a common sonic flavour, and can therefore be appreciated in virtually any language. After all, for centuries, Latin was THE language of spirituality in Catholic Europe. Hearing texts and liturgies I know articulated in a foreign language is a mystical, transcendent experience that feels richly spiritual. I therefore loved the variety of languages represented in the Gesualdo Six repertoire.

Though the specific message of many songs alluded me, the set as a whole was a spiritual meditation on evening and the last light of day. One of my favorite pieces of music in the repertoire was a song entitled “O ecclesia” (“Oh Church” in English), composed by Hildegard von Bingen. Mother Hildegard was a 12th-century German Benedictine nun committed to the pursuit of deep Truth. She was an abbess, scientist, theologian, musician, visionary, artist, etc.; a Renaissance woman two centuries early!

I have enough observations about the concert and performers to write another 400 words, but I think that might kill Dr. Klobnak, who has to grade this entry. I’ll leave you with the observation that one of the contra-tenors looked exactly like Timothée Chalomet. Also, there is nothing quite like hearing a cappella sacred music on historic holy ground. Family and friends, if you’re ever going to a concert like this one, please take me with you!!