Torsten Laux

Maria von Fatima - Viola

An interreligious oratorio
Texts from Catholic and Protestant tradition, Hebrew and Arabic writings on the patron saint of the main Catholic church of St. Mary in Kaiserslautern shed light on this most important woman of the New Testament as the Queen of Heaven (Salve Regina) of Catholic faith and familiar piety (Ave Maria), also seen from an archaic perspective from the beginnings of Judaism (Moses and Miriam's song of victory).

In the Christian view, Isaiah's Old Testament prophecy "from the stump of Jesse a rice will grow" refers to Jesus Christ, the Messiah awaited by the Jews. More than 400 years ago, the Lutheran composer Michael Praetorius composed a beautiful four-part movement, "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" (A rose has sprung), into which the spoken words of the prophet Isaiah flow like a premonition, entwined and overflowing with intertwining lines from this well-known melody.
"The little rose that I mean, of which Isaiah says, has brought us Marie alone, the pure one who brought us the little flower": with the second verse of the Christmas carol, the soprano solo voice at the end of my composition "Mary" recalls the mother of Jesus, who fulfills Isaiah's prophecy through his birth.

A different view of the same birth story can be found in the Koran. Sura 19 tells of Maryam, the only woman who is given such special attention in the Quran, her virgin conception and her labor on the trunk of a palm tree.

The prehistory of this birth of Jesus (in the Qur'an:ʿĪsā) by Mary (Maryam in the Qur'an), as told in the Gospel of Luke, with Zechariah (called Zakariyya in the Qur'an), who falls silent in order to praise God afterwards because the birth of the Baptist John (Yahyā in the Qur'an) is announced and granted to him with his barren, very old wife, and the Annunciation and Visitation of Mary are also found in the Qur'an.
And could not the Magnificat, Mary's song of praise, which follows in the Gospel of Luke, also be contained in the Qur'an in a similar way, with the revolutionary words "He casts down the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. He fills the hungry with goods and sends the rich away empty."
Content:

I. MOSES AND MIRYAM'S SONG OF VICTORY
from Exodus (second book of Moses) chapter 15 (German according to the 2016 Einheitsübersetzung)

II. AVE MARIA
Latin according to Luke chapter 1 verses 28 to 42 (Gotteslob 529)

III. MAGNIFICAT
from the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 46 to 55 (German according to Martin Luther in the latest version of 2017)

IV. MARYAM
Surea 19 verses 7 to 37 from the Koran (German)

V. SALVE REGINA
Marian antiphon (Gotteslob 666.4)
Text: Latin 11th century, melody: 17th century (after Henri Dumont)

VI. ES IST EIN ROS ENTSPRUNGEN
Text and melody from the Speyerer Gesangbuch (Cologne 1599), four-part setting: Michael Praetorius (1609), IMPROVISATION with JESAJAS PROPHEZEIUNG from the Book of Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 to 11 (German according to the Einheitsübersetzung 2016)

VII. CONCLUSIO (CONCLUSION)
with INVOCATION (REMEMBRANCE)
as a summary, beginning with a melody freely adapted from the popular pilgrimage song "Maria durch ein Dornwald ging" from the Thuringian Eichsfeld (ca. 16th century)

Stitched edition.