Listen to the music here: "Paschal Lamb, Op. 180" │ music for Brass Quintet │ Dr. Daniel Thrower

Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, is the sacrificial lamb of the Passover: the Paschal Lamb. For the Easter season of 2025, I chose to praise Him through music in this original brass quintet composition to underscore events from the triumphal entry to the resurrection.

Throughout the score are sections with bracketed scene titles to evoke images and scenes that the music intends to feature.

The opening joyous fanfare celebrates the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on what is now known as “Palm Sunday” throughout all Christianity. That magnificent opening music is in an ABA three-part form: measures 1-8, 9-16, and 17-24, each of which musically illustrates its own biblical scenes. The first is the joyful entry. The middle portion is in a minor key with a less festive sentiment, which depicts the Savior’s indignant cleansing of the temple. Immediately following, Jesus compassionately healed the blind and the lame who came to Him in the temple. These first 24 measures provide an optional stand-alone 50-second fanfare.

The next musical segment (measures 25-35) is subtitled “Teaching,” which Jesus proceeded to do in the temple, to the chagrin of the jealous, pious Sanhedrin. This segment ends abruptly with symbolic emptiness.

Measures 36-41 depict “The Last Supper” followed by measures 42-49, “Gethsemane,” which includes the betrayal and arrest of the Christ.

A sinister section dwells on the injustices of a completely illegal “Trial” of the perfectly innocent Man, in measures 50-61. Some poignant scenes to contemplate include Pontius Pilate declaring Jesus’ innocence, and the utter loneliness through which Jesus had to endure the cruelty, with even his disciple Peter denying Him three times throughout the black night.

Through Pilate’s insidious decree, Jesus was brutally scourged with 39 lashings, which scourging alone often killed the victim. Now severely mutilated, the weakened Savior was mocked by the soldiers and others, including vile spit and the imposition of a painfully taunting crown of thorns. This excruciating segment of measures 62-74 is titled “Scourging and Mocking.”

The extended passage labeled “Crucifixion and Burial” (measures 75-98) portray my emotions in surveying the perfect brutality and horrors of crucifixion. When dangling, the victim cannot breathe, but must push up from his nailed feet. Both positions caused extreme pain due to the nails. Eventually, the crucified dies from suffocation. In Jesus’ case, He died after crying with a loud voice to commend His spirit to heaven after proclaiming that His work was complete, signifying to those who called for His execution that He had power over that moment as well. He commanded His own death when the time was perfect. This passage of music ends with sharp stabbing chords, symbolizing one of two possibilities to the listener: either the stabbing of the spear into the dead Savior’s body, or (as is depicted in the slide show video on YouTube) the sealing of the tomb with the heavy stone’s final placement.

The “Resurrection” portion of the music starkly contrasts the rest of the work. Up to measure 98, all the music is fast, rhythmic, complex, and largely sinister. At this point, the thematic material transforms into gentle, somber, hymn-like strains providing a welcome relief to the tumult that came before. This sentiment continues at the “Ascension” portion (measure 111 to the end), closing the work with a confident, glorious finale.

Musically, all the themes are related, creating a single, cohesive piece of music, worthy of concert performance without the need for images. It is very difficult for all performers, demanding stamina and technique in all the parts. Duration: 4:45.