Le Chemin de la Croix

The Stations of the Cross

by
Marcel Dupré

Stephen Hamilton, organist

Friday, March 11, 7:00 p.m.

St. James’s Church | Richmond, Virginia

 Le Chemin de la Croix
The Stations of the Cross
by Marcel Dupré
Poetry by Paul Claudel

I Jesus is Condemned to Death

II Jesus Receives His Cross

III Jesus Falls the First Time

IV Jesus Meets His Mother

V Simon of Cyrene Carries Jesus’ Cross

VI A Woman Wipes the Face of Jesus

VII Jesus Falls the Second Time

VIII Jesus Comforts the Women of Jerusalem

IX Jesus Falls the Third Time

X Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

XI Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

XII Jesus Dies Upon The Cross

XIII The Body of Jesus Is Taken From the Cross

XIV The Body of Jesus is Laid in a Tomb

Readers
Harrison Clark, Hilary Streever, Julie Wade
 I
JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

It is finished!
We have judged God and we have condemned him to die.
We don’t want Jesus Christ with us any longer, for he exasperates us.
We have no other ruler than Caesar!
No other counsel than blood and gold!
Crucify him if you like, but get rid of him!
Get him out of here! “Take him away! Take him away!
Since it can’t be helped, let him be sacrificed,
and give us Barabbas!”
Pilate sits in judgment at the place called Gabbatha.
“Have you nothing to say?” asks Pilate.
And Jesus does not answer.
“I find no wrong in this man,” declares Pilate, “but, let him die, since you insist!
I give him to you. Behold the man.”
Here he is, a crown on his head and dressed in purple.
One last time these eyes turn toward us, full of tears and blood!
What can we do?
There is no way to keep him with us any longer.
As he was a scandal for the Jews, he is among us an absurdity.
Besides, the sentence has been pronounced,
lacking no detail, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
And one sees the crowd clamor…
and the judge washes his hands.
 II
JESUS RECEIVES HIS CROSS

They return his clothes and bring him the cross.

“God be with you,” says Jesus. “O Cross that I have long desired!”
And you, Christian, watch and tremble!
O what a solemn moment in which Christ first accepts the eternal Cross!
O day of consummation of the tree of knowledge!
Look, sinner, and see what your sin has led to.
No more crosses without Christ, and no more crimes without a God upon them!
Certainly man’s misery is great, yet we have nothing to say,
for God is now here, come not to explain, but to fulfill.
Jesus receives the Cross just as we take Holy Communion.
As prophesied by Jeremiah, “We give him wood for his bread.”
How long, how ungainly, how massive weighs the cross!
How hard, how stiff, how heavy the burden of a useless sinner!
How long to bear, step by step, until one dies upon it!
Are you going to carry that all alone, Lord Jesus?
Make me patient, in turn, with the wood you wish me to bear.
For we must carry the cross where the cross takes us.
 III
JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME

March on! Victim and oppressors together,

everything shudders toward Calvary.
God led by the collar, suddenly falters and slumps to the Earth.
What do you say, Lord, of this first fall?
Now that you know it, what do you think of this moment?
When one falls, pushed by the sway of an unbalanced load!
How do you find it, this earth which you created?
O not only I the righteous path harsh and rough,
the evil path also proves treacherous and dizzying!
It is not followed quickly and easily, for one must learn stone by stone,
and the foot often slips, although the hearth perseveres.
O Lord, by these blessed knees, these two knees which together failed you,
by the sudden nausea and fall at the beginning of the gruesome way,
by the trap which succeeded, by the earth which you have known,
save us from the first sin, which one commits inadvertently.
 IV
JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER

O mothers, who have watched a first and only child die,

remember that last night beside the moaning little being,
the water not taken, the ice, and the thermometer, and death,
which comes little by little, no longer to be ignored?
Put on his old shoes and change his clothes.
Someone is coming who will take him away from me and put him in the ground.
Goodbye my dear little one! Goodbye, flesh of my flesh!
The Fourth Station is Mary, who has accepted everything.
Here on the street corner she awaits the Treasure of absolute Poverty.
There are no tears in her eyes, her throat is dry.
She says not a word and watches Jesus approach.
She accepts. Once again she accepts.
Her outcry severely repressed in her firm, strict heart.
She says not a word and watches Jesus Christ.
The Mother watches her Son, the Church her Redeemer,
her soul goes out to him as violently as the wail of a dying soldier!
She stands before God and lays bare her soul.
There is nothing in her heart which protests or draws back.
Every fiber of her transfixed heart accepts and consents.
And as God himself is there, she is also present.
She accepts and watches this Son she conceived in her womb.
 V
SIMON OF CYRENE CARRIES JESUS’ CROSS

The moment comes when one simply cannot go on.

