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Home » The latest » One Body

One Body

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Event details

Sunday, March 1, 2026
4:00 p.m.

The Parish of St. Mary
1 Phalanx Road
Colts Neck, NJ

Monmouth Civic Chorus presents Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri and accompanying modern works. Though perhaps not as widely known, Buxtehude was revered by the likes of Bach and Handel, and you will find this music both familiar and revelatory. The fresh sounds of companion pieces by living composers Caroline Shaw (To the Hands) and Zachary Wadsworth (To the Side) breathe new conversation into an ancient score. The chorus is joined by a specialist Baroque professional chamber ensemble.  

Tickets: Adult $42, Senior $37, Student $15, Group (10+) $31 with code “GROUP”

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Logistical details

  • Concert runtime is approximately 90 minutes, plus a short intermission
  • We recommend 6:00 p.m. or 6:15 p.m. dinner reservations
  • There is ample parking at the venue
  • Tickets are available at the door
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  • Program
  • Texts & Translations
  • Notes from our Artistic Director
  • Meet the artists
  • MCC members performing
  • Instrumentalists performing
  • In memoriam
  • A huge thanks to our donors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Please visit our local partners

Accessibility

By clicking on the stick figure in a blue circle on the right side of your screen, you can access accessibility features for this digital program such as larger text and higher contrast.

Program

Act 1

Membra Jesu nostri – Dieterich Buxtehude
I. Ad pedes
1. Sonata
2. Ecce super montes
3.a. Salve mundi salutare (Janice Liddy, soprano)
3.b. Clavos pedum (Micaelie Bremer, soprano)
3.c. Dulcis Jesu (Kenneth Budka, bass)
4. Ecce super montes
5. Salve mundi salutare
II. Ad genua
6. Sonata
7. Ad ubera portabimini
8.a. Salve Jesu (Matthew Kovach, tenor)
8.b. Quid sum tibi (Fiona Smith Sutherland, alto)
8.c. Ut te quaeram (Janet Rostad, Helen Steblecki, soprano 1; Deborah Macock, Carol A. Van Kirk, soprano 2; Kenneth Almquist, Daniel Hyman, bass)
9. Ad ubera portabimini
III. Ad manus
10. Sonata
11. Quid sunt plagae istae
12.a. Salve Jesu (Patti Carlisle D’Andrea, soprano)
12.b. Manus sanctae (Megan Delaney, soprano)
12.c. In cruore (Joan R. Kinney, alto; Kenneth Wasser, tenor; Victor Barbella, bass)
13. Quid sunt plagae istae

To the Hands – Caroline Shaw
I. Prelude
II. in medio / in the midst
III. Her beacon-hand beckons
IV. ever ever ever
V. Litany of the Displaced
VI. I will hold you

Intermission

Act 2

Membra Jesu nostri – Dieterich Buxtehude
IV. Ad latus
14. Sonata
15. Surge, surge
16.a. Salve latus (Elizabeth Bonuccelli, soprano)
16.b. Ecce tibi (Lindsay Abbot, alto; Matthew Izzo, tenor; Joseph Pisano, bass)
16.c. Hora mortis (Nicole Moran, soprano)
17. Surge, surge

To the Side – Zachary Wadsworth

Membra Jesu nostri – Dieterich Buxtehude
V. Ad pectus
18. Sonata
19. Sicut modo geniti
20.a. Salve, salus mea (Stephanie Palmer Bates, alto)
20.b. Pectus mihi (Douglas Clark, tenor)
20.c. Ave, verum (Andrew Bogdan, bass)
21. Sicut modo geniti

Were You There? – Traditional Spiritual, arr. Ryan Brandau with Steven Caldicott Wilson
(Caitlin deBrigard, soprano 1; Carolyn Gratzer Cope, soprano 2; Janet Breslin, alto)

Membra Jesu nostri – Dieterich Buxtehude
VII. Ad faciem
26. Sonata
27. Illustra faciem tuam
28.a. Salve, caput (Alissa Downey, Sarah Gillis, alto; Matthew Izzo, David P. Willis Jr., tenor; Ruairi O’Neill, Matthew Snodgrass, bass)
28.b. Dum me mori (James Scavone, alto)
28.c. Cum me jubes (Tutti)
29. Amen

Texts & Translations

Membra Jesu nostri

I. Ad pedes

Ecce super montes 
pedes evangelizantis 
et annunciantis pacem.

Salve mundi salutare, 
salve, salve Jesu care! 
Cruci tuae me aptare 
vellem vere, tu scis quare, 
da mihi tui copiam.

Clavos pedum, plagas duras, 
et tam graves impressuras 
circumplector cum affectu, 
tuo pavens in aspectu, 
tuorum memor vulnerum.

Dulcis Jesu, pie Deus, 
Ad te clamo licet reus, 
praebe mihi te benignum, 
ne repellas me indignum 
de tuis sanctis pedibus.

II. Ad genua

Ad ubera portabimini, 
et super genua blandicentur vobis.

Salve Jesu, rex sanctorum, 
spes votiva peccatorum, 
crucis ligno tanquam reus, 
pendens homo verus Deus, 
caducis nutans genibus.

