Song Unfolding (for Julian)

This original piece of music seeks to extend theological aesthetics’ focus on literature and representational arts to the artform of “musicking”. The underlying research position is that music-making is an essential form of human meaning-making beyond or even underlying the duality of verbal communication. The specific research question underlying this piece of music is how to hold together the conundrum of the beauty and innocence of unborn life with the reality of our fallen condition: is it time to let go of the doctrine of original sin?

While there is a growing volume of works about music in theology, there is very little research attempting to theologise through music. Through its specific symbolic processes and semiotic patterning of experience and understanding, music can exteriorise aspects of conversion and Christian doctrine in ways that cannot be accessed solely through theoretical reasoning. Song Unfolding explores and enacts the both joyful and scary life-changing dynamic of becoming a parent and watching new life emerge, and explores the meaning of this “original blessing” of life through the lens of the theology of Sebastian Moore.

This song was produced by Multi-Platinum Award Winning Producer Adrian Hannan at The Song Store, VIC; launched at The Cave Inn, Brisbane, while livestreamed to an international audience from across Australia, Asia, Europe, the USA, and Latin America; and released by Willow Publishing Party Ltd. In June 2022, it was published by Bloomsbury as an intrinsic part of chapter nine on “Is original sin an outdated doctrine?” in Suspended God: Music and a Theology of Doubt.

File size over 30 MB.