Job - Hardcover

Frederick Shepherd Converse

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0331099713 ISBN 13: 9780331099713

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2024

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This book is a dramatic poem for multiple voices and orchestra. The text is based on passages from the Book of Job and the Psalms, grouped to tell a unified poetic narrative. These passages are chosen for the moods they convey, without regard to their exact place in the Bible. However, they do essentially follow the course of the Bible story and hint at the original arguments therein. The universal order, in the midst of which Job suffers, rebels, and ultimately submits, is represented by passages from the Psalms that express the permanence and glory of God and His creation. The dramatic motive of the poem is the development of Job's moods: distress, rebellion, doubt, and ultimate submissive understanding of God's will. Emotionally distinct from him is the Woman of Israel, who represents unwavering faith. The Friend stands for conventional piety. The chorus represents superhuman voices declaring God's glory, against whose sustained mood of adoration and praise the contest of human emotions plays out. The impersonal, universal spirit of the chorus is conveyed in the music by simple diatonic harmonies and is the foundation upon which the solo parts are composed in a contrasting, modern, chromatic design. The author's insights into the nature of suffering, faith, doubt, and submission illuminate the timeless human condition in the face of existential questions.

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