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Conclusion

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Music and the Generosity of God

Part of the book series: Radical Theologies and Philosophies ((RADT))

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Abstract

This concluding chapter introduces further horizons for the thesis that all sounds instantiate the generosity of God. In particular, it reimagines interdisciplinary conversations related to music and theology; ethnomusicology; proclamation and worship conceived beyond ecclesial contexts; and theological modularity, where essentialist ideas and absolute adequations about the theological meaning of music become inconceivable. In revelatory instances of sound that overwhelm logical and theological precision, a paradoxical sharing in the din of the sacred occurs. Only the One who gives eternally—from an immemorial past, an incomprehensible present, and an inevitable future—authorizes and reliably comprehends sonic encounters of charity like these. Humanity can only receive them in wonder.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Jankélévitch and Abbate 2003, pg. 128.

  2. 2.

    Kandinsky as quoted by Michel Henry. See Henry 2008, pg. 134.

  3. 3.

    Zagajewski and Cavanagh 2012, pg. 66.

  4. 4.

    Begbie 2007, pp. 246, 50.

  5. 5.

    “What a musician is” in Boethius et al. 1989, pp. 50–51. Boethius (b. 475-7 – 526?) was a Roman aristocrat and philosopher recognized as a Christian martyr.

  6. 6.

    “Introduction: Music forms a part of us through nature, and can ennoble or debase character” in Ibid., 8.

  7. 7.

    See, for example, the problematic arguments of Wolterstorff in Wolterstorff 1980, pg. 92. See also where Wolterstorff mischaracterizes Cage as chiefly composing with regard to Zen Buddhism, 195.

  8. 8.

    For Begbie writing about musical diversity, see his discussions about popular musicians like Elvis Costello and his reflection upon Balinese gamelan music and singing the South African national anthem in South Africa in Begbie 2007, pp. 13–15, 29–31, 289–93. For his explanation of focusing upon Western tonality as a measure of prevention against hegemony and conceit, see pg. 29.

  9. 9.

    See, for example, Catherine Pickstock, “God and Meaning in Music: Messiaen, Deleuze, and the Musico-Theological Critique of Modernism and Postmodernism,” Sacred Music 134, no. 4 (2007). But also see Benson 2003. Benson’s phenomenology of music does not contest the use of “classical music,” but rather questions privilege given to the genius of composers instead of theological concentration upon the virtuosity and dialogue of performers. Benson requests that his readers “look back” to Western music of the 1800s for theological rediscovery in the performance practice of music. See pg. 16. Musical others become vital in musical conversation, but primarily as interpreters post-performance. See “Being Musical with the Other,” 163–191.

  10. 10.

    For more explication regarding transaction and gift, see chapter 7.

  11. 11.

    Marion 2007, pp. 404–05.

  12. 12.

    For more on musical communication unrelated to theology, especially concerning cognitive and physiological experimentation as well as research into educational and commercial contexts, see Miell et al. 2005.

  13. 13.

    Ballan 2010, pg. 205.

  14. 14.

    English translation modified by the author. For the French, see Merleau-Ponty 1945, pp. 296–97.

  15. 15.

    For a nontheological investigation of sound and the complexities of its perceptual modalities, see O’Callaghan 2007, pp. 196–207. Concerning the history of aesthetic debates about music, especially with regard to developments in Western philosophy and tonality, see Hamilton 2007.

  16. 16.

    Taylor 2001, pp. 160ff. See also Taylor 2015, pp. 197ff.

  17. 17.

    Zsolt Ilyés 2008, pg. 143.

  18. 18.

    Tanner 1997, pp. 1–24.

  19. 19.

    Cage and Kostelanetz 1993, pg. 27. See also Chap. 4 of this book.

  20. 20.

    Coomaraswamy 1935, pg. 110.

    Coomaraswamy captions a chapter VI with the phrase from Aquinas in its entirety, “Art is the imitation of Nature in the manner of her operation, Art is the principle manufacture.”

    See also Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I, Question 117, Article I (Vol. 5, 177). Original Aquinas reference provided by Gann 2010, 93.

  21. 21.

    Cage 1961, pg. 62.

    For another Eckhartian reference in Silence especially apt for the current discussion that predates 4’33”, see Cage’s March 1949 contribution to the journal, The Tiger’s Eye in Cage 1961, pg. 64.

    But one must achieve this unselfconsciousness by means of transformed knowledge. This ignorance does not come from lack of knowledge but rather it is from knowledge that one may achieve this ignorance. Then we shall be informed by the divine unconsciousness and in that our ignorance will be ennobled and adorned with supernatural knowledge. It is by reason of this fact that we are made perfect by what happens to us rather than by what we do.

  22. 22.

    Investigating the Eckhartian and Thomist references in Cage has remained undeveloped here to avoid any likelihood of associating his uses of such figures as a postwar version of ventriloquy.

  23. 23.

    Christopher Farley, “Tupac Hologram Performs at Coachella,” Wall Street Journal, 4/16/12 2012.

  24. 24.

    Further discussion of how sonic ubiquity bestows the judgment of God will not occur here.

  25. 25.

    Winkett 2010, pg. 8.

  26. 26.

    Thaut 2008.

  27. 27.

    Labelle 2010, Voeglin 2010, Landy 2007.

    Sound artists sometimes contest their work being classified as music. Yet perhaps the rehabilitated and radicalized description of music we have been using immunizes any colonizing side effects such classification may cause. For a concise argument outlining support for sound art as “non-musical sound-art,” see Hamilton 2007, pp. 44–45.

  28. 28.

    Sterne 2012, Goldsmith 2016, Pinch and Bijsterveld 2013, Boutin 2015, Kim 2015. Guillebaud 2017.

  29. 29.

    Nancy 2007, Harrison 2015.

  30. 30.

    Jones 2014.

  31. 31.

    See also Landy 2012.

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  1. Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Gerald C. Liu

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Liu, G.C. (2017). Conclusion. In: Music and the Generosity of God. Radical Theologies and Philosophies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69493-1_7

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