Infiltration homogen für Konzertflügel (Homogeneous Infiltration for Piano), is a 1966 piece by Joseph Beuys. It is a piano wrapped in felt and leather with a red cross on the side. The piece does not allow for the piano to be played. The artist removed the felt from the piano and represented it as Die Haut (The Skin) in 1984 by hanging the felt on the wall.
Messiaen’s commentary for XIV. Regard des anges (Gaze of the angels)
“Scintillation, percussion; powerful sound of immense trombones; your servants are the flames of fire … – then the song of the birds who drink of the blue, – and the amazement of the angels grows; for it is not to them but to the human race that God is united …
In the first three strophes: blazing, rhythmic canon and fractioning of the Theme of Chords. Fourth strophe: songs of birds. Fifth strophe: the amazement of the angels grows.”
There are boundaries in our view of the world that God transgresses as its Creator. Where we see limits, He sees potential. In an unlikely time and place, in a far corner of the Roman empire, a child in a manger is the entry point for God’s new presence in the world. The world could not be prepared to accept this reality. But God entered our world.
Lord - no amount of preparation could bring us to fully understand Your mystery of incarnation. But help us to know You more intimately, to see You in a new way, as we imagine the extent of the impact You have had and continue to have on our world.
