By Andrew Finkel - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, TurkeyMonday, June 25, 2007
East or West, the Names are still beautiful
It was a high note in the İstanbul Cultural Foundation's summer music festival, a first performance following the London premiere of Sir John Tavener's "The Beautiful Names."
The choir evoked the 99 names of God in the Koran, standing beneath the great cross in the apse of the eighth century basilica of Hagia Eirene.
How did Sir John, himself a convert to Greek Orthodoxy, react to crossing theological divides and hear his work performed to a largely Muslim audience beneath that cross, one of the masterpieces of iconoclastic art.
"In some ways I rather wish it hadn't been there," he replied. "This may be a strange reaction, but I don't think any kind of outward manifestation is good when one is trying to do something that is inward."
He pauses to reconsider and decides that perhaps the cross was not in the way after all. "Sacrifice is a practice common to all religion." At a symbolic level the crucifixion stands for the annihilation of ego, which he said, was close to Sufism, and recognition of the God within.
When "The Beautiful Names" was performed last Tuesday in London's Westminster Cathedral, there were blogs of protest by those insisting that when it comes to names, there were at the very most only three.
("Shame, shame, shame on the cardinal to allow this denial of the Holy Trinity in Westminster Cathedral" exclaimed one outraged Internet voice.)
Sir John Tavener is at best bemused at the suggestion that he caused offense. There are Christian fundamentalists as well as those in the Islamic world, he said. "It's a manifestation of the times in which we live."
The London critics were forthcoming with praise, if at the same time a little guarded. "Fascinating, beguiling and flawed," wrote Neil Fisher in The Times. This, too, provokes a shrug. The critics, he says, write about the music; they haven't a clue about God.
He believes the important thing was that the piece could be performed in both a Catholic cathedral and in a country that believed in Islam.
Far more important than the reviews were the remarks of those who came up to him after the performance in İstanbul. "It clearly meant so much to them. That's what moved me."
Were the two audiences hearing the same piece of music in the same way? He said that invariably there were differences. There were dissimilarities of culture and of temperament. These were important and not to be ignored.
"What I try to say in the music is that these [dissimilarities of culture and of temperament] are not at the inner level, which is what music addresses. At a higher level religions point to the same God."
East or West, the Names are still beautiful
It was a high note in the İstanbul Cultural Foundation's summer music festival, a first performance following the London premiere of Sir John Tavener's "The Beautiful Names."
The choir evoked the 99 names of God in the Koran, standing beneath the great cross in the apse of the eighth century basilica of Hagia Eirene.
How did Sir John, himself a convert to Greek Orthodoxy, react to crossing theological divides and hear his work performed to a largely Muslim audience beneath that cross, one of the masterpieces of iconoclastic art.
"In some ways I rather wish it hadn't been there," he replied. "This may be a strange reaction, but I don't think any kind of outward manifestation is good when one is trying to do something that is inward."
He pauses to reconsider and decides that perhaps the cross was not in the way after all. "Sacrifice is a practice common to all religion." At a symbolic level the crucifixion stands for the annihilation of ego, which he said, was close to Sufism, and recognition of the God within.
When "The Beautiful Names" was performed last Tuesday in London's Westminster Cathedral, there were blogs of protest by those insisting that when it comes to names, there were at the very most only three.
("Shame, shame, shame on the cardinal to allow this denial of the Holy Trinity in Westminster Cathedral" exclaimed one outraged Internet voice.)
Sir John Tavener is at best bemused at the suggestion that he caused offense. There are Christian fundamentalists as well as those in the Islamic world, he said. "It's a manifestation of the times in which we live."
The London critics were forthcoming with praise, if at the same time a little guarded. "Fascinating, beguiling and flawed," wrote Neil Fisher in The Times. This, too, provokes a shrug. The critics, he says, write about the music; they haven't a clue about God.
He believes the important thing was that the piece could be performed in both a Catholic cathedral and in a country that believed in Islam.
Far more important than the reviews were the remarks of those who came up to him after the performance in İstanbul. "It clearly meant so much to them. That's what moved me."
Were the two audiences hearing the same piece of music in the same way? He said that invariably there were differences. There were dissimilarities of culture and of temperament. These were important and not to be ignored.
"What I try to say in the music is that these [dissimilarities of culture and of temperament] are not at the inner level, which is what music addresses. At a higher level religions point to the same God."
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