Meditations on Matthew 5:3–10 and Luke 6:20–26
for Tenor solo, Baritone solo, SATB choir, strings, timpani, percussion, piano
Music by John Muehleisen
Libretto by Euan Tait
Commissioned by Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble
Loren W. Pontén – Founder & Artistic Director
in celebration of their 30th Anniversary Season
Duration: 60 min.
Movements
Prelude: The Outcry (The Seven Cries of the Stranger)
Part One: Meet the stranger Word
1. That we are blessed
2. The poor in spirit
3. Those mourning
4. The mysteries of Love
Part Two: at the anguish of the heart
Part Three: Renewal
1. The way is not home
2. The calls & the Amen
Roles + Voices
- The Stranger – Tenor
Represents at various times a homeless person, a refugee, others in need, and Jesus Himself - The Pilgrim – Baritone
Represents those of us who are searching for meaning and answers to life’s questions - SATB Choir
Represents the crowd at the Sermon on the Mount and their reactions to hearing Jesus speak about the Beatitudes; as well as providing background to and commenting on
the drama between the Stranger and the Pilgrim
Instrumental Ensemble
- String Quintet or String Orchestra (preferred) – 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
- 2 Percussion
- Timpani, Chimes, Glockenspiel
- Chimes, Glockenspiel, Snare Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Crash Cymbals, Bass Drum, Triangle
- Piano
NOTE: An audio recording of the premiere performance by Zach Finkelstein, tenor (The Stranger); Zachary Lennox, baritone (The Pilgrim), and Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Loren Pontén, will be added to this page in early Summer 2026, and a video of the performance will be added in mid-to-late summer.
FULL SCORE (Original version)
NOTE: A complimentary PDF perusal copy of Pilgrim Beatitudes full score is available free of charge from the composer at john@johnmuehleisen.com. The full score, vocal scores, and orchestra parts will be available for purchase in mid-to-late Summer 2026.
PROGRAM NOTES
Introduction
Pilgrim Beatitudes was commissioned by Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble as a dramatic retelling of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–10) that calls us to notice and to care for those treated as unwanted strangers among us. The Beatitudes (“blessings”) open the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, 7). In opening His sermon, Jesus enumerates a litany of those who are “blessed”: the poor in spirit (those who recognize their own spiritual poverty, their need for God), those who mourn, the meek (i.e. the humble), those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for being righteous. Manifesting these virtues in our lives helps us learn how to treat the strangers amongst us, whether they be a homeless person, a refugee, other people in need, or just people who are different than we are in various ways; these virtues help us to avoid “otherizing” people. Genesis 1:27 and James 3:9 say collectively that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. And shortly after enumerating the Beatitudes, Jesus says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Luke 6:31) Because these principles apply to all people, regardless of race, creed, color, class, etc. we can apply them to all whom we meet, whether stranger or friend, known or unknown, ultimately allowing us to transform strangers into friends.
There are three main characters in this work: the Pilgrim, the Stranger, and the Chorus. As the main action begins in movement 1, the Pilgrim stumbles on the crowd gathering around a homeless man (the Stranger), who poured out His heart to the crowd. The Pilgrim and the Chorus are among the first hearers of the Beatitudes—hence the sense of shock and surprise about this Stranger in their midst. The implication is that the Stranger is Jesus; however, part of the work’s drama is the Stranger’s ambiguous identity and that the Pilgrim has to discover Jesus for himself. Throughout the work, the Stranger challenges the Pilgrim to recognize who he (the Stranger) is. The Chorus passages, while representing the crowd’s responses to the Beatitudes, also provide the background to the drama between the two soloists.
Musically, Pilgrim Beatitudes consists of numerous recurring musical motives and themes, all tied closely to the themes of Tait’s libretto. The principal motives and themes are associated with (1) the Beatitudes themselves (multiple motives); (2) the frequent questions and exchanges between the Stranger and the Pilgrim; (3) the Stranger’s motive, also used for cries of need; (4) the restless homelessness of the Stranger in movement 1, and the restless anguish embodied in the Woes that open movement 5, which is derived from the Beatitudes music. There are other, more incidental musical themes throughout the work as well that illuminate the themes in the libretto.
