ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Rubbra’s enthusiasm for the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French geologist, palaeontologist and Jesuit priest who sought to reconcile the apparently opposing scientific and Christian views of evolution and creation. It considers some of the evolutionary theories that were debated in Rubbra’s youth, including those of Benjamin Kidd and Henri Bergson, before introducing Teilhard’s complex theory, with its three strands of cosmogenesis, noogenesis and Christogenesis. Teilhard viewed the universe as being in a constant, dynamic process of ‘becoming’, converging on an Omega point that he identified with Christ. Rubbra’s own view of musical history, form and the compositional process was influenced by evolutionary thinking, leading him to consider that he could best express his admiration for Teilhard through symphonic music. The result was the Eighth Symphony, subtitled ‘Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin’. The work reflects Teilhard’s theory in several ways. Close analysis of the first and third movements of the symphony details the process of intervallic contraction, or convergence, that occurs across the work, with some cross-reference to Rudolf Steiner’s esoteric evolutionary theory of the human experience of intervals. Teilhard’s spiral metaphor for evolution is reflected in the rotational form of each movement.
