Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Owain Park
Judas mercator pessimus (2018)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Programme Note
Judas Mercator pessimus begins as quietly as possible, slowly growing out of a single note in an unhurried and foreboding beginning. The music gently expands and contracts in a ‘calling’ gesture – perhaps more of a choral whisper – from nothing, containing flickering memories of a distant past. Short interjections from the semichorus call to mind Jesus’ despair at the betrayal, but the main choir’s continuing pursuit of one harmonic plateau signifies the acknowledgement of his fate.
The more reflective mood will be returned to, but there follows a passage of angst, containing jagged rhythms and clashing harmonies. This continues to set the first line of the text, another side to the "vile merchant,” only hinted at during the first section. After a series of phrases that grow and then die down again, rushing lines of fast moving notes travel through the choir, leading up to the apex of this section. As the climax is reached, so it dies down again, the semichorus eventually relinquishing their hold on their dissonant harmony.
A more gentle and solemn mood is now portrayed, the change of text apparent. A mixture of humming and singing to words creates an eerie effect, added to by the return of an earlier plainchant theme, "melius illi erat si natus non fuisset.” The passage has a descending feel, which is eventually completed by very low bass notes purring underneath phrases passed around the choir. These phrases turn into chaotic repetitions of "Christum Iudaeis tradidit,” portraying the anger felt by those close to Jesus, then and now. The climax of the entire work is the moment when every voice in the main choir converges to sing "tradidit,” from whence follows a sudden release, before the entire world shouts at Judas in a last gasp attempt to save the Son of Man. In the last few moments, glimmers of hope are heard, but still mingled with sadness. The piece eventually peters out to nothing, the betrayal encapsulated in silence.
Owain Park
February 2014
The more reflective mood will be returned to, but there follows a passage of angst, containing jagged rhythms and clashing harmonies. This continues to set the first line of the text, another side to the "vile merchant,” only hinted at during the first section. After a series of phrases that grow and then die down again, rushing lines of fast moving notes travel through the choir, leading up to the apex of this section. As the climax is reached, so it dies down again, the semichorus eventually relinquishing their hold on their dissonant harmony.
A more gentle and solemn mood is now portrayed, the change of text apparent. A mixture of humming and singing to words creates an eerie effect, added to by the return of an earlier plainchant theme, "melius illi erat si natus non fuisset.” The passage has a descending feel, which is eventually completed by very low bass notes purring underneath phrases passed around the choir. These phrases turn into chaotic repetitions of "Christum Iudaeis tradidit,” portraying the anger felt by those close to Jesus, then and now. The climax of the entire work is the moment when every voice in the main choir converges to sing "tradidit,” from whence follows a sudden release, before the entire world shouts at Judas in a last gasp attempt to save the Son of Man. In the last few moments, glimmers of hope are heard, but still mingled with sadness. The piece eventually peters out to nothing, the betrayal encapsulated in silence.
Owain Park
February 2014