“God is a great fugue”

Peter Bannister is a modern classic composer who takes theology seriously.

Concerning his recent oratorio Et iterum venturus est (And He shall come again), he says:

The historic creedal statement…reminds us that the Christian faith not only calls us to remember the Word’s becoming flesh but also to live in anticipation of Christ’s return. Et iterum venturus est is conceived as a work pulled in the “two directions” … focusing on Christ as both the promised Savior and Judge of Christian eschatology.

For a long time I have felt that during the liturgical season of Advent (which will be the context for the first performance of the piece in December 2008) a great deal of attention is paid to recalling the (not-so-burning) Babe of Bethlehem and relatively little to the Crucified and Risen Christ’s future coming in glory … ‘to judge the living and the dead’ in the words of the Creed.

The danger of this is that the awesome, unfathomable mystery that is the Incarnation becomes domesticated, dissociated from the transformational call to repentance and its implications for both our individual lives and God’s world.

While being careful to avoid any kind of speculation on the time-frame for the parousia, I intend to juxtapose scriptural texts regarding these two comings of Christ within one work in order to demonstrate their inseparability within the Biblical witness and…to interpret the past in the light of the future.

The video above (also viewable on YouTube here), Peter reflects on the challenges he faced writing Et iterum venturus est, discussing the intrinsic connection between music and spirituality and how he realized the necessity of linking profound theological reflection with challenging musical scores.

Click here to download an interview with Peter Bannister by Greg Wheatley that aired on Moody Radio.

HT:  Chandler Branch, Soli Deo Gloria