Link to streaming platforms: https://orcd.co/gardenofgethsemane
Release: July 29, 2022, featuring Contemporánea
Fritz Gerhard Berthelsen, bass clarinet
Ida Nørholm, cello
Ejnar Kanding, piano
Commissioned by Torup Sogn
Hommage à Arne Haugen Sørensen
World premiere: August 13, 2021, Lynæs Kirke, Denmark
See the online score: https://edition-s.dk/music/ejnar-kanding/garden-of-gethsemane
Garden of Gethsemane is written as an Hommage à Arne Haugen Sørensen with inspiration from his painting Getsemane Have. The piece is in six movements:
1. Last Supper I
2. The Foot Washing
3. Last Supper II
4. The Mount of Olives
5. The Prayer, being in Agony
6. Kiss of Judas
The first movement is music that sets the mood around the Last Supper. During the meal, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, which is reflected in the second movement. The third movement returns to the meal, in which Peter’s denial and Judas’ betrayal are foretold. In the fourth movement, Jesus is with his disciples on the Mount of Olives, while the fifth movement is the prayer of pain, where Jesus prays “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22, 42). The sixth movement is the kiss of Judas from the perspective of Jesus: melancholy over the loss of a friend.