Music as Atmosphere. Lines of becoming in congregational worship (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Concept of ‘Atmosphere’ as a Bridge between Music and Spirituality
Music and Spirituality Theological Approaches, Empirical Methods, and Christian Worship, 2024
Although we naturally intuit a close relationship between music and spirituality, it is difficult to specify exactly in what it consists. The concept of ' atmosphere', as developed by authors such as Hermann Schmitz, Gernot Böhme, and Tonino Griffero can help here. It is about a feedback relationship with the environment, about feeling and reacting to the mood and its reciprocal effects. It is thus a matter of integrative interaction between the subject and the environment: in the case of music, it will be the experience of being composer, performer, or listener; in the case of spirituality, it will be a spiritual experience, involving and connecting the subject with spiritual reality (in a religious key or not). In both cases, there is a synaesthetic synthesis of cognition and feeling, perception and activity. This brings us to the common structure of spiritual and musical experiences, which turns out to be a unique and transformative participation in something that transcends matter. The notion of atmosphere adds a new dimension to metaphors and symbols attempting to describe both musical and spiritual experience. It evokes new areas of meaning, already present in the scholarly literature on both domains, but now integrable. These areas include concepts such as mood, presence, inhabitation, and landscape. Their meaning takes on a new quality, moving symbolism into the realm of concrete experiences. Speaking finally of atmosphere, the discourse on music and spirituality itself moves from the purely descriptive sphere ©2024 Bernard Łukasz Sawicki OSB, CC BY-NC 4.0
2020
The experience of God’s presence within music and worship is a deep-seated conviction in Pentecostal circles. But God, music and feelings are three things that are notoriously hard to get a grasp of, and this has often discredited them. Sadly, when music and emotions come under suspicion it creates a bad environment for any wholehearted worship. Thus, in order to regain a basic trust, I believe we need a great deal of clarity concerning the nature of emotions. This is where the New Phenomenology, founded by the Germain philosopher Hermann Schmitz (b. 1928), is a strong alliance. The New Phenomenology is a theory of emotions in a more radical sense than its predecessors in the phenomenological traditions since Husserl (1859-1938) and Heidegger (1889-1976). Schmitz’ New Phenomenology overcomes the hiatus between the inner (subjective) and outer (objective) world, which enables him to describe feelings as atmospheres poured out spatially that move us bodily. This depiction fits squarely with the experience of the charismatic churches, who are also known for deriving much of their theology from experience. But what about the atmospheres we establish through music? At a closer look, it appears the atmospheres through music behave differently from feelings in general. The atmospheres in music are not a substitute for real feelings. They are something else entirely. Because of their aesthetic nature they are transparent and world-opening atmospheres. This can be accounted for philosophically. In order for this experience to be described in its own right it is important to keep religious explanations at bay. When we over-spiritualize the experiential realm of music it does more harm than good. God-of-the-gaps is not a viable model for God’s presence. Instead, the charismatic spirituality has a lot to gain by looking to the particular model of God’s presence developed around the controversy of icons in the 8th century, especially in the theology of John of Damascus. As a result of deep Christological considerations, they went with a sacramental thinking that allowed for a divine encounter within a natural framework—the icon. I claim that this sacramental way of thinking can give Pentecostals a more suitable language for expressing their experience of God’s presence in worship through music.
Music and theology have in recent decades come into dialogue with one another, primarily under two guises: firstly, in the form of a theological hermeneutic within the framework of raditional musicology (and equally in the form of music analogy for the purposes of theological explication), the best examples of which can be found in the works of Jeremy Begbie; secondly, a growing interest in church music from an ethnomusicological perspective, a recent landmark of which is Christian Congregational Music: performance identity and experience (2013). In proposing to write about the music of Ely Cathedral for my MPhil thesis, it seems that not much attention has been directed at exactly how these disciplines interact with one another. This paper opens up some of the paradigmatic problems latent in the dialogues between theology, musicology and ethnography and discuss some possible directions towards a more comprehensive framework for studying musical worship in contemporary settings. A key issue, drawing on models outlined in Georgina Born’s “For a Relational Musicology” (2010), is that theology and music’s dialogue often adopts a “subordination-service mode”. Another issue is that theology and ethnography operate within completely different frameworks (see Paul Fiddes, “Ethnography and Ecclesiology: 2 disciplines, 2 worlds?” in Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, 2012). Rather than to solve, my aim is to probe these problems in such a way that will point towards a more self-conscious methodology that allows for proper theological considerations in the ethnographic study of church music.
