Theology in Music

A blog considering theology as illustrated by Western Art Music

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  • The voice of him that crieth in the Wilderness

    The figure of John the Baptist was, perhaps, a potential embarrassment to the early Christians: why would Jesus have implied subordination to the proclamation of another? Why would He seek baptism for repentance? And yet, all four Gospels mention him, and imply approbation. Nevertheless, and increasingly with the passage of time (if one accepts the Read more

  • Seeking and asking for the new-born king

    This blog’s second year begins early in the season of Epiphany, and with one of the favourites of the season, popularised (for English audiences at least) in the translated version included in Carols for Choirs as Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar. Prior to inclusion in that venerable volume, it was the second version of Read more

  • True guidance in need and danger

    A short post for the end of the year 2025, and what could the subject be but Bach’s short chorale prelude on Das alte Jahr vergangen ist (the old year is past, BWV 614) from his Orgelbüchlein. The text of the chorale thanks the Lord Jesus Christ for having guided us so faithfully in need Read more

  • Today angels sing on earth

    Returning to Britain in 1942 from the United States, where he had initially been advised to remain at the outbreak of the Second World War, Benjamin Britten composed both his Hymn to St Cecelia to a text by W. H. Auden and a set of seven Christmas Carols for women’s voices and harp. He had Read more

  • Soon I will be

    Beginning on 17 December the church by tradition begins to chant the Great Advent Antiphons, known as the O Antiphons, at the beginning and end of the Magnificat in liturgical offices using Gregorian plainchant. There are such antiphons for each liturgical feast, season and Sunday of the year. In the seven days from the 17th Read more

  • A patience as we wait

    During this season of Advent we are watching and waiting. Watching for signs of the Kingdom of God as we await His glorious παρουσία (however we might discern or imagine the details of what this might mean). There seems to be a lot of waiting in many aspects of our lives, and perhaps there is Read more

  • The desire of nations: release from fear and sin

    The story of Charles Wesley’s hymn ‘Come, thou long-expected Jesus’, published in Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord in 1744, tends to reference his consciousness of poverty and prayer for the coming of the Kingdom of God, and his reflection on Haggai 2.7, which reads (in the Authorised Version): And I will shake all Read more

  • A Call that pierces the night

    So closely do I, an organist, associate the first Schübler Chorale (BWV 645) with Advent, that I always find myself surprised to remember – even though I know I have known it for a long time – that the cantata on which it is based (BWV 140) was written not for Advent Sunday, but for the Read more

  • Eternal light of this our wintry world

    I remember when, as a young Director of Music in a parish church, I was teaching my choir Charles Wood’ anthem ‘O Thou the central orb’, one of my sopranos said to me “I’m sure this is very lovely, but what does it actually mean?” Some might consider that a very fair question; indeed, at Read more

  • Awaiting the resurrection of the dead

    Yesterday was Armistice day, and although there are a number of pieces of music that could be selected to mark that occasion. For me, inevitably, the first to come to mind is the work commissioned by André Malraux, Minister of Cultural Affairs in France, from Olivier Messiaen in 1963 as a sacred work to commemorate Read more