Jazz legend Dave Brubeck was best known in the secular jazz world for his startling compositions using different time signatures. Religion, however, was never far from Brubeck?s creative mind — or his inspiration. **Note: This image is unavailable to download.
Brubeck died Wednesday (Dec. 5) of heart failure, a day before his 92nd birthday.
Brubeck is best known in the secular jazz world for his startling compositions using different time signatures, such as 5/4 time in the classic “Take Five,” or the mixture of 9/8 time and the more traditional 4/4 rhythm of “Blue Rondo a la Turk.” Both pieces are on the “Time Out” album, the first jazz album to sell 1 million copies and still one of the best-selling.
Religious faith, however, was never far from Brubeck’s creative mind.
Indeed, there have always been strong links between jazz and religion — one of the main musical streams that have formed jazz has been gospel music.
That experience gave him the idea of an oratorio based on the Ten Commandments, particularly the “Thou shalt not kill” part.
But he did not act on the idea of writing sacred music until 1965, when he wrote a short piece, “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,” to comfort his brother, Howard, whose son had died of a brain tumor at age 16.
That piece was incorporated into 1968’s “A Light in the Wilderness,” his first full-scale sacred composition.
That was followed by a series of pieces including 1969’s “The Gates of Justice,” a choral work using words from Martin Luther King, Jr.; “Truth is Fallen,” in 1971; “La Fiesta de la Posada” in 1975; and “Beloved Son,” in 1978.
“When I write a piece, a sacred piece, I’m looking hard and trying to discover what I’m about, and what my parents were about and the world is about,” he told Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
Raised a Protestant although never baptized, Brubeck became a Roman Catholic in 1980 after completing “To Hope!”, a Mass setting commissioned by the Catholic periodical, Our Sunday Visitor.
He told Commonweal, the independent lay Catholic magazine, that a priest friend told him he had omitted the Lord’s Prayer from the Mass setting and said he should try and compose music for it.
Brubeck also used motifs, themes and passages from his sacred music in his secular compositions. In the pieces he composed as background music for an episode of the television series, “This is America, Charlie Brown,” dealing with the NASA space station, Brubeck utilized a number of his religious compositions.
“It is a vision of our beautiful earth that I hope we can preserve for future generations,” he wrote in the liner notes for “Quiet As The Moon,” the CD that brings together and expands the music of the TV episode.
Ultimately, for Brubeck, the heart of his sacred music is the profound biblical message to love your enemies.
“This is what, to me, is the essence of Christianity,” he said.
David E. Anderson is senior editor at RNS and has been covering religion and social issues for more than 30 years.
Thank you for this article. In the Christian book of Revelation there is a passage about the treasures of the earth flowing into the Heavenly Jerusalem: I hope Brubeck’s music is among them. Your list of jazz musicians who expressed Christianity through their music also could include John Coltrane.
Thank you for this article. In the Christian Book of Revelation, there is a passage about the treasures of the earth flowing into the New Jerusalem. I hope Brubeck’s music is among that trove. John Coltrane is another jazz musician who expressed Christianity through jazz.