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Tuning In the Sacred: Studies in Music and World Religions
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Tuning In the Sacred: Studies in Music and World Religions

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 November 2021) | Viewed by 19627

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Guy Beck

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Religious Studies, Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Interests: religious studies; musicology; Asian religions; Hinduism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

This Special Issue features contributions on the presence of music or musical thought in world religions. Each paper presents an in-depth exploration of the role of music, whether in theory or practice, as it relates especially to specific groups or communities within the major world religions. The papers may also be directed toward indigenous and new religious movements and/or offer a comparative perspective across different religions. The emphasis is on the religious dimension or function of music, rather than on technical aspects of musicology.

This Issue builds upon the Guest Editor’s previous edited volume, Sacred Sound: Experiencing Music in World Religions (2006), in which the general outlines of music are presented within six major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. Without replicating the content of that book, this work explores lesser-known musical traditions that may or may not be regarded as mainstream within the major world religions. 

Dr. Guy Beck
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind 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.

Keywords

  • music and religion
  • ritual music
  • chant
  • ethnomusicology

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 3890 KiB  
Article
Performance and Aesthesis in Malay-World Musics, Religious and Secular
by Geoffrey Benjamin
Religions 2022, 13(9), 852; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090852 - 13 Sep 2022
Viewed by 2397
Abstract
The Malay World has been home to a range of social formations, from nomadic hunter-gatherers on land and sea, through (semi-)sedentary swiddeners and forest traders, to state-incorporated peasants and aristocrats. In their religious and secular musics, these populations display differing performance manners and [...] Read more.
The Malay World has been home to a range of social formations, from nomadic hunter-gatherers on land and sea, through (semi-)sedentary swiddeners and forest traders, to state-incorporated peasants and aristocrats. In their religious and secular musics, these populations display differing performance manners and organisation that reflect their distinctive socio-cultural and religious orientations. The musics serve to embed those orientations as aesthetically felt rather than conceptually talked about. The differences are encoded mainly onto contrasts between, on the one hand, highly heterophonic and/or starkly non-melismatic performance and, on the other, more homophonic and/or melismatic styles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tuning In the Sacred: Studies in Music and World Religions)
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10 pages, 386 KiB  
Article
Features of Sacred Music in the Context of the Ukrainian Baroque
by Natalia Kovalchuk, Olga Zosim, Liudmyla Ovsiankina, Irina Lomachinska and Oksana Rykhlitska
Religions 2022, 13(2), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020088 - 18 Jan 2022
Viewed by 3119
Abstract
The main goal of this article is the research of different genres of spiritual music in the Ukrainian baroque era. This music is decisive for an understanding of Ukrainian culture. In order to achieve this, research following methods was used: comparative-historical, sociocultural, structural, [...] Read more.
The main goal of this article is the research of different genres of spiritual music in the Ukrainian baroque era. This music is decisive for an understanding of Ukrainian culture. In order to achieve this, research following methods was used: comparative-historical, sociocultural, structural, genre-stylistic. Baroque appears as an intermediate between the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment. Features of the broader character of the Ukrainian civilization explain its cruising between different cultures, correlating between Western culture and Eastern Orthodox culture. The cultural dimension of Ukraine was crossed by different religions: Orthodox, Catholic, Greek-Catholic, and different paths of Protestantism. This fact specified a music of this age. Two basic directions feature specific of spiritual singing of the Ukrainian baroque: partsong (“High baroque”) and spiritual song (“Middle baroque”). Partsong is represented by liturgical and paraliturgical (concerts) genres. This direction was unique because it was a synthesis of Eastern-Christian and Western-Christian tradition (mostly by Catholic musical tradition as multi-chorus composition, musical rhetoric). At the same time, partsong of the orthodox tradition was formed by liturgical tradition. A large influence on the Greek-Catholic church was a catholic music tradition, in which polyphony is not performed “acapella”, but with instrumental accompaniment. Spiritual song was more linked with the catholic tradition and less with the protestant one. It did not have any canonical orthodox genres, but was borrowed by text–music forms formed in Europe in the Age of late Renaissance and early Baroque period. Greek-Catholic tradition was more linked with catholic one. Therefore, this music had a sacred character, becoming a genre of liturgical music. Palimpsest in its confessional dimension became a distinctive feature of the Ukrainian Baroque and created a unique face of the Ukrainian liturgical music. