Column: From Heavenly Harmony
Christus Victoriae
by Ken Myers
The medieval city of Ávila, seventy miles northwest of Madrid, is best known to Christians as the birthplace of St. Teresa de Jesus, the sixteenth-century Carmelite nun, mystic, and reformer. Captured by Moors in a.d. 714, the city was retaken by Christian forces in 1088, after which a network of massive stone walls and towers was constructed to protect the city and its new cathedral, construction of which began around 1091. The apse of the cathedral is one of the turrets in the city walls, possibly evoking echoes of Psalm 46 to generations of believers: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."
Ávila may be the same city as ancient Abula, evangelized by the first-century missionary martyr bishop St. Secundus, who was traditionally numbered among the Seven Apostolic Men commissioned by Saints Peter and Paul to preach to the two Roman provinces of Hispania. Even if the identification of Ávila with Abula is incorrect, it seems that Ávila is a place where Christians have been active in the spiritual combat of prayer and worship for a long time.
Mystical Intensity
In 1548, a boy was born in Ávila whose disciplined musical imagination in service of the Church continues to convey a deep sense of the same mysteries beheld by St. Teresa. If you know only one work composed by Tómas Luis de Victoria, it is probably the Christmas motet, O Magnum Mysterium. The great mystery of the Nativity described in this ancient text is "that animals should see the new-born Lord lying in a manger!" Animals! The fleshy reality of the Incarnation was confirmed one night by a cloud of furry witnesses.
Victoria's setting of this ancient and provocative text displays a hint of the mystical intensity that characterizes much of his music. His compositions frequently employ tense dissonances that resolve to open harmonies in modes that are neither "major" nor "minor" in the modern sense, evoking the Mediterranean influence of Spain's Moorish past. These harmonic features, combined with his skill in interweaving multiple melodic lines, provided Victoria with an apt musical vocabulary for conveying the awe and fearful wonder that great mysteries command. It is no surprise, then, that Victoria is often associated with his mystical compatriot St. Teresa, as well as with his contemporary and fellow Spaniard El Greco.
Victoria was a deeply pious man. Trained as a chorister at the Ávila cathedral from the age of 10, he studied composition and counterpoint as well as keyboard until his late teens. In 1567 he was sent to Rome to study at the Jesuit Collegium Germanicum, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola to combat Lutheranism. Eventually taking minor orders of lector and exorcist, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1575, all the while composing and publishing music, training choirs, and singing and playing at services in churches in Rome.
Music for Holy Week
In 1585, Victoria published a remarkable collection of music for use in Holy Week, the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae. This musical anthology included eighteen Tenebrae Responsories, the nine Lessons from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, two sets of Passion choruses, hymns, motets, and other music to be used liturgically from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday. It is the most complete body of work for Holy Week by any Renaissance composer, and the theological and dramatic power of the texts for this climactic season is equaled by the expressive dynamic of his music.
Most striking are the eighteen Responsories, six for each evening from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday. The texts for Maundy Thursday appropriately focus on the betrayal of Jesus, and most of them are written in first person from the point of view of the suffering Lamb of God. The first, Amicus Meus, begins with these anguished sentiments:
The sign by which my friend betrayed me was a kiss: The one I kiss, he is your man; hold him fast. This was the evil sign he gave, and through a kiss murder he wrought. The wretch returned the price of blood, and in the end he hanged himself. It would have been good for that man had he never been born.
Ken Myers is the host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Formerly an arts editor with National Public Radio, he also serves as music director at All Saints Anglican Church in Ivy, Virginia. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
29.1—Jan/Feb 2016
on Marriage, Moral Corruption & the Christian Duty of Witness by Regis Nicoll
27.2—March/April 2014
Higher Education Should Advance the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God by Anthony Esolen
32.4—July/August 2019
Does Biblical Language for Man Matter? by Stephen F. Noll
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
