Ko Matsushita Tenebrae factae sunt

The Good Friday Responsory “Tenebrae factae sunt” for six-part chorus was commissioned in 2012 for Peking University Student Choir and was premiered at the “World Choir Games” in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA conducted by Hou Xijin. It is an ambitious work with a fervent intensity. Matsushita sets the two last words of Jesus, “Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti?” [“My God, why hast thou forsaken me”] and “Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum” [“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”] as pained outcries in Stravinskyian harshness, in chords characterized by tritones, as a truly superhuman work of redemption whose Easter message of hope only appears in the last conciliatory F major chord. Although this work lies slightly beyond the upper limit of the musical and vocal technical demands of the “Carus Contemporary” series, it is well within the abilities of ambitious chamber choirs.