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Deus Ex Musica is an ecumenical project that promotes the used of a scared music as a resource for learning, spiritual growth, and discipleship.
Today, I’m going to use my setting of O Magnum Mysterium as a springboard to make some observations about the issues I consider important in my work as a composer of sacred music and to offer some commentary on my own approach and techniques in setting a sacred text, using illustrations from this piece.
Read MoreIntegrity is the standard by which we judge the quality of Art. Paul’s famous line from I Corinthians well states the ultimate standard of quality in any person’s life: “Without love. . . ” any effort is pointless. I find it interesting that one of the examples he expressly cites is that of public speaking. This was an Art he much admired and was gifted in (both physically and spiritually, I believe). Any expression is futile if we have not love. Although I use the word “integrity” to encompass more than just “agape,” that self-denying love found only in things of God, let us examine first the role of agape in a Christian artist.
Read MoreThis month’s Composer Spotlight guest is Ko Matsushita – a prolific Japanese composer whose vibrant choral works have gained international attention. He studied music composition at Kunitachi College of Music and conducting Kodály Institute (Hungary), and his music includes Masses and motets, as well as works based on traditional Japanese music. His works are published in Japan by Edition KAWAI, Pana Musica Edition, and overseas by SULASOL (Finland), Carus-Verlag Stuttgart (Germany), Annie Bank Edition (the Netherlands) Porfiri & Horváth Publishers (Germany) and Santa Barbara Music Publishing (USA) among others. He is currently a special guest professor of Kobe College.
Read MoreC. S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christian thinkers of the 20th century, transitioned from atheism to theism but laughed at the idea that we could ever “know” our Creator any more than Hamlet could “know” Shakespeare. It later occurred to him, however, that this might be possible if Shakespeare wrote himself into the story. If Creator came in the form of the Created perhaps the Created could know and be known. Infinity entering finitude, Word becoming flesh, perfect love and light taking on human form: that is the glorious truth that Christmas proclaims. And it is followed by the equally bold claim of Good Friday – that God shares in our suffering, that Christ, “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing…and he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:6-8, NIV) This reality comes as both sword and salve; it mends the broken and breaks the proud. That God participates in our suffering and invites us to participate in his suffering as doorway to abundant life in Christ – this is a paradoxical and profound reality that has fueled artistic creativity around the world for centuries. With that in mind, here are three recent works that explore the mysterious beauty, goodness, and truth of Holy Week.
Read MoreThis month’s Composer Spotlight guest is Fr. Ivan Moody – a prolific English composer and priest within the Eastern Orthodox tradition now living in Portugal with his wife, singer Susana Diniz Moody, and family. He studied music and theology at the Universities of London, Joensuu and York, and studied composition with Brian Dennis, Sir John Tavener and William Brooks. He is also a conductor and musicologist. As a conductor, he has directed choirs throughout Europe and in North and South America, especially in early and contemporary repertoire. As a musicologist, he has published extensively on the music of the Balkans, of Russia and of the Iberian Peninsula, with special emphasis on contemporary and sacred music. He has contributed to the Grove Dictionary, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology and the Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky. His book Modernism and Orthodox Spirituality in Contemporary Music was published in 2014, and reprinted in 2017. He is a Researcher at CESEM – Universidade Nova, Lisbon; Chairman of the International Society for Orthodox Church music; and a Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, being Rector of the Orthodox Parish of St John the Russian in Estoril, Portugal.
Read MoreIn the beginning was the Word (John 1:1). And that the world was made through the Word. And that nothing exists but that the Word created it. Therefore, the Word was an Artist.
We differ from the Word in many respects, but, for our purposes, it is to be noted that we are provided Material: we do not create it. The Material is given that we may create, and that we may create according to the inspiration that is given us by the Word.
Read MoreThis month’s Composer in the Spotlight series is Dr. Sungji Hong. An award- Korean composer now living in the US, Sungji teaches composition at the University of North Texas. Commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation (USA), the National Flute Association (USA), the Texas Flute Association, the Tongyoung International Music Festival (Korea), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea), the Keumho Asiana Cultural Foundation (Korea), the International Isang Yun Music Society (Germany) and the MATA Festival (USA), Sungji’s music reflects an intelligent, playful exploration of timbre.
Read MoreThis month’s Composer Spotlight guest is Dr. Zack Stanton – an award-winning composer and conductor from Conway, Arkansas. His music, performed throughout the United States, as well as Ireland and South Korea, spans the gamut from solo and chamber to choral and orchestral. Ensembles that have premiered his work include the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Conway Symphony Orchestra, University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, and Millikin University Percussion Ensemble, line upon line percussion, and numerous respected soloists. Zack received his DMA from the University of Texas at Austin, and he is currently Lecturer of Composition and Theory at the University of Iowa.
Read MoreUS American consumers can take it as a given that music can live on after its initial creation. After all, it’s how we hear much of our music today (such as streaming services, or vinyl if you are a true audiophile). I love recorded music (as a recording artist myself), yet am also wary of it. I see that recorded music threatens to render the original environment in which the music was created entirely irrelevant to the music itself. Obscuring the original context in which the music was created leads people to believe that all that matters is the product they can consume. My hope is to convince any Christian music listener to resist this delusion and take the original context of music seriously.
Read MoreThis month’s Composer in the Spotlight guest is Dr. Shawn E. Okpebholo. He is an award-winning American composer on faculty at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music (IL). Shawn’s music is a powerfully expressive integration of contrasting musical languages reflecting an appreciation of non-western artistic aesthetics. His music has been performed throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and he regularly receives commissions from noted soloists, chamber groups, and large ensembles—artists who have performed his music at some of the nation’s greatest venues including the Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the National Cathedral.