Quid sum tibi responsurus, 
actu vilis corde durus? 
Quid rependam amatori, 
qui elegit pro me mori, 
ne dupla morte morerer.

Ut te quaeram mente pura, 
sit haec mea prima cura, 
non est labor et gravabor, 
sed sanabor et mundabor, 
cum te complexus fuero.

III. Ad manus

Quid sunt plagae istae 
in medio manuum tuarum?

Salve Jesu, pastor bone, 
fatigatus in agone, 
qui per lignum es distractus 
et ad lignum es compactus 
expansis sanctis manibus.

Manus sanctae, vos amplector, 
et gemendo condelector, 
grates ago plagis tantis, 
clavis duris guttis sanctis 
dans lacrymas cum osculis.

In cruore tuo lotum 
me commendo tibi totum, 
tuae sanctae manus istae 
me defendant, Jesu Christe, 
extremis in periculis.

IV. Ad latus

Surge, amica mea, speciosa mea, 
et veni, columba mea in foraminibus petrae, 
in caverna maceriae.

Salve latus salvatoris, 
in quo latet mel dulcoris, 
in quo patet vis amoris, 
ex quo scatet fons cruoris, 
qui corda lavat sordida.

Ecce tibi appropinquo,
parce, Jesu, si delinquo, 
verecunda quidem fronte,
ad te tamen veni sponte 
scrutari tua vulnera.

Hora mortis meus flatus 
intret Jesu, tuum latus, 
hinc expirans in te vadat,
ne hunc leo trux invadat, 
sed apud te permaneat.

V. Ad pectus

Sicut modo geniti infantes rationabiles, 
et sine dolo concupiscite, 
ut in eo crescatis in salutem. 
Si tamen gustatis, quoniam dulcis 
est Dominus.

Salve, salus mea, Deus, 
Jesu dulcis, amor meus, 
salve, pectus reverendum, 
cum tremore contingendum, 
amoris domicilium.

Pectus mihi confer mundum, 
ardens, pium, gemebundum, 
voluntatem abnegatam, 
tibi semper conformatam, 
juncta virtutum copia.

Ave, verum templum Dei, 
precor miserere mei, 
tu totius arca boni, 
fac electis me apponi, 
vas dives Deus omnium.

VII. Ad faciem

Illustra faciem tuam super servum tuum, 
salvum me fac in misericordia tua.

Salve, caput cruentatum, 
totum spinis coronatum, 
conquassatum, vulneratum, 
arundine verberatum 
facie sputis illita.

Dum me mori est necesse, 
noli mihi tunc deesse, 
in tremenda mortis hora 
veni, Jesu, absque mora,
tuere me et libera.

Cum me jubes emigrare,
Jesu care, tunc appare, 
o amator amplectende, 
temet ipsum tunc ostende 
in cruce salutifera.

Amen.

I. To the feet

Behold, upon the mountains 
the feet of one bringing good news 
and proclaiming peace.

Hail, salvation of the world, 
Hail, hail, dear Jesus! 
On your cross would I hang 
Truly, you know why 
Give me your strength.

The nails in your feet, the hard blows 
and so grievous marks 
I embrace with love, 
Fearful at the sight of you 
Mindful of your wounds.

Sweet Jesus, merciful God 
I cry to you, in my guilt 
Show me your grace, 
Turn me not unworthy away 
From your sacred feet.

II. To the knees

You will be brought to nurse 
and dandled on the knees.

Hail Jesus, King of Saints 
Hope of sinners’ prayers,
like an offender on the wood of the cross, 
a man hanging, true God, 
Bending on failing knees!

Hail Jesus, King of Saints 
Hope of sinners’ prayers,
like an offender on the wood of the cross, 
a man hanging, true God, 
Bending on failing knees!

That I may seek you with pure heart, 
Be my first care, 
It is no labour nor shall I be loaded down: 
But I shall be cleansed, 
When I embrace you.

III. To the hands

What are those wounds 
in the midst of your hands?

Hail, Jesus, good shepherd, 
wearied in agony, 
tormented on the cross 
nailed to the cross 
your sacred hands stretched out.

Holy hands, I embrace you,
and, lamenting, I delight in you, 
I give thanks for the terrible wounds,
the hard nails, the holy drops, 
shedding tears with kisses.

Washed in your blood 
I wholly entrust myself to you; 
may these holy hands of yours 
defend me, Jesus Christ, 
in the final dangers.

IV. To the sides

Arise, my love, my beautiful one, 
and come, my dove in the clefts 
of the rock, in the hollow of the cliff.

Hail, side of the Savior, 
in which the honey of sweetness is hidden, 
in which the power of love is exposed, 
from which gushes the spring of blood
that cleans the dirty hearts.

Lo I approach you, 
Pardon, Jesus, if I sin, 
With reverent countenance
freely I come to you 
to behold your wounds.

In the hour of death, may my soul 
Enter, Jesus, your side 
Hence dying may it go into you, 
Lest the cruel lion seize it, 
But let it dwell with you.

V. To the breast

Like newborn infants, 
long for the guileless milk of reason, 
that by it you may grow into salvation, 
if indeed you have tasted
that the Lord is good.

Hail God, my salvation, 
sweet Jesus, my beloved, 
hail, breast to be revered, 
to be touched with trembling, 
dwelling of love.

