It is no groundbreaking statement to say that what passes for popular music today is vastly different from 250 years ago, when what we now call classical music was the cultural norm.
But as the last days of Holy Week make way for Easter Sunday, I am reminded how, unlike today, the classical musical tradition of the Christian West was heavily influenced for so long by the calendar of religious feasts and, most especially, the days that commemorate the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As a Catholic, giving something up for Lent has long been part of my yearly routine. But in a bygone era, the cultural influence of the church on social customs ensured that a custom like Lent was not relegated to what was served at the dinner table or discussed from the pulpit.
Opera houses and theaters would traditionally close their doors during Lent and Holy Week, but concerts would still take place with a more decidedly religious tone. It was this custom that allowed the German British composer George Frideric Handel, an Anglican, to make his mark on musical history by writing the great oratorios, such as Messiah, he is most famous for.
Other composers, such as Johann Sebastian Bach, a Lutheran, set the biblical passion narratives to music, drawing inspiration from the ancient chants that developed organically and using the sounds of the orchestra and choir to convey the mournful and somber journey of Christ to Calvary.
The Catholic composers Franz Joseph Haydn, Gioachino Rossini, and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi wrote elaborate orchestral settings of the Stabat Mater, a Latin poem that recounts the emotions of the Virgin Mary during the road to Calvary.
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Today, you will not find many musicians of renown using their gifts to create timeless sounds that allow one to meditate more deeply upon the most important three days in history. Musicians today almost universally use their talents as an expression of self rather than dedicate those talents to a higher and more timeless purpose.
I do not pretend to be an expert in musical theory or history. I leave the theoretical dissection of religiously themed compositions of Handel, Bach, and so many others to those more qualified. But as this Holy Week draws to a close, these works of classical music can still provide a sense of mystery, wonder, and awe as the Christian world meditates upon the last days of Christ and his resurrection, even if it is not the kind of music that most of us are used to.