Copyright © 2017 Na Young Seo All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. MICHAEL TIPPETT’S PHILOSOPHY OF MUSICAL AND ESCHATOLOGICAL TIME AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY __________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary __________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________________ by Na Young Seo December 2017 APPROVAL SHEET MICHAEL TIPPETT’S PHILOSOPHY OF MUSICAL AND ESCHATOLOGICAL TIME AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY Na Young Seo Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Esther R. Crookshank (Chair) __________________________________________ Mark T. Coppenger __________________________________________ Theodore J. Cabal Date ______________________________ For the kingdom of God TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES . vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES . vii PREFACE . ix Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 Thesis . 3 Need for the Study . 6 Delimitations of the Study . 7 Statement of the Theological Problem . 7 Methodology and Sources . 21 2. GOD AND TIME IN CHRISTIAN ESCHATOLOGY . 23 Introduction . 23 God and Time: McTaggart, Craig, and the Fathers . 25 Jesus Christ and Eschatological Time . 37 Moltmann and the Eschatological Time . 50 Conclusion . 67 3. MODERNIST MUSICAL AESTHETIC PHILOSOPHY WITH RESPECT TO TIME . 71 Introduction . 71 Musical Time and Jesus Christ . 73 Olivier Messiaen’s Time and Eternity . 89 Conclusion . 107 iv Chapter Page 4. MICHAEL TIPPETT’S AESTHETIC PHILOSOPHY WITH RESPECT TO TIME . 110 Introduction . 110 Tippett’s Musical and Religious Influence and Philosophy . 113 Compositional Techniques and Theological Implications . 126 Theological Implications in Light of Moltmann’s Eschatological Vision . 144 God and Musical Postmodernity . 154 5. AN ANALYSIS OF TIPPETT’S THE VISION OF SAINT AUGUSTINE AND ITS THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATION . 157 Introduction . 157 Narrative in The Vision . 160 Tippett’s Musical Devices and Theological Implications . 168 Conclusion . 188 6. CONCLUSION . 190 Theology of Time, Postmodernism, and Music . 191 Tippett’s The Vision of Saint Augustine through Christian Lens . 194 Implications and Directions for Further Research . 197 Appendix 1. TIPPETT’S VISION OF SAINT AUGUSTINE LIBRETTO AND TIPPETT’S ENGLISH TRANSLATION . 199 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 212 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Quotations in Tippett’s Libretto . 163 2. Tippett, The Vision, Scripture quotations in the Libretto . 168 3. Formal summary of Harrison Birtwistle’s The Triumph of Time . 184 vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES Example Page 1. Mozart, Sonata in A Major, K331, measures 1-8 . 77 2. Messiaen “Choral de la sainte montagne,” in La Transfiguration measure 1-16 . 101 3. Tippett, The Mask of Time . Part I, measures 1-2 . 132 4. Tippett, The Symphony No. 3 , fourth movement, figures 293-294 . 134 5. Tippett, Symphony No. 2 , fourth movement, figures 188-189 . 136 6. Tippett, String Quartet No. 1 , fourth movement, measures 1-12 . 140 7. Tippett, Symphony No. 2 , third movement, measures 97-100 . 141 8. Tippett, The Vision , opening and figure 1ff, solo and chorus . 161 9. Tippett, The Vision , figures 7-8ff, solo and chorus . 162 10. Tippett, The Vision , Part I: “Impedente autem die (opening)” . 171 11. Tippett, The Vision , Part I: figure 6, whole-tone dyad cadence in Flutes and Piano . 172 12. Tippett, The Vision , Part III, figure 207 (end of work), Bb and C concluding sonority . 172 13. Tippett, The Vision , “qui manet in aeternum,” figure 173:4 to 174:1-4 Whole-tone Dyad Centrality . 173 14. Tippett, The Vision , Part II: figure 111 . 174 15. Tippett, The Vision , “Fenestram!” Part I: figure 19 . 178 16. Tippett, The Vision , “Ubi eras,” Part I: figure 59 . 179 17. Tippett, The Vision, “Alleluia sed inhiabamus,” Part I: figures 60-61 . 180 18. Birtwistle, “Grimethorpe Aria,” in Triumph of Time , figure 2. Eb Cornet, Fulgel horn, Lower brass . 183 vii Example Page 19. Tippett, The Vision, 8 ostinati, Part II: figure 131-132 separated view of 8 ostinati . 185 20. Tippett, The Vision, 8 ostinati, Part II: figure 131 . 186 21. Tippett, The Vision, 8 ostinati, Part II: figure 132 . 