Each of the living bore a name . . . . Each of the dead became a number.
– Timothy Snyder on those murdered under Hitler and Stalin, 1930—1947
– Timothy Snyder on those murdered under Hitler and Stalin, 1930—1947
In a rare departure from the rhythm of the church year, every October we pause to highlight sacred music for Child-Loss Month. Please join me to explore a work by René Clausen (b. 1953), In Pace (“In Peace”), which honors those murdered during the Holocaust.
The slaughter of six million Jews under Hitler is a well-known fact of the history of World War 2, but what about the numerous children who perished during this mass genocide? According to the online encyclopedia of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, children were often targeted on racial grounds, especially the Jews. Others were slaughtered for their mental or physical disabilities, categorized as “life unworthy of life.” The aforementioned encyclopedia highlights three key facts:
First, the Nazis did not target children specifically because they were children, but for their alleged membership in supposedly dangerous biological, racial, or political groups.
Second, children and the elderly had the lowest survival rate in concentration and death camps. In Auschwitz and other camps, for example, individuals over fifty years of age, pregnant women, and children were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
Third, thousands of Jewish children survived because they were hidden. By compassionate advocates, new identities, and physical concealment, many escaped the Holocaust, but they still faced fear, danger, and the challenge of building a new life.
The statistics alone are staggering. Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered about 1.5 million Jewish children and tens of thousands of Romani (Gypsy) children, thousands of German children with physical and mental disabilities, as well as many Polish children and children in German-occupied Soviet Union. Only able-bodied adolescents (ages 13-18) had a reasonable chance of survival, since they could be used for forced labor, especially the use of their small fingers to clean gun barrels.
The tragedy of Hitler’s slaughter of the holy innocents made a deep impression on Clausen when he visited Auschwitz in 1996. He describes his rationale for In Pace in the liner notes to the CD Eternal Rest:
The slaughter of six million Jews under Hitler is a well-known fact of the history of World War 2, but what about the numerous children who perished during this mass genocide? According to the online encyclopedia of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, children were often targeted on racial grounds, especially the Jews. Others were slaughtered for their mental or physical disabilities, categorized as “life unworthy of life.” The aforementioned encyclopedia highlights three key facts:
First, the Nazis did not target children specifically because they were children, but for their alleged membership in supposedly dangerous biological, racial, or political groups.
Second, children and the elderly had the lowest survival rate in concentration and death camps. In Auschwitz and other camps, for example, individuals over fifty years of age, pregnant women, and children were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
Third, thousands of Jewish children survived because they were hidden. By compassionate advocates, new identities, and physical concealment, many escaped the Holocaust, but they still faced fear, danger, and the challenge of building a new life.
The statistics alone are staggering. Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered about 1.5 million Jewish children and tens of thousands of Romani (Gypsy) children, thousands of German children with physical and mental disabilities, as well as many Polish children and children in German-occupied Soviet Union. Only able-bodied adolescents (ages 13-18) had a reasonable chance of survival, since they could be used for forced labor, especially the use of their small fingers to clean gun barrels.
The tragedy of Hitler’s slaughter of the holy innocents made a deep impression on Clausen when he visited Auschwitz in 1996. He describes his rationale for In Pace in the liner notes to the CD Eternal Rest:
| | Most of the music written about the Holocaust has been: 1) for instrumental media, and 2) very dramatic in nature; music which emphasizes the horror and drama of that terrible time in history. My goal was to write a kind of choral benediction which serves as a prayer for the peace and rest of the souls who were murdered there. |
The text he selected for this choral benediction, known simply as “In Peace,” is the last verse of Psalm 4 and the final verse of Psalm 132. Psalm 4 is a prayer for God to answer the psalmist and to give him relief in his distress. The psalmist acknowledged the ongoing threat of his enemies, puts his trust in the Lord, and concludes, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep” (v. 8). Similarly, Psalm 132 is a psalm of trust in God, with a realistic view of one’s enemies and a desire to lie down and sleep in peace. The psalmist quotes David: “I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob” (132:3–5). Taken together, the verses from these two psalms petition the Lord for His protection through the night, the time when man is most vulnerable.
Clausen’s musical setting of this relatively brief text shows some of his trademark compositional traits, such as a thick texture (In Pace is scored for SSAATBB), gently unfolding melodies, long phrases, and softly-clashing dissonances. But the specific application of this text by the composer to the youngest victims of the Holocaust adds both a unique context and an emotive element. Even if their deaths were by ruthless slaughter under Hitler’s cruel sword or the murderous famine under Stalin, their heavenly Father was watching over them, giving sleep to their eyelids and the peace that passes understanding.
