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In the nineteenth century one, and only one, woman was made a professor of the Paris Conservatoire. Professor of piano, Louise Farrenc – née Jeanne-Louise Dumont (her husband had been a flautist, but settled down to become a music publisher, and Éditions Farrenc had significant success). She, herself, developed from a child prodigy of an… Read more
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I have only recently been introduced to the less secular music of the composer probably best known musically for his scores for the early carry-on films, and arguably even better known as a detective writer under his pen name of Edmund Crispin. R. Bruce Montgomery was, however, a former Oxford organ scholar, and wrote church… Read more
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I have, occasionally, been accused of various sorts of musical snobbery – and anyone who has read much of this blog will understand that it is written by someone with taste tending usually towards the high-brow. So, to go counter to type, let us consider John Rutter and his anthem ‘The Lord bless you and… Read more
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In 2003 the French and Lebanese organist and composer Naji Hakim wrote, to a commission of Leo Abbott of Boston, a former student of his, a piece in memoriam Theodore Marier, noted teacher and advocate for Gregorian plainchant. That inspiration, together with Hakim’s extensive practice as a liturgical improviser, leads to no surprise that the… Read more
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It has been said that the first printed book of music dedicated to works by a single composer was a 1502 publication by Petrucci containing five settings of the ordinary of the Mass by Josquin des Prez. By the time they were composed (though the actual date of composition is difficult to pinpoint) the tradition… Read more
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Arguably the most common form of theology in the form of music that most of us come across is the singing of hymns. As this post is to be published on the feast of the transfiguration, I will indulge by writing about my favourite hymn (there may be readers who breathe a sigh of relief… Read more
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Hildegard von Bingen has featured on this blog before, and is not the first composer to have more than one piece considered. A single vocal line, and possibly an unfinished or incomplete idea, O cruor sanguinis is a short antiphon associated with the crucifixion. The short text reads: O cruor sanguinis qui in alto sonuisti,… Read more
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It is slightly cheeky of me to entitle my post this week with a movement title used in Petr Eben’s Job, discussed last week, while this week we are considering a different work entirely. Giant of contemporary classical music, and if anything even more so of music that might validly be considered theological, the Scottish… Read more
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Music which sets Biblical texts can hardly help but be theological, in some sense at least; although it is sadly true that composers often overlook scholarship on the Bible as such when considering their musical depictions. A relatively recent book that I have read suggests that the book of Job is more comedic than the… Read more
Theology in Music 