1 The second Music and Spirituality Study Day was held by the Tavener Centre on November 10th at the University of Winchester. It started with a remembrance service, in which his anthem Mother of God here I stand was sung. June Boyce- Tillman talked about The interface between spirituality and music – the musical journey of Sir John Tavener. This performative lecture explored the spiritual journey of John Tavener in his own words, exploring how his theology interfaced with the construction of his compositions. 2 Eduard Heyning’s Celebration on a theme by John Tavener involved us all learning to sing the ison, the drone representing Eternal Oneness. To John Tavener, composing was ‘something that comes from deep inside one and takes one by surprise’. Eduard talked of his composition Song for Athene. Tavener came away from the funeral of Athene Hariades with Song for Athene fully formed in his mind. Eduard improvised over our ison with fragments from Sir John’s piece. Together we celebrated the presence of the spiritual in music, in honour of John Tavener’s gift. Dr Brian Inglis, from Middlesex University in his lecture Dumped modernism? Compositional techniques and affect in Tavener’s ‘To a child dancing in the wind’ explored Sir John’s relationship with modernism. Since 1990, discourses around Tavener’s music – not least those emanating from Sir John himself have centred on its perceived spiritual qualities. These are linked explicitly with his conversion to Russian Orthodoxy in 1977, and relate the music wholeheartedly to traditional contexts, in contrast with the post enlightenment Western view of musical expression (with which Tavener’s earlier compositions implicitly concur). As Geoffrey Haydon wrote in 1995, ‘Once he dumped modernism, his music came to inhabit a world made up largely of traditional models’. Dr Inglis asked a number of questions: But did he really ‘dump’ modernism? And was his pre-conversion music exclusively concerned with self-expressive innovation? In his paper Dr Inglis explored how techniques associated with musical modernism form structural foundations in pieces which exhibit the contemplative idiom (sometimes labelled sacred minimalism) for which the composer is renowned. With passing reference to Fall and Resurrection and The Lamb, he analysed the Yeats chamber song-cycle To A Child Dancing In The Wind (1983). In some ways a transitional piece, this score facilitates a holistic understanding of Tavener’s achievement. While acknowledging its potential for impacting spiritually on listeners, he saw it as exemplifying the composer’s distinctive postmodern intellectual craftsmanship. Dr Solveig McIntosh, in her lecture The hand and the finger: from BC to AD, explored the use of the hand to accompany words. She explored how in a predominantly aural culture, the simplest way of expressing speech, melody and rhythm is through gesture. But she asked several questions: What was the original purpose of a system which synchronised movement with the recitation of words (mantras) in the Vedic tradition? Why is this different from the use of gesture in ancient Indian dance? The relationship of arm, hand and finger to the architecture of the human body is part of ancient knowledge and so is the use of mnemonic sargama syllables, sometimes, erroneously, likened to western tonic solfa. A system for showing the tones of music appeared, much later, in the West, when Guido introduced the hand as a guide to singers during the 11th Century, now referred to as the Guidonian hand. In the 19th Century the Reverend John Curwen and Sarah Glover developed a method to aid sight-singing which included hand signs. During the mid-Twentieth Century Zoltan Kodaly borrowed these signs and developed a method of music education in Hungary. During the Twentieth Century, Justine Ward developed a method using hand signs in music education in America. She asked: Are these systems, from ancient to contemporary, connected? If so, what has survived and what has been lost? 3 Alexander Markham and Dr Matthew Steven Carlos, in their session Composing oneself: interpretation as spiritual practice, drew on two examples of comporting contemplative music from an historical period and the current day, to raise questions and share possibilities for living a religious life engaged with tradition, while being grounded in the moment and actively open to the future. In considering Caedmon’s Hymn - one of the oldest existing pieces of Anglo Saxon music, composed by an agricultural worker turned monk, who sought to sing the glory of God and of foldu (the land) - they asked what we can learn about the relationship between farming practice, music, and the spiritual life. They went on to introduce us to the Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo, a chant which for centuries has focused personal meditation and collective ritual in Asia. The unique difficulties of its translation function as a paradoxical riddle (kōan) that can reveal the state of our individual minds, collective consciousness, and the richness of the Western religious