Saturday, 15 November 2008

Lessons on Spirituality... from Igor Stravinsky?

I'm a bona fide geek. I've sang in choirs continuously for going on 11 years except for a two-month hiatus, I earned a degree in vocal music, and I even bothered to keep a membership with the top dog of choral societies: the American Choral Directors' Association (the ACDA). If that's not geeky, I really fail to see what is.

I always get excited when the new issue of the Choral Journal arrives in the mail. Usually there's something pretty sweet in it. One month, there was something about Eric Whitacre, who is becoming the first major icon in choral music from the 21st Century. Another time, there was a feature on Bach, which gets most classical musicians excited. But one issue a couple months ago caught my attention because of something that wasn't actually the focal point of the article. At least, not completely, anyway.

The featured article was about Igor Stravinsky's choral music. The man is most famous for composing ballets and working with Sergei Diaghilev on The Firebird, The Rite of Spring and Petrouchka. He wrote some other stuff, too, but those are the really big ones. He wrote choral music, too! According to the article, because Stravinsky always considered himself Eastern Orthodox, the choral stuff requires a measure of understanding of Eastern Orthodox spirituality, specifically the Russian Orthodox Church.

The article described the Russian Orthodox Church as, "characterized by its cosmic approach to life." This church, rather than focus on the individual, centers around the community of believers. When the person becomes "filled with the Holy Spirit," (the language used by the author) all of life becomes spiritual. To partition life between spiritual and secular, your church life and your life outside of church, is irrelevant. All life is spiritual. The Russian Orthodox take this worldview from theosis, a central doctrine to their church. The basic idea behind theosis is summed up by, "becoming 'god by grace.'" The believer supposedly doesn't lose his sense of self but is joined with God in a union. Russian Orthodox means of theosis are prayer, participation in the church sacraments, and "the Orthodox Christian way of life." Again, it's viewed not individually but as part of a community of believers-something that has become a bit foreign to mostly individualistic Protestants in the West.

As far as Igor Stravinsky's choral music's concerned, the Mass he wrote is of particular interest because the author described it as, "[Roman] Catholic in form, in spirit and in stylistic elements Stravinsky's Mass can be viewed as Orthodox." Igor Stravinsky sought, in his own words, to compose "very cold music, absolutely cold, that will appeal directly to the spirit." So much for the appeal to the emotions and individualistic experiences that are held on a pedestal in the Western traditions. He considered the Credo, the statement of belief, the most important of the movements. The power is in what the text states, not the power of the music or people getting captured by the harmonies or a riveting motive.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to assault Western Christianity with Eastern traditions. Even though we don't have ALL the answers, neither do our Russian comrades. I seriously question the concept of theosis in particular. To say that we BECOME "god by grace" when we become Christians is missing the point. Jesus promised in the Gospel of John (chapter 14-AMAZING chapter) that the Holy Spirit would dwell INSIDE us. Theosis vs. Holy Spirit's indwelling are vastly different. I tend to agree with the latter, though theosis is some interesting food for thought. The Wikipedia article on theosis is quite fascinating.

That said... here's what I think we CAN learn from the Russian Orthodox Church.

• Igor Stravinsky sought to write music that got to the heart of the matter. He didn't want to bother with a Mass that was so grand in scale that it was a concert piece. His music wasn't the worship. It wasn't a show. That's what HAD happened to Masses in Western and Central Europe even as far back as the late 18th Century, and Stravinsky was determined to not let his music be a spectacle. Rightly so. It should never be a show. It is simply ONE ASPECT of worship to the triune God during the church service.
• More importantly, the service itself wasn't compartmentalized from the rest of the congregation's life. There is no "church" life and "rest of the week." Though I doubt the Russians get that perfect, either, I think that's something worthy of keeping in mind.
• Finally, I see the Russian Orthodox tradition reminding us that we don't walk alone. Community is important to them, and we would be wise to hold that in higher esteem than we do in our indivdualistic, "walk my own way" society. Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a few things to say about that, too.

Discuss.