He who sings prays twice (“Quis cantat bis orat”) – this quote is generally attributed to the church father Augustine. The sensual act of singing and making music may even bring you closer to heavenly realms than ritualized prayer formulas – whether as a protagonist or a listener. In the words of Ex-Pope Benedict: “I am convinced that music is truly the universal language of beauty and has the capacity to unite people of good will throughout the world and lead them to gaze into to aim high and open to the absolute good and beautiful that have their ultimate source in God Himself.” the Musica Sacra as a medium and gate opener to transcendence – traditionally, of course, it is also extensively cultivated at Easter, which is characterized by the highest holidays in Christianity. But this year maybe still a little less than in pre-pandemic times. In some parishes in the district, church music (including larger choral concerts) is not yet in full bloom again.
In St. Ulrich in Unterschleißheim, however, the Easter program promises a lot of sonorous accompaniment to Jesus’ death and resurrection: On Thursday, the St. Ulrich men’s schola will accompany the Mass of the Last Supper with polyphonic singing (beginning 7.30 p.m.), on Good Friday the women’s choir will be asked to sing (3 p.m.) and Easter Vigil (5 a.m.) as well as Easter Sunday (10 a.m.) are celebrated with polyphonic psalms (male schola) and festive music for two trumpets (Regina Scherer, Linus Löffler) and organ (Matthias Berthel). After Easter vespers on Sundays (6 p.m.), the festive mass on Easter Monday (8.30 a.m. and 10.30 a.m.) will be musically performed by a soloist quartet, Matthias Berthel will act as tenor, Gisela Reindl-Schmid will be responsible for the organ accompaniment. Among other things on the program: Handel’s “Hallelujah, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead”.
Rudi Zapf (here with harpist Elisabeth Huber) will present dulcimer sonatas from the 18th century in Haar on Good Friday
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
It is uncertain whether those who play the dulcimer also pray twice. Rudi Zapf, multi-instrumentalist and one of the most distinguished dulcimer virtuosos of all, will be giving a concert on Good Friday in the historic prayer hall of the Little Theater in Haar. Together with the harpist Martina Holler, he will play the dulcimer sonatas by Carlo Monza, Melchior Chiesa and Angelo Conti from 7 p.m., plus two transcriptions by Antonio Vivaldi. It is a special program because the sonatas written in the 18th century and first performed together by Zapf and Holler around 40 years ago are rarely performed. “These are compositions that are committed to gallant playing between the Baroque and pre-classical times,” says Zapf, who was born in Munich in 1959. The hammered dulcimer, also known as Salterio (Italian), paved the way for the fortepiano.
Zapf is looking forward to the intimate ambience in the Art Nouveau prayer room. “It’s an exciting space, I hope it will be a highly intense concert.” For the Pliening-based artist and festival director, who has released countless CDs and played in many different ensembles over the course of his long career, it is rather unusual to give a purely classical concert – his music is more often classified under the label “world music”. In Haar he will also perform two arranged works by Holler by Vivaldi, whom he greatly admires. “His music was always close to my heart.” Even if the concert, beginning at 7 p.m., does not have a decidedly spiritual character, the sometimes magical harmony of dulcimer and harp is enough to let the inner strings of the listeners vibrate – also to produce a transcendent effect.
The “Unterföhring Voices” and the Cantate Choir can be heard in Kirchheim
The Good Friday meditation in the Planegger St-Elisabeth (beginning 7 p.m.) will be less delicate, but also characterized by spiritually inspiring sounds and words: With organ music and texts by Basil Hume, the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster (London). In the Evangelical Heilandskirche in Unterhaching there will be a “music service” on Maundy Thursday (“The Last Supper”, 7 p.m.) and Good Friday (10 a.m.), including with the choir. The vocal ensemble “Vox Nova” will provide the musical accompaniment for the “Hour of Death Devotion” (3 p.m.) on Good Friday.
A small vocal ensemble will also sing at the “Celebration of the Passion and Death of Christ” (Good Friday, 3 p.m.) in the Heilig Geist parish church in Pullach. Visitors to the Protestant Cantate Church in Kirchheim are offered a full musical programme: the prayer at the hour of death on Good Friday (3 p.m.) will be accompanied by the vocal ensemble “Unterföhringer Voices” with chorales from the St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach, conducted by Georg Ziethe, who has performed many Years as dean’s cantor shaped the Protestant church music in the east of Munich. He will also perform the Easter Vigil with Gabi Ziethe (soprano) (beginning at 5 a.m.), and for the mass on Easter Sunday (10.30 a.m.) it will be bigger: the choir of the Cantate Church under the direction of Gerhard Jacobs will sing.
If you feel like singing, praying and walking even more on Easter Monday, you can go to the Emm exit, which is offered in many places: including in Höhenkirchen, 2 p.m. meeting point at the parish center, and from Unterföhring to Ismaning, meeting point at the Raffaelkirche Unterföhring at 9.30 a.m. You can’t pray enough in these times anyway.