20. Candlelit Late Night
Seven Sonnets for Seven Words
Haydn composed several versions of his popular Good Friday Music, the quartet version is now the one most played. He described it as seven Sonatas with an Introduction and an Epilogue, it is effectively eight slow movements followed by a brief presto. Each movement refers to the seven brief Words that Christ spoke from the cross. The original performance was in an underground crypt in Lisbon and each Sonata was preceded by a homily on the succeeding Word, commencing with Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. In place of each homily, the great Irish poet, Paula Meehan, is writing for us seven sonnets. Christ was secretly arrested, viciously tortured and brutally executed, we do not have to look far in today’s world to see this happening again and again and everywhere the persecutors know exactly what they are doing.
