Choral Music and Religion in modern times; Szymanowski and Tavener

Choral Music and Religion in modern times; Szymanowski and Tavener.
A short analysis of British and East Europe´s Music

Has choral music suffered a backward evolution?

This theme is quite vast in all the paths of thought it can go to; therefore, for purposes of coherence, Szymanowski and Tavener play the main role in this small discussion. These two, based on their religious beliefs and their nationality, will provide us with a basic scheme for the evolution of choral music.

Introduction: setting 20^th century’s aesthetics

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (6 October 1882 – 28 March 1937) followed the basis of Nietzsche´s philosophy that art was the absolute truth. As we will later see, he will become a humanist.

The British composer, John Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) would fall, from a subjective point of view, in the category that Wilhelm Dilthey explained, that of “cultural systems”. These were basically fields of expression based on a communal purpose and somehow related to society’s organization. An organization here is religion.

Tavener himself followed the purpose of enhancing God through choral music:

“And the faith came back in a different way, with writing. I think I've been very lucky all my life because the writing and the faith seem to go together.“

"My way towards God has been to write music". We will later explore these quotes too.

As these two composers started very differently the one from the other, we must first unite both Catholics and Agnostics to prove an existing evolution of choral music.

The Catholics can be divided into two groups:

•       The Catholic who turns more into the modal system, concentrating on a darker side of faith, eg: Gorecki or James McMillan.

•       Aesthete Catholics: their music is atonal, dark, portraying an anguished, yet modern style, eg: Szymanowski or Penderecki.

The Agnostics, who are also divided into two main groups:

•       Composers who are not engaged in religion but are very spiritual: composing easy harmonies and performable pieces, eg: John Rutter.

•       That of the agnostic who reinterprets and experiments with more modern styles, eg; Peter Maxwell Davies or John Tavener.

Now if we compare them we come to the conclusion that both Catholics and Agnostics have composers re-establishing the archaic, and composers forwarding the new and experimental. The old and the new are present in both groups, and a mixture of styles comes forth. Do you have to be Catholic in order to compose religious music? No, as we have seen how both groups intrinsically used similar musical features to convey the meaning of faith.

Tavener´s music transformed once he converted to the Orthodox Church; his music went from experimental to serene and diatonic. The music becomes static, effective and very evocative, attracting us with a rich harmonic consonance.

Szymanowski also seemed to abandon the more experimental and modern style, but instead of totally rejecting them, he used it for traditional folk-like melodies. The unusual tonal shifts and vocal leaps, syncopated rhythms and winding melodies are all present in his new style. He becomes more introspective, intimate and contemplative. Therefore we arrive at two conclusions:

·      Tavener’ music becomes less atonal and experimental, only writing what he believes to be music properly religious. We quote again: “the writing and the faith seem to go together”. 

Szymanowski turns his music towards a popular, less spiritual side, focusing on Polish melodies and the intimacy of these. We quote from Szymanowski himself: “Our national music is not the stiffed ghost of the polonaise or mazurka… It is rather the solitary, joyful, carefree song of the nightingale in a fragrant night of May in Poland.”

John Tavener

Tavener always had the presence of his spiritual self, though he took it further with his conversion, starting a spiritual journey. Tavener could go to two paths from here, he could either find comfort in his new beliefs, which he eventually did, or he could, like Szymanowski, go a step further towards universality.

In quoting Nietzsche, who said: “…God’s absolute truth for example, which relegates all art to the realm of falsehood and in doing so condemns it”, Szymanowski found an inner conflict, battling between his love for the arts or for God. Thus this Catholic turns to humanity, to the earthly; he cannot satisfy the metaphysical desire, so he turns towards finite satisfactions.  This does not mean the rejection of religion, on the contrary; the attention he provides to his inner self has expanded to its limits, and therefore must become external; universal. As an example of the sublime stands Beethoven´s Ninth Symphony; Beethoven was deaf and could not live like a normal person, this led him to the exploration of the self, so much, that the choice of Schiller´s poem Ode to Joy could not be more universal.

            So we now arrive at the final conclusion, where we could find some order in the developing of choral music and religion through these two composers.

Karol Szymanowski

1. Choral music is an evolving channel towards religious development; even if you are not religious, choral music can lead you to some sort of spirituality, eg: John Tavener.
2. Religion encourages the study of choral tradition and its conventions. As choral music has always been central to all religious services, the individual cannot escape the influence of its own traditions.
3. Communal purpose is fulfilled with the individual’s own traditions externalised: the individual is now religious, but cannot find metaphysical comfort in these religious traditions, so he turns to his own roots, his people and country, eg: Szymanowski.

Has choral music suffered a backward evolution? It has indeed, in my opinion, suffered a retrograde development. Szymanowski is the final state of this development, but he was earlier than Tavener. Tavener though, is the beginning of that process. Now the discussion is opened, whether what order to follow; from the subjective to the objective like Szymanowski, or from the objective to the subjective, like Tavener?

Another case for further study would be; has music in general suffered a reversed path? Not only with Tavener and Szymanowski as isolated examples, but because there is now an abandonment of form, a dissolution of harmony and a lack of aesthetic coherence, has music become a primeval art due to excessive modernity?