"At the Foot of the Cross"

On Friday, February 24, around 25 of our students went to a concert at Yale University titled, “At the Foot of the Cross,” to hear Yale’s Schola Cantorum perform two pieces composed as meditations on Christ’s Passion. 
The first was Stabat Mater, a short piece by the Italian Renaissance composer Domenico Scarlatti, written in the early 17 ^th century. The second, James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, was composed in 1994 and takes a much more modern approach.
Stabat Mater expressed the sadness of the text, which describes Mary standing by the cross, but kept to the traditional rules of composing. Seven Last Words from the Cross used extreme dynamics, dissonance, and innovative use of instruments to give the audience a more visceral experience of the agony, heartbreak, and injustice of the crucifixion.

Although the two pieces were very different, they both helped us to contemplate the themes of the passion.