Give me a clean breast, 
ardent, pious, moaning, 
an abnegated will, 
always conforming to you, 
with an abundance of virtues.

Hail, true temple of God, 
I pray, have mercy on me, 
You, the ark of all that is good, 
make me be placed with the chosen, 
rich vessel, God of all.

VII. To the face

Let your face shine upon your servant, 
save me in your mercy.

Hail, bloodied head, 
all crowned with thorns, 
beaten, wounded, 
struck with a cane, 
the face soiled with spit.

When I must die, 
do not then be away from me, 
in the anxious hour of death 
come, Jesus, without delay,
protect me and set me free!

When you command me to depart, 
dear Jesus, then appear,
O lover to be embraced,
then show yourself 
on the cross that brings salvation.

Amen.

To the Hands

I. Prelude (no text)

II. in medio / in the midst

quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum
quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum nostrum

what are those wounds in the midst of your hands
what are those wounds in the midst of our hands

III. Her beacon-hand beckons

Her beacon-hand beckons:
give to me
those yearning to breathe free
tempest-tossed they cannot see
what lies beyond the olive tree
whose branch was lost amid the pleas
for mercy
give to me
your tired fighters fleeing flying
from the –
I will be your refuge
we will be your refuge

IV. ever ever ever

ever ever ever
in the window sills or
the beveled edges
of the aging wooden frames that hold
old photographs
hands folded
folded
gently in her lap

ever ever
in the crevices
the never-ending efforts of
the grandmother’s tendons tending
to her bread and empty chairs
left for Elijahs
where are they now

in caverna (in the hollow)

V. Litany of the Displaced

The numbers spoken are the numbers of internally displaced persons by country, in ascending order. These are people, some of whom may have legal refugee status, who have been displaced within their own country due to armed conflict, situations of generalized violence or violations of human rights.

VI. I will hold you

I would hold you
I will love you
I will hold you
ever ever will I hold you
ever ever will I enfold you

in medio manuum tuarum
(in the midst of your hands)

To the Side

O love, love, love,
At thy feet,
By thy side,
My hand if only resting in thine:
See, I am so little, I ask so little —
If thou wilt take this little overflowing cup
Into thy great ocean.

“Surge, amica mea, speciosa mea, et veni, columba mea, in foraminibus petrae…”

“Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come,
my turtledove, into the cleft of the rock…”


O, love, love, love,
Since I was a little child, and till I die, the same.
Nothing I reserve —
I am so little and I ask so little:
If thou wilt take this little overflowing cup
Into thy great ocean.

“Surge, amica mea, speciosa mea, et veni, columba mea, in foraminibus petrae…”

“Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come,
my turtledove, into the cleft of the rock…”


Child of the lonely heart,
O clinging supplicating soul,
Blindly yearning, darkly exploring,
Through the great Mother-heart eternally ascending.

Were You There?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Notes from our Artistic Director

Dieterich Buxtehude loomed so large over the German musical scene in the late seventeenth century that in 1705, young Johann Sebastian Bach requested leave from his post in Arnstadt and traveled 250 miles—on foot—to Lübeck, in northern Germany, to learn from him. Buxtehude had become the organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck when he was only thirty. He would remain there for nearly forty years, until his death in 1707. This longstanding plum position afforded Buxtehude the chance to indulge his entrepreneurial instincts, building a solo career as an organ virtuoso and acting as a manger-impresario to organize a successful concert series. His keyboard works garnered admiration for their display of contrapuntal virtuosity, his innovative vocal works pushed the boundaries of scale and genre, and his study of instruments burnished his credentials as a master of both theory and practice.

Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri demonstrates his craft and polish. Its innovative concept defies easy classification. Perhaps the best way to describe it is as a Passion-reflection for Holy Week. Unlike the passions of Bach, which relay the biblical story directly, with pauses in the narrative for reflective arias, Buxtehude’s work is contemplative and non-narrative. The full title of the work, Membra Jesu Nostri Patientis Sanctissima, translates literally: Most Holy Members of Our Suffering Jesus. It comprises a cycle of seven cantatas, each one dedicated to a different body part of Christ on the cross: It begins at his feet and works upward from knees, hands, side, breast, and heart, finally, to his face. Each cantata has six sections: 1. An opening instrumental sonata, which establishes the prevailing mood and key; 2. A movement for chorus and instruments in concerto-style dialogue based on a short biblical passage; 3.–5. A series of three arias based on strophic poetry, with instrumental ritornellos between each; and 6. A repeat of the choral movement.

The non-Biblical portions of the work’s text come from a medieval Latin poem, Salve Mundi Salutare, very popular in Germany during Buxtehude’s lifetime. The gruesome and graphic subject matter—fatal torture by crucifixion—inspired poetry imbued with a sense of passionate devotion that is almost startling to the modern reader. Buxtehude wrote on the title-page of the manuscript score that the work should be “sung with the humblest devotion of the whole heart.” His choice of text reflects some of the trends in German Lutheranism at that time. Meditations on the Passion were understood to involve reciprocal love: Christ’s immense love for mankind, exemplified in his sacrifice, begat love for the dying bridegroom, admiration for the physical body on the cross, and desire for eventual union after death. The earlier part of the seventeenth century saw a resurgence in medieval mysticism, and the notion of the unio mystica (mystical union), an almost corporeal union of the believer and Christ, is echoed in the poetry Buxtehude chose for Membra.