That’s where we fit in, and you allow
that we be used, also perhaps coerced, to carry your Cross.
As Simon of Cyrene, who is harnessed to this piece of wood?
He grasps it firmly and walks behind Jesus,
so that none of the Cross may drag on the ground and be lost.
 VI
A WOMAN WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS

All of the disciples have fled. Peter himself passionately denies all!
A woman throws herself into the thick of insults, into the arms of death,
finds Jesus and holds his face in her hands.
Teach us, Veronica, to define human respect.
For he who sees Christ not merely as a symbol,
but as a true person, to others soon appears offensive and suspect.
His way of life is inside out, his motives are no longer theirs.
Something in him always seems to escape elsewhere.
A mature man who says his rosary and impudently goes to confession,
who abstains from meat on Friday and is seen among women at mass,
is laughable and scandalous; amusing, but also irritating.
He had better watch what he is doing, for others see him.
He had better watch each step, for he serves as a sign.
For each Christian shapes the actual, although unworthy, image of his Christ.
And the face he shows bears the trivial reflection of the abominable
and triumphant face of the God in his heart!
Show it to us once again Veronica,
On the cloth with which you comforted the holy countenance of the Last Sacrament.
This veil of pious wool Veronica used to hide the face of the Vintager
on the day of his intoxication,
So that his image might cling to it forever.
An image made of his blood and tears and our spit!
 VII
JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME

It is not the stones under foot, nor the halter overstrained;

It is the soul which suddenly fails.
O in the middle of our life! O the spontaneous fall!
When the magnet no longer has a pole and faith no longer a heaven,
because the road is long and the end distant,
because one remains alone without any consolation!
How slowly time passes!
Nurturing a secret hatred for the uncompromising injunction
and for this wooden companion!
This is why we stretch forth both arms at once like someone swimming!
No longer do we fall on our knees, but on our face.
The body falls, it is true, and in the same moment the soul consents.
Save us from the Second fall, which one takes willfully and out of boredom.

INTERMISSION
 VIII
JESUS COMFORTS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

Before he ascends the mountain for the last time,

Jesus raises his hand and turns toward the people following him,
a few poor women in tears with their children in their arms.
Let’s not simply look, let’s listen to Jesus, for he is there.
It is not a man who raises his hand at the center of this pitiful illumination.
It is God who, for our salvation, has suffered not only in paintings.
Thus was this man Almighty God! It is true then!
There was a day when God truly did suffer for us!
What is this danger, from which we have been spared at such a price?
Is man’s salvation such a simple matter that the Son must tear himself
away from the Father to attain it?
If that is Paradise, what is Hell?
What shall be done with dead wood, if green wood is treated like this?
 IX
JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME

“I have fallen again, and this time, it’s the end.

I would like to get up again, but it’s impossible.
For I have been squeezed like a fruit,
and the man on my shoulders weighs too much.
I have done evil and the man who died in me is too heavy!
So let’s die, for it is easier to lie down than to stand up,
harder to live than to die, more difficult yet, on the Cross than beneath it.”
Save us from the Third sin, that of despair!
Nothing is lost as long as death has not been tasted!
I have finished with this piece of wood, but the nails are yet to come!
Jesus falls a third time, but he is at the top of Calvary.
 X
JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS

