Music As “Sacramental”: Foundations for a Theology of Music in the Spiritual Life
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Music as “Sacramental”: Foundations for a Theology of Music in the Spiritual Life by Christina Marie Labriola A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Regis College and the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by Regis College and the University of Toronto © Copyright by Christina Marie Labriola 2018 Music as “Sacramental”: Foundations for a Theology of Music in the Spiritual Life Christina Marie Labriola Doctor of Theology Regis College and the University of Toronto 2018 Abstract This thesis seeks to present a theological basis for the significant role of music in the encounter with God, by way of the Catholic spiritual tradition. It argues that musical experience, in its appeal to the entirety of the human person, is readily able to serve as a means of God’s self- revelation and a medium of grace, readying those who engage in it to encounter the divine, and possibly becoming, in and of itself, a locus of that encounter. The way in which music functions as sacramental is upheld by its participation in the mysteries of beauty and of human creativity, and ultimately undergirded by the Incarnation. This dissertation contends that the spiritual resonance of music is grounded in, as well as reveals afresh, the sacramental world in which we live. Further, this project grants music a pastoral value, in claiming its capability, allied with beauty, to contribute to our spiritual formation in Christ, commissioning us in the Christian vocation to love. Taking a thematic approach, this study employs Catholic theology and spirituality as a framework by which to understand and incorporate the potentiality and relevance of music in the life of faith. The conclusion of each chapter discusses particular pieces of music that serve to apply and to deepen the theological insights that went before. Chapter 1 takes sacramentality as a starting point, proposing that the dynamic of music-making is an echo of the sacramental cycle ii of receiving-offering-receiving anew. Chapter 2 moves to a consideration of the Incarnation, perception via the spiritual senses, and music’s relationship to the body. Chapter 3 pursues beauty as a transcendental property of Being and music’s role in bearing the beautiful. Chapter 4 examines contemplation, employing the musical metaphor of “listening” to the life of prayer. Finally, Chapter 5 posits the repercussions of music’s sacramentality for our relationship with God and neighbour, i.e., the fruitfulness of Christian discipleship that finds its ultimate model in the Blessed Virgin Mary. iii Acknowledgements I am humbled by the amount of encouragement and support I have received from so many during my time as a doctoral student and in preparing this thesis, a true labour of love. First, I have been blessed to have received the brilliant guidance of Professor Gill Goulding, CJ as my thesis supervisor. I thank her for her tireless generosity, and for the example she is to me and to all of her students of integrity in faith, thought, word, and deed. Likewise, I am deeply grateful to my thesis committee members, Professor Rebekah Smick and Professor Swee Hong Lim, for the many ways they have inspired and encouraged my creative imaginings and pursuits, both artistic and academic, in church and classroom alike. I also wish to acknowledge and to thank Professor Bennett Zon (Durham University) and Professor Lori-Anne Dolloff (University of Toronto, Faculty of Music) for their thorough and thoughtful reading of my work, and the illuminating and helpful points they raised during the examination stage. I thank Professor Michael O’Connor for his staunch support of my academic and musical endeavours, and for the always delightful opportunities to collaborate, whether through the St. Michael’s College Schola Cantorum, the Music, Theology, and Justice project, the Music and Theology reading group, or future projects yet unseen, which have greatly enriched my theological thinking about music, and this present work. I thank Professor Michael Stoeber for his support of my interests in mysticism, spiritual experience, and the arts, and for the opportunities for professional enrichment he has kindly afforded me as a Regis doctoral student. I wish also to thank Dr. Hyun-Ah Kim for her advice and encouragement along my academic path and for her exciting classes on the theology of music and music in world religions. These have stayed with me and had a profound impact on my work. I wish to extend my thanks to those communities of faith I have been privileged to serve through song, putting into practice what I believe about music’s sacramental power: the Newman Centre (my dear choir, Fr. Chris Cauchi and Fr. Peter Turrone, the