Today’s music is an “arrangement” (deconstruction might be a better word) by Knut Nystedt, who spent most of his life in Oslo, Norway, where he was organist at Torshov Church and taught choral conducting at the University of Oslo. He also founded the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and conducted it for forty years. However, he is most recognized for his choral compositions, mainly based on texts from the Bible or sacred themes.
In today’s anthem, he instructs the choir to sing the first eight bars of J.S. Bach’s setting of the Passion chorale “Komm, süßer Tod;” then sing it again, with individual members of the choir holding each quarter note for a different number of beats – either two, four or six, waiting for the rest of the choir to catch up at each cadential point. Through the resultant harmonic overlapping of melody and harmony, he creates a soundscape reflecting the eternal value of Bach’s music – it is no surprise that he titled this “composition” Immortal Bach.
Nystedt no doubt meant it as a depiction of the agony of the Passion and the subsequent triumph of the Resurrection, and the choir has sung it before at Trinity during Lent. To my mind, however, it also creates a potent musical metaphor for this week’s commemoration of the souls of the departed. The music pulls apart, deconstructing itself into excruciating, haunting dissonance only to put itself back together into consonant harmonies at each of the chorale’s three phrases. Thus, clashing dissonance (the pain of loss) resolves itself into quiet harmony (the promise of everlasting peace after death). It’s a simple yet daring gambit to deconstruct – and then reconstruct – one of Christianity’s most beloved hymn melodies, yet to my ear, it works spectacularly well.
– Justin Smith