By Michael White - The New York Times - U.S.A.Saturday, June 16, 2007
The British composer John Tavener, a Christian, has written a work, “The Beautiful Names,” derived from the Koran.
He has often addressed spiritual topics, as in his seven-hour “Veil of the Temple” performed at Avery Fisher Hall in 2004.
Although English-born and -bred, Mr. Tavener, 63, turned in the 1970s to Eastern Orthodoxy, mirroring its stark, sluggish severity and tonal structures in his music, which, like his conversation, came with allusions to St. Dionysus the Areopagite, St. Gregory of Nyassa and other blissfully obscure divines.
His scores bore titles like “Diodia,” “Apocalypse” and “Agraphon.” And being slow, spare and repetitive, they earned him the affectionate but slightly mocking label Holy Minimalist, a term that survivors of his three-hour “Resurrection” or seven-hour “Veil of the Temple” might challenge.
Most of his output these days tends toward the huge, praising God across long time spans with enormous forces in vast spaces: more events than concerts. And the event to have its premiere in Westminster Cathedral on Tuesday could be considered one more example, but it does something likely to unsettle Mr. Tavener’s devotees. Instead of Christian words it sets a text from the Koran.
Given the times, this is newsworthy, and variants on “Tavener Goes Muslim” headlines have already surfaced in the British press, along with items that report his loss of faith and disenchantment with the Christian church. None of which is true.
But for Mr. Tavener to have written “The Beautiful Names,” a meditation on the 99 names of Allah, commissioned by no less than Prince Charles, for performance in a Roman Catholic cathedral does raise certain issues. For one, the charge of opportunism. For another, the risk that Muslims might not be appreciative.
“Well, if you look at it like that,” Mr. Tavener muttered in his endearingly distracted way recently, “I suppose it could be a can of worms I’m opening. I’ve no idea what Muslims will make of it. I haven’t really asked. But right after the London premiere, it’s being done in Istanbul, and no one seems to have raised any objection there.
“All I can say is, it’s a wonderful text — basically a list of names, some of majesty, some of mercy — that I’ve set as theophanies: as soundings-forth on the nature of the divine, with music that reflects their meaning. The Beneficent, the Opener, the Subtle. ...”
And the Dangerous?
“Yes, that’s one of the Names. The Koran can be quite fierce at times. Not that I’ve read it all, or in the original Arabic. That’s beyond me. But I have a brother who’s a Sufi, and he finds God in the Koran in ways he can’t in the Bible. A loving God. That’s there as well.”
(...)
His wandering into the Koran has taken time. According to the score “The Beautiful Names” was written several years ago. Has he been sitting on it, hesitating while political events unfolded?
No, he says. It has simply taken that long to fit together the large forces the piece requires, which include the Westminster Cathedral Choir, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (strategically placed in different parts of the building), the baritone soloist John Mark Ainsley and the powwow drum, which is ceremonially struck every 99 beats: one beat for every Name.
The British composer John Tavener, a Christian, has written a work, “The Beautiful Names,” derived from the Koran.
He has often addressed spiritual topics, as in his seven-hour “Veil of the Temple” performed at Avery Fisher Hall in 2004.
Although English-born and -bred, Mr. Tavener, 63, turned in the 1970s to Eastern Orthodoxy, mirroring its stark, sluggish severity and tonal structures in his music, which, like his conversation, came with allusions to St. Dionysus the Areopagite, St. Gregory of Nyassa and other blissfully obscure divines.
His scores bore titles like “Diodia,” “Apocalypse” and “Agraphon.” And being slow, spare and repetitive, they earned him the affectionate but slightly mocking label Holy Minimalist, a term that survivors of his three-hour “Resurrection” or seven-hour “Veil of the Temple” might challenge.
Most of his output these days tends toward the huge, praising God across long time spans with enormous forces in vast spaces: more events than concerts. And the event to have its premiere in Westminster Cathedral on Tuesday could be considered one more example, but it does something likely to unsettle Mr. Tavener’s devotees. Instead of Christian words it sets a text from the Koran.
Given the times, this is newsworthy, and variants on “Tavener Goes Muslim” headlines have already surfaced in the British press, along with items that report his loss of faith and disenchantment with the Christian church. None of which is true.
But for Mr. Tavener to have written “The Beautiful Names,” a meditation on the 99 names of Allah, commissioned by no less than Prince Charles, for performance in a Roman Catholic cathedral does raise certain issues. For one, the charge of opportunism. For another, the risk that Muslims might not be appreciative.
“Well, if you look at it like that,” Mr. Tavener muttered in his endearingly distracted way recently, “I suppose it could be a can of worms I’m opening. I’ve no idea what Muslims will make of it. I haven’t really asked. But right after the London premiere, it’s being done in Istanbul, and no one seems to have raised any objection there.
“All I can say is, it’s a wonderful text — basically a list of names, some of majesty, some of mercy — that I’ve set as theophanies: as soundings-forth on the nature of the divine, with music that reflects their meaning. The Beneficent, the Opener, the Subtle. ...”
And the Dangerous?
“Yes, that’s one of the Names. The Koran can be quite fierce at times. Not that I’ve read it all, or in the original Arabic. That’s beyond me. But I have a brother who’s a Sufi, and he finds God in the Koran in ways he can’t in the Bible. A loving God. That’s there as well.”
(...)
His wandering into the Koran has taken time. According to the score “The Beautiful Names” was written several years ago. Has he been sitting on it, hesitating while political events unfolded?
No, he says. It has simply taken that long to fit together the large forces the piece requires, which include the Westminster Cathedral Choir, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (strategically placed in different parts of the building), the baritone soloist John Mark Ainsley and the powwow drum, which is ceremonially struck every 99 beats: one beat for every Name.
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