In mid-March Le Poème Harmonique and its artistic director, Vincent Dumestre, will be performing Leçons de ténèbres (“lessons of darkness”) in concerts in Bernay and New York.
Tenebrae is a musical setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and is typically heard during Holy Week (the time Christ spent in Jerusalem leading up to his crucifixion). At a tenebrae service 15 lit candles are placed in a candelabra near the altar and 15 psalms are sung. As each psalm is completed, a candle is extinguished until the entire church is dark.
