@jsg said:
On every conceivable level, Mahler's symphonies are the most masterful compositions I've ever heard.
Melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and timbral/orchestral ideas are all rich with purpose, intent and integrity. There is no use of tradition without a deep feeling of sincerity and conviction, nothing modern, new and original that also isn’t incredibly musical, meaning that it not only succeeds on the levels mentioned above, but also acts as revelation: the music reveals something true about life, about the cosmos, about being human. It is through Mahler that I have come to understand that music is first and foremost a spiritual, and spiritualizing, activity. Music is about growing a soul, it is about uniting the deeply personal and unique with the universal and the cosmic, and, ultimately, the absolute. Music is at once in a state of being and a state of becoming. The longer one practices the art, the more clearly one begins to sense that there is something far beyond sense experience that comes through music, and yet it is from the outside in, from the senses to the mind, that music makes its impression.
Does anybody else see the link between music and philosophy, music and science and music and religion? (by religion I mean the best of the world's wisdom traditions and true spirituality as embraced by the individual person, not ritual or dogma).
I also see a very real and very powerful link between music and religion. However, I do not reject expressions of Christianity in music, I embrace them. It is very popular in the current culture of 2017 to condemn traditional Christianity. Before relegating all musical ritual and dogma to the ash-heap I offer four (hard to limit myself to just four) compositions in defense of the eternal power of our Creator made manifest through music.
1) Bach Mass in B minor
2) Mozart Requiem Mass in D minor
3) Bethoven Mass in C Major (or the Missa Solemnis)
4) Faure Requiem
When one considers the physics of sound and the biology of human hearing, it is impossible for me to imagine that the tremendous power of music to touch our very souls is simply a string of random accidents.
I don't equate modern Christianity with the teachings of Jesus. In fact, I see very little in common between the two. Modern Christianity is profoundly aligned with contemporary western political and economic values, which is why it is impotent and ineffective in helping to put Christ's spiritual values and teachings into practice. For some sincere Christian believers, Christianity can be a path toward the divine, toward the sacred, toward truth, beauty and goodness. But that is because of personal, individual faith, in spite of Paul's distortions of the teachings of Christ. The musical compositions you mentioned came from the talents and faith of individual people, not "Christianity". All modern religions have their truths and ethical ideas, and all of them have their primitive, regressive anti-social aspects as well. I believe the teachings of Jesus are not synonymous with present-day Christian thought. I wish they were. Dogma is dangerous, it provokes prejudice, racism, sexism, nationalism, superstition, rigid ideas and non-universal ideals. Perhaps a progressive religion of the future will be free of such things and be as liberal and fair-minded as the teachings of Jesus actually were...
