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March 11, 2011

At a time when lower Manhattan's residential population is growing and visitors are coming in droves, Trinity Wall Street is adding two unique new services to its liturgical calendar at St. Paul's Chapel. Compline will be a regular offering on Sunday evenings and Bach at One will be a Monday afternoon service featuring cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Both highlight the role of sacred music in worship.

A cantata is a vocal composition of a text – often sacred – sung to instrumental accompaniment. Bach, a devout Lutheran, composed 200 cantatas using both sacred and secular texts. A number of those cantatas are heard in churches around the world every Sunday, but through Bach at One, visitors will be able to hear all 200 in a cycle over the next five years. The weekly service will follow the seasonal sacred calendar with a different cantata every Monday at 1pm. Also included will be motets by Heinrich Schütz, an influential predecessor of Bach. The service will be enhanced by the reading of poetry during each of two interludes; acknowledged, important poets from New York City will read original verse at that time.

The music for Bach at One will be conducted by Julian Wachner, director of music and the arts at Trinity, and will feature the Trinity Choir and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

The cycle of services begins on March 21 -- Bach's 346th birthday -- with Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I Had Much Affliction), BWV 21, a piece that ranges from the sighing, sorrowful emotions of the opening sinfonia to an eventual pealing joy and final hymn of praise.

Compline, a service of prayers for the end of the day that is often used by religious communities, begins on Sunday, March 20, at 8pm.

"Compline is rich in its simplicity and its durability --it hasn't changed much in a thousand years," said the Rev. Daniel Simons, priest for liturgy and pilgrimage. "These are the church's bedtime prayers, and they mark that transition from day into night. We are praying Compline on Sunday evening as a transition before the beginning of the week, as a way to reflect, renew, and refresh."

Music for Compline will be sung by members of the Trinity Choir and will feature new music.

Simons emphasized the hospitable nature of Compline: "This is a come-as-you-are service, where people can come in their sweats, sit on the floor, and participate just by being present --or by singing along with the choir as they learn some of the parts by heart."

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