Is Sacred Music a Way to Find God?

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Charlemagne_II said:
Carmina Burana?

I’m sorry to have to say that “Carmina Burana” is about the kind of music I would expect to hear in hell. No wonder it was so popular in Nazi Germany.
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I agree with you. It’s erratic and lacks focus, harmony and even a decent melody. :eek:

I’m trying to catch up with all the great links provided by the muscians on this thread. :clapping: Thanks to all!

Oh, by the way, if it wasn’t mentioned before, one of my favorite hymns is Panis Angelicus.
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Carmina Burana?

I’m sorry to have to say that “Carmina Burana” is about the kind of music I would expect to hear in hell. No wonder it was so popular in Nazi Germany.
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Certainly not everybody’s cup of tea!

But I wouldn’t expect to hear ***ANY ***music in hell!!!

In “The Screwtape Letters”, CS Lewis suggested that hell was a place of ceaseless noise. No silence, and no music at all. I’m not convinced he’s wrong! 😃

Blessings,
 
David

*In “The Screwtape Letters”, CS Lewis suggested that hell was a place of ceaseless noise. No silence, and no music at all. I’m not convinced he’s wrong! *

DITTO!!! 👍
 
Charlemagne_II said:
tonyrey

None of the marvels of science can take us so close to God.

Einstein said that atheists could not hear the music of the spheres. Not sure what that refers to, but have heard the expression used by scientists before.

Does science have its own music that can bring us close to God if we just open up our ears?

An interesting treatment of the “music of the spheres” can be found here: skyscript.co.uk/kepler.html
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This is an interesting comment and I’m sorry I missed it earlier. I was too engrossed with sharing all my favorite inspirational compositions. 😛

I’m not a scientist, so I can’t really delve into this too much, but will add my take on this based on the little I know and from what I could comprehend in that provided link. I think that this “music of the spheres” and the audible music that people create or hear do go hand in hand. It might explain why you may see many scientists who are interested in music or musicians who are interested in science. For instance, my husband and father are both scientists. Hubby is a geochemist and dad is a physician as well as was a pharmacist prior to becoming a physician. Interestingly, both are/were musicians. My father played the trumpet and my husband still plays the piano and also composes. They both have this love and affinity for music - most specifically for classical music. That’s not to say that they don’t other forms, though.

My Dad played mostly band and some jazz-like music with the trumpet and enjoyed it very much. But he always had an appreciation for classical and really loves it. He grew up in a blue collar home - hardly any musical influence in the house, although my grandfather always secretly loved the piano and classical music - something I didn’t find out until after he passed away. We always teased that it was because of his German roots. You can’t escape that art form when the Germans excelled so well in western art music. haha! They owned one classical music record which they gave to my father when he was young man. Later in life, as he came to know and hear real sacred music at mass, my dad came to the decision and belief that nothing really compares to sacred music for the Church, but that which was composed classically. He used to love the Christian pseudo-folk music of his time and laughs now how bad it really is when he compares to what he has heard at a few of the parishes in my area. But he does enjoy good hymns as well. He always uses the word “uplift” and believes that this music is something unworldly - heavenly, whereas the other music is not that. It just attaches itself to emotions and feelings rather than to the ethereal and the soul. This is something I did not influence my father with. He came to this conclusion himself.

My husband started out playing the guitar and taught himself mostly for rock music. It wasn’t until he was in college, did he begin to immerse himself into classical and started taking lessons in both piano and composition. (Although, there are photos of him as a tot “conducting” Beethoven with a pencil.) He also became bored with playing rock when he realized how easy it was to play (although I will still sometimes ask him to play and sing for me the Beetles “Blackbird”. He desired something deeper and more complex and he got that with classical composition.

Anyway, that’s their background. I think scientists do have this connection with music, especially in classical and jazz composition, because music composition is scientific in its own way. There are layers, complexities, experimentation. Think of how it is called Music Theory as well and how there are absolutes in western art music, but also room for experimentation and growth to push the limits of music composition. In the end something chaotic can be produced or something absolutely perfect and beautiful - just like in science.

Just so, I do see this beauty in science which is for me, almost as beautiful. Right now, I think of this miracle growing inside of me. It is heavenly, yet scientific. There are absolute, scientific facts as to how a baby is formed inside of a woman, yet at the same time, there are nuances and beauties which really can’t be explained by science. That and the science which goes along with it is all God - it is a form of “music” - total harmony.

