Into the Woods My Master Went - Preparing for Holy Week

Palm Sunday, the most frantically manic-depressive Sunday of the year, presents a conundrum for church music directors.  Does one choose music for the joyful and triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, complete with hosannas and rocks a stones alertly standing by for their chance to sing praises to Jesus should those fool humans neglect to? Or, given that the Passion Gospel is read fairly early on in the service, does one choose the more melodramatic music in keeping with doleful Lent and the dour anticipation of Holy Week events? Those who do not attend worship services during Holy Week miss the resigned serenity of the Last Supper, the dark angst of the forsaken and crucifixion, the vigilance of Easter Eve that breaks into wondrous splendor at the empty tomb. They miss the varied and beautiful soundtrack that accompanies and enhances the events of the story that unfolds over the course of a week.  Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday offer little more than a glance at the message, so it behooves the music director to make the best possible selections of music to convey the emotions and atmosphere of the week. 

Olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane

This Palm Sunday at Trinity church, Rutland, the choir will sing an anthem called, “Into the Woods My Master Went” with music by Gilbert Martin.  The words are a poem by Sidney Lanier called “A Ballad of the Trees and the Master.” The anthem takes the congregation to the halfway point of Holy Week—to Jesus’ vigil in the garden.  The poem does not take us inside Jesus.  We do not experience his emotions as he prays in the garden.  Rather, we are merely given a glimpse of divine.  The poem is narrated in the first person, implying that “I” is watching and noticing the events from afar, yet doing nothing to alter them.  As with Peter, John and James, we are asleep. The poem has only two stanzas. The first stanza, using the word “forspent,” evokes the fatigue and anxiety that leads Jesus into the garden.  The second verse shows him leaving the garden resigned to his sorrowful fate. 

Gilbert Martin, composer

Gilbert Martin’s music expresses the still quiet of the night.  The minor key of the first line implies the emotions: anxiety, serenity, the mystery of the unknown-yet-predicted future. The divine insight mentioned earlier comes in the form of a major key when the trees, right down to the olives and “little gray leaves” attend to Jesus’ words. The music darkens again with the second stanza when “death and shame woo him…from under the trees…they slew him.” Yet in spite of the drama, the music ends with a gentleness—still minor, but less traumatic—that speaks of hope, hope to be realized in Jesus’ resurrection. Gilbert Martin is a modern American composer, born in 1941, who is a prolific composer and arranger of piano, organ and choral music. His compositions have been used in churches and schools for more than forty years. He earned his degree in music from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ and has been the recipient of numerous awards. Martin’s style of composition is varied, but tends toward emoting the texts for which he composes.

Sidney Lanier, circa 1866

Sidney Lanier, on the other hand, was a Civil War veteran and died of tuberculosis in 1881 at the age of 39. He was born in 1842 in Macon, GA and graduated from university shortly before the Civil War began. He fought for the Confederate Army in the signal corps, mostly in the tidewater, Virginia area. At one point, he and his brother served as pilots aboard English blockade runners. During one run, his ship was captured by Union naval soldiers.  Having refused the protection of the British officers by not donning one of their uniforms as disguise, Lanier was incarcerated as a prisoner of war. He contracted tuberculosis at Point Lookout Military Prison and suffered from the disease for the rest of his short life. Sidney was a studious and sensitive boy and youth.  

a live oak in the Marshes of Glynn

He grew up in Glynn County along the coast and spent a great deal of solitary time in the marshes.  He was deeply inspired by the beauty of the marsh and composed his most famous works about them, including “The Marshes of Glynn” and “Sunrise.” These selections, along with much of Lanier’s poetry, were composed in a meter and style reminiscent of the ancient Anglo-Saxon bards.  Lanier had a strong attraction for ancient Anglo-Saxon history and many of his personal choices were patterned on Anglo-Saxon honor.  Besides being a gifted poet and scholar (he entered Oglethorpe University at the age of 14), Sidney Lanier had a strong proclivity for music. He learned to play the violin, piano, guitar, banjo, and his personal favorite—the flute.  He composed a solo piece for the instrument, called “Wind Song,” in which the flutes dances and twists, soars and glides in imitation of the wind patterns in his beloved marshes.

Lanier was a deeply religious man and felt a great connection to God’s divinity which is reflected in his poetry. “A Ballad of the Trees and the Master” is but one of his poems examining the events of Jesus’ life and sacrifice. It is a poem that has been set to music by a number of composers and is set to the hymn tune Ridgefield that may be found in over fifty different hymnals. You can hear the poem set in a beautiful anthem composed by Jane Hawes by clicking on this link. But to hear the Gilbert Martin setting, you’ll just have to come to church this Palm Sunday!