students, staff, and parishioners, and the many lifelong friends I have made there), St. Peter’s (the Paulists and Fr. Michael McGourty, and the music ministry team, especially Roy Lee for his keen copyediting eye!), Regis College (Sean Mulrooney, the choir at the Wednesday liturgies, and all of my “Ignatian” friends), the Serra House and Spiritual Year seminarians at St. Augustine’s, and my friends, colleagues, and students at Emmanuel College. iv I am grateful to Sr. Ann McGill, FCJ, for her prayerful support and counsel, and to all my wonderful friends (and siblings), who have been steadfast in their encouragement and in offering me what I needed as I worked on my thesis: be it a prayer, a song, a snack break, or a laugh. Most of all, to my beloved family: my parents Antonio and Josephine, my siblings Anthony, Michelle, Nic, Joanna, Samantha, Simon, and niece Lucy, and to my dear grandparents, godparents, and extended family – I thank you for your unconditional love and dedicate this thesis to you, with that same love. Thank you for nurturing my musicality and artistic and intellectual curiosity, and instilling in me a profound love of goodness and beauty in art and life. Finally, I give thanks with all my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose love is the source of all my joy, and who has implanted in me the desire to seek Him always through what is good, true, and beautiful in our sacramental world. v Contents List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………….....ix List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………….x Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………...1 Music and the Sacred……………………………………………………………………...1 Cross-Currents in Music and Theology…………………………………………………...3 Revelation in Musical Experience…..…………………………………………………...15 Music and the Body…………………………………………………………………...…17 Music as Sacrament?..........................................................................................................19 A Way Forward…………………………………………………………………………..20 Chapter One: Music and Sacramentality in the Catholic Imagination……………………..25 Sacrament and Sacramentality: Some Preliminaries…………………………………….25 Outward Sign of Inward Grace…………………………………………………..26 A Wider Sense of Sacramentality?........................................................................28 Christ as Primary Sacrament……………………………………………………..30 Music as Mediator of Body and Spirit, Symbol of Grace, and Locus of Presence………………………………………………………………………… 32 “Charged with the Grandeur of God”: Creation and Incarnation as Foundational for Sacramentality………..………………………………………………………36 The Sacramental Imagination: An “Enchanted” View of Reality……………….36 Franciscan and Ignatian Voices………………………………………………….40 The Sacramental Cycle: Self-Gift and Symbolic Exchange in Music……………...……47 Musical Recap: Beethoven and Bartók in Awe of Life………………………………….52 Beethoven: String Quartet no. 15, Op. 132, 3rd movement (“Heiliger Dankgesang”)…………………………………………………………………….52 Bartók, Piano Concerto No. 3, Second Movement: Andante Religioso…………56 Conclusion….……………………………………………………………………60 Chapter Two: Music and Incarnation………………………………………………………...62 “This is my body”: A Meditation of Jesus’s Bodiliness (and Our Own in Light of His)..64 vi “My Whole Being Longs for You”: The Spiritual Senses……………………………….67 The Spiritual Senses and the Restoration of the Imago Dei………………………..77 Sensual Language and the Erotic Mystical………………………………………79 Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi saeculi…...…………...83 Incarnate Music…………………………………………………………………………..84 Christ and the New Song………………………………………………………...87 Musical Recap: Incarnate Meditations by MacMillan and Messiaen……………………93 MacMillan, Seven Last Words from the Cross, Cantata for chorus and strings, III. Verily I say unto you, today thou shalt be with me in paradise (1993)……...93 Messiaen, Quatuor pour la fin du temps, VIII. Louange à l’immortalité de Jésus (1940-41)………...……………………………………………………………..104 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...111 Chapter Three: Music and Beauty…………………………………………………………...113 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..113 Foundations and Presuppositions for a Theology of Beauty…………………………...115 The Transcendental Status of Beauty and the Analogia Entis…………………………..…119 Christ, Archetype of Beauty……………………………………………………………123 Revelation and the Aesthetic Experience………………………………………………126 Creational Beauty………...…………………………………………………………….128 Artistic Beauty………………………………………………………………………….131 Musical Beauty…………………………………………………………………………135 The Sensuous Beauty of Music: The Incarnational Tradition………………….137 The Intelligible Beauty of Music: The Pythagorean Tradition…………………140 Musical Recap: Christ’s Intimate Beauty in Mozart and Ešenvalds……………………143 W.A. Mozart, “Kyrie” and “Et incarnatus est” from Great Mass in C Minor,