Music in Expressing Antagonized Visions of the Contemporary Papacy

Abstract

The article analyzes the role of music within antagonized visions of the contemporary papacy in film and television series productions by examining The Two Popes, The Young Pope, and The New Pope. Despite the growing body of literature analyzing the contemporary meeting between media and papal authority, little has been done to construct papal authority and music in films and television series. This study draws from film analyses and hermeneutics to investigate how the antagonized visions of the papal office are exposed through musical patterns. Referring to the two opposite approaches in exercising the papal office, one based on existential Catholicism and the second sourcing from the traditionally oriented God's Objective Law, we document and explore how music is marked by the dynamics and portraits of religious authority. We connect it with music's directness in understanding four distinct patterns of developing the antagonistic approach to portraying the papacy in films. These are as follows: dazzling pathos, exposing uncertainty, contrasting the element of life with the boredom of lifelessness, and contaminating popular music with a sacred or political context.