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‘Is it not strange that sheeps’ guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?’, Benedick asks himself in Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Music is frequently the source of wonder, expression and reflection, and not merely for the religious. There is the thundering of the football chant, or the swaying phone lights at the Glastonbury festival: music shapes and powerfully evokes our sense of identity and community – it helps us interpret our own stories, discord and all.
Rarely do we take the time to step back and ask what it is about music that resonates with such profound depth and can cause such remarkable effects in us. Those questions have been asked through the centuries, and remain more pertinent than ever amid the ever-increasing consumerism, choice, variety and availability of music.
To help us unpack some of this, we begin this coming week a series of talks entitled ‘Music and Mind’, tackling questions of music, transcendence, meaning and identity. This Wednesday, 24th January at 19.30, join us in the Old Library as Carol Harrison (Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity) speaks on ‘Mellifluous Music in Early Western Christianity’, examining some early Christian reflections on music, its ‘sweetness’ and pleasure.
A prayer of Harold Anson:
O God, who in the gift of music
hath given us a revelation of thy divine beauty:
Teach us to love thee in all thy gifts,
and so to devote ourselves in all our work to thy glory;
through thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Revd James Crockford Assistant Priest |
| | The Week Ahead:
—This Sunday
Sunday 21st January The Third Sunday of Epiphany
10.30 Choral Eucharist
Preacher: Brother James Koester SSJE
12.00 Parish Lunch in the Old Library
18.00 Choral Evensong at Wadham College
Preacher: The Revd James Crockford
This Week
Monday Vincent of Saragossa, 304
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.15 Choral Evensong New College
19.45 Moot (Medical Ethics) Old Library
Tuesday
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
15.00 Memorial Service (Ella Taylor) Nave
18.00 Book Club Nosebag (Bar)
21.00 Sung Compline Corpus Christi
Wednesday Frances de Sales, 1622
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
17.30 Poetry Workshop Old Library
19.30 Music and Mind (1) Old Library
Thursday Conversion of Paul
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
12.45 Lunchtime Bible Study Vestry
18.15 Choral Evensong St Peter’s College
Friday Timothy and Titus
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.00 ‘Friday’s Child’ Book Launch De Brome Chapel
Saturday
10.30 Reflection Morning Old Library
18.00 Choral Evensong Christ Church
From 18th to 25th January the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is observed For full listings of weekly evening services across the University, see our website.
Next Sunday
Sunday 28th January The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
10.30 Choral Eucharist with University Sermon Preacher: Professor Mona Siddiqui OBE
18.00 Choral Evensong (Candlemas) at Wadham College Preacher: The Revd James Crockford
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| | | | Music and Mind
A three-part series on Wednesday nights in 2nd, 4th and 6th week, exploring concepts of music, transcendence, and psychology. Old Library, 19:30-21:00.
24 Jan Mellifluous Music in Early Western Christianity – Canon Prof Carol Harrison
Although we have no music from the early Church, this talk will examine the work of some early Christian theologians in the West who were prompted to reflect on the nature, role and effect of music while hearing and performing it in various contexts. The ‘sweetness’ of music was one of the most common ways in which they articulated these reflections. We will explore what this idea of sweetness reveals about some of the theological, practical and affective qualities attributed to music in this early period.
Carol Harrison is the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. Her research focusses on early Christianity, especially Augustine of Hippo, and her publications include: Revelation and Beauty in the Thought of Saint Augustine, Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity, and the forthcoming volume Reading Augustine on Music: Sense, Affect, Voice.
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| | Singing the word
Delve into the rich and beautiful world of plainchant, monasticism, and the medieval musical landscape with this workshop series. The evening will start in the Old Library with a glass of wine and a short talk, followed by singing practice, during which participants will learn to tackle a difficult piece of chant. At 9pm, we will move to the chancel to sing compline together.
8.00pm Talk and Singing Workshop (Old Library)
9.00pm Compline by Candlelight (Chancel)
1 Feb Why Compline? – Wilf Jones
15 Feb Hildegard von Bingen – Esther Brazil
1 Mar Singing the Word – Fr Peter Allan CR (Mirfield)
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| | Culture Corner
In the hectic whirlwind of life, sometimes
it's good to be still. Still Life with Fruit, Glassware, and a Wanli Bowl
(1659), pictured above, is by Willem Kalf, a Dutch artist.
I think "still life" is a much nicer term than what my husband reliably informs me is the Croatian version, “dead nature” -- besides, there is something very alive about the rendering here of light and wine. I love the glistening lemon, its just-peeled skin
dangling coiled off the edge of the Ming bowl as though it might just bounce. And how wonderful that we see in this 17th-century Dutch painting this beautiful bowl, in itself an exemplar of the highest point in Chinese ceramic-making history.
Still Life with Fruit,
Glassware, and a Wanli Bowl is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, but you can find more on
our doorstep: the Ashmolean has a whole room dedicated to these wondrous paintings. There is something very restorative about sitting for a few minutes in front of them and contemplating the sheer amount of skill required to execute such virtuosic renderings
of glass, light, and the flesh of fruit and fowl (and sometimes oysters).
To read more about Dutch still life, see
the essay from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website, available here: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nstl/hd_nstl.htm |
| | | Book Launch
The Canon Brian Mountford is launching his new book ‘Friday’s Child’ Poems of suffering and redemption on Friday 26th January 2018. If you would like a ticket, please email Ana-Maria at universitychurch@ox.ac.uk. |
| | Call for donations of books and toys
Do you have any unused children’s books or soft toys you would like to donate to the church? We are creating a Children’s Corner for babies and preschool-aged children who are too small to go to Sunday School during the Eucharist. The aim is to collect enough quiet toys and books to fill a chest that will be kept at the back of the church (no rattles or battery-operated toys, please). Drop off donations in the church office between 9.30am and 5pm, Monday-Friday, or email esther.brazil@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk for more details.
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