Performance Criticism: Jonah

David Benjamin Blower is my new favorite Bible translator. He's been one of my favorite songwriters for a while, but his newest project rises to the level of biblical performance criticism. "The Book of Jonah" is an album that makes Jonah a musical. Narrated by NT Wright (reading the KJV text over Blower's music) with the voice of Jonah performed by Alistair McIntosh, "The Book of Jonah" translates the whole context of the narrative to modern hearers who otherwise think its simply a fishy story.

The music that David had created really sets the emotional scenes. Even before the narration begins, the music expresses ancient Israelite fears of ancient Assyria, explaining in detail why no Israelite would want to go there. On the ship, the music translates the sailors' desperation to please a god they think is angry. At the conclusion, the music offers an explanation for Jonah's anger in a way that doesn't dismiss it as immaturity or selfishness (as Jonah's anger is often taught).

My only criticism is part of the artist's original plan (so its not really a valid criticism): don't use the KJV. If I had made this album, I wouldn't have used the KJV. I would have spent all my time making the "correct" translation so much that I would have neglected the music totally and produced no album. I think another translation would be easier for everyone to understand. But its not his purpose to make sure the most amount of people understand and its not my decision. I love this album. I love how it makes the KJV a little easier to understand. And I think if NT Wright is gonna narrate a Bible translation, he sounds really good narrating the KJV!

I wonder what the performance criticism folks think about this? Can we use text and performance as compliments? or rather, Can text be performance?

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0:00 / 0:34 David Benjamin Blower - 'The Book of Jonah' | Official Trailer #3 | 'A Great Fish' ft. NT Wright

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119 views 2 0 Published on Mar 6, 2017 'The Book of Jonah' - A Radiophonic Performance // 13.03.17 Pre-Order here: http://minorartists.com/shop or join http://RECORDCLUB.minorartists.com

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