Saturday, December 24, 2011
A composer's insight for Christmastide
Arvo Pärt, whose beautiful but too-short Eastern-Orthodox carol was a highlight of the King's College service on Chrismas Eve this year, has much to tell us. In an interview with a writer from
The New York Times, who most likely doesn’t know much about Christianity, Pärt said this:
“This old music, when it was written, the focus of this music was the Holy Scripture for composers for centuries. It was the reality for every artist. Through one, you can understand the other. Otherwise, you are like some teachers in the Soviet Union who said, ‘Bach was a great composer but he had a defect: he was religious.’ It means this teacher cannot understand the music of Bach.”
Permanent Link for this Post:
http://tips.generousorthodoxy.org/2011/12/composers.html
Fleming Rutledge is a preacher and teacher known throughout the mainline Protestant denominations of the US, Canada and parts of the UK. She is the author of seven books and has received a grant from the Louisville Foundation to complete a book about the meaning of the Crucifixion.
