Poetry Reading Day

Saturday, February 2, 2008 in music
Tags: Latin, music, poetry, radio, Spem in Alium

So, February 2nd is a day for sharing poetry.  Today Radio 4 repeated a thirty minute programme on Spem in Alium (in the UK one can listen again), with various people speaking about the significance it holds for them.

I love Tallis and Byrd and Palestrina, and firmly believe that there is no more powerful instrument than the human voice.  Spem in Alium is a near indescribably gorgeous piece of music, but I also love the words themselves:

Spem in alium numquam habui praeter in te
Deus Israel
qui irasceris
et propitius eris
et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis
Domine Deus
Creator coeli et terrae
respice humilitatem nostram

I have never put my hope in any other but in you
God of Israel
who will be angry
and yet become again gracious
and who forgives all the sins of suffering man
Lord God
Creator of Heaven and Earth
look upon our lowliness

The motet’s background is somewhat murky, as it is based on a pre-Reformation text but was probably written for Elizabeth I.  I don’t know if the words alone hit me hard because I read the Latin.  The weight of words is always slightly altered in another language and, of course, the real way to appreciate it is in live performance.  It speaks to me of a great and terrible faith, of the kind it is only possible to have in the depths of winter when one’s unconscious mind believes that the dark and the cold will continue forever.  The last line, “look upon our lowliness”, is comforting, acknowledging our utter insignificance in this universe.  It’s a graceful surrender that always leaves me feeling sanguine about the future and the coming of spring, the constant rolling of a wheel that is not affected by our brief and turbulent lives.