The Reinvention of Religious Music

"Present-day music studies conspicuously evade the question of religion in contemporary music. Although many composers address the issue in their work, as yet there have been few attempts to think through the structure of religious music as we hear it.The work of Olivier Messiaen is well known for its inclusion of religious themes and gestures. On the basis of a careful analysis of Messiaen's work, this book argues for a renewal of our thinking about religious music. Starting from an analysis of his 1960s oratorio 'La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ', van Maas arranges a moderated dialogue between Messiaen and the music theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, the phenomenology of revelation of Jean-Luc Marion, the rethinking of religion and technics in Jacques Derrida and Bernard Stiegler, and the Augustinian ruminations of Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Francois Lyotard. Ultimately, this confrontation underscores the challenging yet deeply affirmative nature of Messiaen's music." --book jacket.