Armed with the expressive devices burgeoning in seventeenth- century musical style, a composer could employ musical gestures to exploit the colorful imagery of these texts. Indeed, the opening sonatas and choral movements of each cantata establish a pervasive atmosphere by repeating rhetorical gestures in the music. But in the arias, where the poetic texts teem with passionate devotion, Buxtehude shows restraint. His deft syllabification and phrasing create effortlessly flowing vocal lines that transmit the seductively rounded rhymes directly. The trio sonata instrumental texture of two solo violins and continuo adds to the intimate character. Taken as a whole, the set of cantatas compels the fervent believer to view the scene at the cross and see reflected back not death itself but freedom from death through Christ’s great sacrifice.

Today’s program presents the Buxtehude’s seventeenth-century masterpiece alongside very recent works by living composers Caroline Shaw and Zachary Wadsworth. By embracing older musical styles and translating them into their own musical language, these two composers help us fulfill our mission in a direct way, as their works were, in fact, written explicitly as reflections on Buxtehude’s work. They integrate direct quotations into their own music, which reflects and refracts Buxtehude’s. In my own experience, discovering which musical gestures the imaginations of these living composers zeroed in on has broken open my own listening and exposed new resonances in the ancient score. Putting new works in dialogue with the Buxtehude has revivified it, from a museum artifact that we try to present faithfully, to a living, breathing, porous musical expression. Today’s program will alternate between cantatas from the Buxtehude, the works of these two composers, and an arrangement of my own.

The first cantata, Ad pedes (To the Feet), opens with two strong C minor chords that throw back the curtain on the unfolding scene. A noble, insistent motive introduced in the violins points upward. The choir echoes it, singing “Behold! Up on the mountains come the feet of one bringing good tidings.” Buxtehude’s music bids us look from low to high, to take in not just the pierced feet, but the entire scene on Calvary, to find in the ghastly sight a sign of hope and peace. The solo arias proclaim the embrace of the pained body on the cross (“With what ardor I embrace those nails which pierce Thy blessed feet!”)

The second cantata’s point of focus rises from the feet to the knees (Ad genua). The knees aren’t pierced and bloody, like the feet, but bent gently in the weariness of death. Buxtehude’s music and choice of text again find a brighter meaning in the dark scene at the cross. The lilting triple-time choral movement, in a warm E-flat major, sets a text from Isaiah: “You will be brought to nurse, and dandled on her knees.” In the opening sonata, to evoke a doting intimacy like that between mother and baby (or the believer and Christ), Buxtehude employs a technique he reserves for the most special moments: The violins play the sonata in tremulo, gently nudging the pulse along with their bows, through beautiful harmonic sequences. It’s a wholly different atmosphere from the opening of the first cantata.

The third of Buxtehude’s cantatas, Ad manus, contemplates the hands of the crucified Christ. With our hands, we touch, we feel, we grasp, we greet. The hands of Christ on the cross, of course, are driven through with nails, pierced, and bloody. The wound on a body part of such importance and such intimacy is deeply felt, and communicated in Buxtehude’s opening sonata and choral movement with a repeated eighth-note figure evoking nails and anguished dissonances on the word plagae (“wounds”). Rhythm takes a back seat to harmony, and Buxtehude indulges repeatedly in the pain and pleasure of dissonance followed by consonant release. The music asks: “What are those wounds in your hands?” I’m always impressed, when I conduct this piece, how perfectly a beat, or a measure of rest, conveys the question mark.

Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands picks up on that questioning silence and uses it as a point of access. She was commissioned by The Crossing to compose a response to Buxtehude’s third cantata, Ad manus. Here are her own notes about the work:

“To the Hands begins inside the seventeenth-century sound of Buxtehude. It expands and colors and breaks this language as the piece’s core considerations—of the suffering of those around the world seeking refuge, and of our role and responsibility in these global and local crises—gradually come into focus.

The prelude turns the tune of Ad manus into a wordless plainchant melody, punctured later by the strings’ introduction of an unsettling pattern. The second movement fragments Buxtehude’s choral setting of the central question, “Quid sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum,” or “what are these wounds in the midst of your hands?” It settles finally on an inversion of the question, so that we reflect, “What are these wounds in the midst of our hands?” We notice what may have been done to us, but we also question what we have done and what our role has been in these wounds we see before us.

The text that follows in the third movement is a riff on Emma Lazarus’ sonnet The New Colossus, famous for its engraving at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The poem’s lines, “Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” and its reference to the statue’s “beacon-hand” present a very different image of a hand—one that is open, beckoning, and strong. No wounds are to be found there—only comfort for those caught in a dangerous and complex environment.

While the third movement operates in broad strokes from a distance, the fourth zooms in on the map so closely that we see the intimate scene of an old woman in her home, maybe setting the table for dinner alone. Who is she, where has she been, whose lives has she left? This simple image melts into a meditation on the words in caverna from the Song of Solomon, found in Buxtehude’s fourth cantata, Ad latus.

