Laetare Sunday, Rejoice with Music!
The fourth Sunday of Lent is honored as Laetare Sunday, a name meaning “rejoice,” taken from the Entrance Antiphon of that day’s Mass, “Laetare, Jerusalem.” Amid the penitential days of Lent, Laetare Sunday brings joy that Easter is drawing near. This year, the joyful day falls on March 10, and will be celebrated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe with a Lenten concert titled “Death and Resurrection.”
The Laetare Sunday Concert
Like all the Shrine’s concerts, the event is from 3pm to 4pm and is free and open to all. On this occasion, a tour of the organ will be available afterward. Performers include two Shrine musicians, organist Andrew McDonald and his sister Madeleine McDonald, a mezzo soprano singer, as well as flutist Mackenzie Taylor.
The music for the concert represents a rich variety of times and genres. “Music will feature composers of the great organ tradition such as Bach, Brahms, Boulanger, Langlais,” says Andrew McDonald. “A setting of the Requiem text, Pie Jesu, will be sung, and the traditional Pange Lingua will be chanted in versets with the organ. Other highlights of the concert include a set of pieces for flute and organ duet and an organ piece based on the gradual chant from the Requiem Mass.”
Lenten Contemplation: Sin and Grace
Though its parts are many and diverse, the whole nonetheless has an interconnected unity. “The recital program feels like a cohesive narrative with a beginning, middle, and end,” McDonald continues. “There is a diversity of repertoire styles and periods, which span from the late Renaissance to 20th-century Modern, and yet all the pieces connect to tell a unique story.” The source of this unity is the theme of the liturgical season: “The theme centers around two points: the miraculous story of Holy Week and reflecting on our sins and the grace needed for salvation.” Thus, the concert is not only a collection of great music but a sublime exploration of the Paschal Mystery.
Beauty for All
Though the pieces presented in “Death and Resurrection” represent the great Western musical tradition, and focus on the climactic mysteries of our redemption, the concert is not only for music lovers or pious souls. “I think there is at least something in the program for each person,” McDonald concludes. “Even for those who may not be either particularly musical or religious, there is something uniquely special in the experience of hearing an extraordinary instrument, like the Noack organ, in a remarkable edifice, like the Shrine church.” The concert is for everyone, because beauty is the language of every human heart.
