Traces of Transcendence

Mozart, Traces of Transcendence

Hans KUNG

Eerdmans, 1991

Pages: 79

Date Read: 12/4/09

Kung, a Roman Catholic theologian, writes in a metaphysical style that requires a believing Christian with the Protestant Reformed conviction of sovereignty of the objective Word (Sola Scriptura) to interpret Kung's insights with a double hermeneutic. On the one hand, one cannot rightly interpret the Roman Catholic theologian's perspective of the Mozart's psyche and the relative spiritual power of Mozart's church music unless one has a rudimentary understanding of the Roman Catholic conception of spirituality. On the other hand, Kung's explanation of the “transcendence” of Mozart's Church music will enlighten the Reformed Christian who is, as Kung says, “a committed hearer” of Mozart and is seeking to identify what it is about Mozart's music that has the mystical power to seduce his soul away from the din of the “noisy self” to an existential otherness of spiritual experience. If the Christian is grounded in propositional truth, the 'discursive assurance' as the Puritans referred to it, then there is, it seems to me, at least the probability of transportation to the metaphysical, to the mystical, via music that is universally regarded as the very best in the world with themes that are absolutely and objectively true (i.e. Credo) and with yearnings that should be absolutely and subjectively true for all the redeemed (i.e. Kyrie eleison).

The mysterious power of some of the Church Music of times past such as that in Bach, Mozart, and even Palestrina become more clear to me as I read KUNG.

The small book is divided into two parts. The first part contains seven reflections of various experiences with Mozart's music and ponders some of the aspects of Mozart's music that are used to describe his work, the work of one that Einstein referred to as “a visitor to earth!” Kung ponders on Mozart's music as Catholic, Religious, “Divine”, Human, Mystery, and Bliss and then attempts to explain why the amazingly hyperbolic and exaggerated praises of critics through the years for Mozart's music really seem to miss the reason for its power. He particularly compares the works of two prominent 20^th century non-musicologist writers yet “committed hearers”, Karl Barth and Wolfgang Hildesheimer, who both highly admire Mozart and yet dismiss his spirituality because the one (Barth) was a Protestant and the other (Hildesheimer) was a Jew therefore, not-so-subtly implied by Kung, unable to understand Mozart as he should be.

The second part if a brief exegesis of the Coronation Mass, perhaps Mozart's most famous, and a theological synopsis of the parts of the liturgy. I found this to be very insightful. For instance, Kung's explanation of Mozart's musical treatment of the Credo (in all his works)that powerfully declares the statement of faith in the triune God and then radically changes, often chromatically or in a minor key, the incarnation. It makes the “Et Incarnatus” become beautiful Christmas music.

Anyway, it made me think.