KillingClassicalMusic

Posts tagged Sacred Music

We’re covered in ice here in the Twin Cities.  Such weather creates a contemplative environment in which we can pause a moment to notice the interconnected nature of all things and ponder the transcendent.

Regular readers of this blog should know that I believe music is a key temporal glimpse at this transcendent whatever, so I find it only appropriate to share with you all this work by Thomas Tallis:

If music connects us to that which is is beyond us, it does so most fully in communal singing.  Please enjoy as Tallis demonstrates this for us.

Peace.

A time to think about and enjoy sacred music of all faiths and traditions; an opportunity to discuss what works and doesn’t in various settings, religious and otherwise; a time for contemplative reflection in the language of music.

At some point, any discussion about re-imagining the possibilities and reach of classical music will come to a discussion of venues. 

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Last Sunday, I discussed the concept of music being used as a vehicle for prayer.  One way that can be done is through repetition.  Repeating patterns, notes, etc. give us the opportunity to view the music from a different angle each time is passes us.  This is not unlike the way a person in meditation views the world.  In meditation a major goal is to achieve a different perspective.  How appropriate then to use musical repetition in that pursuit.  Here is a nice example of a fairly repetitive piece that has a solemnly meditative quality to it.  Please enjoy Sir John Tavener’s The Lamb.

If you don’t have a copy of this or other Tavener works, you can pick up a copy at

Much of the world’s music is written to stand alone; it is a self-contained art intended for nothing more than the expression of the composer and the enjoyment thereof.  But there is also music that is written with some other purpose in mind.

Certainly in most cases, music is intended to enhance the aesthetic appeal of a particular event or setting.  Some music is intended to calm.  Other music is intended to enliven.  In the context of sacred music, however, I find it profound that music is used for much more than aesthetic purposes.  In a spiritual setting, music is used as a medium of prayer.  In this, music seems unique.

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Today is the first installment of the Sacred Sundays feature on sacred music.  This feature is intended to provide an opportunity to think about and enjoy sacred music of all faiths and traditions, to discuss the practical realities of sacred music making, and simply as a time for contemplative reflection in the language of music.  But today, I want to take a more philosophical approach to the subject of sacred music.

I seriously doubt whether, in a spiritual sense, there actually exists some separate category of “sacred” music.  Certainly, there is music that is intended for specific liturgical use and it is useful to have some sort of technical term for identifying that music.  But beyond that, I believe that all music is sacred, that it’s not a text or a particular pattern of use that imbues mere sound in time with a sense of the sacred.

Whatever we believe the sacred, the numinous is or is not, it seems to me to be a nearly universal phenomenon for people to place the sound in time that we call music into that mysterious category.  Why is this so?

I suspect it is the way in which music reflects the mysterious forces we sense around and among us.  Even when one understands the technical aspects of music fully, much of its power remains beyond us.  Why and how does an ensemble playing together create so much more than their individual parts?  Why do different pieces of music move me differently?  These questions are not answered by music theory.

Like the numinous, music lives on a plane that we sense but do not see.  Also like the sacred, music only really exists when we tune into it.  Dots on a page are not music.  Music lives when it is played.  Similarly, the spiritual experiences we all have exist when we have tuned ourselves in one way or another to notice them.

So today, I invite you to tune in and experience the sacred mystery and wonder that hides within music.

Peace to all.

-GCC

As I’m sure all are keenly aware, today is the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.  To mark that occasion, I would like simply to share this video of John Adams’ On The Transmigration of Souls, written to commemorate the victims of that day.  The fact that this piece for composed for chorus is an important fact for me.  Augustine said rightly that to sing is to pray twice.  In singing, the power of breath is merged with the mystery of music.  Through singing the words and names in this piece, those whose breath was taken away are merged into greater mystery by music.

I believe that all music is sacred music, that it’s not a text that imbues mere sound in time with a sense of the sacred.  At a time of reflection such as today is, I think we see more than usual how true that is, and we experience the sacred mystery and wonder that hides within our music.

Peace to all,

Grant Charles Chaput