In the fifth movement the harmony is passed around from one string instrument to another, overlapping only briefly, while numerical figures are spoken by the choir. These are global figures of internally displaced persons, by country, sourced from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) data reported in May 2015 (accessed on 20/03/2016 at www.internal-displacement.org). Sometimes data is the cruelest and most honest poetry.

The sixth and final movement unfolds the words in caverna into the tumbling and comforting promise of “ever ever”—“ever ever will I hold you, ever ever will I enfold you.” They could be the words of Christ, or of a parent or friend or lover, or even of a nation.”

To my ear, To the Hands, like other vocal works by Caroline Shaw, teems with humanity. She finds the essential, expressive qualities of the human voice and uses them to communicate, with or without words. She writes with an awareness that choral singing is an act of community. And through her melding of word and sound, she has created a piece through which we might start to think about issues in our world. She has said, “I think there’s something about engaging with political issues specifically in choral music because it’s a very community-oriented art. There is, or at least there used to be, a really great tradition of community choirs around the world. You can write something that people sing together and talk about with each other, and that’s where the conversations have to start.”

Buxtehude’s fourth cantata, Ad latus (To the Side), reimagines the pierced flank of Christ on the cross, dripping with blood, as a cleft in a rock face in which a dove might find refuge. The poetry for the first aria hails “my dearest Savior’s side, wherein the sweetest honey lies, wherein the might of love is seen, and whence doth gush a fount of blood to cleanse the soiled heart of man.” Buxtehude crafts music that reflects this positive, redemptive spin on suffering by employing a dance-like rhythmic profile. In the opening sonata, the strings leap up and down. The chorus, with a text from the Song of Songs, repeats “Surge, surge”—“Arise, arise.”

This “surge” gesture features prominently in To the Side, by Zachary Wadsworth. Standing next to each other in an ensemble in graduate school, Zachary and I discovered a mutual admiration for Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri. When choosing a composer to commission for an earlier concert, I immediately thought of him. He wrote, of creating this piece:

“I fell in love with Buxtehude’s piece when I first sang it (with Ryan Brandau!) in the Yale Schola Cantorum about a decade ago. At the time, I remember feeling that it was an incredibly tangible piece—from the topic (Christ’s body) to the textures of the music and its almost dance-like rhythms, the piece seemed to explore the sacred through the lens of the living. So, after a long search, I found a wonderful text by the English poet Edward Carpenter that has a similar focus on the body. Using this poem, and combining it with quotations from the Buxtehude, I had a great time exploring how the lovely sounds of the Baroque can permeate and define a piece of contemporary music.”

Additionally, Wadsworth offers the following note about To the Side:
“Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri forces us to gaze long and hard at the body of the crucified Christ. In To the Side, I combine a quotation from this piece with a portion of a poem by the English poet Edward Carpenter, who was also a philosopher and an early advocated of homosexual rights. Carpenter’s poetry, like portions of the biblical text quoted here, blur lines between religious devotion and secular love. For every painful and pleasurable stab of Carpenter’s poetry, I inject painful and pleasurable dissonances into the string lines, as the chorus searches for a place removed from this great, turbulent ocean.”

Wadsworth connects the surge (“arise”) to his poet’s oceanic imagery. After two tidal wave crescendos crash ashore as quotations from Buxtehude and then retreat, the music calms. The upper voices of the chorus sing the beginning of the third stanza, “Child of the lonely heart,” simply, barely accompanied, “blindly yearning, darkly exploring,” as if dipping only a toe into the water. After a contemplative pause, the full chorus, divided now into eight parts, wades all the way in. The texture finds new depths as the chorus submerges completely into the warmth of D major, and eddies on “to the great Mother-heart” enfold us in their gentle swirl.

Buxtehude’s fifth cantata, Ad pectus (To the Breast), centers on an intimate meditation on Christ’s breast as a symbol of spiritual refuge, nourishment, and mystical union. Using only the lower three voices (alto, tenor, bass) Buxtehude adopts a warm, contemplative affect, using gentle rhythmic motion, consonant harmonies, expressive suspensions, and flowing melodic lines to evoke rest and tenderness rather than suffering. Compared to more dramatic movements in the cycle, Ad pectus marks an emotional turning point, transforming the Passion narrative into an inward experience of love and spiritual closeness.

Like Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, the African-American spiritual Were You There? features a speaker contemplating the scene at the cross. Though it originates in a time and place entirely different from those of the Buxtehude and our contemporary compositions, the hymn, with its memorable melisma on “Oh!” seems to draw from the same spiritual source that inspired Salve Mundi Salutare and Buxtehude’s setting of it.

In Buxtehude’s sixth cantata, Ad cor (To the Heart), not heard this afternoon, the speakers of the poem dedicate their hearts to Christ, and in the seventh and final cantata, Ad facie (To the Face), our gaze has at last reached Christ’s face, bloodied by thorns, wet with spiteful spit. As before, the harrowing scene harbors a message of hope. The opening chorus, drawn from Psalm 31, asks Christ to shine his face upon us, and save us in his mercy. An alto solo beckons: “When that hour that I must die shall come . . . Come, Lord Jesus . . . protect me then and set me free!” The final stanza of the entire work goes not to a soloist but to the chorus, who ask together: “And when thou bid’st my soul to flee, O sweetest Jesus, then stand by me. In that hour in love embrace me; Show thy blessed Face to me Upon your sweet and saving Cross.” Buxtehude allows the music to dance with the sing-song rhyme of the Latin. By setting the last piece of poetry as a five-part chorus, Buxtehude starts to shift the perspective of the work to the universal. Then, rather than repeat the choral movement as he has in every other cantata, Buxtehude balances the entire work with a musical bookend in the form of an elegant Amen.

