When I began composing the music for the four Servant Songs of Isaiah, I reflected on the different movements within each Song, the relationship between the Servant and God, and the emotional content that I felt is expressed between the Servant and God. We are all “Servants” of God, each of us having in our relationship with God, moments of exhilaration, a sense of a life’s mission, and all the events of living out that mission with its disappointments, joys, love, anguish, doubt, anger, confidence, assurance and at times, anxiety, and desperateness.
The music is meant to act as aural iconography. The purpose of an icon is to draw the one meditating on the icon to a deeper truth that exists beyond the two dimensional image. The same is what is intended for the listener of the music, that is, to draw the listener deeper into the spiritual experience. In a seminar a long time ago, John Michael Talbot said that music is in the language of the Spirit, expressing that in which words are far too limited to ably express.
The Text
SONG 5: Is 50: 7-9
The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
POEM – Prelude (minor key)
Like stones, rebukes are hurled at me
From the mouths of those oppose me,
Their vitriolic words hang in the air
Like a poisoned cloud.
Yet, I remain unharmed, no sign
Of their mark appears on me.
It is You, I AM, who is my help,
Who at my right side shields me from harm.
They dare not confront me,
Nor attempt to wrong me,
For You stand with me in all things.
Variations on a Theme
In this second part of the Third Servant Song, the Servant is being attacked by those opposed to God’s mission, experiencing many different forms of abuse, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Yet, the Servant is at peace knowing that God’s love and vindication of the Servant remains present with him/her. The Servant notes that God’s love is everlasting, and those who are inflicting abuse upon him/her, will die and be forgotten.
The confidence and trust of the Servant in God is first stated in the melody. The joy of the Servant in God and also the hardships and injuries that Servant suffers is expressed in the seven variations on that first melody. The first two variations are stated in a major key and have a joyful quality to them. The next four variations in a minor key expresses the sufferings of the Servant. The final variation returns to the joy and the confidence of the Servant in God.
Variations on a Theme is exactly what the title implies. A “theme” or melody is stated, and what follows are musical variations on that melody, changing meter, major and minor keys, forms etc. Some of the more famous variations in music are Mozart’s Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Beethoven’s Eroica Variations, and Mendelsohn’s Seventeen Variations on a Theme. In more popular musical forms, variations are heard in the improvisation of Jazz, Blues, and Rhythm and Blues music.
