The

Inspired by a 1994 ferry disaster in the Baltic Sea, Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae (“Song of Maritime Calamity”) tells multiple stories through its texts and music.  The texts are drawn from three sources, including the Catholic requiem mass and a news report about the disaster from the weekly Latin-language Finnish news service, Nuntii Latini. The main body of the work sets Psalm 107, which is about sailors in a storm (“They that go down to the sea in ships”).

Meanwhile, the music tells the story of the 1994 ferry disaster: a folk melody inspired by the Titanic, the growing urgency of the waves, ripping metal, water rushing in, and even Morse Code inspired by the ship’s distress call.  We hear cries from the people before all is quiet again; in parallel, the Psalm 107 text brings the sailors back into port.

The Capital Hearings first performed this work in 2015, and we are pleased to share its distinctive approach to storytelling with you once again.

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis
Miserere Domine

Plus octingenti homines vitam
amiserunt calamitate
navali in Mari Baltico septentrionali facta.
Navis traiectoria nomine Estonia,
cum Tallinno Stockholmiam
versus navigaret, saeva tempestate
orta eversa et submersa est.
In navi circiter mille vectores erant.
Calamitate Estoniae nongenti decem homines perierunt,
centum undequadraginta sunt servati
(Nuntii Latini)

Qui descendunt mare in navibus
facientes operationem in aquis multis
ipsi viderunt opera Domini
et mirabilia eius in profundo.
Dixit et stetit spiritus procellae 
et exaltati sunt fluctus eius;
ascendunt usque ad caelos
et descendunt usque ad abyssos.
Anima eorum in malis tabescebat;
turbati sunt et moti sunt sicut ebrius
et omnis sapientia eorum devorata est.
Et clamaverunt ad Dominum
cum tribularentur
et de necessitatibus eorum eduxit eos
et statuit procellam eius;
in auram et siluerunt fluctus eius
et laetati sunt quia siluerunt
et deduxit eos in protum voluntatis eorum.

(Psalm 106, 23-30)

Requiem aeternam

Translation

May the eternal light shine upon them,
O Lord,
and may perpetual light shine upon them.
Have mercy, O Lord.

Over eight hundred people perished
in a shipwreck in the northern Baltic Sea.
The car ferry Estonia,
en route from Tallinn to Stockholm,
was overturned in a severe storm and sank.
There were about 1000 passengers on board
910 people lost their lives
in the wreck of the Estonia;
139 were saved.

(Nuntii Latini)

They that go down to the sea in ships,
that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord,
and his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,
which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven,
they go down again to the depths;
their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro,
and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wit’s end.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm,
so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet;
so he bringeth them
unto their desired haven.

(Psalm 107, 23-30)

Eternal peace