It has been four months since I first heard Ariana Nelson’s recording of Caroline Shaw’s in manus tuas, and it remains one of my favorite performances of the year. Listening to it, I am struck by the coexistence of past and present, sacred and secular.
The loose source material is a five-voice 16th century motet by Thomas Tallis. While Shaw did borrow some music from Tallis for her own In Manus Tuas, the composition relates more to a memorable experience she had hearing a live performance of the motet. In a nod to the religious origins of the Tallis, the first performance of Shaw’s work took place during a secular, musical version of compline, or the Prayers at the End of the Day. When I imagine the premiere, I am immediately transported back to college, to my own weekly visits to the compline music service of Schola Cantorum at Christ Church in Rochester, New York, where I experienced some of the most powerful listening of my life amid candlelight and echoing voices. I think most musicians and music lovers could relate to this easy conflation of music and spirituality.
The Tallis motet is most commonly identified by the title “In manus tuas, Domine,” or “Into your hands, O Lord,” but in Shaw’s secular version, we get simply “Into your hands.” I love how this allows us to imagine a different, more physical meaning—the cello is lifted into the hands of the performer, and we witness string crossings, pizzicato, and extended techniques that create an entire world of sound.
-Kara LaMoure