tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5078331897510807942.post7319725956207697677..comments2023-12-28T01:11:49.188-08:00Comments on Cum Lazaro: Schubert, atheism and deathLazarushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09716412032074416331noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5078331897510807942.post-36514755911798995832012-05-22T14:42:48.956-07:002012-05-22T14:42:48.956-07:00Much depends here on how you take 'sublime'...Much depends here on how you take 'sublime'. If it's being used as a quality distinct from (say) 'beautiful', then I think I'd want to I'd want to unpack precisely what quality that is. Tallis' music -mirrored by the words but even apart from them- speaks of that hope in an other, of something which transcends humanity. (I suspect here that any complete answer would involve some reference to the sacred which I'd probably argue an atheist isn't entitled to.) If 'sublime'is being used simply as an intensification of (eg) 'good' (so Schubert's good but Tallis is better) I don't think I agree: both are perfect in their (different) ways. (But Tallis is a reflection on man oriented to God; and Schubert on man oriented to the girl down the lane.)<br /><br />One of my worries about the sort of new atheism that Pratchett seems to be signed up to is that it is so reductionist: everything is reduced to satisfaction of basic drives. (So he listens to Tallis because he wants to listen to Tallis -nothing else.) For a Thomist, beauty is a manifestation of being: it reveals something about the underlying reality. (And I suspect that is really what's going on here, but the atheist can't admit it: Tallis manifests God. Schubert doesn't.)Lazarushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716412032074416331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5078331897510807942.post-19642417614244545572012-05-22T08:31:49.317-07:002012-05-22T08:31:49.317-07:00I expect, I'm afraid, that it's just the m...I expect, I'm afraid, that it's just the music. Schubert's good, but Tallis is sublime. You don't even need to know what the words are about.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com