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tuning In the Sacred: Studies in Music and World Religions)
24 pages, 395 KiB  
Article
The Breathing Body, Whistling Flute, and Sonic Divine: Oneness and Distinction in Bengal Vaishnavism’s Devotional Aesthetics
by Sukanya Sarbadhikary
Religions 2021, 12(9), 743; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090743 - 9 Sep 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4053
Abstract
This paper studies complex narratives connecting the Hindu deity Krishna, his melodious flute, and the porous, sonic human body in the popular devotional sect, Bengal Vaishnavism. From the devotee–lover responding to Krishna’s flute call outside, envying the flute’s privileged position on Krishna’s lips, [...] Read more.
This paper studies complex narratives connecting the Hindu deity Krishna, his melodious flute, and the porous, sonic human body in the popular devotional sect, Bengal Vaishnavism. From the devotee–lover responding to Krishna’s flute call outside, envying the flute’s privileged position on Krishna’s lips, to becoming the deity’s flute through yogic breath–sound fusions—texts abound with nuanced relations of equivalence and differentiation among the devotee–flute–god. Based primarily on readings of Hindu religious texts, and fieldwork in Bengal among makers/players of the bamboo flute, the paper analyses theological constructions correlating body–flute–divinity. Lying at the confluence of yogic, tantric, and devotional thought, the striking conceptual problem about the flute in Bengal Vaishnavism is: are the body, flute and divinity distinct or the same? I argue that the flute’s descriptions in both classical Sanskrit texts and popular oral lore and performances draw together ostensibly opposed religious paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and passionate devotion/bhakti (difference): its fine, airy feeling fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and sweet melody producing a subservient temperament towards the lover–god outside. Flute sounds embody the peculiar dialectic of difference-and-identity among devotee–flute–god, much like the flute–lip-lock itself, bringing to affective life the Bengal Vaishnava philosophical foundation of achintya-bhed-abhed (inconceivability between principles of separation and indistinction). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tuning In the Sacred: Studies in Music and World Religions)
16 pages, 276 KiB  
Article
Theology of Music and Hindu Religion: From Divine Origins to Classical Songs
by Guy L. Beck
Religions 2021, 12(8), 663; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080663 - 19 Aug 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 8558
Abstract
As a subfield in the study of religion and music, the theology of music is generally understood in Western terms. Yet to fully encompass the rich heritage of music in world religions, the theology of music must welcome non-Western traditions. After introducing ancient [...] Read more.
As a subfield in the study of religion and music, the theology of music is generally understood in Western terms. Yet to fully encompass the rich heritage of music in world religions, the theology of music must welcome non-Western traditions. After introducing ancient Greek and Biblical narratives regarding the origins of music, including metaphysical concepts, narratives of music as Divine Gift, musical angels, and the sacred origin of the notes and scales, this article explores music in Hindu religion through the lens of theology. We find that Indian music is also ‘given by the gods’ (i.e., Brahmā, Vishnu, and Śiva), associated with ‘musical angels,’ and originally formed from metaphysical principles (i.e., OM and the concept of Nāda-Brahman). What is demonstrated here, representing a long continuity, is how these same ideas are viable in the performance of Indian classical music today. Citing examples of compositions of Dhrupad and Khayal from the standard repertoire, this article reveals how modern-day classical songs contain references to sacred sound principles and the divine origins of music, both in their lyrics and in the unfoldment of musical notes (Svaras) and melodic patterns (Rāgas). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tuning In the Sacred: Studies in Music and World Religions)
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