Here is the barn floor where the grain of the holy wheat is ground.
The Father stands naked; the Temple veil has been torn away.
God is manhandled, the Flesh of the Flesh trembles,
the Universe, attacked at its source, shudders to its very core!
Now that they have taken the tunic and seamless robe.
We raise our eyes and dare to look at Jesus, pure and unadorned.
They have left you nothing, Lord, they have taken everything,
even the clothes which cling to the flesh, for today
they pull off the monk’s hood and the blessed virgin’s veil.
They have taken everything, there remains nothing for him to hide in.
He stands totally defenseless and stark naked.
He is delivered to mankind and revealed.
What! That’s your Jesus! He is ridiculous! He is beaten and covered with filth.
“Gross beasts have besieged me. Deliver me, Lord, from the mouth of the dog.”
He is not the Christ. He is not the Son of Man. He is not God.
His teachings are false and his Father is not in heaven.
He’s crazy! He’s an imposter! Make him talk! Keep him quiet!
Anne’s servant slaps him and Renan kisses him.
They took everything. But the scarlet blood remains. They took everything.
But the open wound remains! God is hidden. But the man of sorrows remains.
God is hidden. My weeping brother remains!
From your humiliation Lord, from your shame,
Take pity on the defeated, on the weak oppressed by the strong!
From the horror of that last garment taken from you,
Take pity on all those who are mutilated!
On the child, operated on three times, encouraged by the doctor,
And on the poor invalid whose bandages are changed,
On the humiliated husband, on the son beside his dying mother,
And on this terrifying love, which must be torn from our heart!
 XI
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

Now God is no longer with us. He lies on the ground.

The mob has taken him by the throat as dogs take a stag.
So you did come! You are truly among us Lord!
You have been sat upon; your heart has been knelt upon.
This hand forced by the executioner is the right hand of the Almighty.
The Lamb has been tied by the feet, the Omnipresent is bound.
His height and span have been marked on the cross.
When he feels our nails, we’ll watch his expression.
Eternal Son, limited only by the bounds of Infinity,
marked here among us by that narrow space which you have coveted!
Here in his body Elijah stretches out in death,
here lies David’s throne and Solomon’s glory,
here is the bed of our cruel, powerful passion with You!
It is difficult for God to assume our stature.
They tug, and the half-dislocated body snaps and cries aloud.
Drawn with the tension of a wine press, he is hideously quartered.
So that the prophecy might be fulfilled that:
“They have pierced my hands and feet,
they have numbered each of my bones.”
You are captured Lord, and can no longer escape.
You are nailed on the cross, hand and foot.
Like a heretic or a lunatic, I seek nothing more from heaven.
This God held by four nails is enough for me.
 XII
JESUS DIES UPON THE CROSS

A moment ago he was suffering, it is true, but now he is going to die.

The Great Cross sways faintly in the night to the pulse of God’s breathing.
Everything is ready.
One can only leave the Apparatus alone,
to inexhaustibly draw from the bond of man’s double nature,
from the hypostatic union of body and soul,
all of his inherent potential for suffering.
He is all alone as Adam was alone in Eden.
For three hours he remains alone and savors the wine,
the unconquerable ignorance of man in the absence of God!
Our guest grows weary and his forehead slowly droops.
He no longer see his Mother, and his Father abandons him.
He tastes the cup, and death, which slowly poisons him.
Have You not had enough of this bitter wine diluted with water,
to cause You to suddenly straighten up and cry: “I thirst”?
Are You thirsty Lord? Are you talking to me?
Do You still need me and my sins?
Am I needed so that all may be consummated?
 XIII
THE BODY OF JESUS IS TAKEN FROM THE CROSS

Here the Passion ends and the Compassion continues.

Christ is no longer on the Cross.
He is with Mary, who has received him:
As she accepted him in prophecy, she receives him consummated.
Christ, who suffered before all, is again cradled at his Mother’s breast.
The Church forever embraces and watches over her beloved.
That from God, that from the Mother, and that which man has done,
all of this is with her forever under her habit.
She has taken him in: she sees, touches, prays, weeps, and admires;
She is the winding sheet and the ointment, the sepulcher and the incense.
She is the priest and the altar, the vase and the Cenacle.
Here ends the Cross and begins the Tabernacle.
 XIV
THE BODY OF JESUS IS LAID IN A TOMB

