Reviewed by John Irvine

"The purpose of this book and CD is to try to give a hint of how it might be possible to reinstate the sacred into the world of the imagination. Without this happening, I believe that art will continue to slither into a world of abstraction, into a sterile and meaningless activity." So writes John Tavener in his introduction to this book by Abbess Mother Thekla. 'Ikons' is a collection of thoughts by Mother Thekla on 10 themes of Christian life and belief, including holiness, light, prayer, the Psalms, the Mother of God. The attached CD features extracts of recordings of John Tavener's music, selected by the composer to illustrate the themes of the book. On its own, this CD represents a greatest hits compilation and would serve as a perfect introduction to the great variety, depth and spirituality of Tavener's compositions, with all of his major works - The Protecting Veil', 'We Shall See Him As He Is', 'Ikon Of Light' - being represented. It is, however, the nature of music to suggest one thing to one person and another thing to another, and while it may have been Tavener's intention that a certain piece illustrate a certain theme, on occasion it was not obvious what the connection between a chapter in the book and the piece of music was. Confusingly Mother Thekla herself makes reference to pieces by Tavener not on the enclosed CD -notably the as yet unrecorded "Apocalypse". It seems to me that a great opportunity - namely to make special recordings of Tavener's music for this book, including unrecorded material -was lost. It should be noted that from a musical point of view, the book does little to illustrate Tavener's music; rather it is Tavener's music which illustrates Thekla's thoughts on the Orthodox life. As such, the book could have stood alone without the CD. Presumably the publishers felt that associating the book with John Tavener's name and music would guarantee a decent return of sales. In any event, while Mother Thekla's views on the themes chosen may not necessarily be profound, they are refreshing, with a very down-to-earth approach. I suspect that each reader will find something unique, different, unusual, helpful for themselves in this collection. What price wisdom? What price a blessing? Ultimately as an attempt "to reinstate the sacred into the world of the imagination" - whether this is taken as the imagination of the individual or the world of Art - the book/CD package fails as a combined whole. It lacks a unity of purpose, vision or direction, with the book perhaps lacking sufficient meat or vigour to sustain an assault on the barriers separating the spiritual and the imaginative. However, taken as pieces in some sort of cosmic or spiritual jigsaw, the music and notes by John Tavener as well as the meditations of Mother Th*»kla will ultimately prove very useful to the pilgrim developing and expanding their view and knowledge of God and should prove useful to the person who has little or no understanding of the spiritual, of the metaphysical of God. 'Ikons' does not present all the pieces of this jigsaw, nor the solution to the puzzle, but it gives us enough to be going on with, in our search to know more of God, to know more of the unknowable.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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