What is it about?
The article discusses two large-scale 20th-century musical compositions, based on texts by St Augustine: "The Vision of Saint Augustine" for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra by British composer Michael Tippett (1905-98), setting excerpts from Augustine's Confessions, and, in greater detail, Swiss composer Klaus Huber's (1924-2017) "Soliloquia Sancti Aurelii Augustini" for solo voices, two choruses and orchestra. Huber's work sets short excerpts from Augustine's Soliloquia.
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Why is it important?
The question dealt with in the article primarily concerns what the music does to the text. In both cases, the chosen texts are received into a different medium, that of song. In both cases although with substantial differences, the presentation of the chosen texts are marked by musical modernism. The texts are rearranged, and especially in Huber's case condensed, with addition of elements of traditional Latin liturgy. Huber transforms Augustine's individualistic and ruminating formulations into something much closer to a communal prayer. By contrast, Tippett in his setting of Augustine, consciously, as also discussed in a recent book by David Clarke, creates a sharp distinction between the world of Augustine and his own modern world, appropriating certain aspects of Augustine's philosophy of time.
Perspectives
The perspective, as I see it, has to do with why and how modern artists, here composers, appropriate older texts. In this particular article it is concerned with the reception history of St Augustine. With what purpose, and how do these composers achieve their purposes? The article studies this for two specific large-scale compositions and does not attempt anything like a general theory, but rather exemplifies how different agendas and interests shape the outcome.
Dr Nils Holger Petersen
Dept of Church History, University of Copenhagen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: St. Augustine in Twentieth-Century Music, January 2012, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004228580_014.
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