Pope Benedict says
music is indestructible
and a taste of Paradise
On Sunday night (8/2) at 6. p.m. the Bavarian Chamber Orchestra of Bad Brueckenau presented a concert in honor of Pope Benedict XVI at the inner courtyard of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo.
The program consisted of Benjamin Britten's
A Simple Symphony, op. 4, Johann Sebastian Bach's
Concerto for Oboe and Strings, BWV 1055; and Mozart's
Concerta for Oboe and Orchestra, KV 314.
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's remarks, most of it delivered in German:
Honorable Dean Kemmer,
Distinguished musicians,
Dear friends:
Today for the first time, after such a beautiful concert, I am unable to applaud vigorously. I am therefore even happier to be able to express to Mr. Albrecht Mayer and the musicians of the Bayerischen Kammerorchester Bad Brückenau the gratitude and admiration of everyone present.
In the same way I thank Dean Cilian Kemmer for his words of greeting and all those who organized and made this concert in Castel Gandolfo possible. For me, of course, the great fascination of this evening was the sound of the oboe which you, dear Mr. Mayer, masterully offered us .
It was moving to note how from this piece of wood, this instrument, an entire cosmos of music can stream forth: the unfathomable and the joyous, the serious and the facetious, grandeur and humility, the interior dialog of melodies.
I thought how great it is that a small creative piece can hide such promise that a master can liberate. And this means that all creation is full of promises, and that man receives the gift to leaf through the pages of this book of promises at least for some time.
I think this evening invites us not only to avail of the natural forces which help us to bring forth those physical energies which are a promise of creation, but also to avail of the deeper greater promises that this music has shown us, in the vigilance of the heart which allows us to understand even this piece of creation.
The printed program with the description of the music has introduced us to some of the works of the composers. I think it is very moving for us that these masters acted like the good father of the family in the Bible that the Lord speaks of:
Not only do they bring us what is old and new from their treasures, but under the impulse of their tasks, they are capable not only of creating ever new things, but also to reconsider the old and therefore make visible their new potential which was present in the previous work.
This concert with the oboe solos has carried out the task of expressing new potentialities, in which the music develops, remains alive and is reborn in every execution, as it did tonight.
I am reminded that today, the Church marks the day of the Porziuncola indulgence, which reminds us of the miraculous vision of St. Francis. In the small church of the Porziuncola in Assisi, he saw the Lord, his Mother and the angels around them.
The Lord allowed him to express one desire, and St. Francis asked to be able to bring forgiveness home. The request was accepted, he went back home, and told his brothers joyously: "Friends, the Lord wants you all in Paraadise!"
Tonight, I think that we should experience this moment like an hour in Paradise, observing and listening in Paradise, to the uncorrupted beauty and goodness of Creation. Not as an escape from the misery of this world and of daily life, because we must continue to oppose evil and shadows, but only if we ourselves believe in goodness. And we can believe in goodness only if we experience and live it as reality.
Tonight, we touched the good and the beautiful with our hearts.
He concluded in Italian:
Dear friends,
I spoke in German because the musicians and most of the participants are German. Unfortunately, after what happened in the tower of Babel, the languages became separate and create barriers.
But tonight, we have seen and heard that there is an indestructible part of the world - even after the tower and the arrogance of Babel - and it is music: the language that we can all understand because it touches the hearts of everyone.
For us, music is not just a guarantee that the goodness and beauty of God's creation are indestructible, but that we are called and are capable of working for the good and the beautiful, which are also a promise that a future will come when God triumphs, when beauty and goodness will win.
For such consolation, for this comfort in our daily lives, we are grateful to you, the musicians. Thank you to everyone. Good night and have a good week.
P.S.
I suppose the Holy Father was thinking of the treasury of Church Tradition which ie perpetually renewed and the discontinuities promoted by the progressivists - while also addressing himself to traditionalists - when he said this:
Not only do they bring us what is old and new from their treasures, but under the impulse of their tasks, they are capable not only of creating ever new things, but also to reconsider the old and therefore make visible their new potential which was present in the previous work.
P.P.S. Pretty soon, someone will (and should) come up with a book on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as art critic.
To balance the music part of it, someone should look for any 'reviews' or statements he has made about literary masterpieces. He has cited Dante quite often, and Goethe, too. And in one of his interview books, he said something about why Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf was his favorite novel (which surprised me because if he likes Hesse, I would have thought he would prefer Magister Ludi (literally, master of the games, published in English as The Glass Bead Game). And of course, he 'reviewed' John Paul II's book of poems Roman Triptych. And recently, he commented on the Michelangelo murals in the newly-restored Pauline Chapel.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/08/2009 13:57]