Religinė muzikos transcendencija O. Narbutaitės Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae
Religious transcendence in Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae by O. Narbutaitė

Summary/Abstract: Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae (2003), a cycle of three symphonies by Onutė Narbutaitė, has remarkably confirmed the originality of the composer’s worldview. It bears a testimony to the individuality and autonomy of her religious experience, as well as her intimate relationship with the sphere of sacrum. Her subjective treatment of the religious subject (i. e. The Mother of God) reveals itself through various accompanying texts by Umberto Eco, Rainer Maria Rilke, Bruno Schulz and many others, compiled by the composer in the brochure especially for the Lithuanian première (2004). She chose those texts by relating them associatively to the inner content of her music and some of the most important moments in the life of the Virgin Mary. In her work, Narbutaitė is somewhat distancing herself from directly articulated canons of religious music (though employing such canonical texts as Stabat Mater, Ave Maria and Gloria), but this does not diminish the intensity of religious feeling expressed therein. This has nothing to do with routinisation of transcendental experience or consumeristic refuge in religion. In Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae, like in many other works by Narbutaitė, we experience presence of the “invisible religion” (Thomas Luckmann), in which the heart becomes the place for the ritual and the spirit becomes the shrine of worship.To enter that religious dimension, one must nevertheless resort to myths, symbols that facilitate the comprehension of the sacred art. Narbutaitė indicates them in the following commentaries: “At the beginning of the score I drew a triangle – a symbol of the Holy Trinity – which represents symbolically the subject matter of the work’s three movements: a descending line – the Annunciation; a horizontal line – the Nativity; and an ascending line – the Crucifixion. The three movements embrace the three decisive moments in the life of Mary related to Christ. The first movement contains the seeds of all the consequent development in music, just like the Annunciation foreordains all future events. The first movement is called “Angelus Domini” (“The Angel of God”), the second is “Bethlehem”, and the third is “Mater Dolorosa” (“The Mournful Mother”). These are framed by a short introduction, “Introitus,” set to the fragment from the Song of Songs, and a short final prayer called “Oratio” set to the text by Hildegard von Bingen. The full canonical text of Stabat Mater is used in the third movement, whereas Ave Maria is used in the first, and the first lines of Gloria in the second” (see p. 63).Apart from the external signs of the specifically religious content (such as the title, sub -titles and texts), the religiousness of this work is enhanced by a deep transcendental impact of the music itself (“the great transcendence,” according to Luckmann), because it seems to extinguish the distinction between the “inspiring” and the “inspired.” When the spheres of music and religion become internally unified in this work, this gives a motive to look for further connections between the two. That music and religion are not wide apart can be testified by the dialectic nature of music: on the one hand, its origins from the amorphous element, and its well-defined form and construction, on the other (Bohdan Pociej).The natural flow of music characteristic of Narbutaitė’s style unfolds in Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae on a symphonic scale and thus may be conceived as the “pre- material infinity” (Bohdan Pociej) that brings us closer to the understanding of God. Most vividly, this is evident in the first movement of the cycle, “Angelus Domini (symphonia prima),” undulating with broad orchestral waves, ebbs and flows of texture, and evoking the image of mysterious cosmic chaos. The musical material, on the other hand, gives a clear sense of direction towards its foreseeable goal, leading to a miracle of the Annunciation and the Angel’s hymn (“And the angel then started singing,” see Fig. 1). At the same time, the whole composition is tightly laced up with big and small arches.Apart from the dichotomic nature of music – by which it is comparable to religion, – its meditativeness stands out as an important feature as well. This meditative quality is evoked in “Bethlehem (symphonia secunda)” by a much calmer waving that allows to concentrate more on various sonoristic nuances of the musical fabric. By way of specific orchestral writing this fabric is arranged as if in the loose folds of a drapery. This technique is based on the gradual thickening and thinning out of textures, which is also reflected in the graphic shape of pitch organisation notable for its spatial characteristics and a clear outline of the outer registers. Some qualities of the orchestral fabric, developed in Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae, became later a basis for further elaboration in Drappeggio for string quartet (2004). Both in the symphony and in the quartet, there are certain moments when the two levels – i. e. graphic and the musical – become perceptively intertwined (see Figs. 6, 7).In many of Narbutaitė’s works, there is a characteristic presence of what might be described as meta-aesthetic values. Because of the synthesis of internal and external elements, the highest meta-aesthetic value – sacrum – is concentrated in the Melody in the Garden of Olives and in Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae.

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