Well . . . that depends. Probably the best answer is that there’s only one: God Himself. The first creative act of God recorded in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, concerns light: “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Gen. 1:3 KJV). When we get to the last chapter of the last book of the Christian New Testament we see the same idea: “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light” (Rev. 22:5 KJV). All through the piece there are references to light that have clear origins. I don’t want to give so many that I wear out your patience, so here are just three (using the translations printed in our sheet music):
“A light has risen in the darkness” echoes Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (KJV)
“Oh born light of light, Jesus, redeemer of the world” refers to a line from the Nicene Creed of 381 CE: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.”
And, finally, “Come, Holy Spirit, Send forth from heaven the ray of thy light” reminds me of the description of Jesus’ baptism in the Gospel of Matthew: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him” (3:16 KJV).
If you were around for the Chorale’s performance of the Mozart Requiem in May 2016 you will find the words of the beginning and ending sections of Lauridsen’s work to be very familiar, as he uses the same text as Mozart: the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a set of prayers originally meant to be used within a church as part of a funeral service but which have since migrated into the concert hall. Any number of composers have set these words to music. Lauridsen chose to use only the beginning and ending sections of the Mass for his work, with the middle three sections being other Latin sacred texts. The actual phrase “lux aeterna/eternal light” is used only once, in the next-to-last line; everywhere else it’s “lux perpetua/perpetual light.” Why is that? I’m afraid that the motivations behind these ancient word choices are lost to antiquity.
But guess what? Lauridsen is still alive, age 75, and we can get a glimpse of his motivations for composing the piece as a whole. I was kind of determined that I was going to find out why he wrote it even if I had to message him somehow or figure out an e-mail address for him. But he was spared my importunities, because when I went onto his Facebook page (of course he has one), there was a clip from the 2011 documentary Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen in which Lauridsen and Paul Salamunovich, the conductor of the group for which Lauridsen composed the piece, talk about its origins. So, so fascinating! Here are some tidbits that I scribbled down as I watched:
Lauridsen says on how he came to write it that he wanted to write “something very very beautiful . . . a quiet meditation about illumination.” The piece “connects with something very deep inside” of everyone who listens to it.
He wrote it for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and its conductor, who then takes up the story:
Lauridsen told him, “I’m gonna write a major piece for you.” So Salamunovich went and listened to the piece as Lauridsen played it for him on the piano and showed him how to interpret it. Salamunovich said, “I could see exactly what he wanted and I would mark my score accordingly.” He also says, and I think this is a good summing-up of the piece as a whole, “Prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God, and I feel that this music of Lauridsen is the perfect prayer.”
Oh my, folks! You need to watch the entire clip. It’s less than five minutes long, and it’s just charming. I promise that you’ll gain a clearer understanding of the piece as a whole:
An added bonus if you’ve scrolled down this far: You can read (or re-read) the post I wrote back in 2016 about the “Agnus Dei” section in Mozart’s Requiem, since Lauridsen also uses that text..Scroll down past the sheep, goats and lion, about halfway through.
