While tuned into radio WDAV a day or two ago . . .
listening to Felix Mendelssohn’s 5th Symphony,
we suddenly discerned a developing melodic surprise:
gentle strains of a classic religious tune, A Mighty Fortress is Our God . . . drifting into the 3rd movement of the music.
Twenty-three minutes into this performance,
those first melodic snippets of Luther’s famous hymn—I heard, venturing in discreetly, during the slow Andante phase of Mendelssohn’s 1832 orchestral composition. By the end of the piece, however, the understated entrance of that well-known melody had morphed into being the very core of the symphony’s dynamic, forceful conclusion.
This gentle arrival of a familiar melody that incrementally develops into a forcefully conclusive forté—this is a composer’s technique found in several classical music masterpieces. . . most notably Beethoven’s (last) 9th Symphony, and a favorite American piece of mine, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
In the case of Ludwig van Beethoven’s use of a developing melodic theme that overpowers all other musical elements, Ludwig used his own emphatic original tune to fortify a potent message of popular 18th-century zeitgeist— universal brotherhood. The words that Beethoven chose to accompany his theme had been composed by Friedrich Schiller, a primary 18th-century poet of the Romantic period in our western history.
In the similar case of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, the composer employs a traditional religious melody—the “Shaker” theme, Simple Gifts, as a musical fulcrum for propelling the idea of mere simplicity into a commendable lifestyle.
The emphasis on simplicity is a powerful motivating factor in American history. The Puritans. for instance, who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, were fleeing an oppressive European religious straightjacket culture; they wanted to simplify their worship of God and to enable the practice of glorifying our Creator in community life.
Like Felix Mendelssohn, a great composer whose family heritage was Jewish, 20th-century composer Aaron Copland chose to utilize a well-established Christian melody as the basis for fortifying a powerful musical masterpiece.
In other trends of this earthly life . . . in the realm of, let’s say, political compositions—as compared to musical ones—recently I read a book that represents a similar dynamic of compositional accomplishment. David Horowitz’s timely book, Dark Agenda brings to light a contemporary American Christian culture that is under attack from secularizing—yeah, even aggressively anti-religious—zealots.
Perhaps we simple-minded Christians of this era--as well as those more complex Reformed believers whose reforms originated with Martin Luther five centuries ago--will find fortifying encouragement and strong inspiration in these classically-inclined masterpieces:
oh, and btw. . . honorable mention . . .
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