feb. 22

-Finished "Resounding Truth" yesterday. Very helpful (basic) survey of music's historical relationship to Christianity. Begbie places music within a "Christian ecology", or the "web of basic faith commitments that emerge from the gospel", giving particular attention to a doctrine of creation. Very helpful introduction to speaking of music theologically.

Started Zizek's "violence" today. Zizek is very fun to read. His critiques of pop culture are extremely illuminating.
Alain Badiou's "atonal worlds"- lacks the intervention of a master-signifier to impose meaningful order onto the confused multiplicity of reality".
-"the external threat that the community is fighting is its own inherent essence."

-Watched "A Labyrinth of Time", a film about the life and music of Eliot Carter.
Some very interesting themes of conflict and confrontation.
-"How humans live with constant encounters"
-different fields of activity -thick, thin- constantly overwhelmed with confused problems.

Listened, with scores, to "Raising Sparks", "A different World", and "Sowetan Spring".

-Looking through an analysis of Schnittke's Concerto Grosso.
- "symbol of an external force".

Trying to focus on conflict and confrontation. Some potentially very interesting themes in Schnittke and Carter. Hope to finish Zizek in next two days and start some analysis of Schnittke. Also need to get Schnittke's book.

Feb. 17th

-Yesterday went to the UT library and checked out some Tavener, Part and Macmillan material.
-Watched 2 DVDs: "Beyond the Veil" on Tavener and "24 Preludes for a Fugue"on Part.
Tavener seems like a celebrity- eccentric and confident. To me, he comes off as rather pompous when he talks about the spirituality of his music. There is no conflict and, therefore, no sociological element to his music. Very beautiful, but I find it rather monotonous.
The Part DVD was more interesting. There is more musical diversity in Part than Tavener. Almost no mention of faith in any substantial way.

New Macmillan Music to listen:
-Why is this night different?
-Tuireadh
-Visions of a November Spring
-Memento
-Adam's Rib
-They saw the stone had been Rolled Away
-I- (A meditation on Iona
-Visitatio Sepulchri
-Busqueda

Trying to finish Begbie's "Resounding Truth" today. I've very much enjoyed it, but am learning that it is very difficult to speak of music theologically. Begbie is so pleasurable to read because he has a great ability to be very critical and very generous at the same time.

Long road ahead. A ton of reading to do. Hopefully I will be able to narrow down a specific theme to concentrate on in the next month.