I know I’m probably off-base with the “Music of the spheres” comment, but anyway, this is my take on science and music.
 
Carmina Burana - I actually enjoy some movements of this work. I find the history behind it interesting, especially since the text is so old. I do not like the tenor solo at all even though I understand what he was trying to achieve by making the tenor sing falsetto. It’s just so grating.

Problem with Orff is that he never could compose anything better than this. Everything else he wrote sounded like Carmina Burana. I don’t think he was a particularily great composer.
 
We had such inspiring sacred music at our mass on Sunday.

They did:

Prelude - Sonata I - Adagio by Gian Domenico Cattenacci

Entrance Antiphon -

Palestrina’s “Missa Aeterna Christi Munera” (Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus Dei),

Offertory - Handel’s “Keep Me Faithfully”

Communion - hymn “He Comes to Us as One Unknown” (one of my favorites) and the motet “Jesu, Dulcis Memoria” by Tomas Luis de Victoria

Recessional - We Walk By Faith (set to the St. Anne melody)

Postlude - Suite Medievale - movement I - Jean Langlais

On top of that the priest encouraged everyone to chant the Latin Credo in our booklets. He mentioned that when he was living in Rome, one of the most beautiful things was that for the Papal masses, people from all over the world, speaking all different languages would come together and would sing/chant in the Church’s language - Latin - and asked us to do our best to do it with the choir helping us along. I read music, so it wasn’t bad. AND believe it or not, everyone around me did their best with it. The older people remembered it, some of the younger people like me knew it and there were people who just kept singing. It didn’t matter if they weren’t singing all the right notes. What was beautiful was that everyone did it and it will only get better each week. We also did the Sanctus from the Missa Orbis Factor Mass XI as well as chanted the Pater Noster.

Anyway, here are some links.

Jesu Dulcis Memoris - by Victoria
youtube.com/watch?v=U1xj6wF5Xak

Keep Me Faithfully - Handel
giamusic.com/mp3s/2355.mp3

Missa Aeterna Christi Munera - Kyrie and Gloria - Palestrina
youtube.com/watch?v=OhXCZ29pb9E&feature=related

Sanctus:
youtube.com/watch?v=0a-Gs3lFtvU
 
WOW!

Verdi’s Requiem, “Dies Irae” Turn your volume all the way up, sit back, and hold on!

youtube.com/watch?v=AZRIwD09IW0

1970,2.25,St.Paul’s Cathedral London,Leonard Bernstein指揮,Martina Arroyo(S),Josephine Veasey(MS),Placido Domingo(T),Ruggero Raimondi(B),The London Symphoney Orchestra&Chorus,
 
Charlemagne_II said:
WOW!

Verdi’s Requiem, “Dies Irae” Turn your volume all the way up, sit back, and hold on!

youtube.com/watch?v=AZRIwD09IW0

1970,2.25,St.Paul’s Cathedral London,Leonard Bernstein指揮,Martina Arroyo(S),Josephine Veasey(MS),Placido Domingo(T),Ruggero Raimondi(B),The London Symphoney Orchestra&Chorus,
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Totally AWESOME!!! Just watching Bernstein… how can you not be inspired to give him everything you got!!! He had so much charisma and magneticism with the music and with people. While I was sitting there, I was on the edge of my seat wanting to sing out in full voice for him. Ruggero Raimondi had such a beautiful voice and Placido Domingo was so young there. He’s one of my favorite tenors. I just melt when I hear his voice.
 
I’ve always enjoyed Orlando Gibbons:

Magnificat
youtube.com/watch?v=k4S4aV4kYQs&feature=related

This is the Record of John (I look forward to this being sung once a year at our parish. I love the choral parts especially and it was such a joy to sing when I belonged to the choir)
youtube.com/watch?v=LB8SNobbK6g&feature=related

O Clap your Hands
youtube.com/watch?v=W7jLFNEjBrM&feature=related

More Thomas Tallis (I would have never learned about Gibbons, Tallis, Palestrina, Victoria, Byrd, etc. if it wasn’t for joining our cathedral choir back in college which is now our parish. I owe much to our director there.)

I love this one:

If Ye Love Me
youtube.com/watch?v=mvu0lrliPW0

Miserere Nostri
youtube.com/watch?v=-5W67uBRZCo
 
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