Michael Stewart, Music Director of the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul Photo: Sam Prabhakaran
What is it about sacrifice?
In a few days, over two-and-a-half billion people around the world will commemorate the sacrifice made by one man for the whole of humanity - who also happened to be the son of God.
They'll also celebrate his resurrection, but there can be no resurrection without crucifixion first.
For Michael Stewart, Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's Cathedral in Wellington, the coming days of Holy Week are the busiest of the year.
Photo: AFP / Manuel Cohen
To make it even busier, Stewart will lead Wellington's Tudor Consort in a Good Friday concert themed around the idea of sacrifice, both sacred and secular.
The centerpiece of the recital is Sir James MacMillan’s "Cantos Sagrados" - sacred songs. The work sets three poems about political sacrifice in modern day Latin America by Ana Maria Mendoza and Ariel Dorfman.
Speaking with RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump, Stewart says the work commemorates those who had the courage to speak out against oppression, even at the risk of their own lives.
In the first, a setting of the poem Identity by Dorfman, a group surround a body found in river, probably of someone killed by the authorities. No one wants to claim it lest they too are arrested. Finally, one brave woman comes forward, claiming her child and acknowledging their deeds.
So where does the sacred bit come into MacMillan's work?
In both the second and third songs, says Stewart, religious themes loom large.
In the second, the poet Mendoza notes the Virgin Mary is venerated both by indigenous Americans and their Spanish colonisers. Both aspire to follow her example, yet one group oppresses the other.
In the third, by Dorfman, the execution of a political prisoner is juxtaposed against the story of Christ's crucifixion, only in the case of the political prisoner, the executioner becomes increasingly sympathetic until at the end he whispers 'forgive me, companero'.
Which brings Crump back to the theme of sacrifice, and whether it has any point? After all, the executioner says 'sorry', but is not about to stick his neck out and refuse to kill an innocent man.
Crump is also thinking about another big commemoration of sacrifice coming up in Aotearoa, Anzac Day.
Is the point of the sacrifice story, he asks, less about whether it achieves anything, and more about motivating we survivors to be better people?
"I think so, absolutely, and that parallel with Anzac Day is so strong," Stewart replies.
Along with MacMillan's work, the Tudor Consort will sing music by Parry, Byrd, Gibbons, Purcell, Weelkes and Kenneth Leighton’s "Solus ad Victimam".
The Good Friday concert is at 7.30pm in the Cathedral, with a pre-concert talk at 7.00pm.
St Paul's Wellington. Stewart loves its big acoustic. Photo: Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Of course, that's on top of Stewart's other Good Friday service commitments in the cathedral, and by then he will have been involved in providing the music for a service every day since the previous Sunday.
Not that he minds. He loves the St Paul's rich acoustic and six-second echo, so long as musicians take it into account.
"One just has to learn how to manage time, and to let the music breathe, and particularly with organ music as well, because otherwise it can just turn into complete mush".
Luckily, the music written for Easter is some of the most beautiful in the repertoire.
"We love it, it's a busy time, but we know what we're signing up for."
