CANTICLE IN PRAISE OF HER
I began composing this piano song on Tuesday this week and completed it on Thursday evening. The “Her” to whom I am referring is the Holy Spirit. The inspiration and a brief commentary on the music follows the song.
THE MUSIC
This song is autobiographical in that it is based on a deeply spiritual experience I had while spending five days at a hermitage on the shores of Lake Elysian in Southern Minnesota in May of 2004. I present to you a poem I composed describing what I experienced during my stay at the hermitage.
THE POEM
CANTICLE IN PRAISE OF HER
I remember when I first identified your voice,
that early May morning in two thousand and four,
at the hermitage upon the shores of Lake Elysian.
It is not like your voice had been absent to me
those fifty-two years prior.
No, your voice was always present,
whispering in my ear, guiding,
teaching, challenging,
pushing me along in my life.
What was it? What identified you,
whose voice I had been listening to all those years?
Was it the sound of the wind blowing
through the budding branches of the trees
along the shores of the lake?
Or, the sound of your voice
in the quaking of ducks on the water?
Was it in the melodious sound
of the Robins, and Wrens, and Cardinals
high up in the branches of the trees?
Or, was it the combination of all of nature
in full song that day along the shores?
I found it ironic that after years of theology,
in which Divine Mystery was supposedly imparted,
it was not in those hallowed, holy halls
of seminaries nor in the books
resting on the darkened stacks
of theological libraries,
that I identified your voice.
But rather, in the sound that you
created along the shores of Lake Elysian.
You have been known to many people
by different names:
Ruach, Breath of God,
in which you breathed upon the void,
your breath stirring the dark waters
from which all life began to evolve.
Or, Sophia, Wisdom of God,
the gift given to Solomon,
and that dearly sought after
by many philosophers and theologians.
Were you Lady Poverty,
with whom beloved Francis fell in love
and sold everything he had
in order to court you?
The name by which I identified you
that day along the lake shore
was my Mother, my Divine Mother.
Yes, Divine Mother, for like all Mothers
you love unconditionally your children,
whether we are stupid, or naughty,
obedient and complying.
By our side, you are always present,
your love and inspiration softly,
gently caressing our souls,
challenging us to grow,
to face our fears, to encounter
new experiences and open our eyes
to the splendor which you have created.
I have come to recognize your voice
in the people most important to me,
my wife and children, my parents
my teachers, the poor, and the homeless,
the immigrants, and the suffering,
through them you have taught me so well.
And lastly, Divine Mother,
I hear you in music.
I remember that night,
driving home from a theology class,
along Mississippi River Boulevard,
listening to Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
In that chord, that one chord,
I heard your beautiful voice
that touched my soul so deeply,
that I pulled over to the side of the road,
and I wept for a period of time.
I remember when first I began
to compose music in earnest.
Like Samuel, I was awakened
in the middle of the night,
and not in some fog of near sleep,
but clearly knew instinctively
that you wanted me to compose music.
My purpose was not meant to be famous,
nor to enrich my life with wealth.
The task you gave me was simply
to compose music, and nothing more.
And, so, I gift this song to you,
in thanksgiving for all you have given to me,
in love, as a son to his Divine Mother.
(c) 2021 by Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
A SHORT THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY
From the first chapter of Genesis, Judeo-Christian religions have chosen to anthropomorphize Divinity. We are told in that first chapter that we, male and female alike, were made in the image of God. Because human society has largely been under the throes of patriarchy for thousands upon thousands of years, it has been presumed that the image of God is primarily male. Of course, it is foolishness to attach a human form to Divinity, a Divinity that is pure Spirit. Yet, the smallness of our minds and the great human need to form relationship with a corporal body (e.g. the love relationship that exist within humanity), we need a God in human form. For Christians, we believe that the greatest translation of Divine Love came in the form of Jesus. Jesus expressed a great bond of love to God as that between a father and the father’s beloved son (see the Last Supper Discourse from the Gospel of John). Artists have portrayed the first person of the Trinity as an old man with a long white beard. Of course, Jesus continues to be portrayed in human form, alas, too often not as a man of color from Palestine, but as a Northern European. We do like to make God in our own image after all.
However, if we explore Hebrew scripture, we find a many faceted portrait of who God is that is far more close to the God of Creation in whose image we all are made, both male and female. If you pay attention to the tense of the words to describe God, you will find God as Spirit expressed by the feminine tense word, Ruach, meaning “Breath of God.” It is Ruach that breathes upon the waters of creation from which all life evolved. In Ezekiel, it is Ruach that breathes upon the dry, broken human bones lying on the floor of the valley and restores them to full life. In the Wisdom literature, God as Wisdom is again expressed in the feminine tense, Chokmah (later translated as Sophia in Greek). It is Chokmah that humanity desires in the book of Proverbs, and Chokmah, who is the bride whom Solomon is courting in the Song of Solomon. The Hebrew scriptures instructs us that God is more than just the image of a human male that looks like Gandalf the Grey from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or more recently, Dumbledore from the story of Harry Potter.
In the early Church, those baptized on Easter were said to have been born from the womb of the Holy Spirit. The Mystagogia that followed baptism was described as spiritually nursing from the abundant breasts of the Holy Spirit. As the Church became more dominated by males and thus more clericalized (the tragic state of the present day Catholic Church), male church leadership first neutered the Holy Spirit, translating Spirit into the Greek word, Pneuma, and, later, somewhat in a form of transgender spirituality, turned the Holy Spirit into a male, translating the word Spirit, as the male tense word, Spiritus. Since, the Church already had two male figures (the old, white bearded “Father”) and Jesus, the Spirit was reduced to the image of a male white dove, who hopefully does not dispense “Grace” as birds tend to do on our cars).
Within a few circles of Traditionalists and Restorationists within the Catholic Church, they try to compensate for the lack of a Divine symbol of female, but attempting to deify, Mary, Mother of Jesus. Fortunately, the leadership of the Church has thwarted this attempt to strip Mary of her humanity. Hence, I believe there is a great need to restore imagery that has been with us and present to us in the Hebrew scriptures.
FOR THE MUSICAL NERDS AND GEEKS
This piano song is in three part ABA form. The A section is in 7/4 meter (seven beats to a measure, the quarter note getting one beat). The number 7 has sacred significance in the spiritual numerology of both the Hebrew and Christian religions. The creation was accomplished in 7 days. The highest form of heaven is the 7th level (ever hear the expression of being in seventh heaven e.g. the highest form of happiness). Jesus speaks of his disciples forgiving people 7 times 70 times. The Greek name Jesus Christ equals the number 777, while the name, Nero (the Beast) equals 666. Paul writes in his pastoral letters of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. Hence, I intentionally composed the first section of this song in 7/4 meter. Also, 7/4 meteris something outside the ordinary meter in which we usually hear music (e.g. 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4). As you listen to the song, you know that there is something different about the melody that is not ordinarily heard. For whatever it is worth, the 7/4 meter can be grouped into a subgroup of beat as 123 456 7, with the heavier beats (accents) falling on beats 1, 4, and 7. The first section is in the key of F major.
The middle section is in 2/4 meter (two beats to a measure the quarter note getting one beat). There is really no strong theological reason behind the meter change of the middle section. The only caveat would be that the running sixteenth notes in both hands giving an aural image of the Holy Spirit stirring things up in human life.
Following the middle B section, the A section returns in 7/4 meter, with some additional decoration to conclude the song.
