Tenebrae Responsoria (Gesualdo)

Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia is a collection of music for Holy Week by Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo, published in 1611.

It consists of three sets of nine short pieces, one set for each of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and a psalm and a hymn.

The texts of the Responsories for Holy Week are related to Jesus's Passion and are sung in between the lessons at Tenebrae.

Gesualdo's settings are stylistically madrigali spirituali - madrigals on sacred texts.

[not verified in body] As in Gesualdo's later books of madrigals, he uses particularly sharp dissonance and shocking chromatic juxtapositions, especially in the parts highlighting text passages having to do with Christ's suffering, or the guilt of St. Peter in having betrayed Jesus.

Title page of Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsoria
"Vos fugam..." part from I,2 Tristis est anima mea
"et ego vadam..." part from I,2 Tristis est anima mea
"Quia in te occisus est Salvator..." part from III, 2 Jerusalem surge
Mode shifts in "Quia in te occisus est Salvator..." (see previous example)
Beginning of III, 3 Plange quasi virgo
End of III, 3 Plange quasi virgo
"Attendite..." part of III, 5 O vos omnes