Seite - 93 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 05/01

the American civil rights movement whose political and social commitment was not lost on Pasolini.19 In the film the song is the motif of two scenes: the visit and adoration of the Magi, and the preaching of John the Baptist. They have in common a search for and attempt to achieve saintliness and to receive a sign of grace. The Magi em- barked on a long journey from the East to find the Son of God, and “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” renders the intensity of the distance that is finally closed. For the scene involving John the Baptist, we know from Matthew 3:5 that people came to the River Jordan from Galilee and Judaea, making a long pilgrim- age to be baptized by the prophet. The spiritual motif again expresses the quest for a sign of grace, the yearning to no longer feel like orphans of a far-off God. “THE 13TH CENTURY” The motif “The 13th Century” derives from a totally different context, just as it bears a very different role in the film. It comes from Sergei Prokofiev’s soundtrack for the film Aлександр Hевский (Alexander Nevsky, Sergei M. Eisenstein, USSR 1938), a masterpiece of Russian cinema. The subject of the film is the Battle on the Ice (Lake Peipus) in 1242, between the Teutonic Order and the Russian army. The piece has powerful resonances that represent the dramatic situation at the dawn of the 13th century. During this historical peri- od, following the death of Genghis Khan, many peoples migrated and settled in Asia. The new geopolitical situation put pressure on the Russian kingdom of Kiev, which was also threatened by the expansion of the Teutonic Order in Es- tonia. The hagiography of Alexander casts him as an ideal defender of Russia against the Teutonic invaders, who during the Second World War were increas- ingly associated with the Nazis. Prokofiev’s piece marks two scenes in Pasolini’s film: the Massacre of the Innocents and the beheading of John the Baptist. Violence undoubtedly unites the two moments, but this feature alone does not explain the repeated musi- cal motif – the seizing of Jesus and the driving out of the merchants from the temple are also marked by violence, for example. But two further aspects enter into play here, one linked to those who ordered the violent act, the other to the victims. In each case the killing is ordered by a member of the Herod family, first the father and then the son, Antipas. The violence is perpetrated at the wishes of the tetrarch of Palestine and legitimated by his authority. It is the violence of rulers, of those with a monopoly on power, which, recalling Max Weber’s defi- nition, is the State itself. The victims are characterized by their blamelessness 19 In 1963, a year before Pasolini’s film was released, the singer took part in the great civil rights march on Washington organized by Martin Luther King, who was an admirer of Odetta Holmes. The Soundscape of The Gospel According to St. Matthew | 93www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1