Culture: April 2013 Archives

It seems the only possible means to process the Boston tragedy which is being lived today gives voice to man's desire to speaking with the Infinite,  speaking with the Triune. 

The heart is deeply moved by the power of music notes. Indeed, music has the power of the heart because it has the ability "to sense infallibly the true and the genuine."

Some of my thinking on music recently has been informed by the thinking of Pope Benedict XVI who had a profound appreciation for music as reaching the inner depths of the souls. In his book, A New Song for the Lord, then Cardinal Ratzinger said, "faith becoming music is part of the process of the Word becoming flesh" (p.122 ). And in his book Salt of the Earth, he answers a statement about Mozart:

You are a great lover of Mozart.

Yes! Although we moved around a very great deal in my childhood, the family basically always remained in the area between the Inn and the Salzach. And the largest and most important and best parts of my youth I spent in Traunstein, which very much reflects the influence of Salzburg. You might say that there Mozart thoroughly penetrated our souls, and his music still touches me very deeply, because it is so luminous and yet at the same time so deep. His music is by no means just entertainment; it contains the whole tragedy of human existence.

There aren't too many experiences in life that you can claim to experience a "thoroughly penetrated our souls" which also illumines the soul. Hence, what we experience in music is not mere entertainment.

In response to an email I sent about my friend Paul J. Murray's this Sunday's program, "A Concert for Peace," a friend of mine, Jane, sent me this article because like many of us, she has been moved by the beauty of music. Like Jane, I, too, was moved by parts of this article this regard, and I recommend that you consider the author's expertise.