Though nearly 340 years old, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri still has the capacity to evoke an emotional response. This flows in part from Buxtehude’s embedding intimate, individual yearning in a richer musical context, which highlights the subjectivity. The multifaceted significance of the body part in question, contemplated by the solo aria singer, is illuminated by the pervasive affekt of the surrounding choral and instrumental material. Shaw and Wadsworth, too, build intensity with the play between first-person texts and the larger musical fabric. Shaw’s brilliant inversion of “your hands” to “our hands” comes to mind. Both Shaw and Wadsworth pick up on the image of the caverna, the “cleft in the rock,” a small place of refuge, real or imagined, perhaps a secret chamber of the heart, or the curl of an outstretched hand, or the very grooves on a palm.

There’s something very engaging and inviting about the way these composers write, and the way they’ve chosen to begin and end their pieces. Their compositions contain echoes of much older music and yet sparkle with fresh, idiosyncratic sounds. At the end of Wadsworth’s composition, out of the oceanic depth of the “great Mother-heart,” the chorus floats up to a suspended, unresolved chord on the word “ascending,” which evaporates into a single violin sound. The piece ends as it began, with instruments leaning on each other in dissonance and resolving into silence. Shaw’s final movement draws to a sumptuous close on a fortissimo D major chord but it, too, segués to a lone, brittle violin sound, padding its way forward.

By taking their beginning music from the past, and ending with ellipses, these composers signal their awareness that their compositions don’t make a definitive statement so much as contribute to a centuries-old, still ongoing conversation. Like Buxtehude, they play with the power of music not to manipulate but to engage, and to reveal further meaning. Whether contemplating Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, or suggesting the sacrifices we have made on other’s behalves, whether yearning for the love of Christ or the love of one’s fellow man, hearing this music gives us a mirror in which to see ourselves reflected, and carves a cleft in time for a few moments of musical refuge.

– RJB

Become a virtuoso

Once per season, patrons have the opportunity to directly sponsor one or more of our musicians. For One Body, we’d love to have you join us — not just as an audience member, but also as one of the forces behind the music.

Please consider sponsoring our Artistic Director Dr. Ryan James Brandau, Composers Caroline Shaw and Zachary Wadsworth, an instrumentalist, a featured vocalist, a behind-the-scenes volunteer, an individual chorus member, or the entire chorus. You can find more details and make a donation online by clicking the button below. Or if you prefer to contribute by mail, you can download a form here. Thank you!

DONATE NOW

Meet the artists

Dr. Ryan Brandau in a tuxedo

Among audiences, MCC Artistic Director Ryan James Brandau is best known for dynamic and uplifting choral and orchestral performances, whether he himself is at the podium or his arrangements on the program. The New York Times hailed his recent debut appearance at Trinity Church Wall Street, conducting its iconic annual Messiah, “the gold standard” against which others “paled in comparison.” For both expert and new listeners, his interpretations are at once resplendent with the past and resonant with the present, earning the Times’ praise as “urgent and eloquent,” “burning and gladdening,” “intimate, alternately sober and joyous,” and, most essential to Ryan’s pervasive artistic intent, “modest yet monumental.”  

Among musicians, he is perhaps better known for a clarity of vision and mastery of craft that is uncommonly equaled by a commitment to collaboration with vocalists and instrumentalists — a potent alchemy that not only produces music of the highest level, but invites participation in his music-made joy.  

In New York City, he is the founder and Director of Res Facta, a vocal ensemble bringing together 14 of the city’s finest professional vocalists, and the longtime Artistic Director of Amor Artis, a chamber choir and Baroque orchestra, which specializes in bridging the Renaissance and Baroque to the present day. He is also the Artistic Director of the symphonic chorus and orchestra, Princeton Pro Musica — winner of the 2021 American Prize in Choral Performance — and Monmouth Civic Chorus, both in New Jersey.

In addition to leading his own ensembles, he has prepared choruses for the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony.

As a choral and orchestral arranger, Ryan is equal parts artistic innovator and technical practitioner, taking pride in works that are as rewarding for musicians as they are for audiences. His expansive holiday repertoire in particular is lauded as “inventive,” “unfailingly gratifying,” and “in a class by itself” by the directors, vocalists, and instrumentalists of the many volunteer to professional ensembles that showcase their best through his well-crafted arrangements and meticulous orchestrations.

And as a lover and scholar of music, he is committed to collaboration with emerging artists and educational organizations, cross-cultural exploration, and building bridges for new audiences by presenting classical works in dialogue with contemporary themes and new music.  
Ryan has taught and conducted at Westminster Choir College, Santa Clara University, and Smith College. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music, a Master of Philosophy in Historical Musicology from Cambridge University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Princeton University.

He lives in New York City with his husband, Ian, and his dog, Tux.