The tomb where Christ is put, having suffered and died,

the hole hastily unsealed so that he might spend his night there,
before the crucified revived and ascended to the Father.
This is not merely a new tomb, it is my flesh.
It is man, your creature, more profound than the earth!
Now that his heart is open and his hands are pierced,
there is no cross among us on which his body will not fit.
There is no sin in us to which his wound will not correspond.
So come to us, from the altar where you are hidden,
Redeemer of the World!
Concert organist, STEPHEN HAMILTON, has long been prominent on the American organ scene.
The New York Times wrote of Hamilton’s performance of the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor:
“Hamilton, as minister of music at the church, obviously knew the instrument’s sonorous
capabilities and brought them powerfully to bear in a rousing account.” The Charleston Daily Mail
reviewed: “This performance had to be one of the supreme moments of music making in this year’s
or any other year’s Orgelfest offerings.” For the past thirty years, such consistent critical review has
earned Hamilton acclaim as a thoroughly engaging and popular artist and has firmly established
his reputation as a leading and much sought-after personality.
Highlights of Hamilton’s career include the premiere performance of Kenton Coe’s Concerto for
Organ, Strings and Percussion with the Festival of Comminges Orchestra, Jean-Pierre Marty
conducting, in France, and a performance of the Enrico Bossi Organ Concerto with the Detroit
Symphony, David Zinman, conducting. He frequently appears with regional orchestras playing
concertos of Handel, Albinoni, Hindemith, Piston, Copland, Rheinberger, and Poulenc; and
recently appeared with the Austin (Texas) Symphony orchestra, Peter Bay, conductor, performing
the Barber Toccata Festiva.
Hamilton has been heard in hundreds of solo recitals and on the nationally broadcast radio
program Pipe Dreams as well as WETS-FM’s Pipes, Pedals and Pistons. His recitals feature solo works
from the standard repertoire as well as ensemble works for organ and instruments. Often in these
recitals he enjoys collaborating with local musicians. Additionally he has been heard as
collaborative artist with choral ensembles in the concert Requiems of Fauré, Duruflé, Mozart, and
Vierne, and Handel’s Messiah.
Hamilton has gained an increasingly popular presence for his vivid and moving interpretation of
Marcel Dupré’s Le Chemin de la Croix, in over forty concert performances. In 1992 a stunningly
inspirational performance in New York City featured narration, dramatic lighting, and modern
dance choreographed by Lynn Parkerson which led to subsequent liturgical dance collaborations.
His compact disc release of Le Chemin de la Croix met with exceptional reviews from a number of
magazines and trade journals including The American Organist and The American Record Guide.
Stephen Hamilton is Minister of Music Emeritus at the historic Church of the Holy Trinity
(Episcopal), in New York City, where he conducted the semi-professional Holy Trinity Choir and
was Artistic Director of Music at Holy Trinity, the church’s subscription concert series, for twenty
years. The New York Times acknowledges that Hamilton’s concert series “is an important venue for
week-end presentations.”
Organist and Composer MARCEL DUPRÉ was born in Rouen, France. He was born into a musical
family. His father Albert Dupré was organist in Rouen. The organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll
built an instrument in the family home when Marcel was 14 years old. Marcel studied at the Paris
Conservatory beginning in 1904, where his organ teachers were Alexandre Guilmant and Louis
Vierne, and his composition teacher was with Charles-Marie Widor. In 1914, Dupré was
appointed professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory, a post he held until 1954. Dupré gained
international fame for presenting more than 2000 recitals around the world, including a series of
10 concerts of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach, performed entirely from memory.
He was famous in the United States for his recitals at Wannamaker’s Department Store in
Philadelphia and his subsequent national tours sponsored by Wannamaker’s. Dupré succeeded
Charles-Marie Widor as organist at St. Sulpice in Paris, a position he held until his death in 1971.
Perhaps his greatest contribution was as a teacher. He taught two generations of well-known
organists, including Marie-Claire Alain, Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou, Jean Langlais, and
Olivier Messiaen. As a composer, he produced more than 65 works for organ, piano, orchestra
and choir, chamber music, and a number of transcriptions. Several of his works are of such
difficulty that Dupré himself was initially the only organist able to play them.
French poet PAUL CLAUDEL (1868-1955) was an important figure in French literature in the first
half of the 20th century. His poems, essays and other writings derive their inspiration and prophetic
voice from his faith in God. Born to a family of farmers, he became an expert in economic affairs,
and enjoyed long and distinguished career in the foreign service. While pursuing his literary career,
he was the French ambassador to Tokyo Washington and Brussels. As he traveled the world, he
began to developed a set of theological concepts that saw God as creator and master of the cosmos.
In 1900 he decided to abandon his artistic and diplomatic career and entered a Benedictine
monastery. Discouraged by the Order and deeply disappointed, he left France to take up a
diplomatic post in China. Claudel wrote the libretto for the theater piece Le Livre de Christophe Colomb
(published 1933), with music by Darius Milhaud, and for the oratorio Jeanne d’Arc by Arthur
Honegger.

