The Bible and Music: Expanding the Discourse

Dear Colleagues,

For some time, Reception Studies of the Bible have emerged as a fruitful field of scholarly enquiry. Evidence of this development is seen in the Bible and its Reception monograph series published by the Society of Biblical Literature, the Journal of the Bible and its Reception, and the significant Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, both published by De Gruyter. Outside of these major publishing projects numerous other works on the Bible in Art, Literature, Film, and conference sessions devoted to various facets of biblical reception have multiplied. More recently this has discourse has expanded to include the influence of the bible in political discourse.

The reception of the bible in music has also been evident in this move, though it is reasonable to say that given the extraordinary volume of musical material that engages the bible – both within religious communities and beyond – scholarly attention to the reception of the scriptures in music has lagged behind analysis of other artistic forms. Further, when biblical scholars have enaged muscial works, more attention has been given to textual features rather than deep engagement with musicologcal features. This is hardly a surprise given the traditional concerns of biblical scholars. The effect of this scholarship has led to a type of cataloging of biblical insipred work, rather than an analysis of music as a form of biblical interpretation.

This Special Issue aims to deepen biblical scholarship related to music. While highlighting the importance of the bible as a source for composers, it also seeks to engage more intentionally with musicological language in order to further develop this under-resourced area of biblical studies.

In this Special Issue, original research articles are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• Articles that engage a particular piece of music linked to a a biblical text. For example, Stravinsky’s Chichester Psalms. Broader articles might consider: the Bible in the music of Bruckner, or something similar. In these examples, an emphasis on the musicological features is suggested. In this way, music as an expression of interpretation is foregrounded.
• Thematic articles that explore the uptake of the bible in more general musical categories would also be possible. For example, the use of the bible in Heavy Metal. Such articles might be less focused on musical questions (though not necessarily so), but more on the type of biblical material that has recommended itself to particular musical genre and an exploration of why that may be the case.
• There is also provision here for contributions by composers who have worked with biblical texts. These papers might consider the circumstances that lie behind examination of these texts, and the type of musical experimentation that goes on in the setting of texts or ideas.

As noted above, scholarly attention to the reception of the bible in music has lagged behind other art forms. A handful of scholars have worked to bring the discussion forward, but there appears to have been little combined or organised in this regard. The hope here is that a volume that draws together multiple voices across a range of musical genre will enable a moment of depth and an invigoration of the exploration of music in/and bible. This will include an advancement in the type of vocabulary which is used in this discourse, as well as the development of further musical horizons.

By including articles by musical professionals, the discussion is immeasuarably deepened, and a shared vocabulary may well develop. That would allow for a truly inter-disciplinary field to take shape which would be of great value to both biblical studies and critical musicology.

Dr. Anthony Rees
Guest Editor

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