Music and Sanctity: A Reconnaissance
Kinga KIWAŁA
Music Theory and Interpretation Department, Institute of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory, Composition, Interpretation and Musical Education Faculty, Academy of Music, ul. św. Tomasza 43, 31-027 Cracow, Poland , PolandAbstract
The article discusses the question of the relations between music and sanctity (the transcendental sacred and numinosum being the source of religious experience).
The author makes a presentation of various theoretical approaches regarding the possibility to express the scared in music. Contrary to some concepts, as a starting point for further research, it was assumed that the sacred may be manifested not only in typically religious genres (connected with the sacred word), but also in music seemingly not connected with it, e.g., in the absolute instrumental music. Accepting the position of John Paul II expressed in his Letter to Artists that every authentic work of art is, by its nature, a call to open up to the Mystery, the article focuses on an attempt to distinguish the qualities of music that facilitate its specific characterization as sacred. Examples for deliberation are provided by selected works in which this phenomenon seems strongly present, which is expressed (sometimes on an intuitive basis) in their interpretations and analyses.
Keywords:
music, the sacred, analysis and interpretation, contemporary musicMusic Theory and Interpretation Department, Institute of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory, Composition, Interpretation and Musical Education Faculty, Academy of Music, ul. św. Tomasza 43, 31-027 Cracow, Poland
