Religious Implications in Art Songs

I'm taking a class on the piano/vocal music of Schubert and Schumann. We just finished reading a critical essay by a man named Edward Cone called The Composer's Voice (1974), in which he talks about the problem of person in song (specifically, in lieder). That is to say, Cone wonders who is speaking at any given moment in a song. Is it the singer, or the singer's persona (the narrator, or character) who speaks? Perhaps it is the pianist, or other accompaniment? Or, yet again, is it the composer? Perhaps the composer is not directly speaking to his audience, but speaks instead through a persona, as James Joyce does though Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

After presenting all these possibilities, Cone compares a lied to the Christian Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He says: "The song as a whole is the utterance--the creation--of the complete musical persona. Like the Father, this persona 'begets' in the vocal persona a Son that embodies its Word; and it produces in the accompaniment a 'Holy Spirit' that speaks to us directly, without the mediation of the Word." He warns not to take the analogy too far; but I still like it. I'm fascinated by the theological implications of art--especially of music and literature. I like the idea of God, the Supreme Artist, creating the universe as a work of art, complete with rhyme, rhythm, and symbols. I like the idea that our human art is a reflection of God and God's art. Though it may or may not be true, this way of treating art certainly gives the composer or performer a lot to think about!