Writer of Fancy: The Playful Piety of Jane Austen

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

« Previous Post | Next Post »
« Previous post in category | Next post in category »

Hermeneutics: Another hermeneutical parable

For centuries, piano virtuosos had thrilled audiences with audacious performances of Liszt’s seventh Etude (in G minor, “Eroica”).  Liszt scholars had written analyses of the music, and critics had compared various performances to one another and to what they believed was Liszt’s original intention for the music.

An industrious Liszt scholar then discovered by diligent study of Liszt’s notes and manuscripts that the Etude had been mistakenly transcribed since its first publication.  It was written in G major, not minor, and the score was full of divergences from Liszt’s own composition.  The scholar meticulously and compellingly proved his case.

Liszt scholarship had to be revised.  Pianists relearned the piece, and critics revised their estimates of performances based on a radically revised score.  (Mysteriously, a church in South Carolina split over the issue).

Moral: Every text generates a tradition of performance.  But the text remains the touchstone of performance, such that it is always possible to point to the text and say “You got it wrong here.”