Musical and non-musical content in “The Protecting Veil” by John Tavener

The article is devoted to the issues of musical and non­musical content in the composition for solo cello and string orchestra “The Protecting Veil” (1987) by John Tavener (1944–2013). The creation of the composer’s work was inspired by the Orthodox feast of the Intercession. It is based on the legend of the appearance of the Mother of God, who saved the Greeks from the Saracen invasion in Constantinople in the tenth century. A religious miracle prompted J. Taverner painted a grandiose eight–part fresco related to the life of the Virgin Mary – from the Nativity to the Assumption. The timbre personification of the main iconographic figure of the play was the cello, which is a soloist throughout the composition. The accompanying stringed instruments are considered by the author as a continuation of her “endless song”. In Russian and foreign musicology, the “The Protecting Veil” by John Tavener had not previously been considered in detail, which predetermined the relevance of the presented topic. The purpose of the article is to trace the embodiment of sacred content in the musical text of the composition at different levels – figuratively­emotionally, compositionally­dramaturgically, stylistically­linguistically, spatiotemporally. The composer called “The Protecting Veil” a “lyrical ikon”, continuing his series of “sound icons” (the original type of composition in the work of J. Tavener, which is directly related to the concept of an icon and is characterized by a religious mode of content, is the result of many years of spiritual search by the musician). The study showed that the composition reflected the characteristic features of this type of composition: reliance on the traditions of Byzantine hymnography, symbolism of thought (timbre, spatial, numerical), the branded principle of composition, methods of rehearsal technique, symmetry of the structure of themes, appeal to medieval­Renaissance polyphonic techniques of organizing the material, ecstasy of images, genre. The drama of the cycle is based on a contrasting juxtaposition of musical images of the Virgin Mary, the suffering Mother, and the Queen of Heaven, through the prism of which the main evangelical events take place.

1. Bass, V.V. (2025), “Sacred poetics in the context of musical postminimalism (based on the example of the works of John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki)”, ARTE, No. 1, pp. 39–50. (In Russ.)

2. Eremina, D.A. (2024), “Ikon in sound in the work of John Tavener”, Aktualnye problemy vysshego muzykalnogo obrazovaniya [Actual problems of high musical education], No. 2 (73), pp. 64–70. (In Russ.)

3. Miklouho, E.O. (2019), “John Tavener on the path of creating music in the Orthodox liturgical tradition”, Khudozhestvennaya kul’tura [Artistic Culture], No. 3, V. 2 (30), pp. 68–85. (In Russ.)

4. Mikluho, E.О. (2018), “Contemporary English composer John Tavener on Renaissance and Baroque music”, Vestnik muzykal’noj nauki [Journal of Musical Science], No. 1 (19), pp. 122–127. (In Russ.)

5. Nasonov, R.A. (2018), “John Tavener: Christian Music between the Past and the Future”, Reshenie vmeste s Decision [Solution with Decision], No. 60, Available at: https://reshenie.vcc.ru/magazine/issues/a662018/view/article/1479245 (Accessed 18 March 2025). (In Russ.)

6. Nasonov, R.A. (2015), “Music as a “theosis” (about John Tavener’s religious concept). Uchenyye zapiski Rossiyskoy akademii muzyki imeni Gnesinykh [Scientific notes of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music], No. 3 (14), pp. 72–85. (In Russ.)

7. Orobinskaya, E.Yu. (2024), “Eternity in time: ‘The Apocalypse’ by J.Tavener as an experience of musical iconography”, Nauchnyj vestnik Moskovskoj konservatorii [Journal of Moscow Conservatory], No. 1, pp. 46–61. (In Russ.)

8. Ruchkina, N.P. (2017), “The “new simplicity” in the musical art of the 20th – early 21st century”, Observatoriya kul’tury [Observatory of Culture], No. 3, pp. 322–329. (In Russ.)

9. Shevcova, I. (2013), “The interpretation of the cello in the music of Sofia Gubaidulina and the innovations of cello technique in the second half of the twentieth century”, Sovremennoe muzykal’noe iskusstvo [Modern musical art], No. 2 (13), pp. 220–224. (In Russ.)

10. Boyce­Tillman, J., Forbes, A.­M. (2020), Heart’s Ease: Spirituality in the Music of John Tavener, Peter Lang Verlag, Oxford, 301 р. (In Eng.)

11. Dudgeon, P. (2003), Lifting the veil: the biography of Sir John Tavener, Portrait, 288 р. (In Eng.)

12. Haydon, G. (1995), John Tavener: glimpses of paradise, Gollancz, London, 316 р. (In Eng.)

13. Luck, G. (2001), Choral Cathedral Music in the Church of England: An examination into the diversity and potential of contemporary choral­writing at the end of the twentieth century: Thesis for the degree of Master of Arts, Durham, 158 p. (In Eng.)

14. Miklaszewska, J. (2021), “The Idea of an “Icon in Sound” in the Works of John Tavener”, Liturgia Sacra. Liturgia, No. 1, pp. 217–231. (In Eng.)

15. Moody, I. (2014), Circular Movement: Spiritual Traditions in the Work of John Tavener, Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269688947_Circular_Movement_Spiritual_Traditions_in_the_Work_of_John_Tavener (Accessed 12 March 2025).

16. Moody, J. (2001), Reflections on Life and Death in Contemporary Orthodox Music. The orthodox research institute, Available at: http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/music/moody_life_death.html (Accessed 09 April 2025).

17. Pysh, G.M. (2014), “Icon in sound: an interview with sir John Tavener”, Сhoral Journal, Vol. 54, No. 10, pp. 18–23. (In Eng.)

18. Squibbs, R. (2000), “Cosmic Analogies: Structure and Symbolism in Tavener’s Ikon of Light”, Annual Meeting of the Texas Society for Music Theory, Greensboro, 11 p. (In Eng.)

19. Tavener, J. (2000), “The Music of Silence: A Composer’s Testament”, Faber & Faber, London, 208 р. (In Eng.)

20. Tavener, J. (1989), “The Protecting Veil”, Chester music, London, 79 р.

21. Zinter, E. (2015), “The Tyger and The Lamb: exploring the relationship between text and music in selected contemporary choral settings of two poems by William Blake (1757–1827)”: A dissertation for the Degree of doctor of musical arts, Fargo, 80 p.