– Pilgrim Beatitudes program notes by Euan Tait and John Muehleisen (2023)
PRELUDE: The Outcry (The Seven Cries of the Stranger)
The Prelude introduces the character of the Stranger as he utters seven cries of need, which manifest the multiple characters represented by the Stranger: a homeless person, a refugee, others in need, and Jesus himself.
PART 1: Meeting the stranger Word.
1. That we are blessed
This movement opens with an orchestral introduction representing two events that occur prior to the beginning of the libretto: Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the Desert and His Sermon on the Mount/Beatitudes. After the introduction, the Chorus sings in awe of the Beatitudes, the Stranger tells us about His time in the desert and sings of His homelessness; the Pilgrim and the Stranger meet for the first time, and the Pilgrim asks the Stranger for his name and why he has no home. The Chorus then comments on the homelessness of the Stranger.
2. The poor in spirit
Here we encounter the first Beatitude, presented by the Stranger. As the Chorus intones a paraphrase of this beatitude, the Pilgrim realizes their inadequate, selfish response to the Stranger’s outcry for the homeless, while the choral repetitions of this paraphrase imply the pain of learning our inward poverty – that we are the ones in need. Between those repetitions, the Stranger tells us how he felt when passed by without recognition or help and asks the question, “Was I nothing To you, when you passed by?,” prompting us to ask again who this Stranger is: who have we passed by or ignored? Is it a homeless person, a refugee, someone crying out to us in need? Or is it Christ on the cross at Golgotha, passed by and scorned by all the people. Accordingly, the Latin text, O vos omnes (“O, all you who pass by”)—an antiphon for Lauds on Holy Saturday—provides the background for the Stranger’s aria, which is set as an obsessive Passacaglia (a repeated bass line) over which the aria is sung, building up to a powerful climax representing the Stranger’s increasing anguish at being passed by. The movement closes with a final choral paraphrase and reminder of this beatitude, sung again by the Stranger.
3. Those mourning
The mourning here is dual in meaning –mourning for personal failures, as well as other loss. Yet such failures can become channels of mercy and love. The Pilgrim mourns his poor response to love’s cry; the Stranger challenges the Pilgrim: he is not in exile – he has run away from Love. The first part of this movement uses the Baroque technique of a descending, “sighing” motive to represent weeping and mourning, set to the text: “Tears stain your face, Your clothes: You cannot stop them” over which the choir sopranos sing the key message of this movement.
4. The mysteries of Love
This section meditates on the strangeness of the incarnate Word. Do we understand it? Want to know it? Recognise it? The Stranger, through a series of questions, tries to get the Pilgrim (and we, the listeners) to recognize who He is. At this section’s close, the Chorus sings a paraphrase of “Blessed are the meek” and “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.”
5. PART TWO: at the anguish of the heart
The most painful part of the Beatitudes is found in Luke 6: 24-26 (“The Woes”; the antithesis of the Beatitudes). Initially presented by the Stranger, the Chorus sings an impassioned paraphrase of the Woes, which is set to the music used at the end of movement #1, which sparks the deepest anguish of the Pilgrim: in his aria “You accuse me, Stranger,” the Pilgrim seems lost in despair over the failure of his life, over the poverty of his heart, but the Stranger asks him (and us), “Who made you judge over yourself?” The Chorus ends quoting from John 1—a much-needed ray of hope and light—and with a reference to the ‘merciful’ Beatitude—as if our only response can be to accept a mercy that darkness has neither overcome nor understood.
PART THREE: Renewal
6. The way is not home
Part 3 develops the theme of mercy, how our only way out of our inner prisons is to receive Love’s gift of freely offered mercy. This movement is series of episodes, each beginning with a quotation of a Beatitude sung by the Stranger, followed by the Chorus’s commentary, and the Pilgrim’s reaction. In this section the Pilgrim’s battle with their shadow is most intense—almost hopeless at times— living in that fragile zone between shadow and hope. At the end of this section, the Pilgrim’s journey of love and healing will continue, as it does for us all. Yet, in his final aria, the Pilgrim recognizes who the Stranger is—the dramatic climax and turning point of the work.
7. The calls & the Amen
This closing section addresses the audience (and all of us) directly. The Beatitudes offer us several challenges: to transform how we think, how we live, and how we treat others. Pilgrim Beatitudes is not just a series of profound meditations on the Beatitudes; it is a call to action. These are the calls that end the work, inspiring and encouraging us to make those changes in our lives.