This Divine Music Will Get You In The Lenten Spirit

As a rule, composers are more expressive when inspired by love and sorrow, which is why they’re pretty good at break-up songs. But introduce the element of the divine, and the product is out of this world. So, while it may come across as morbid and depressing, some of my favorite music comes from the Lenten season.

Lent is the liturgical season preceding Easter, which venerates Christ’s passion and death. It is a time haunted by the guilt mankind has earned by sin and marked by a call for repentance and conversion.

Christians spend these 40 days recalling how man’s sins and shortcomings required that a merciful God offer Himself as a sacrificial victim to satisfy His justice. If any one aspect of the season aptly portrays its mood, it’s the music.

Music can set the spirit and trajectory of our thoughts, and penitential music is no different. Here is a selection of hymns, ancient chants, and choral music to prepare you for the season of Lent.

‘Amicus Meus’ by Tomás Luis de Victoria

This polyphonic choral piece comes from Tenebrae, one of the most impressive liturgies of the Lenten season. The service is celebrated three days preceding Easter and belongs to the Divine Office, the reciting of psalms that punctuated the daily life of monks for centuries. It begins either after nightfall or in the early morning of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

On Holy Thursday, the service tells the story of