LISTEN: The impact of music at the Edinburgh Festival

Archbishop Cushley describes how Rudolf Bing, the founder of the Edinburgh International Festival, wanted to underline the restoration of harmony among nations in post-war Europe through music.

On this feast day of the Assumption, may the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede to help bring peace in Europe and across the world.

Broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland's Thought for the Day, Thursday 15 August.) Watch below or on YouTube.

Transcription

One thing I love about having the Edinburgh Festival on my doorstep is of course the music.

From inspiring Chamber Orchestra concerts down to the buskers on the city streets, there’s a bit of something for everyone.

Fittingly, for our Athens of the North, it was the Greeks who treated music as something sacred.

Like maths and geometry, they began to notice how music had natural harmonies in it.

Sure, it was fun too, but its deeper beauty lay not in the satisfaction that Mick Jagger was looking for, but in its truth, beauty and harmony.

Indeed music is telling us something true and good and right, and eternal.

Perhaps this is one way to look at what happens at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Through music, festival founder Sir Rudolph Bing wished to confirm the return of peace to Europe.

He wanted to underline the restoration of harmony among nations.

And music does that brilliantly in several ways.

It does so when it is played and sung beautifully,

For example, tourists from across the world, as well as local dignitaries such as the Lord Provost, crammed into St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral last weekend for the annual Festival Mass.

At the reception afterwards, people from all walks of life, different political persuasions, Christian and non-Christian were unanimous about one thing: the music from the organist and choir was beautiful.

I think that’s because of its harmony.

Chaos is not where we’re meant to be; we’re meant, as St Paul says to us, to be in harmony; in harmony with each other, at peace with the earth, in harmony with the cosmos.

I hope that the beauty and the harmony of the music on display at the International Festival this year, will continue to illustrate and underline the intentions of Rudolph Bing; the shared desire for peace and harmony in our troubled world; and our firm political resolution to work for peace and harmony, especially Europe, but elsewhere in our world as well.

Have a harmonious and happy Festival!

 

 

 

 

Archbishop highlights harmony at Festival Mass

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Festival Mass , St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh, Sunday 11 August 2024.

My dear friends,

A warm welcome to our Cathedral on the happy occasion of the Edinburgh International Festival.

In your name, I’m very pleased to welcome Councillor Robert Aldridge, the Right Honourable Lord Lieutenant and Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, a number of our city’s bailiffs and councillors, several distinguished representatives of the City’s Consular Corps, representatives of the Knights and Dames of the Order of Malta and of the Holy Sepulchre, the city’s High Constables, and other distinguished guests and friends.

Thank you for honouring us with your presence today.

The High Constables of Edinburgh provide a ceremonial role for the City of Edinburgh Council.

You may have noticed the second reading, from one of St Paul’s letters, on this occasion to the Christians of the little church in Ephesus, now the Turkey of today.  The reading is an appeal to be kind to each other, to live harmoniously.

He is not the first person to say it, but he expresses it in relation to faith in Christ: “Never have grudges against others – he says - or lose your temper, or raise your voice to anybody, or call each other names, or allow any sort of spitefulness.

Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.”

It goes without saying, or perhaps it bears restating in the world of today, that St Paul’s letters and the rest of the New Testament remain a definitive touchstone for the whole Christian world.

But it’s not the only thing from the middle of the first century, a turbulent one to say the least, that has come down to us.

We all continue to be fascinated by the first century, as Rome slips from Republic into Empire.

Our civilisation remains fascinated by Rome and by the first century AD – and this is proven not by the number of pious movies made about the life of Jesus, but by the latest big thing being pushed on stream with Anthony Hopkins as emperor in 69 AD, gladiators and charioteers running around the Coliseum, and life and death hanging by a thread down in the Forum.

We are seduced by Rome’s power, its reach, its cruelty.  But we are also heirs to much of it, because it has shaped our civilisation.  But I’m not thinking of Rome’s power or reach or cruelty.

The most enduring legacy of Rome for me is perhaps its legal system.  The Romans loved law.

They legislated enthusiastically, and Roman citizens participated actively in the governing of their city and their state.  And their legal principles and laws form the backbone of our own law and our own outlook on civil life to this day.

