Three Notch'd Road

Performed by Three Notch'd Road - The Virginia Baroque Ensemble - on March 6, 2020 in Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton, Virginia.

Megan Chartrand, narrator and Nazarius
Daniel Moody, narrator and Peter
Peter Walker, narrator and Christ

Video by Stewart Searle of Bravi Films

PROGRAM NOTES

The twentieth century’s most publicly attested miracle was The Miracle of the Sun in Fátima, Portugal on October 13, 1917, in which 30,000 witnesses saw the sun spin and dance down from the sky. This phenomenon was employed by author Henryk Sienkiewicz (who won the 1905 Nobel Prize for his novel Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero) to describe the Apostle Peter’s vision of Christ, an early legend of spiritual awakening. Composer Mark Nowakowski’s Quo Vadis, Domine? is a dramatization of Sienkiewicz’s text. Nowakowski explains his work as issuing the following challenge:
Do we go towards suffering, or away from it? Do we have the courage to walk towards the difficulties that are a part of our greater destiny, or do we quite naturally shy away from them?
…“Quo Vadis, Domine?” [Peter] asks—“Where are you going, Lord?” Christ's famous reply is: “As you abandon your people, I am going to be crucified in your place.” The famous rebuke, such a fitting counterpoint to the Biblical narrative of Peter's three denials of Christ, reportedly turned Peter back around to the gruesome fulfillment of his mission.

Peter would be crucified in Rome in AD 64. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata BWV 152 (1714) deals with a Petrine text. First leader of the Church, Peter’s name is from the Greek (πέτρος) and Latin (petra) for “stone” or “rock,” and in giving him this name Christ promised “on this rock I will build my Church.” The soprano aria “Stein, der über alle Schätze/Stone surpassing ev'ry treasure” emphasizes the word “stone” (Stein) rhythmically; its importance the previous recitative describes as the faith’s foundation for “the chosen man of Christ.”

TRANSLATION FROM LATIN

Narrator: Dawn glistened,
darkness on the Alban Hills was dispelled. Two dark figures walked on the Appian Way toward Campania. One was the boy Nazarius, the other the Apostle Peter who fled Rome, having lost hope.

The road was empty. The rising sun lit its rays upon the Alban Hills.
Suddenly, a vision struck the Apostle’s eyes. It seemed to him that the golden sun, instead of rising, moved down and toward them on the road.

Peter::Nazarius, do you see the brightness approaching us?

Nazarius: I see nothing.

Peter: Someone is coming toward us
amid the gleam of the sun.

Narrator: In the quiet, no footsteps could be heard approaching. The trees
quivered as if moved by one unseen.
Peter, disturbed by this, dropped his staff.

Nazarius: Teacher, what is the matter?

Narrator: Peter stood motionless, looking forward in shock and rapture.
Falling to the ground he said:.

Peter: O Christ, O Christ!

Narrator: And Peter said nothing more for some time. Then in the midst of weeping he cried out:

Peter: Where are you going, Lord?

Narrator: Nazarius heard nothing, but to Peter's ears came a sad sweet voice, saying:

Christ: Because you desert my people, I return to Rome to be crucified again.

Narrator: The boy, seeing this, repeated what he had heard, asking the Apostle what he meant:

Nazarius: “Quo Vadis, Domine?”

Narrator: Peter lay there as one dead. Then he finally rose, took up his staff, and turning to the seven hills replied to the boy:

Peter: To Rome.

Narrator: Thus Peter understood that neither Caesar nor all his legions could overcome the living truth. They could overcome it
neither by blood nor by persecution.
Truth conquers all.

He knew that the city of corruption soiled by ancient fratricide was to eventually become the Holy City from which would flow out to the world the spiritual kingdom of God to save all peoples and nations.

Marknowakowski.com

Performed by Three Notch'd Road - The Virginia Baroque Ensemble - on March 6, 2020 in Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton, Virginia.

Daniel Moody, countertenor
Fiona Hughes, violin
Anne Timberlake, recorder
Todd Fickley, organ
Rebecca Landell Reed, cello

Video by Stewart Searle of Bravi Films

Performed by Three Notch'd Road - The Virginia Baroque Ensemble - on Sunday, December 8, 2019 at Holy Comforter Catholic Church in Charlottesville, Virginia

Katelyn Aungst, soprano
Peter Walker, bass
Fiona Hughes, violin and artistic director
Rebecca Landell Reed, baroque cello

Video by Stewart Searle of Bravi Films

Performed by Three Notch'd Road - The Virginia Baroque Ensemble - on Sunday, December 8, 2019 at Holy Comforter Catholic Church in Charlottesville, Virginia

Fiona Hughes, violin and artistic director
Anne Timberlake, recorder
Arash Noori, theorbo
Rebecca Landell Reed, baroque cello

Video by Stewart Searle of Bravi Films

Performed by Three Notch'd Road - The Virginia Baroque Ensemble - on Sunday, December 8, 2019 at Holy Comforter Catholic Church in Charlottesville, Virginia

Fiona Hughes, violin and artistic director
Anne Timberlake, recorder
Arash Noori, theorbo
Rebecca Landell Reed, baroque cello

Video by Stewart Searle of Bravi Films

Performed by Three Notch'd Road - The Virginia Baroque Ensemble - on September 22, 2019 in Holy Comforter Catholic Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Fiona Hughes, violin and artistic director
Anne Timberlake, recorder
Arash Noori, theorbo
Rebecca Landell Reed, baroque cello
Jennifer Streeter, harpsichord

Video by Stewart Searle of Bravi Films