Mozart: Traces of Transcendence

Much has been written about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but relatively little on he religious dimension of his person and his music. In this book Hans Küng offers an intriguing theological probing into Mozart's musical work. / Küng begins by discussing Mozart's Catholic background — something that, surprisingly, has already been treated by Mozart scholars. He moves on to explore how Mozart's music itself displays to the keen ear “traces of transcendence,” giving intimations of a mysterious bliss transcending even all music. / The second part of the book sheds new light on Mozart's “Coronation Mass” in view of its contemporary cultural and political horizon, setting this mass against the critical confrontation with religion that was already beginning at that time. Küng's approach here reveals, among other things, he possibility of a new creative understanding of the texts of the mass as interpreted by Mozart's music. / Hans Küng's provocative Mozart: Traces of Transcendence complements and, for many readers, will even surpass Karl Barth's famous study.