Read MoreWhen I graduated from Seminary, one of the first things that I strove to do was to acquire books. I wanted to have the insight and wisdom of great theologians, thinkers, and scholars to guide me around matters theological, ethical, and spiritual. This was, and still is especially the case with commentaries on the scripture. As a pastor, I am expected, on a weekly basis, to lead a community to wrestle with, consider, and delve into a Biblical text, and this is no small task. In one Bible verse are a multitude of meanings, layers of context and sub-context, social influences, rhetorical word plays, and traditions of hearing and receiving the text. With one Bible verse are centuries of tradition engaging with the text, centuries of scholarship that has considered the social, the historical, the literary, and the spiritual nuances that are overtly seen or are to be found more subtly within the text…
Read MoreThe first musician we would like to introduce in this month’s Composer Spotlight series is Dr. Tatev Amiryan. She is an award-winning Armenian composer and pianist now living in San Francisco. Tatev’s music reflects a love of folk music and has been performed in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East by such renowned ensembles and performers as, German Chamber Philharmonic of Bremen (Germany), CMEA Central Coast Honors Orchestra (USA), Carpe Diem String Quartet (USA), Ensemble Oktoplus (Germany), Metropolitan Choral of Kansas City (USA), pianists Jeffrey Jacob (USA), Hayk Melikyan (Armenia), and thereminist Thorwald Jørgensen (Netherlands).
Read MoreIt’s a question that is so familiar to those of us involved in and passionate about new music. By “new music” I mean that genre of newly composed contemporary classical music made by living composers that seems to uproot and defy so many labels, so for now please accept this term as an oversimplified but necessary tool for discussion. And to be honest, we know: It is a fair question! New music is not always as “easy on the ears” as other genres. For Christians, the question compounds itself with moral concern. Should we be drawn to this type of music that can be strange, erratic, and harsh? Why would we stray from attractive sounds or traditionally ordered melodies and rhythms? ...Is it even right to do so?
Read MoreYoung musicians, and artists in general, will often be told by their mentors, or those who are farther down the road in their journey, “you need to find your voice.” But how to do that? And, if you’re like me, you wonder why, in an age when anyone on the planet can present their art to the rest of humanity, why bother adding one more voice to all the music that’s already been composed? Do we really need another voice, specifically your voice?
Read MoreIn the long journey of my faith in Christ, I have mostly walked along a path set by leaders of what is termed Evangelicalism, and most of my central beliefs are centered around biblically based theology, rather than those based on tradition. However, in the last twenty years I have fallen in love with the liturgy as practiced by many of the main line protestant churches, as well as those used as the main structure of worship by the Anglican, Orthodox and Catholic denominations. I like its structure and its discipline, and love its language. I’ve found that, in the midst of a busy day, taking time out to read and pray the liturgical hours centers my focus back to God, instead of only being caught up in the typical hectic nature of my teaching days: ones that are long, very busy, and filled with the minutiae of academic bureaucracy.
Read MoreMy mother has a picture of me as a baby plunking the keys of a piano. I began lessons when I was three; I could read music before I could read words. I wrote my first piece when I was five. It wasn’t much, but I placed my notes on the right lines and spaces and used the correct number of beats per measure.
My parents introduced me to music; they also introduced me to Jesus. Music and faith have been essential parts of my being for as long as I can remember. In high school I sensed the two were interconnected and that part of my calling as a Christian included being a musician, so I pursued a music degree in college…
Read MoreIn Medieval music, the cantus firmus is the principal melody upon which all other melodies are built. These melodies move in consonance or dissonance to the cantus firmus. While a modern equivalent to this kind of music making would be difficult to find, perhaps that of a groovy bass-line or jazz tune provides a near parallel: pop and jazz musicians improvising new melodies based on the original tune or on a pre-existing chord progression. The drama of the music is in the relationship between the original and the new, and this tension has profound significance for Christians. Take a moment to hear Guillaume de Machaut’s use of cantus firmus in his Messe de Nostre Dame. This excerpt from the Kyrie depicts lamentation (“Lord, have mercy”) a particularly fitting excerpt in light of the tragic fire at Notre-Dame cathedral.
Read MoreImagine this scenario with me. You’re an engaged, informed citizen of one of the world’s great cities. You’re active in the city’s flourishing artistic, intellectual, and religious communities. Everything in town is looking up apart from one major social issue. The population has been growing steadily thanks to the influx of immigrants seeking a better life here, but some of them have been less than successful at finding a place. Sometimes this is due to unforeseen socioeconomic circumstances, and sometimes it’s the result of systemic and individual discrimination. After all, many of these people bring with them cultural assumptions radically opposed to your own. Can you picture it?
Read MoreGetting out of bed is a simple act for most, but for a paralytic, it is the substance of dreams. To walk, run, and dance is reserved for sleep when a paralyzed person can escape his limitations. There is a story about such a person in first-century Palestine. All he knew was that he’d laid on a stretcher for many years depending on others for movement when along came a stranger named Yeshua who said, “get up, take your mat and go home.” The man did it, and “when the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe…” (Matthew 9:6-8, NIV) I imagine a scene of joyous discovery and humor as this man relearns how to walk, run, and dance. His miraculous return home was the start of a new life free from the previous limitations. I wrote a piece exploring what this journey might have been like, and it takes on the shape of a fugue.
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