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Spirituality of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time
| Author: | Greene, David B. | |
| Year: | 2012 | |
| Pages: | 136 | |
| ISBN: | 0-7734-2591-8 978-0-7734-2591-0 | |
| Price: | $139.95 | |
This book is based around reports from people who have listened to certain pieces of sacred music (that is, pieces with a liturgical text or biblical allusions) and have said that hearing the music is itself an encounter with the divine. While relating to the music, these people find that relating to the music is a relation to God. The music as such becomes inaudible, and disappears into an encounter in which they address and are addressed by God, or the Risen Christ, or the Eternal Infinite.
The book’s project is to elaborate on these reports, first by dwelling on the meaning of “relation” then by drawing parallels between the reports and the writings of Martin Buber on the I-Thou relation and its contrast to the I-It experience, and finally by describing the salient aspects of the music in order to specify just what is this hearing that is a relating, an encounter.
Although many pieces could have been chosen as examples of this kind of hearing and this kind of spirituality, the book takes only three so that it can describe them in considerable detail and depth. These pieces : Three Movements from Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, the resurrection music from Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.
The book’s project is to elaborate on these reports, first by dwelling on the meaning of “relation” then by drawing parallels between the reports and the writings of Martin Buber on the I-Thou relation and its contrast to the I-It experience, and finally by describing the salient aspects of the music in order to specify just what is this hearing that is a relating, an encounter.
Although many pieces could have been chosen as examples of this kind of hearing and this kind of spirituality, the book takes only three so that it can describe them in considerable detail and depth. These pieces : Three Movements from Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, the resurrection music from Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.
Reviews
“[The author’s] analyses of these works are superb and should be of interest in their own right to students and scholars of any of the composers examined here. The spiritual depth of [the author’s] insight into these pieces, however, takes the reader far beyond conventional music analysis, and sets this book in a class with very few peers.”—Prof. Jonathan N. Badger, St. Johns College
“The most engaging and perceptive study of its kind. Rarely have I seen expertise in music (analysis and history) combined so astutely with theological discernment and with such keen awareness of the spiritual vitality and significance of major works of music”—Prof. Frank Burch Brown, Christian Theological Seminary
“The most engaging and perceptive study of its kind. Rarely have I seen expertise in music (analysis and history) combined so astutely with theological discernment and with such keen awareness of the spiritual vitality and significance of major works of music”—Prof. Frank Burch Brown, Christian Theological Seminary
Table of Contents
Preface by Jonathan N. Badger
Chapter One: Sacred Music, Theology, and Spirituality
When Listening to Sacred Music is Hearing Theology
When Listening to Sacred Music is a Relation with God
Chapter Two: Hearing Mozart’s Mass in C Minor: When Relating to Music is Relating to God
Relationships with Sounds, with Music, and with God
Music is “Sounded Relations”
Relating to Music, I Became a New I
Hearing the Mass is my Relation to God
Being Related to Mozart’s Mass: Three Modes of Being with God
Being Related to “Kyrie”: Knowing Forgiveness
Being Related to “Laudamus Te”: Praising God
Being Related to “Qui Tollis”: Addressing Christ/Christ Addressing me
Chapter Three: “Et Resurrexit” from Bach’s Mass in B Minor: Meditations on Discontinuous Continuity
The Resurrection Story in Bach’s Mass: The Finality of Death, The Newness of Resurrected Life
Bach’s Witness to the Actuality of the Resurrection
The Holy Spirit’s Witness to Christ’s Resurrection in Bach’s Music
Chapter Four: Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time: New Visions of New Time
Boundless Dimension
Temporality without Beginnings and Endings
The Quartet as a Whole
Messiaen’s Temporality and Time in Twentieth-Century Arts
Messiaen, Heard Theology, and Spirituality
Theology Heard in the Quartet in the End of Time
Spirituality and the Quartet in the End of Time
Bibliography
Index
Chapter One: Sacred Music, Theology, and Spirituality
When Listening to Sacred Music is Hearing Theology
When Listening to Sacred Music is a Relation with God
Chapter Two: Hearing Mozart’s Mass in C Minor: When Relating to Music is Relating to God
Relationships with Sounds, with Music, and with God
Music is “Sounded Relations”
Relating to Music, I Became a New I
Hearing the Mass is my Relation to God
Being Related to Mozart’s Mass: Three Modes of Being with God
Being Related to “Kyrie”: Knowing Forgiveness
Being Related to “Laudamus Te”: Praising God
Being Related to “Qui Tollis”: Addressing Christ/Christ Addressing me
Chapter Three: “Et Resurrexit” from Bach’s Mass in B Minor: Meditations on Discontinuous Continuity
The Resurrection Story in Bach’s Mass: The Finality of Death, The Newness of Resurrected Life
Bach’s Witness to the Actuality of the Resurrection
The Holy Spirit’s Witness to Christ’s Resurrection in Bach’s Music
Chapter Four: Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time: New Visions of New Time
Boundless Dimension
Temporality without Beginnings and Endings
The Quartet as a Whole
Messiaen’s Temporality and Time in Twentieth-Century Arts
Messiaen, Heard Theology, and Spirituality
Theology Heard in the Quartet in the End of Time
Spirituality and the Quartet in the End of Time
Bibliography
Index