Audio for this episode will be available Monday, April 14, 2025.

Sometimes we need a good cry. Music can provide a sonic environment for expressing grief. Singing texts of sorrow can bring people together and provide comfort during times of mourning. This hour, we’ll explore mourning practices through musical settings of the Book of Lamentations. Many of these settings were a part of holiday traditions—for the Jewish traditions surrounding Tisha b’Av and during parts of the Christian Holy Week. Plus, our featured recording is Carlo Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsoria, Feria quinta sung by Les Arts Florissants.

PLAYLIST

The flowering of Renaissance choral music
Pro Cantione Antiqua London, Bruno Turner
Deutsche Grammophon 2007 / 00028944566727
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Tr.74 Motet: Super flumina Babylonis (4:42)

Segment A:

The songs of Solomon: sacred vocal works in Hebrew
Corvina Consort
Hungaroton 2006 / HCD32350
Salamone Rossi
Tr.22 Psalm 137, "By the rivers of Babylon" (2:20)

La rocque 'n' roll: popular music of renaissance France
The Baltimore Consort
Dorian Sono Luminus 1993 / DOR-90177
Bourgeois, Loys / Goudimel, Claude / Strassbourg Psalter
Tr.15 Estans assis aux rives aquatiques (4:37)

Evening song: 16th-century songs, hymns & Psalms from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Ensemble Morgaine
Ayros 2020 / 5902768283112
Mikołaj Gomółka
Tr.1 Gomółka: Psalm 137, "Super flumina Babilonis" (By the Rivers of Babylon) (4:41)

Jewish voices in the New World: chants and prayers from the American colonial era
Ira L. Rohde, Schola Hebraeica, Neil Levin, The New London Children's Choir
Naxos 2003 / 8.559411
Traditional (Sephardic Trope Tradition)
Tr.3 Eikha - Book of Lamentations excerpt: 2:1-5 (2:41)
Traditional
Tr.10 Bore Ad Ana (5:10)

:59 Midpoint Break Music Bed:

Gřgoire Brayssing: Complete music for Renaissance guitar
Federico Rossignoli
Brilliant Classics 2022 / BC96448
Gřgoire Brayssing
Tr.12 Super flumina Babylonis (:59)

Segment B:

Lamentations de la Renaissance
Huelgas-Ensemble; Paul van Nevel, conductor.
Harmonia Mundi 1999 / HMC901682DI
Marbriano de Orto
Lamentatio Jeremie prophete (selections)
Tr.6 Incipit-Aleph (3:37)
Tr.7 Beth (2:50)
Tr.8 Ghimel (4:59)

Byrd, Tallis: English Renaissance
King’s Singers
RCA Victor 1995 / 090266800421
Thomas Tallis
Lamentations of Jeremiah (selections)
Tr.14 Daleth (3:07)
Tr.15 Hey (2:44)

Featured Release:

Gesualdo: Tenebrae responsaria, Feria quinta
Les Arts Florissants Ensemble; Paul Agnew
Harmonia Mundi 2023 / HAF8905363DI
Carlo Gesualdo
Tenebrae responsaria (excerpts)
Tr.4 Vau - Et egressus est a filia Sion (2:20)
Tr.5 Responsory - 1st Nocturne: Tristis est anima mea (4:53)