Between liturgy and ritual
Is spirituality in music confined to the representation of a dogma and the use of liturgical components, or is it also a certain approach to sound inherent to the composer’s compositional strategies? This paper raises this question in hopes of generating a kind of imaginary dialogue between the ‘theological’ composer Olivier Messiaen, and the ‘agnostic mystic’ Morton Feldman by interpreting some of their writings. A further aim is to consider the relationship between spirituality and music in general in 20th century music, and the implications of a spiritual quest on a composer’s production and aesthetic thinking, whether or not the composer is a believer, and how this quest is actualized in works called “sacred” or “profane”.