Theological Journal – October 11 Bonhoeffer’s “Polyphony of Life” – Barry Harvey

 Bonhoeffer's musical image of the polyphony of life should not be taken as merely a winsome illustration, but as a fertile way of thinking about the dynamics, the movement, the interactions, that characterize what he calls the profound worldliness of Christianity. Music generally, and polyphonic music in particular, forms synchronic and diachronic patterns in the modes of rhythms, melodies and harmonies which, though they do not follow a law-like necessity, are nonetheless purposeful and promising. It is able to incorporate discordant elements in the form of dissonance, but also looks to resolve that dissonance into what can truly be called a harmonious difference. It also moves in time in distinct arrangements of meter and rhythm, which, in collaboration with the tonal dimension, progress toward climatic endings in the form of half and full cadences, each of which in their own ways anticipate the final cadence. (fb, 10.10.20)