Bis orat cui cantat
Music and Spirit
The Twenty-third Psalm from the Bay Psalm Book, the first printed book in America, 1640
St. Thomas Church, 5th Ave. and 53rd St.
Scene from Ghost Opera, Tan Dun (attended by class last year)
Scene from Galileo Galilei, opera by Philip Glass (attended by class two years ago)
The organ case in St. Thomas Church
Illustration from the Magnus Liber (in a copy known as St. Andrew's Choirbook, now in Wolfenbüttel, Herzoglisches Bibliothek)
showing Musica instrumentalis, Musica humana and Musica caelestis
The development of sacred music in Western music from plainsong to the present day, and an introduction to the sacred music of non-Western cultures. Trips to liturgies, concerts and programs in Manhattan and Staten Island. Studies include indigeous music from around the world, music of Buddhism, the Rig Veda, recitation of the Qu'ran, music from the Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Armenian rites, and sacred music by recent composers. A special project is the examination of the Psalms, relating study on the structure of a Psalm and a musical setting of a Psalm. The use and singing of Psalms includes class performances of Psalms in plainsong, in Calvinist Psalm Tunes, current Jewish practice, and in the format of the Taisé Community.
Psalm 109 (Dixit dominus) as sung to Psalm Tone 1
On Staten Island Taizé meditations are held near Wagner at 5:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church every 3rd Saturday.
(For directions to Trinity see the Ex umbris page.)
Links
O God, You are great,
You are the one who created me,
I have no other.
God, You are in the heavens,
You are the only one.
Anuak Prayer (Sudan)
"... all the children of men are under the mercy of the Great God. They are the sons of one God; they are trained by God. He has placed the crown of humanity on the head of every one of the servants of God. Therefore all nations and peoples must consider themselves brethren. ... They are the branches, leaves, flowers and fruits of One Tree. They are pearls from one shell."
Baha'i, Abdu'l-Baha Abdul'Baha in London
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Ephisians 4:6
Absolute truth is indestructible. Being indestructible, it is eternal. Being eternal, it is self existent. Being self existent, it is infinite. Being infinite, it is vast and deep. Being vast and deep, it is transcendental and intelligent. It is because it is vast and deep that it contains all existence. It is because it is transcendental and intelligent that it embraces all existence. It is because it is infinite and eternal that it fulfills or perfects all existence. In vastness and depth it is like the Earth. In transcendental intelligence it is like Heaven. Infinite and eternal, it is the Infinite itself. Such being the nature of absolute truth, it manifests itself without being seen; it produces effects without motion; it accomplishes its ends without action.
Confucian, Doctrine of the Mean 26
He is the one god hidden in all beings, all pervading, the Self within all beings, watching over all works, dwelling in all beings, the witness, the perceiver, the only one, free from qualities.
Servasvatana Upanishad 6:11
Say, He is God, the One!
God, the eternally Besought of all!
He neither begets nor was begotten.
And there is none comparable unto Him.
Qur'an 112
What is hurtful to yourself do not to your fellow man. That is the whole of the Torah and the remainder is but commentary. Talmud, Shabbat 31a
Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?
Malachi 2:10
Every object in the world has a spirit, and that spirit is wakan. Thus the spirits of the tree or things of that kind, while not like the spirit of man, are also wakan. Wakan comes from the wakan beings. These wakan beings are greater than mankind in the same way that mankind is greater than animals. They are never born and never die. They can do many things that mankind cannot do. Mankind can pray to the wakan beings for help. There are many of these beings but all are of four kinds. The word Wakan Tanka means all of the wakan beings because they are all as if one. Wakan Tanka Kin signifies the chief or leading wakan being, which is the Sun. However, the most powerful of the wakan beings is Nagk Tanka, the Great Spirit, who is also called Taku Shanskan, the Sky....
Native American, Dakota Tradition
All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.
Native American, Black Elk
He is the Sole Supreme Being; of eternal manifestation;
Creator, Immanent Reality; Without Fear, Without Rancor;
Timeless Form; Unincarnated; Self existent;
Realized by the grace of the Holy Preceptor.
Sikhism, Adi Granth, Japuji, p. 1: The Mul Mantra
A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated.
Jainism, Sutrakritanoa 1.11.33
La Allah ha; Il allah hu. All this is god; God is all there is. Sufi
Not one of you is a believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
Islam, Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13
The sage clasps the Primal Unit, testing by it everything under heaven. Taoism, Tao Te Ching 22