traditions. The Rev Dr Stephen Roberts from the University of Chichester interrogated John Tavener’s musical theology of religion to help us to respond most effectively to the challenges and opportunities presented by the fact of religious pluralism, which remains one of the most critical questions of our age. In the Christian tradition, this topic has been explored under the heading of the ‘theology of religions’, with conflicting and complementary proposals multiplying, some more theoretical, others concerned primarily with practice. Exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism are the classic positions associated with this (sometimes rather sterile) debate, but the very terms of this threefold paradigm have been widely contested. Music provides a space in which different religious traditions can meet and interact. John Tavener is well known as a composer deeply rooted in Orthodox Christianity, reflected in some of his most famous works such as The Protecting Veil. Yet he was no exclusivist and from his deeply-rooted Christian identity, and inspired by a universal vision, he sought to offer generous musical hospitality to other religious traditions. There is in Tavener’s work, then, an implicit theology of religions. In this paper Dr Roberts investigated Tavener’s music, particularly The Veil of the Temple, supported by biographical and auto- biographical writings and interviews, to disinter and critically evaluate his musical theology of religions. Dr Roberts posed the following questions: How does he understand and relate to religious diversity? And what wisdom can be gleaned from this understanding, both to shed light on debates within the theology of religions, and to inspire practice. Dr Helena Kettleborough, in Exploring a sacred cosmos through music, looked at how latest research into the populations of species of vertebrates reveals an alarming decline in numbers, and suggested that humanity only has a window of twenty to thirty years to take meaningful action on biodiversity loss. She noted how it is seemingly hard for humanity to take action, however, as the ever increasing number of challenges hides the species which are fading away in far off places not in our increasingly urban environments. American philosopher Thomas Berry suggests that we see the Universe or Cosmos as Sacred and that we have a duty to protect and cherish Planet Earth as a sacred place. Such 4 notions of sacredness and spirituality offer a sense of hope that humanity can change our thinking, but how do we see the world anew as sacred? Her paper explored this question through examining how music can help us get closer to the idea of a sacred universe. In the presentation, Thomas Berry’s ideas of a sacred universe were examined from some of his writings, followed by reflections on how such ideas can be conveyed through music. The medium of two pieces of music were used as a spark for discussion and reflection. Participants were asked to reflect on and share with each other how the idea of a sacred universe or cosmos can be better understood through music. Two pieces of music and visual inspiration are proposed as the sources of reflection. They concerned the Hooded Grebe - a critically endangered bird species. She played: Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g The Hooded Grebe Courtship Dance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hoL93tEkrM The day was punctuated by Orthodox chants sung by Alexander Lingas with the participants sometimes providing the ison. The sessions were chaired by The Rev Professor June Boyce-Tillman and Dr David Walters. Participants in the day attended a fine Evensong in Winchester Cathedral using Sir John’s music and conducted by Andrew Lumsden with Alexander Lingas contributing Orthodox chanting. 5 UPCOMING EVENTS Participants’ attention was drawn to The Day of Peace at Winchester University on 27th January 2018, a day of interfaith events around Winchester, focusing on the King Alfred Campus, University of Winchester Talks, performances, exhibitions, workshops and discussions. Information from [email protected] Exploring the spiritual in music - interdisciplinary dialogues in music, wellbeing and education 9-10 December 2017. The 4th Nordoff Robbins plus research conference and 4th international spirituality and music education (SAME) conference. It brings together leading researchers and practitioners in conversations that question assumptions, and explore theories and approaches in and around music therapy. As an international network of music practitioners, researchers and scholars, SAME has been set up in response to the growing interest in the area of spirituality in music education and related music practices. It seeks to establish a forum within which the interrelationships of music and spirituality can be explored and developed on a practical, theoretical and research level. This conference included the launch of the fifth book in the series on Music and Spirituality - Spirituality and Music Education: Perspectives from Three Continents (Peter Lang).