PATH OF MIRACLES
The world ’ s most enduring route of Catholic pilgrimage was first formally acknowledged as such by Bishop Diego Gelmirez in the early 12th Century , but it has always belonged to a wider fellowship even than the Catholic church . Long before the body of st . James was discovered in Iria Flavia in the early 9th Century , and brought to its final resting place in Santiago ; before the Saint even began his life of service , first as an apostle , and later as a preacher in Spain , the “ Camino Frances ” was under construction . Part of the route still runs along the sturdy Roman roads which were used to subdue and colonise northern Iberia . To the pre-Christians , this road followed the path of the Milky Way , and took its travellers to the end of the earth . Centuries later , it was used by the Moors to reach Spain ’ s northern outposts , only to be pushed back along it by Charlemagne , and served as an arterial route for the establishment of the Roman Rite and the purging of its Hispanic predecessor . Today it is used by tourists , travellers and explorers , as well as by confirmed Catholics and the spiritually curious .
The musical traditions of the Pilgrimage can be traced to the mid-12th Century , when a compilation of texts attributed to Pope Calixtus II was created , all devoted to the cult of st . James . This so-called Codex Calixtinus was specifically designed to serve the needs of worshippers and pilgrims in Santiago , and consisted of five books . The first volume contains liturgical settings , including those for the two feast days devoted to st . James : the Feast of the Passion of st . James on July 25 , and the Feast of Translation of the Apostle ’ s remains on December 30 . The second and third volumes describe the 22 miracles of st . James and the journey of the Saint ’ s body to Santiago . Book Four recounts Charlemagne ’ s defeat of the Moors in Spain , and the final volume leads the would-be pilgrim through the routes , dangers and customs of the pilgrimage . Of comparable importance to all this is an appendix which contains music composed using a technique which was just beginning to gain a foothold in certain parts of Europe at this time . Notwithstanding the fact that it rarely uses more than two voices , this is a highly significant collection of polyphony . And here , within this final section of the Codex , can be found the most famous of Jacobean chants — the Dum Pater Familias . It is this hymn which establishes the universality of the cult of st . James , interspersing latin verses in praise of the Saint with a multilingual refrain representing the many languages heard on the road to his shrine :
Herr Santiagu , Grot Santiagu , Eultreya esuseya , Deius aia nos .
The Camino Frances is the central axis of a network of pilgrimage routes to Santiago . Its travellers gather in Roncesvalles , a small town at the foot of the Pyrenees which in the spring becomes a veritable Babel as pilgrims from across the world assemble , before setting off in a southwesterly direction . The pilgrims carry a special passport — often this is one of the only possessions not discarded on the journey — and engage in the 850-year-old tradition of following the yellow arrows and seeking out the images of shells placed over pilgrim-friendly boarding houses . On the way , they stop off at any of a large number of shrines , most important among which are the cathedrals of Burgos and Leon , and at the foot of an iron cross near Astorga they may cast a stone from their homeland . The road takes them across the desert lands between Burgos and Leon and the rainy , hilly terrain of Galicia : and as the landscape transforms , so does the pilgrim . A pilgrim writes :
You have left behind the life you lived before ... Dates become meaningless ; a day is merely the passing of the sun from one hand to the other , from behind you to in front ... Then you slough off your worries . There is only one thing to worry about now and that is whether you and your feet will last the day .
— Andrea Kirby , 1996
Somewhere between 50 and 200,000 people arrive at the gates of Santiago ’ s Cathedral each year , at least 80 % of them on foot . A good number of these continue on to Capo di Finisterre , a further 85 kilometres to the west , to reach what Europeans pre-Columbus considered to be the end of all westward journeys . An item of clothing is placed on a beach-fire to symbolise the old life left behind .
The four movements of Path of Miracles are titled with the names of the four main staging posts of the Camino Frances , though the textual themes within the movements extend beyond the mere geographical . Throughout the work , quotations from various mediaeval texts are woven together with passages from the Roman liturgy , and lines of poetry from Robert Dickinson , the work ’ s librettist . Talbot introduces his work with a vocal effect based on the Bunun aboriginal “ Pasiputput ” from Taiwan , in which low voices rise in volume and pitch over an extended period , creating random overtones as the voices move into different pitches at fluctuating rates . After a dramatic exclamation of the pilgrim ’ s hymn from Dum Pater Familias , the beheading of st . James by the sword of King Herod is briefly described in Greek , Latin , Spanish , Basque , French , English and German , initially sung by a lone countertenor rising above the choir ’ s sustained chord clusters . An account of the discovery of the Saint ’ s body in Compostella follows , some 800 years after death in Jerusalem and the subsequent translation of the body on a rudderless boat made of stone .
The insistent discords of the second movement reflect both the hardships of the road , keenly felt by this time after some initial euphoria in Roncesvalles , and the composer ’ s own sense of discomfort on visiting Burgos . The music trudges uneasily through this most awkward part of the journey , stopping regularly to recover breath and ease feet . There are stern warnings of human mischief and inhuman devilry , interspersed with musings on the mystical nature of the Saint ’ s translation . Robbery , lynching and illness are the least of a pilgrim ’ s problems ; for just as the Saint can take the form of a pilgrim , so can the devil take the form of a Saint . As the laments and the warnings subside , the movement concludes with a line from Psalm 61 , delivered in desolate , motionless tones from the lower voices : “ A finibus terrae ad te clamavi ”— From the end of the earth I cry to you .
Joby Talbot describes the third movement as a “ Lux Aeterna ”; and like the interior of the magnificent Cathedral of Leon , it is bathed in light . The journey is more than half complete , the pain barrier has been crossed and the pilgrim ’ s worries have indeed been sloughed off . A mediaeval French refrain , an ode to the sun in the key of C minor , punctuates simple observations of land traversed and hardships overcome . As with the previous movement , there is a steady , almost hypnotic walking pulse , but the steps have lost their heaviness . By the end of the movement the verses have arrived in the relative major , fused with the refrain which retains its original key . Mystical events are again spoken of , but this time with no sense of danger . Even the relentless sun , though it may dazzle , does not burn .
Meanwhile in Galicia the temperature cools , the altitude rises and the rain falls . Towns pass by like shadows as the road seems to climb and climb , though Leon ’ s contented mood lingers . There seems no doubt that the journey will end , and at the first sight of Santiago , miles down from the summit of Monte de Gozo , the music initially draws inward , before bursting out in an explosion of joy . The pilgrim ’ s hymn is heard again , performed with the reverence and reflection of one who has finished such a long journey , and is quickly transformed into a spring revel from the Carmina Burana .
Path of Miracles , like so many pilgrimages , does not finish in Santiago . The journey to Finisterre , to “ where the walls of heaven are thin as a curtain ” has a reflective , epilogic tone , a benign hangover from the party in Santiago . Here the pilgrim ’ s hymn is heard for a final time , now in English , endlessly repeating and disappearing over the horizon .
— GABRIEL CROUCH