Below is a rendition of my favorite sacred music. As a young girl going to mass in pre-Vatican II South Bend, Indiana, when the choir in the loft behind the congregation sang this, I was sure it was the angels sharing the essence of God with us. The fact that it was in Latin made it even more numinous. I'm agnostic now, but if there is a God, I'm convinced S/He is always present when we experience the beautiful. And artists, musicians, actors, writers, and singers are Her/His angels.
"Numinous is a term derived from the Latin numen, meaning "arousing spiritual or religious emotion; mysterious or awe-inspiring." The term was given its present sense by the German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto in his influential 1917 German book The Idea of the Holy. Wikipedia"
Agnostic: "a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God."
I too find “god” in the beautiful. In the sunrise, nature or in in the lovely voices that join together. Thank you for sharing god with me.
ReplyDeleteThat music is so beautiful, and yes even for an agnostic like myself. Loved listening to that. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWe both wrote about beauty on the same day.
DeleteSublime performance. Love that it is recorded in a stairwell and is so beautiful visually. Wow!
ReplyDeleteI also found it satisfying on so many levels.
DeleteTheir harmonies are really something! Beautiful performance!
ReplyDeleteVery.
DeleteIt is such a beautiful song. Feelings of spirituality swell as I listen.
ReplyDeleteGood feeling.
DeleteHey just a minute. I'm coming to the end of my sixth year of singing lessons: one hour a week until the pandemic started, now one-and-a-half hours via Skype. It's only with great reluctance I miss a lesson so, say, 45 lessons a year, thus 270 lessons. Plus all the stuff I do alone in my study. Also, with great ingenuity, V keeps on upping the ante moving to more and more difficult songs. Presently: Schubert's Die Forelle (The Trout). Listen to it on YouTube, note how the stream ripples musically throughout the song. You reckon that's easy? It's hard work I tell ee. And I sing for myself (and, of course, V) not angelically for some supernatural being. Of course you may say I'm neither an artist nor even a musician and you may be right. The only thing I can say for certain is I sing better than I did six years ago.
ReplyDeleteAgnostic, for me, isn't specific enough. It's the contradictions, you see. A, a Christian, gets a sniffy cold. Thanks God for taking it way. Doesn't seem to acknowledge it was the all-powerful deity, in charge of everything, that arranged for A to have the sniffy cold in the first place. If God exists he sure is whimsical.
Secret revelation, one item in my repertoire is a setting of The Lord's Prayer. So am I full of BS? Nah. The setting is by the English composer, Michael Head, one of V's modern favourites. Mind you, on a good day, when my top notes are firm and you hear me near the end, reaching for and hitting:
"... from thine is the KING-dom..."
(KING is a D, two notes short of my absolute ceiling)
you'd swear I was driven by other-worldly forces. But it's just the old familiar grind - hard work.
Too long? Probably.
"For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever"isn't a part of the Roman Catholic version of The Lord's Prayer. It ends with "deliver us from evil." Nor is it a part of the original version. Not sure who thought that up and turned a perfectly good prayer of supplication into one flattering a God as if s/he were a King. I don't like the Royalist intent; however, I love to hear it sung. Very dramatic. Anyway, I do think you are an artist. You are a writer. I have no basis to judge your singing. I like that you are doing it, tho. I hate to say "late in life" because I'm convinced you will live forever.
DeleteAs for agnostic, I can't convince myself (either way) that I know something I simply cannot know for sure. I imagine (imagine being the key word) that if there is a Divine spark, it's nothing at all like the Christian God.
Great comment. Not too long.
I've been an atheist since a very tender age. Religious beliefs seemed to embrace so many contradictory ideas that I couldn't make sense of. Also there's absolutely no tangible evidence of a supreme being looking on from the heavens. But I respect people's use of religious beliefs as a coping mechanism when everyday life is hard to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI also respect everyone's viewpoint (as long as it stays personal and there is no proselytizing).
DeleteThe voices in the video and the song are sublime. I do love the word numinous. I am a Christian and see God's work and creation everywhere, as Scripture says "He hath made everything beautiful." I understand your viewpoint of being an agnostic.
ReplyDelete