14 plays
O Magnum Mysterium by Tomás Luis de Victoria
Easily one of the most haunting and beautiful compositions I have ever heard. Work like this is rare and originates from disciplined transcendent masters. While this is from the 16th century, 20th century counterparts like Arvo Pärt (music) or Andrei Tarkovsky (film) share an equal spiritual awareness that seems exclusive to those who actively engage religious practice. Using the term religion very loosely, Arthur C. Clark (literature) could be lumped into someone that practices what they believe (the rule of science) and succeeds in imbuing it into their work.
Which leads me to an article about the papacy’s recent call to contemporary artists to be “fully conscious of your great responsibility to communicate beauty, to communicate in and through beauty.” I’m not a Catholic or even Christian but I cannot deny the centuries of valuable influence that the church has had on Western art and the place it has had in promoting the creating of timeless, beautiful work.