MCC members performing

Soprano

Kristen Babcock
Elizabeth Bonuccelli
Linda A. Boyce
Micaelie Bremer
Hillary Critelli
Patti Carlisle D’Andrea
Caitlin deBrigard
Megan Delaney
Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern
Carol Hsu
Barbara H. Jacomme
Joan R. Kinney
Lisa M. Kirby
Janice Liddy
Sandra Liddy Papp
Deborah Macock
Pat Miller
Nicole Moran
Peggy Noecker
Christine Psolka
Janet Rostad
Helen Steblecki
Carol A. Van Kirk
Martie Viets
Hui-Ling Wu

Alto

Lindsay Abbot
Carol Andrew
Kathleen Blinn
Jenni Blumenthal
Janet Breslin
Brielle Brown
Carolyn Gratzer Cope
Suzanne Costello
Celeste Credle
Lilaia DeFilippis
Patricia Dowens
Alissa Downey
Gabriella Estrada
Sarah Gillis
Becky Gorman
Susan Gorsky
Deb Hoffman
Joanne Kelsey
Kari Martin
Susan Metz
Janine Nehila
Angelina O’Neill
Stephanie Palmer Bates
Clare Resnick
Jacqueline Schreiber
Fiona Smith Sutherland
Linda Wasser
Kathleen Woolston

Tenor

Tom Burlington
Douglas Clark
Marshall Gorman
James Harbison
Matthew Izzo
Matthew Kovach
George Liddy
Ray Ritchie
James Scavone
Richard Stanton
David P. Willis Jr.

Bass

Kenneth Almquist
Victor Barbella
Andrew Bogdan
Leyland Brenner
Kenneth Budka
James J. Green
Daniel Hyman
Robert E. Kelly
John Luard
Kelly Morgan
Ruairi O’Neill
Richard F. Oppenheim
Joseph Pisano
Darnell Robinson
Matthew Snodgrass
Richard Sorrentino
Kenneth Wasser
Gordon Wu

Instrumentalists performing

Violin 1

Theresa Salomon
Tatiana Daubek
Jeremy Rhizor

Violin 2

Marina Fragoulis
Claire Smith Bermingham
Jude Ziliak

Viola

Alissa Smith

Cello

Sarah Stone

Bass

Tony Falanga

Organ

Kerry Heimann

In memoriam

Monmouth Civic Chorus mourns the passing of our beloved tenor Daniel Ford, and former member, president, and founder of the MCC Scholarship program, Joanie Oram. Our thoughts are with their families.

A huge thanks to our donors

We are deeply grateful for the generous and continuous financial support we receive from our donors. These contributions allow us to organize and hold concerts like this one. Through the Scholarship Fund we have supported many young artists throughout the years.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Virtuoso Fund

Maestro ($500 +) Sponsoring Artistic Director Dr. Ryan Brandau

The Doctor’s Company – Napa, CA
Nicole Moran
Dr. Mark Shapiro
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, New York, NY, in honor of Hui-Ling and Gordon Wu
Kathy Woolston
Hui-Ling and Gordon Wu

Artist ($250) Sponsoring the Shaw and Wadsworth Companion Works

The Cope Family
Susan Gorsky
Jim and Sue Harbison
Susan Metz
Carol Van Kirk, in support of the many Featured Soloists

Instrumentalist ($200) Sponsoring the Guest Musicians

Stephanie Palmer Bates
The Cope Family – we are so lucky to work with our extraordinary instrumentalists
Steve D’Andrea – proud of my wife Patti for all she does for MCC 
Pat Miller, in honor of Carol Van Kirk

Chorister ($150) Sponsoring a Featured Soloist of the Chorus

Andrew, Hannah and Tess Bates, sponsoring Stephanie Palmer-Bates
Peter Breslin, sponsoring Janet Brelin
Paul Chalifour, sponsoring Jim Scavone
Doris Clark, in honor of Doug Clark – my favorite tenor whose voice still gives me goosebumps
Steve D’Andrea – proud of my wife Patti for all she does for MCC
Becky and Marshall Gorman
Anthony and Carol Pisano, sponsoring Joe Pisano

Producer ($125) Sponsoring MCC’s behind the scenes Volunteers

Kathy Woolston

Friend ($100) Sponsoring an Individual Chorus Member

Victor Barbella, with gratitude for being part of the MCC vocal virtuosos!
Mary Batistick, in memory of Laura Elliot
John Dowens, in the name of Jac Dowens, in honor of my wife, Pat, celebrating 50 years with MCC
William and Jean Fiorelli, to honor Joe Pisano for his ongoing dedication to MCC
Geoffrey Johnson, to sponsor Joe Pisano
Janice Liddy
Deborah Macock, in memory of Dwight Macock
Allison Mansour, sponsoring Carolyn Cope
Steve and Pat Miller
Luzia and Salvatore Nicosia, in honor of Patti D’Andrea
Fiona Sutherland
Wayne and Carol Smith, in honor of Becky and Marshall Gorman

Fan (up to $99)

Diane and Paul Dragone
Karen Fisher, in honor of Matthew Kovack

MCC Annual support

Angel ($1,200+)

