Searching for Hope
A Tale Told in Music
by Calvin Stapert
In “Dover Beach” Matthew Arnold likened the recession of Christianity in the Western world to the “dull, melancholy roar” of the receding tide. By the time he wrote the poem (1867), the recession had long since been underway, and the eighteenth-century Enlightenment had given it increased momentum.
The Enlightenment was an optimistic movement that fostered the belief that man could achieve a better world solely with human resources—knowledge, science, and reason. An important product and producer of Enlightenment optimism was the 35-volume Encyclopédie (1751–1780). As Jacques Barzun pointed out in From Dawn to Decadence, “encyclopedia” means “the circle of teachings,” a fitting emblem for an age confident “that the new knowledge, the fullness of knowledge, was in its grasp and was a means of emancipation.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it a time when “hope sprang forth like a full-born Deity,” but that hope was dashed in the violent end of the French Revolution. The oppressed had become the oppressors. As Herman Melville put it in his preface to Billy Budd, “The Revolution itself had become a wrong doer, one more oppressive than the kings.”
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Calvin Stapert is Professor of Music Emeritus at Calvin College (now university). He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Chicago and has published five books, the latest being Playing Before the Lord: The Life and Work of Joseph Haydn (Eerdmans, 2014). He and his wife live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and are members of the Church of the Servant (Christian Reformed). They have five children and thirteen grandchildren.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on Music from the online archives
33.3—May/June 2020
Bach's Cantata BWV 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbesteZeit (God's time is the very best time) by Ken Myers
more from the online archives
24.6—Nov/Dec 2011
Liberty, Conscience & Autonomy
How the Culture War of the Roaring Twenties Set the Stage for Today’s Catholic & Evangelical Alliance by Barry Hankins
28.2—March/April 2015
Man, Woman & the Mystery of Christ
An Evangelical Protestant Perspective by Russell D. Moore
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
