Musical Scores and the Eternal Present: Theology, Time, and Tolkien
Ebook
Music is played and heard in time, yet it is also embodied in space by musical scores. The observation of a musical score turns time into space and allows musicians to embrace the flow of time in a single glance. This experience constitutes a symbol for the Eternal Present, the simultaneous knowledge of all time outside time. This book analyzes the implications of this view through a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, linking theology, philosophy, literature, and music. It also studies how this theme has been foreshadowed in the writings of Dante and J. R. R. Tolkien, demonstrating the connections between their masterpieces and the aesthetics of their times. The result is a fascinating itinerary through the history of culture, thought, and music, but also a deeply theological and spiritual experience.
“Chiara Bertoglio, writer and performer, is blessed with an
extraordinary imagination and an ability to draw on a remarkably
wide range of sources. This book presses us to make multiple
connections we have probably not made before, and in ways that are
bound to bring both immense stimulation and enrichment.”
—Jeremy Begbie, professor, Duke University
“Musical Scores and the Eternal Present is a
thought-provoking academic yet also very personal book. Drawing on
philosophical thought and imagery from St. Augustine to our own
times, it establishes a comprehensive Christian worldview based on
the practical and symbolic significance of musical notation,
revisiting along the way also the unfathomable question of the
theodicy.”
—Nils Holger Petersen, associate professor emeritus, University of
Copenhagen, and composer
“Chiara Bertoglio takes the reader gently by the hand through a
journey of discovery into the nature of music and time, interacting
with figures such Augustine, Boethius, Dante, Bergson, Adorno, and
Tolkien, and by employing her unique insights as a theologian and
accomplished musician she shows how musical scores can act as human
analogues for the ‘eternal present.’”
—Richard H. Bell, Professor of Theology, University of
Nottingham
- Title: Musical Scores and the Eternal Present: Theology, Time, and Tolkien
- Author: Chiara Bertoglio
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725295049, 9781725295025, 9781725295032, 1725295040, 1725295024, 1725295032
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725295049
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-12-22T06:09:36Z
Chiara Bertoglio is a professional concert pianist with a PhD in Musicology, a MA in History of Theological Thought and another in Systematic Theology, and a “Licenza in teologia” at the Pontifical University S. Anselmo (Rome). She is the author of several books, including Reforming Music (2017). She is winner of the RefoRC Award and finalist at the Alberigo Prize. She teaches at several institutions, including theological universities. Visit her website at www.chiarabertoglio.com.