Sacred Sound in the Christian West: Music, Devotion, and Religious Experience Through History

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to make you aware of a forthcoming Special Issue of the peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal Religions, titled Sacred Sound in the Christian West: Music, Devotion, and Religious Experience Through History, to which I invite you to submit a proposal.

The purpose of this Special Issue of Religions is to publish new historical research on how music in liturgical and devotional ceremonies contributed to religious experience. In musicological as well as church historical scholarship, liturgical and devotional practices in the Christian West have been studied thoroughly, including the music pertaining to these practices, not least concerning the formal and practical requirements for music in such contexts. However, the interdisciplinary questions of how and to what extent this music has responded and contributed to religious experience in these devotional situations through its sound as well as its musical construction have been treated much less.

In the Special Issue, the idea is to go beyond the formal and practical exigencies of the various religious ceremonies in order to discuss devotional music contextually as part of a ceremony, to be interpreted in all possible aspects through words, sound, and action. In addition to the potential experience of the music in its original context, this may also concern the music’s present experience since much of the historical liturgical and devotional music is still performed today, albeit in new, often secular contexts. Here, an important question concerns to what extent, if at all, religious experience found in the music in its original sitz im leben may still be perceived in modern, recontextualized performance situations.

The Special Issue is historically conceived and should include articles that deal with the experience of music and sound in Christian antiquity and the early Middle Ages, based on writings—such as the musical experiences of St Augustine—before the advent of musical notation in the ninth century. Further, the Special Issue needs articles on musical experience in the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, about musical polyphony in its earlier stages over the complex polyphony in Paris around 1200 and further into the later Middle Ages and what is typically described as Renaissance Polyphony, always relating the music to its religious context. The breakup of the Western Church in the sixteenth century into several Christian denominations opens for studies of musical experiences in devotional contexts over the following centuries in individual branches of Protestantism as well as the Roman Catholic Church, but also for comparative studies of music from various denominations. The diminishing cultural importance in the West of institutional religions, especially after 1800, calls for studies of religious experience also in music composed for secular contexts.

We welcome contributions to the Special Issue, based on textual or musical sources, that focus on religious experience in specific pieces of music and/or music devotional practices more generally. Collecting articles concerning this topic, which still constitutes a relatively unexplored area, is a way to draw further attention to the cultural and religious importance of music. The Special Issue will hopefully stimulate further interest and scholarly activity in the history of Christian devotional musical culture.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, Dr. Nils Holger Petersen (nhp@teol.ku.dk), or to Dr. Ana Vujkovic Sakanovic (vujkovic.sakanovic@mdpi.com) of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Kind regards,

Dr. Nils Holger Petersen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• liturgy and music in the Christian west
• religious experience in music
• sacred music
• religious music history
• devotional history
• sensoriness and devotion