Musical Borrowing as Incarnation: A Theological Reading of Hildegard's O quam preciosa in John Adams's El Niño

Abstract

As well as being a major dimension of music, the concept of time can be used to distinguish God's ontology from the temporality of God's creation in Christian theology. In Theology, Music and Time (2000), Begbie uses the dimension of time as a mediatory framework linking the disciplines of music and theology. While some recent interdisciplinary dialogues have discussed music's ability to express theological concepts using this framework, this paper seeks to demonstrate how the process of Incarnation—a transcendent and immanent God revealed in time—might be interpreted through a musical narrative. This particular narrative involves the ‘musical borrowing’ of Hildegard's responsory, O quam preciosa, in the ‘The Christmas Star’ movement (the birth scene) of John Adams' ‘Nativity-oratorio’El Niño (2000).