The familiar intro and then
Gloria, Gloria, Gloria,
Gloria in excelsis Deo
in excelsis Deo!
So here we are once again in London, to appreciate the glory of Vivaldi’s Gloria, as sung by the Barts Choir in the splendour of the Cadogan Hall. One of our daughters sings with the choir as contralto. And it was a wonderful performance last night. Classic.
Mind you, ever since I was a pupil at Waterloo Grammar School, thanks to our inspirational music teacher, Edgar Brown, I have loved choral music. In fact, I have half-a-memory of singing Vivaldi’s Gloria as part of the school choir. I could still remember the bass part after nearly sixty years!
However, our main focus was always the annual Christmas concert. It gave a much-needed religious dimension to our festivities and was an important part of my spiritual formation.
Of course, choral singing is hard work.
As an undergraduate I recall sitting in the college library trying to work my way through Stigler’s Theory of Price, one of the more indigestible economics textbooks, while listening to heavenly voices coming not from above but from below.
For the Sherlock library was just above our college chapel and in that particular year the chapel of our neighbouring college was being extensively refurbished. So their choir had little choice but to rehearse in our chapel, hour upon hour, for their carol service.
This was the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, no less, rehearsing for their Nine Lessons and Carols. And as a result with my concentration impaired I never did quite grasp the intricacies of price theory. The beauty of their music transported me to a higher realm!
But why music? Music is somewhat of a mystery to the evolutionary biologist. It seems to have no obvious purpose, even though it is costly in terms of time and energy to produce.
Charles Darwin, for one, was puzzled by its existence. The best he could come up with was that music is part of the courtship ritual to ensure the survival of our species. Today, no one is quite sure.
One academic suggests that music is, in effect, a spandrel. That is an architectural term for the functionless spaces between the arches of cathedrals – they’re there because they’re there, no more. In fact, Steven Pinker, a language theorist at Harvard, describes music as auditory cheesecake and suggested that if it vanished from our species little else would change.
This leads to the understanding that music is somewhat of a cross between accident and invention. It is an accident because it is the consequence of abilities that evolved for other purposes. And it is an invention because, having thus come into existence, we have discovered and then developed its beauty.
However, all this misses the point altogether. Music is at the heart of the Bible, literally. For at the centre of scripture stands “the hymnbook of the Second Temple”, what we know as the Book of Psalms. Here God is to be worshipped for his steadfast love and faithfulness, and it is only in music which engages our whole being and through music we may join voice with the great congregation.
In fact, the word sing appears no less than 69 times in the NIV translation of the book of Psalms. Four times, even, in just one verse from Psalm 47: “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.” (v6). I think we get the point!
For music is how we are to praise God, involving our whole person and together not just with the saints on earth, not just with “the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” but with the entire created order. As Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr points out: “Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing.”
This is especially so at Christmas. As the shepherds are invited to the manger, so Luke tells us: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!” (Luke 2:13f)
These are the very words which Antonio Vivaldi set to music, which was performed so pwerfully last night, even by those who would say that they have no Christian faith but who nevertheless sang their hearts out.
For this is the very purpose you and I have been created, to praise God with one voice When we sing to God together, we are fulfilling our core vocation as human beings, whether we are aware of this or choose not to be.
So the Bible concludes with a book filled with songs of praise. As John shares his vision: “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might
for ever and ever!’
Revelation 5:13)