The Bible and Music

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at the Hilbert Circle Theatre downtown. While I was originally planning to go because the headliner piece was Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and I knew that Mendelssohn composed “Elijah” and other religious pieces, my plan changed as the concert went on.

Mendelssoh’s Violin Concerto was the opening piece, featuring 19-year-old violin protege Simone Porter. While I found the piece entertaining, there were no Christian undertones in the piece. According to the playbill, Mendelssohn never intended for the piece to be Christian at all. It was merely a challenging and avant-garde concerto for the violin.

The second piece played after the intermission, was inspired by the Bible. This was how my plan for my reflection changed during the event. The piece was Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 7”, which is a 4 part symphony and lasted roughly 45 minutes to an hour. The notes on the piece and the composer said that Bruckner only read 2 books throughout his lifetime; the Bible and Napoleon’s biography. Because of that, his compositions allude to major themes in the Christian religion such as the power and presence of God, which I found in “Symphony No. 7”. I found that the symphony itself did not feel Christian, but I was able to identify different parts of movements that I believe music critics were able to locate as showing signs of religious influence. Part 1 specifically exhibited tones of majesty and power, which I think was alluding to the supernatural power of God. WIth loud beats from the percussion, and major scales by the orchestra, these tones of a grand supernatural being were created. These tones were echoed in the Finale. OVerall, I would conclude that Symphony No. 7 was written more as an artistic symphony instead of a piece of music written for religious use.

Although my assumptions about the performance proved false, my expectations were surpassed because of the history of Bruckner’s style of writing and sources of inspiration. However I do not think I would have found biblical allusions had it not been for the program notes that were provided by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.