British painter DAVID O’CONNELL was born in 1895. After service in the trenches in World War
I, he trained as a commercial artist, but his interest was religious painting. He served as Artistic
Advisor to St Richard’s Catholic Parish in Chichester, Sussex, England. The image on the cover
of the program is of a painting that hangs above the altar in St. Richard’s Church. The Stations of
the Cross paintings hang in the Blessed Sacrament chapel of St. Richard’s. Father Jonathan
Martin, while a priest at St Richard’s, wrote this description:
“It has to be said that this particular set of the Stations of the Cross is not everyone’s “cup of
tea”. The style of these paintings is quite different from the style of the Stations that usually
adorn the walls of our churches. There is an apparent inaccessibility that demands a certain
amount of time and energy on the part of the onlooker. But time spent lingering over each
painting will be repaid. The distinctive style of O’Connell’s work, the “scored canvas”, if you
like, powerfully conveys the brutality and violence associated with the last journey of Christ. It
peaks at the Crucifixion, and then, as Christ alone hangs on the cross, the freneticism subsides
and a kind of exhausted tranquility takes over.”

Readers: Harrison Clark, Hilary Streever, Julie Wade

Thurifers: Carmen Germino, Matt Presson
Reception Coordinator: Gloria Prevatt
Reception Flowers: Loretta Miller

Our thanks to
The Richmond Chapter of the American Guild of Organists
for its support of this recital

Everyone is invited to greet Dr. Hamilton at a reception in Michaux House (across Birch St.) following the recital.
 Music at St. James’s

March 20 Palm Sunday

Sunday Cherub Choir, Children’s Choir, Youth Choir, Parish Choir
10:30 a.m. Music by Handel

March 24 Maundy Thursday

Thursday Parish Choir
7:00 p.m. Music by Duruflé and Mozart

March 25 Good Friday

Friday Chamber Singers
Noon and 7:00 p.m. Music by Gibbons

March 27 Easter Day

Sunday Festival Holy Eucharist with Trumpets and Timpani
9:00 a.m. & 11:15 a.m. Music by Purcell

April 24 Cantata and Awarding of Crosses and Ribbons

Sunday Youth Choir
11:15 a.m. Music by John Rutter, Noel Goëmanne and Gabriel Fauré

May 8 Awarding of Crosses and Ribbons

Sunday Cantata: Jonah-Man Jazz
9:00 a.m. Cherub Choir and Children’s Choir

May 22 Jazz Mass with the John Winn Group

Sunday Parish Choir and West Gallery Choir with the John Winn Group
10:00 a.m. Music by Mark Whitmire and Duke Ellington

June 1 Welcome Summer Recital

Wednesday Gus Highstein, Oboe, and Friends
7:00 p.m. Music by Benjamin Britten, Vaughan Williams and Oliver Knussen

June 8 Welcome Summer Recital: A Worcester Prelude

Wednesday A concert featuring music to be sung
7:00 p.m. during the choir residence at Worcester Cathedral, UK

June 15 Welcome Summer Recital

Wednesday Kevin Kwan
7:00 p.m. Organist at Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Norfolk

July 11-17 St. James’s Choir in Residence at Worcester Cathedral, UK

St. James’s Music Program

Dr. Mark A. Whitmire, Director of Music
Virginia Ewing Whitmire, Organist and Choir Director
Jeanne Lapierre, Children’s Choir Accompanist and Choir Librarian
 St. James’s Church
1205 W. Franklin Street, Richmond, Virginia 23220 804-355-1779
www.doers.org