187 viii PREFACE I am thankful to my Lord for giving me the opportunity to write this project. This work would have been unimaginable without the love and encouragement of many. Dr. Esther Crookshank has been a great mentor and teacher on this journey. She taught me how to think and write as a scholar, musician, and Christian, in her own journey of life. I am thankful to Dr. Mark Coppenger and Dr. Ted Cabal, who served on my committee. In particular, my coursework study under Dr. Coppenger’s supervision was a great experience in preparation for writing about time. I remember Dr. Maurice Hinson of blessed memory. I am privileged to have been one of his students, and I hope to represent his beautiful sonorities through my journey with music. I wish to thank especially my parents, Jae-chul Seo and Hye Ja Kwon. I am indebted to their unfathomable love and prayer. My sisters, Da Young Seo and Mi Young Seo, have always been my grateful companions on this journey. In particular, I owe a special word of thanks to my parents-in-law, Hun-ki Baek and Sun hee Min. They have provided me everything they could give. I will remember their sacrifices, encouragement, and prayer during my study. I give my thanks to my colleagues Hyogil Kong and Mi Kyung Oh, who have prayed for my study. I will remember their kindness and friendship. I also wish to special thank my old friends UnHye Kwon and Kyung Jin Yang, who have always been my counselors and best friends in this journey. I am grateful to my daughter, Lilly Baik, who taught me what heavenly joy would be like. I would have never finished this work without my husband, Joseph Baik. He has continually supported my study through his love, prayer, and understanding regarding the cost of time away from our family invested in this project. Whenever I was discouraged, he encouraged me, saying that my study is for the kingdom of God. There is ix no word to express my thanks to Joseph. More than any other, Joseph has helped me to taste heavenly time through his goodness and love. I am forever grateful. Soli Deo Gloria. Na Young Seo Louisville, Kentucky December 2017 x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Throughout the long-standing scholarly dialogue about the interplay between theology and music, one specific conversation has centered on the relationship between theological time and musical time in an eschatological sense. This project proposes that a study of musical time and Christian time perception, and of recent theological thought on time-eternity through the lens of Christian eschatology, will enable a nuanced understanding and appreciation of the aesthetic philosophy of Michael Tippett (1905- 1998), as exemplified in his oratorio, The Vision of Saint Augustine . Based on the study of his music and writings, I will seek to illustrate that he can be characterized as a musical modernist with a postmodern soul, and that his musical thinking provide fresh insights for the fields of both theological and musical aesthetics. The conclusion will argue for the capability of some modernist and postmodernist works and compositional approaches to musical time to reflect biblical understandings of God’s temporality, i.e., the mysterious unity of time and eternity through Jesus Christ. 1 “Musical modernism” has been defined by Carl Dahlhaus and Eero Tarasti as “the dissolution of the traditional tonality and transformation of the very foundations of tonal language, searching for new models in atonalism, polytonalism or other forms of altered tonality.” 2 This took the place around the turn of the twentieth century, “an 1Tibor Horvath, Eternity and Eternal Life: Speculative Theology and Science in Discourse (Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1993), 65. Horvath developed the speculative theology on Jesus Christ as the eschatological union of time and eternity. 2Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music , trans. J. Bradford Robinson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 334. 1 obvious point of historical discontinuity,” the “breakthrough,” implied by Gustav Mahler, Johann Strauss, and Claude Debussy. 3 “Musical postmodernism” has been defined by Jonathan Kramer as “an attitude or [set of] characteristics in a postmodern manner rather than a surface style or historical period.” 4 Kramer summarizes the main tendencies of musical postmodernism as follows: [It] (1) has aspects of both a break and an extension, (2) is, on some level and in some way, ironic, (3) does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present, (4) challenges barriers between ‘high’ and low’ style, (5) shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity, (6) questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values, (7) avoids totalizing forms, (8) considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts, (9) includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures, (10) considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and the essence of music, (11) embraces contradictions, (12) distrusts binary oppositions, (13) includes fragmentations and