TeachingRE Issue 4.pdf - the Second Level Support Service

CREATIONIn the Beginning, for soloists, choir and orchestraTheme: Describes the creation accounts in musicComposer: Aaron Copland (America, 1900-1990)Genesis Suite, for narrator, orchestra, chorus (1945)Themes: Depicts earliest Bible stories, including theCreation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Arkand the Flood,The Covenant and the Tower of Babel,narrated by distinguished actors accompanied by fullorchestra and chorus.Composer: It is a musical collaboration betweenArnold Schoenberg (Austria, 1864-1951,Jewish/Protestant), Nathaniel Shilkret (US, 1889-1982),Darius Milhaud (France, 1892-1974, Jewish), MarioCastelnuovo-Tedesco (Italy, 1895-1968, Jewish), ErnstToch (Germany, 1887-1964, Jewish), Igor Stravinsky(Russia, 1882-1971)Creation, an oratorio for choir, soloists and orchestra,(1798)Theme: Creation – going through each of the daysand describing same musically.Composer: Franz Joseph Haydn (Austria, 1732-1809)EXODUSIsrael in Egypt, an oratorio for choir, soloists andorchestra (1739)Theme: Themes taken from the Book of Exodusinclude the plagues and the ExodusComposer: George Frederick Handel (Germany,1685-1759)PROPHETS and SIGNIFICANT OTHERSElijah, oratorio for choir, soloists and orchestra(1846)Theme: Events from the life of Elijah from the 1 and 2Kings; his call; his despair; the battle on Mt. Carmel withthe prophets of Baal; the cure of the widow’s son;Composer: Felix Mendelssohn (Germany,1808-1847)Moses und Aron, an opera/oratorio for choir, soloistsand orchestra (1930-1932)Theme: The conflict between Moses, the philosopherand mystic as mediator of the word of God, and Aron,the statesman-educator, as Moses’ interpreter to thepeople. Moses is unable to communicate his visionwhile Aron, who can communicate, does not rightlyunderstand it. Symbolic connection between themusic and dramatic ideas.Composer: Arnold Schoenberg (Austria, 1864-1951)David and Absalom, a motet for unaccompaniedchorusTheme: The lament which David sang when he heardthat Absalom had been killed.Text is from 2 Samuel 19Composer: Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)Esther, an oratorio for choir, soloists and orchestra(1720 as a masque – a theatrical musical piece- andlater revised in 1732)Theme: The deliverance of Israel from the hands ofpersecutors by a woman named Esther. Also recallsthe festival of Purim for Jewish tradition.The text isderived from the Book of Esther in the Old Testament.Composer: George Frederick Handel (Germany,1685-1759)Jephtha, an oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestraTheme: Based on the Book of Judges 11:29-40.Jephtha promises that if he is granted victory in battlethat he will sacrifice whatever being first comes out togreet him when he returns home. The first to greether is his daughter so he must sacrifice her.Composer: George Frederick Handel (Germany,1685-1759) and an earlier composer who wrote anoratorio of the same name dating from the 16thcentury was the Italian, Carissimi.Saul; Judas Maccabbaeus (1747); Joshua ; Susanna(1748); Joseph and His Brethren (1743)Themes: Heroes of Israelites. All of these are forderived from scriptural inspiration.Composer of all of these oratorios and small operas:George Frederick Handel (Germany, 1685-1759)LAMENTATIONSLamentations, for choir in Latin and English forunaccompanied voices (1500s)Theme: The Lamentations of Jeremiah in the OldTestament.Composer: Thomas Tallis (England, 1505-1585)PSALMSThere are so many psalm settings that it’s impossibleto list them all. I suggest a few possibilities:Settings of Psalm 23,The Lord is my shepherd:The Lord is my shepherd by Franz Schubert;The Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein;S’é an Tiarna m’aoire by Tom Egan;Shepherd me, O God by Michael Joncas;The Lord’s my shepherd by Liam LawtonSettings of Psalm, Out of the depths:De profundis by John TavenerOut of the Deep by John RutterNotes1The whole concept of music, meaning and mysteryis beautifully discussed in an article by AnneMurphy, former Head of Music in Mater DeiInstitute of Education, in Neglected Wells:Spirituality and the Arts, edited by Anne M. Murphyand Eoin Cassidy (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997).The concept of ‘music as an icon of sound’ of Godis a concept of the English contemporarycomposer, John Tavener. He was influenced by theEastern Orthodox tradition of painted icons, whereone is drawn into the mystery expressed within itand conceived of music as an aural equivalent. Forfurther information on Tavener’sphilosophy/theology, have a look at The Music ofSilence, A Composer’s Testament: John Tavener,edited by Brian Keeble, (New York & London: Faber& Faber, 1999).‘Theosony’ is a word coined byNóirín Ní Riain, to refer to the sound of God. It isexplored in detail in a chapter entitled ‘The Soundof God’ in Anáil Dé: The Breath of God: Music,Ritual and Spirituality, edited by Helen Phelan(Dublin:Veritas Publications, 2001). For morereading on theology and music, check out JeremyBegbie Theology, Music and Time, (CambridgeStudies in Christian Doctrine, 4),Voicing Creation’sPraise: Towards a Theology of the Arts (Scotland:T&T Clarke, 1991), Beholding the Glory:Incarnation through the Arts (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2001). Look at Richard ViladesauTheology and the Arts: Encountering God throughMusic, Art and Rhetoric (NY: Paulist Press, 2000).2Consider settings of Negro/White Spirituals, ShakerSongs; Sinead O’Connor’s songs; Black-Eyed Peasetc.3Look up further information about the followingcomposers who have scripturally-based works:Arvo Pärt (Estonia), James Mac Millan (Scotland),John Tavener (England), Mortem Lauridsen(America), Maurice Duruflé (France), John Rutter(England).4Look at the music of the following composers tofind scriptural texts for liturgical music usage: LiamLawton, David Haas, Michael Joncas, Stephen Dean,Paul Inwood, Carey Landry, Margaret Rizza,TaizéCommunity, Iona Community, Lucien Deiss,Bernadette Farrell, Bernard Sexton, John O’Keeffe,Ronan McDonagh, Ephrem Feely, John McCann,Donal Hurley. Look at Wilma Ann Bailey’s bookMusic in Christian Worship: At the Service of theLiturgy (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2005),or Michael Joncas From Sacred Song to RitualMusic: Twentieth-century Understandings ofRoman Catholic Worship Music (Collegeville, Minn.:Liturgical Press, 1997). Also, a very good resourcepertaining to liturgical music is www.adoremus.org.32 TEACHING RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ISSUE FOUR SEPTEMBER 2009