Musical Scores and the Eternal Present

“Chiara Bertoglio, writer and performer, is blessed with an extraordinary imagination and an ability to draw on a remarkably wide range of sources. This book presses us to make multiple connections we have probably not made before, and in ways that are bound to bring both immense stimulation and enrichment.”


—Jeremy Begbie, professor, Duke University





“Musical Scores and the Eternal Present is a thought-provoking academic yet also very personal book. Drawing on philosophical thought and imagery from St. Augustine to our own times, it establishes a comprehensive Christian worldview based on the practical and symbolic significance of musical notation, revisiting along the way also the unfathomable question of the theodicy.”


—Nils Holger Petersen, associate professor emeritus, University of Copenhagen, and composer





“Chiara Bertoglio takes the reader gently by the hand through a journey of discovery into the nature of music and time, interacting with figures such Augustine, Boethius, Dante, Bergson, Adorno, and Tolkien, and by employing her unique insights as a theologian and accomplished musician she shows how musical scores can act as human analogues for the ‘eternal present.’”


—Richard H. Bell, Professor of Theology, University of Nottingham