But if the Romans were people of law, the civilisation that they admired and copied was that of the Greeks.

The Greeks were politically and legally original in their thinking, and the democracy of Athens remains a standard and an example that is unique in history.

So, the Greeks were better at ideas, at thought, at philosophy.

They were the first to ask the questions that we’ve all been trying to answer ever since.  No other ancient people did this like the Greeks; not the Egyptians, or the Chinese or the Indians or the Persians.

It was the Greeks who first asked in the way that we still do, Where does everything come from?  What are things made of?  Why are we here?  What is a human being?  Is there any meaning to our existence? Is there right and wrong? 

And to this day, when we’re not at the Festival or watching gladiators on Netflix, we are still trying to answer these important and intriguing questions.

One thing the Greeks noticed was what became mathematics.  Through geometry and arithmetic and music, they began to notice patterns, things that always came out with the same answer.

They began to notice how music had natural harmonies in it.

And through both, they found things that were always true, “eternal truths”, and they concluded that geometry and music and harmony all spoke of the hand of something eternal, even a creator.  The logic and the harmony spoke, not of chaos, but of predictable order in the universe, and of a benign order at that.

Music was therefore seen by the Greeks as something sacred.

Sure, it was fun too, but its deeper beauty lay not in the satisfaction that Mick Jagger was looking for, but in the truth and the beauty and the harmony displayed in the way that music always works: it is always telling us something true and good and right, and eternal.

Perhaps this is one way to look at what happens in the Edinburgh International Festival.

Through music, Sir Rudolph Bing wished to confirm the return of peace to Europe and to underline the restoration of harmony among nations.

And music does that brilliantly in several ways: it does so when it is played and sung beautifully, as by our choir and organist this morning, it does so in our wonderful international festival; it does so as an illustration of the political will and intentions of those who promoted the Festival in its early days; and it does so in an intellectually satisfying way, since music is a demonstration of the eternal and of the order and harmony at the centre of our universe.

The chaos is not where we’re meant to be; we’re meant, as St Paul says to us today, to be in harmony; in harmony with each other, at peace with the earth, in harmony with the cosmos.

I hope that the beauty and the harmony of the music on display at the International Festival this year, as in the past, will continue to illustrate and underline the intentions of Rudolph Bing; the shared desire for peace and harmony in our troubled world; and our firm political resolution to work for peace and harmony, especially Europe, but elsewhere in our world as well.

Have a harmonious and happy Festival, and God bless you all!

Sir James celebrated at Cathedral which helped inspire his musical vocation

World famous Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan returns to St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh this Sunday - the place of his musical awakening

He will be at the Festival Mass, this year, held in celebration of his 60th birthday.

It features renowned choir The Sixteen, directed by Sir Harry Christophers, singing Palestrina’s Misssa Papae Marcelli, as well as several choral pieces written by Sir James.

A recent article in The Herald revealed that a visit to the Cathedral as a youngster left a profound impact on him.

Journalist Barry Didcock writes: "His musical awakening came aged five or six at St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh when for the first time he heard what he later learned was a Gregorian chant. It was an electrifying experience at an important age. Music and religion have been fused in his imagination ever since."

The Mass will be celebrated by Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, while Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, will preach.

Reading at the Mass will be philanthropist John Studzinski, the founder of the Genesis Foundation, a UK-based charity that nurtures the careers of outstanding young artists, as well as the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Frank Ross.

The cathedral’s organist Simon Leach will play the 1st and 3rd movements of MacMillan's St Andrew's Suite, specially chosen in honour of the relics of the Apostle which are held in the Cathedral.

Also attending will be elected representatives from the city council.

Archbishop Cushley said he was delighted to welcome Sir James to the Cathedral, adding: “This Mass reminds us of the origins of the International Festival as an endeavour to highlight our humanity and what binds us together, following man’s inhumanity to man in the Second World War. It’s an appropriate response of the Catholic community to gather together and worship God, giving thanks for what we have in common and to look to a better future.”

The Mass begins at 12pm this Sunday (18th). Read the full interview with Sir James by Barry Didcock at heraldscotland.com