Thesis supervisor:
Urmas Petti, University of Tartu
Professor Mart Humal
Opponents:
Professor Toomas Siitan
dr Tarmo Toom
Summary:
The present thesis is an attempt to analyze the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed as one of the most important texts in church and music history from the point of view of three disciplines - grammar, theology and music. More exactly, the standard Latin version of this creed (NCL) which can be found in official Roman Catholic publications since the fifteenth century and on the ground of which a large amount of musical compositions - the Credo parts of the Mass - have been created throughout the history of music, is examined.
The objective of the thesis is to compile a resource for deepening one's understanding of the NCL. The method of the thesis is an hermeneutical way to divide the NCL from the perspectives of different disciplines into semantic units.
The thesis is organized into four chapters. In the first chapter a survey of the origin of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed as a text of Greek language and Greek turn of mind arisen before the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451, as well as the translation process of the creed into Latin and gradual formation of the creed into standard text now used in the Roman Catholic church, is given.
In the second chapter the NCL is treated from the phonetical, morphosemantical, syntactical and stylistical perspective. A special attention on the colometric analysis of the NCL is drawn.
In the third chapter the NCL is analyzed theologically. The first subchapter is dedicated to the ways the NCL has been usually analyzed in systematic theology. Analogously, other ways of analysis are suggested. In the second subchapter various ways of analysis of the NCL in practical theology - in the liturgy of different eras of the Roman Catholic church - are brought out.
The fourth chapter is dedicated to the musical analysis of the NCL is: namely, how to analyze the NCL by means of musical parameters and how the grammatical and theological analysis of the NCL can be of value for the musical analysis. As an example three NCL's settings by Arvo Pärt - the Credo parts of Missa syllabica (1977) and Berliner Messe (1990/2002), and Summa (1977) - are chosen.