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In the 1860s Franz Liszt, best known as piano virtuoso but actually with a more restrained sense to himself when appropriate, composed an oratorio based on frescos at the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach depicting the life of St Elizabeth of Hungary. The Wartburg is an interesting location in its own right, and between the times… Read more
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Back to the theologically rich sound-world of the organ in twentieth-century Paris, but not straight back to Messiaen – some readers may be glad to know – but rather to another protégée of Marcel Dupré, the brilliant and virtuosic organist Jeanne Demessieux, introduced to the world by Dupré only for a personal rift of some… Read more
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Today (25 June) is the International Maritime Organisation’s Day of the Seafarer. This fact alone puts me in mind of the setting by Herbert Sumsion of words from Psalm 107:23-30: They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters;These men see the works of the Lord, and his… Read more
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It would be inconceivable that this blog finishes with the music of Messiaen, but I do assure those of you who have stuck through my posts for the last few weeks that next week will feature music by a different composer. While doing Messiaen season, however, it would seem remiss for a post on the… Read more
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Messiaen season continues in this blog as we head towards Trinity Sunday. Messiaen was organist of a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and those who know his organ music will think immediately of the Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité, a cycle of meditations that originated in an event alternating organ improvisations… Read more
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As I explained last week, the blog is going to follow something of a series for a few weeks, as the liturgical calendar suggested several items from the works of the self-consciously theological composer Olivier Messiaen. This week we are in the time between Ascension Day and Pentecost, and the musical focus will be on… Read more
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For the next few weeks I have planned something of a ‘series’ of posts on musical commentaries on the major festivals that fall over one another at this time of year. Tomorrow is Ascension Day; a little over a week after that is Pentecost, the following week Trinity Sunday and then Corpus Christi. Each of… Read more
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Last week’s post concerned The Dream of Gerontius. That work is dedicated using the abreviation A.M.D.G. of the Jesuit motto Ad maiorem Dei gloriam (To the greater glory of God). Benjamin Britten set words of Gerard Manley Hopkins using A.M.D.G. as a title. The same initialism is sometimes asociated with J S Bach, though inacurately:… Read more
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The conclave concluded nearly a week ago, and yet because these posts are delivered on Wednesdays this is the first occasion on which this particular blog can use Pope Leo XIV as a springboard for one of our reflections. That said, apart from an unsubstantiated (indeed repudiated) internet rumour which probably began as a joke… Read more
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As we continue in Easter Season I turn this week to a choral work by a contemporary composer: Easter Light for choir and organ by Cecilia McDowall. Capturing the mystery of that early morning in a garden rather than the triumph of Christus victor more often presented in Easter works, the composer’s usual rich (though… Read more
Theology in Music 