Project MUSE - Liturgy and Time in Counterpoint: A View of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral Liturgy and Time in Counterpoint: A View of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. Liturgy and Time in Counterpoint: A View of. T. S o. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral LIONEL J . Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral is in some senses enigmatic: the criticism has often been made that it is static in feeling, and has little real action or characterization. It is, indeed, n. O( at all . Certainly it is nearer to medieval liturgical drama than to modem theatre: in liturgical drama no less than in Eliot's play, a modern sense of the dramatic is absent, for, in both, events of great dramatic possibility (whose impact is upon men of all times) are performed in a ritualistic language which, by its very nature, lacks immediacy. Eliot's play, however. It is no surprise that Eliot's language contains ritualistic elements: not only was the play designed for cathedral acoustics and ambience. The quotations and references to Scripture (on which so much medieval liturgy is based) are legion, and they are not difficult to identify; but the actual Biblical quotations in the play are less important in the main than the imitations and paraliels. These parallels with Biblical and liturgical language occur at several levels. Eliot appropriates both the style of the Book of Proverbs ('. He himself maintained that '. It is oat for me, but for the neurologists, to discover why this is so, and why and how feeling and rhythm are related.'o, The importance of this style is plain, and liturgical commentators have often made remarks similar to Eliot's about the Psalms themselves: the Psalms are, in essence, early liturgies, and fann a large element LIONEL J. PIKE in medieval services. It is quite logical for Eliot to take the position that .
This shape is used by Eliot most obviously just after the opening Chorus of Part II, where various . The ABA arrangement is clear elsewhere (for instance, in the Chorus's speech during the murder) and recurs constantly within the play at all levels in a manner very reminiscent of musical structure. The overall shape of Part I- Static Central Sermon- Part II is an expression ofthis design on the largest scale ofall. The central sermon develops and ties together all the themes of the play, and the obvious parallel with musical Sonata Fonn recalls Eliot's remark: . There are possibilities for verse which bear some analogy to the development ofa theme by different groups of instruments; there are possibilities of transitions in a poem comparable to the different movements of a symphony or a quartet; there are possibilities of contrapuntal arrangement of subject- matter. On the very largest scale, the parable of . Smiling at London, but protecting his mate first and foremost. And with such deep, glowing eyes, looking out across the city. From fairies and the tempters of the night. London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. External links The Tempters Categories: Japanese musical groups
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