Charles Scribner reflects on the beginnings of Christian iconography, starting at the crib.
Ever since I was a schoolboy soprano, my favourite chorus in all music was Haydn’s triumphal setting of the opening of Psalm XIX, the climax of Part 1 of his Creation: “The heavens are telling the glory of God: the wonder of His work displays the firmament.”
Six decades later, this music still conveys, as no mere words can, the Creator behind Creation, just as Handel’s soprano solo in Messiah – “I know that my redeemer liveth” – redeems the suffering of Job as well as our own and points forward, as an aural prefiguration, to Christ the Redeemer, our Messiah. As the composer in Richard Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos proclaims, “Music is a holy art.” But she is, fortunately, in good company throughout that worthy endeavour.
