Mahámátar

Composition and premiere: John Tavener wrote Mahámátar on commission from the BBC for their series “Sound on Film” as music for Werner Herzog’s short, wordless film Pilgrimage, which follows pilgrims to sacred locales in Russia and Mexico City. The score is dedicated to Herzog. The recorded version for the film featured vocalist Parvin Cox and the Westminster Cathedral Choir with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. The live world premiere was given May 29, 2001, prior to the film’s release, featuring Parvin Cox with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Eivind Aadland conducting, in Bergen, Norway. 

John Tavener’s father was a church organist, and he himself took an organist position at age 17 in Kensington, London, before entering the Royal Academy of Music the following year. His early formal training had been at the Highgate School, where he composed prolifically and was a schoolmate of the well-known choral composer John Rutter. His dramatic cantata The Whale made a splash for its use of an eclectic array of avant-garde techniques.

Tavener’s music changed with his commitment to the Orthodox Church in the mid-1970s, resulting in a shift in focus almost entirely to sacred choral music. His music simplified and took on stylistic traits of medieval and Renaissance music. This trajectory paralleled that of several contemporary Eastern European composers, including the Estonian Arvo Pärt and, to a lesser degree, Henryk Górecki, whose music has sometimes been labeled with the slightly pejorative term “holy minimalism.” Tavener was deeply influenced by Orthodox liturgical music and chant. He came to see in his music a parallel to the deliberate mannerisms of Greek icon painting, calling his works “ikons in sound.” His focus on melody and simplified harmonic language flattened perspective and created abstract musical archetypes analogous to icons.

Tavener’s new direction was readily accepted by a listening public as his works were performed and recorded with greater frequency. Among his best-known works of the 1980s is The Protecting Veil for solo cello and string orchestra, which, while lacking text and vocals, projects the idea of a choral ritual into instrumental music. Tavener became a bona fide celebrity outside of contemporary music circles and was knighted in 2000.

Of Mahámátar, the composer wrote,

Mahámátar is written for Oriental or Middle-Eastern female voice, distant boys’ voices (in a vast acoustic), tubular bells, and muted strings. The vocal part in the early stages should be relatively undecorated, but as the volume and intensity increase, microtonal and various decorations to the mantra should be introduced, fading away again towards the end. The decorations should be chosen according to the tradition of the particular singer, whether it be Persian, Greek, Turkish, Indian or whichever. The music is an invocation to the Great Mother Mahámátar in Sanskrit, and to the Theotóke (God-bearer) in Greek. I wrote it to accompany a film by Werner Herzog which deals with South American Indians who travel for many miles on their knees to venerate the miraculous Ikon of The Mother of God of Guadalupe. Without the Great Mother, the God-bearer, matrix and mediator, none of us can even see God. Most Holy Mother of God, pray to your Son for us.

Mahámátar may be performed by a solo voice as described above. Alternatively the melody could be played by a solo cello, with decorations and improvisations by the singer.

As mentioned above, Tavener wrote Mahámátar as the soundtrack to a short film by Werner Herzog, Pilgrimage, which depicts the privations pilgrims suffer in the pursuit of religious devotion. The solo line(s) reflect the intensity and ecstasy of that devotion, contrasting with the atmospheric stillness of the ensemble and choral accompaniment.

Robert Kirzinger

Robert Kirzinger is a composer and writer.