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Membra Jesu nostri, by D. Buxtehude
By the Choir Stella Maris of Brussels, directed by Father Bernard Lorber.

Dietrich Buxtehude, a German composer of Danish origin, was born in 1637, and died in 1707 in Lübeck. His religious cantatas, variously inspired, (he wrote more then 135) are written for smaller orchestras and choirs ; choirs and soloists alternate with instrumental “symphonies”, intended to depict thoroughly dramatic scenes.
The ornate vocal style, the small number of musicians, and the refusal of the large monumental choir developments relate these works to the Italian, and more particularly Venitian, sacred cantatas.

The cantata Membra Jesu nostri, composed about 1680, is a group of seven short cantatas, each of which describes a meditation on the sufferings of the body of Jesus Christ during His Passion.

Each part – relatively independent from the others – is broken down into an instrumental introduction, followed by a more or less regular alternation of soloists and choir ; the last part ends with a monumental Amen.

Inasmuch as the present version is more intended to be liturgical than concertante, we traded the repetitions of the soloist parts (they were often doubled in the original) with faux-bourdons of the choir.. Other fill-in arias - a natural thing in the baroque period – wera also similarly adapted.

The vocal faux-bourdon may be called “choir psalmody”. Its homophonic structure intends it to form a mere connecting element between more ornate parts, just as the scenery emphasizes the characters of a play.

These faux-bourdons were written by Frédéric Moreau-Saran in the spirit of the choral psalmodies of the XVIIth century.

The Latin poem of Membra Jesu nostri would presumably have been taken from Saint Bernard de Clairvaux’s Rythmica oratio. However, the rather free adaptation of the text seems to point out that it was altered at Buxtehude’s time, in order to fit better with the musical composition.

This recording was made in May 2000, further to two concerts given in Antwerp and Brussels, in March and April 2000. Membra Jesu nostri, under the same form, was also performed during a spiritual concert given by the same choir in St-Nicolas du Chardonnet in April 2001.

* Listen to extracts

Movement 1 (extract) : Ecce super montes


Movement 2 (extract) : Ad ubera


Movement 2 (extract) : Ut te quaeram


Movement 4 (extract) : Surge amica mia


Movement 5 (extract) : Pecctus mihi


Movement 7 (extract) : Illustra faciem


Movement 7 (extract) : Dum me esse