Regarding Sir John Tavener and his most recent composition: Tavener has some time ago apostasised from the Orthodox faith. Below are some quotes from various interviews:
John Tavener tells Charlotte Higgins how his life-changing encounter with an Apache medicine man led him to write a piece praising Allah for the Prince of Wales
\"The path I follow is still an Orthodox path,\" he says. \"You have to follow a path, otherwise it becomes a little bit new-age, a bit of this, a bit of that ... But I suppose I had a dream vision after a visit from an Apache Indian medicine man. Many people when they\'ve met American Indians have very strong dreams afterwards. I had a kind of vision from the Sufi Frithjof Schuon, who was a believer in the inner transcendent unity of all religions. And he seemed to be giving me permission, in a way, to work musically within other traditions. It wasn\'t that the Christian thing was failing me in any way, but rather that it enriched it by going into other things, particularly Hinduism and Sufism.\"
(June 11, 2007, The Guardian)
\"Until recently his work was strongly influenced by the Greek Orthodox Church - sustained chords, sinuous chants and spiritual themes. He has a house in Greece, and at his home in Dorset there are Orthodox icons around the fireplace. But now he has, he says, moved towards a \"universalist view\", in which all religions are equally valid.\" (The Telegraph (UK), 29/07/2004)
Composer John Tavener, Long Associated with the Orthodox Church, Turns to Islam for Inspiration
Sunday, October 17, 2004
The Independent on Sunday [London]
By Anthony Barnes
Sir John Tavener, the classical composer whose life and works have been guided by the principles of the Orthodox Church for more than two decades, has now turned to Islam for inspiration.
In 1997 his work found fame around the world when it was played at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The piece, Song for Athene, was written to the rules of the Orthodox Church, as almost all his work had been since he converted to the faith in 1977.
But Sir John says that working to these principles using set melodic formulas became a \"tyranny\" and that he no longer wishes to stick to a particular system. He attends church less regularly than in the past and finds it \"trying\" to deal with people who are overly Orthodox.
Last year Sir John had a falling-out with his spiritual mother, Mother Thekla, a Russian abbess who lives in a North Yorkshire monastery and whom he used to phone daily. She also provided the words to some of his works.
At the heart of their disagreement was Sir John\'s growing interest in Eastern religions, particularly Hinduism, and they stopped communicating last year. They have subsequently begun to exchange letters, but their relationship has been damaged.
Now he has composed a new choral work based on the 99 names for God in Islam, which are sung in Arabic. The work is expected to be premiered at Westminster Cathedral next year.
In an interview with BBC Music magazine, Sir John said: \"Every name has different music to it. There is no repetition at all. I did want to record my spontaneous reaction to the Arabic sounds.
\"I mean, when you say the names in English the Vast, the All-Merciful, the Punisher they seem ridiculous. In Arabic they have a resonance.\"
Asked whether he plans the piece to be a statement of solidarity with Muslims who have found themselves on the receiving end of public hostility, he said: \"It\'s possible. I was appalled by what happened [on 11 September], but I am more appalled that Islam now has such a terrible name in some quarters.
\"I love the Koran and I wanted to write something that was an affirmation of Islam rather than these terrible negations that one sees everywhere.\"
Although Sir John says he has not lost his faith in God, he admitted:
\"I like going to church less and less. It strikes me now that all religions are as senile as one another. But I do pray within my heart all the time.\"
A forthcoming work he is planning to write, as if to emphasise his new-found freedom from Orthodox principles, is a theatrical composition based on the life of Krishna and influenced by Mozart\'s Magic Flute.
Sir John was formerly signed to the Beatles\' Apple record company, which released his oratorio The Whale in 1968. The Beatles were themselves influenced by Eastern culture, particularly George Harrison, who was a Hare Krishna disciple until his death in 2001.
However, Sir John\'s biggest breakthrough came 21 years after The Whale, when his work The Protecting Veil was performed at the Proms.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with an Orthodox artist or musician producing secular work, be it music, painting, sculpture or literature. If the content is not offensive or otherwise objectionable, there should be no problem. St Kassiane the Hymnographer, who is the only woman whose hymns have become a permanent part of the Orthodox liturgical cycle (for an 8th-century woman, much less an abbess, to be associated with music was most shameful - yet Kassiane\'s hymns were rightly deemed to be worthy) was also a prolific writer of non-religious songs, poems and prose. Many of these compositions survive to this day.
On the other hand, one cannot put the recent works of John Tavener in the same category. They are not secular works, but heavy with religious content, of a faith which is contrary to the Orthodox faith. To make matters worse, the premiere performance of his latest work in Westminster Cathedral raised the justifiable ire of many Christians, particularly Roman Catholics. One man summed it up best: \"Would Moslems be happy for Catholics to perform a musical piece in a mosque?\"
And the following from an Islamic source:
Would Sir John Tavener even be able to perform the \"The Beautiful Names\" in a mosque? It is extremely unlikely, one reason being that it is questionable whether the Names of Allah should even be put to music and sung by a choir.