Stephanie and Andrew Bates
The Cope Family
Anne and Daniel Ford
John Chen-Han Lee M.D., on behalf of Hui-Ling and Gordon Wu
Pat and Steven Miller
Marilyn and Joel Morgovsky
Joe Pisano and Steven Russell
The Quinn Family, in memory of Fran and Dick Costello
James Scavone and Paul Chalifour
Leegen and Thomas Wu

Donor ($600 – $1,199)

Kathleen Blinn
Jenni and Ralph Blumenthal
Janet and Peter Breslin
Pat and Jac Dowens
Teri Lindstrom
Deborah Macock
Susan Metz
Warren Moe
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
Martie Viets and Phil Carter
Hui-Ling and Gordon Wu

Sponsor ($300 – $599)

Dr. and Mrs. David and Donna Brandau
Doug and Doris Clark
Patti and Steve D’Andrea
Kenneth Fiorelli, in honor of chorus member William Fiorelli
Becky and Marshall Gorman
Ann Gratzer, in honor of Carolyn Gratzer Cope
Jim and Sue Harbison
Marcie Horowitz and Margaret Maloney
Brian and Joelle Kelly Family Foundation
Maura Marcus and Craig Nohl
Petrina M. Picerno
Ray and Anita Ritchie
Kathy Woolston

Patron ($150 – $299)

Anonymous
Alice Berman
Hillary and Sean Critelli
William and Jean Fiorelli
Gilded Lily Florist
Susan Gorsky
Deb Hoffman, in memory of Tom Hoffman
Kathy Horgan, in honor of Jim Scavone
Greg and Joan Kinney
George Liddy
Chris Ondrak
Clare Resnick
Dr. James Schmitt
Dr. Carol A. Van Kirk, Ph.D.

Friend (up to $149)

Anonymous
Glen Baird
Steve Bowman
Richard and Sally Chrisman
John DeNicola
JoAnn Dow-Breslin
Arnaldo Galassi
Dr. Connie Goddard
Stephan A. Heinlen, in memory of Michail J. Heinlein
Victoria Iannarone
Helen Kim
John Luard
Patricia Manno
Kari Martin
Luzia Nicosia
Charles Parr
Natalie Pawlenko
Jacqueline Schreiber, in memory of my father, MCC supporter Robert W. Schreiber
Ellen Toomey

MCC Endowment Fund

$20,000

Mike Huber, in memoriam
Gerald and Susan Metz

$10,000 +

In memory of Mary Ann Greco
Estate of Eileen McAndrew 
Deborah Macock

$5,000 +

Leland dePlanque, in memoriam 
A Friend 
Lucent Technologies 
Deborah and Dwight Macock

$3,000 +

Estate of Laurine E O’Neil

$1,000 +

Ralph and Jenni Blumenthal
Sydney Kindler in memory of Matthew Picerno
In memory of Ivar and Allene Lindstrom

Under $1,000

AT&T 
Patti and Steve D’Andrea
Steven Doyle, in honor of his wife Helen Steblecki
Susan Levantino
Joe Pisano, in honor of Carol Van Kirk’s 75th birthday
Dr. James Schmitt
Roger Zurro

Gerald Metz Scholarship Endowment Fund

If you’re looking for an especially meaningful way to support MCC and talented young musicians in NJ, we encourage you to consider donating to this new scholarship fund. Longtime MCC member Jerry Metz had a profound impact on the lives of countless musicians, and we are honored to be able to continue that legacy with your help.

$36,000

Susan Metz — in memory of Jerry Metz

Under $1,000

Dr. and Mrs. David and Donna Brandau
Richard and Sally Chrisman
Patti and Steve D’Andrea
Ted Diesenhaus and Deeanne Shapiro
Gabriella Estrada
Ann Gratzer, in honor of Carolyn Gratzer Cope
Laura and Barry Green
Warren Moe
Fiona Sutherland
Hui-Ling Wu

MCC Scholarship Fund

Under $1,000

Basil Baccash
Patti and Steve D’Andrea
Connie Goddard
Umami Girl
Hui-Ling and Gordon Wu
Roger Zurro

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Printing2Go for providing exceptional service at every turn. You make our season possible.

MCC Board

President: James Scavone
Vice President: Janet Breslin
Secretary: Stephanie Palmer Bates
Treasurer: Joseph Pisano
Financial Development: Joan Kinney
Financial Operations: Michele Critelli
Marketing: Carolyn Gratzer Cope
Membership: Martie Viets
Music: Kenneth Budka
Production: Brian Shapiro
Scholarship: Sandra Liddy Papp
Technology: Heather Daniels
Registered Agent: Jenni Blumenthal

Concert production crew

Music Manager: Kenneth Budka
Production Manager: Brian Shapiro
Marketing Manager: Carolyn Gratzer Cope
Ticket Manager: Hui-Ling Wu 
Database Manager: Kathy Woolston
House Manager: Doris Clark
Digital Program Manager: Jacqueline Schreiber
Program Designer: Micaelie Bremer

Please visit our local partners

Big thanks to the local businesses supporting our concert. Please click on their logos to learn more, and let them know MCC sent you if you pay them a visit.

Category: Events
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Monmouth Civic Chorus, P.O. Box 16, Red Bank, NJ 07701 | 732.933.9333
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Monmouth Civic Chorus is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.