Clausen is among the most voluminously published composers of our day, but after listening to this work, you will no doubt see why he describes In Pace as being among the works that are “closest to [him] in terms of compositional satisfaction” (Star of the North magazine, accessed 5 September 2024). What do you think the significance is of the bright chord at 4:50 and the sense of arrival 5:13 and again at 6:24?
Clausen’s musical setting of this relatively brief text shows some of his trademark compositional traits, such as a thick texture (In Pace is scored for SSAATBB), gently unfolding melodies, long phrases, and softly-clashing dissonances. But the specific application of this text by the composer to the youngest victims of the Holocaust adds both a unique context and an emotive element. Even if their deaths were by ruthless slaughter under Hitler’s cruel sword or the murderous famine under Stalin, their heavenly Father was watching over them, giving sleep to their eyelids and the peace that passes understanding.
Clausen is among the most voluminously published composers of our day, but after listening to this work, you will no doubt see why he describes In Pace as being among the works that are “closest to [him] in terms of compositional satisfaction” (Star of the North magazine, accessed 5 September 2024). What do you think the significance is of the bright chord at 4:50 and the sense of arrival 5:13 and again at 6:24?
| | In peace and into the same I shall sleep and rest. If I give slumber to my eyes and to my eyelids drowsiness, I shall sleep and rest. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. | In pace, in idipsum Dormiam et requiescam. Si dedero somnum oculis meis, et palpebris meis dormitationem, dormiam et requiescam. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Amen. |
– Psalm 4:9 and 132:4
As you listened to this performance under the capable direction of Charles Bruffy, you might have been struck be the constant sense of peace. The music starts in the lower registers and gradually swells, as if the psalmist is being lifted above his enemies and gradually ascending to heaven by faith. This progression from despair and hopelessness to a quiet and confident trust in the Lord is typical throughout the Psalter, and this Law-to-Gospel dynamic is painted here with a beautiful musical paintbrush, what Nick Strimple calls a “lush impressionistic style” (Choral Music in the Twentieth Century, p. 261). Notice, for instance, how the three climactic moments that I highlighted all occur in the partial Gloria (the ancient text sometimes omits “As it was in the beginning,” etc.), highlighting the good news that all good gifts flow from the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Having arrived at the gates of heaven, the music settles to a close that is the very definition of the peace that passes understanding.
The comfort in this anthem for all who have a lost a child is manifold. One immediately recalls Jesus’ words to Jairus regarding his daughter, “The child is not dead but sleeping” (Mark 5:39). Sleep is an ancient metaphor for the death of the Christian. Jesus died. Believers sleep. And those who go to sleep will wake up, as Jesus said to Jairus’ daughter, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41). Similarly, the liturgy of Compline is laden with sleep as a metaphor for death, as evident in the following prayer, with striking parallels to the In Pace text:
The comfort in this anthem for all who have a lost a child is manifold. One immediately recalls Jesus’ words to Jairus regarding his daughter, “The child is not dead but sleeping” (Mark 5:39). Sleep is an ancient metaphor for the death of the Christian. Jesus died. Believers sleep. And those who go to sleep will wake up, as Jesus said to Jairus’ daughter, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41). Similarly, the liturgy of Compline is laden with sleep as a metaphor for death, as evident in the following prayer, with striking parallels to the In Pace text:
| | O Lord, support us all the day long of this troubled life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes and the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then, Lord, in Your mercy grant us a safe lodging and a holy rest and peace at the last. – LSB p. 257, emphasis added |
And one can hardly surpass the child-like simplicity of the following stanza of Thomas Ken’s “All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night”:
| | Teach me to live that I may dread The grave as little as my bed. Teach me to die that so I may Rise glorious at the awe-full day. – LSB 883.3 |
Devoted readers of “Lifted Voice” know well that my original inspiration for my annual column for Child-Loss Month hails from a ceremony at Naval Air Station Lemoore (central California). There military families gather annually in the flagship chapel of Navy Region Southwest to share stories of losing a child, to light a candle in remembrance of their son or daughter, and to explore the healing power of sacred music. One striking aspect of the stories of child loss that remains endearing to me was the proclivity to consistently refer to their deceased children by name. In the case of not-yet-named children, the pronoun “he” or “she” was employed, but the majority were called by name, regardless of whether they died in utero or as adults. The contrast to Hitler and Stalin, who treated humanity as a disposable commodity, is striking. Far from being a mere number, God calls His own by name and transforms their death into peaceful sleep, through Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Addendum: Funeral Antiphon
| | I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live: And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever. | Ego sum resurrectio et vita. Qui credit in me etiam si mortuus fuerit, vivet. Et omnis qui vivit et credit in me, non morietur in aeternum. |
– St. John 11:26-27 (AV)
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