One of the big challenges for the study of 21st century practices of Christian music is to account for the ‘liquid church’ (Ward 2002) and other fluid forms of gathering around Christian music. The thesis of this contribution is that the study of Christian congregational music should take account of sacro-soundscapes also in terms of its understanding of ‘congregation’. Aiming to develop a concept that serves studies at the intersection of ecclesiology and ethnography in the context of congregational music studies, I ask this question: what theoretical concept can be employed to better understand gatherings around Christian music in and outside church in late-modern culture? Taking the Sing Along Matthäuspassion as an example, this contribution discusses the question how to understand ‘congregation’ in liquid times.
Music is widely acknowledged as a tool of great power, but as the Peter Parker principle states, ‘With great power there must also come great responsibility’ (Ditko and Lee 1962). Musical practice in worship should not be governed by a fear of the consequences of misuse, because in doing so we do we simultaneously restrict its capacity to do us great good. In her article, Music in Worship: The Dark Side, Ann Morris expresses concerns regarding the power music has to manipulate the responses of its hearers and concludes that there is a need for ethical guidelines concerning the use of music in worship. Without such guidelines, those that fear the misuse use of music in worship may curtail its use, thereby resulting in congregational worshippers not gaining the full range of benefits that music as a vehicle for worship offers. This paper is based on the premise that ‘the church gathering if shaped by three paradigms: mission, formation and encounter’ (Lee 2020) and begins by outlining how the use of music in congregational worship can helps worshippers fulfil that which Jesus deemed the greatest commandment. Acknowledging that validity of Morris’s concerns, it then argues that the works of Jeremy Begbie already provide such a metaphysical framework as is needed as a foundation for the answer to Morris’s questions and guide the use of music in worship, offering practical interpretation of his “Christian ecology of music”. Having established guidelines forethical use of music in worship, the paper goes on to explore the part that music can play in facilitating formation and mission through transformational encounter with God.
Article Can Music “Mirror ” God? A Theological-Hermeneutical Exploration of Music in the Light
2014
A theological exploration of the potential of non-liturgical instrumental music for the transmission of religious Christian faith experience, based on a hermeneutical tool drawn from Jean-Jacques Nattiez as applied to Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel. The article explores musical composition, reception, as well as the piece of music in itself, to discover common traits and keys to understanding its "meaning", and relate it to current thought and development in theology; in particular to themes of creativity, theological aesthetics, the Ascension, the artistic vocation and meaning-making in contemporary culture, through music and films.
Reworked: exploring Liturgy, Worship and Music
Laudate (No. 110) , 2023
As church musicians in the British Isles, we are often highly trained musically, but our knowledge of worship and liturgy is gained largely through an active creative process of osmosis (by doing), and through working closely with our local clergy. This paper encourages us to think around the subject ourselves.
Musicking as Liturgical Speech Acts: An Examination of Contemporary Worship Music Practices
Studia Liturgica, 2021
This article examines the genre of Contemporary Worship Music (CWM) within worship contexts in terms of its formative and purposeful nature. In CWM settings, the worship leader plays a particular role in the selection and facilitation of CWM repertoire to be led by praise bands. Through the leader's consideration of the message of the CWM lyrics, and the relational nature of CWM practices, a worship leader's pedagogical decisions are integral to contributing to a space of dialogue for worship musicians. Drawing on previous literature addressing liturgical language in worship, I analyze the CWM context as a particular case where liturgical language shapes musicians’ spiritual formation. This examination of CWM practices includes an analysis of musicians’ engagement in relational musicking and meeting through I-Thou encounters. I therefore explore both the need for worship leaders to consider the multitudinous theological implications of their actions, as well as the way music...