Duruflé
March 15, 2016
THE 20th-century French composer Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986), who was an assistant organist at Notre-Dame in Paris and a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, published only thirteen works in his lifetime, including his Requiem and Quatre Motets sur de themes Grégoriens. I know very little about him, but I heard both these beautiful works performed by a university choir this week, including this soft and meditative version of the famous hymn Ubi Caritas, which is one of the antiphons sung on Holy Thursday. No secular humanist ever produced anything remotely this beautiful, in the humble opinion of this supernaturalist.
Thank you to the lovely college student who introduced me to these works.
— Comments —
Mark B. writes:
I’m glad you discovered Durufle. His Requiem and Ubi Caritas are sublime. I hope you also have heard of Faure. They are sort of a pair.
I wish it could be said all the best and most beautiful music has been composed by Christians, it’s not certain that’s the case. Even most Christian composers may not be all that faithful and devoted.
Mozart was a Mason and indeed secular humanist and many think his Requiem exquisite (it is very good, indeed). Beethoven wasn’t religious, either.
Aaron Copeland was a secular Jew and Appalachian Spring is pretty darn good.
Laura writes:
I wrote that no secular humanist, and by that I meant someone who was the type of intellectual who would sign one of those manifestoes, created anything as beautiful as what Duruflé created. They obviously would not, if true to their principles, be composing Requiem Masses. I did not mean to suggest that only believing Christians can create beautiful art. (And I don’t know anything about Duruflé’s personal beliefs. I have no idea at all whether he was personally religious. He may have found Gregorian chant inspiring on an artistic level alone.) Obviously that is not true. There are many, many examples of beautiful art created by non-Christians.
By the way, Mozart, Beethoven and Copeland worked within societies in which the vestiges of Christian culture still existed. Masonic principles produce less beautiful art over time. Mozart could not have done what he did if he were alive today. The structure of aristocratic Christendom produced patrons for Mozart and Beethoven and even Copeland. Mozart would still be a genius and likely would still produce music of worth, but his audience, his patrons, his ideas and his surroundings would not be the same. I don’t just mean he would have had a different style. His works would be less beautiful.
Artists who are not religious can still express the sacred. They too are inspired by God. Even avowed atheists are recipients of God’s graces.
Mark writes:
The ugliness we see (art, architecture, literature) and hear (music in academe and occasionally elsewhere), is symptomatic not so much on secular humanism as it is a result of the culture of critique forced upon us by villains.
Much of the Renaissance was fueled by the humanism of Erasmus through Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo and many others. That their work usually featured sacred themes was the sea they were swimming in at the time whereas today, many fine artists reflect a modern paganism.
For example, you will find many examples of beautiful, extraordinary, and clever work (along with some silliness) at this website.
Most of these artists are gainfully employed, some making very good livings around the world but the general culture never sees their work.
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Instead we get frauds like Jeff Koons.
A city councilman who is my neighbor voted for this nonsense and when I talked to his wife asking why he’d spend precious city funds on such a charlatan and hack, she told me that he simply followed the advice of various art critics and curators. He didn’t have the nerve to use his own judgement to see crap as crap.
Like the examples of the music I sent you, the great majority of art being done in the world is by people who are trying to create the beautiful and sublime.
Aquinas said that Beauty is that, when seen, pleases. Most artists are trying to do that but the Ruling Elite controls the Mass Media and various organs – prizes, foundations etc so that it is the ugly that prevails in the public square.
You may have never seen this Catholic’s work, Daniel Mitsui, which is very good:
I have often attended an Art Fair at our convention center that features fine artists. There is a fair amount of kitsch, but also a large amount of excellent work of high standards.
That’s true in the area of music. YouTube is filled with people composing the best they can from all over the West in traditional styles and manners.
In a sense, the Internet is responsible for an enormous outpouring of excellence in art throughout the world. There’s so much, no one person can take it all in; and the drawback is that only a few audit any one person who is not successfully promoted, famous or gone viral (flash in the pan).
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So the world, even the secular and now pagan world is creating an enormous amount of beautiful things, but the Over-Culture foisted on us masks and hides those things.
Laura writes:
You seem to have interpreted my comment as a condemnation of all artists working today. When I speak of the ugliness around us, I mean the ugliness supported by major institutions. I realize many artists continue to create works of beauty. So we are in agreement.
I have posted Daniel Mitsui’s works in the past.
