SpokaneFāVS
As part of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist‘s Good Friday service, which will be from noon to 2 p.m., Timothy Westerhaus and the Cathedral Choir at St John’s will present “Jesu, meine Freude,” the earliest and most musically complex of Johannes Bach’s six motets. The service will weave Scripture, poetry, hymns and choral music, all reflecting on Christ’s Passion, according to a press release.
Written in 1723 for the funeral of the wife of a Leipzig dignitary, “Jesu, meine Freude” (Jesus, my Joy), is an interweaving of a simple hymn tune with text from Romans 8, “recognizing that all the distractions, fears and sins of everyday life fade to nothing before the sublime recognition that Jesus is the single reality and the source of all true joy,” the press release reads.
The Cathedral Choir will be joined by cellist, Cheryl Carney and contrabassist, Kim Plewniak. Fourteen singers from the choir are featured in combinations of trios, quartets, and quintets.
On Easter Sunday, at both the 8 a.m and 10:30 a.m Festival Eucharists, the Cathedral Brass Quintet and timpani will add to the celebration. Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” will conclude the services, with music distributed to the congregation for a massed choral ensemble.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
