Search Results (22)

This article draws upon doctoral case study data from two Protestant Christian churches to examine how contemporary worship music-making practices can reinforce and solidify the musical tastes, dispositions, and tendencies of particular demographics. Drawing upon sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus, this article examines the religious musical habitus of musicians in relation to contemporary music repertoire. For some churches, contemporary worship music-making practices may “disrupt” the habitus of a particular subset of a demographic due to their musical preferences and positioning, while contemporary repertoire may affirm the habitus of other, often “young” worshippers due to their musical preferences. Further, the research analyzes each church’s positioning within the overarching musical and theological fields in place. Case study data affirm the notion that Contemporary Worship Music is generationally based in the way it engages with the habitus, which provides implications for worship leaders and those making musical decisions within Christian church contexts. Full article

By analyzing the musical works of Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen, this study examines the theological expressions of secular Jews in the diaspora who retain elements of belief. Drawing on contemporary theories of lived religion and post-secular spirituality, it explores how their lyrics articulate distinctive forms of Jewish spirituality outside traditional frameworks. Through a close textual analysis of their final albums, this study reveals complex theological narratives that intertwine Protestant-oriented individual spirituality with collective Jewish religious and cultural memory. The findings indicate that Cohen and Simon demonstrate distinct approaches to divinity. Cohen adopts a more traditional theistic stance, whereas Simon develops a pantheistic theology. These narratives offer viable and meaningful models for secular-believer Jewish identity and suggest possible foundations for a contemporary secular Jewish existence in the diaspora. Full article

This article presents an introductory historical, sociolinguistic, and ethnographic study of “Wazobia gospel music”, a twenty-first-century Nigerian congregational musical genre. The term ‘Wazobia’ signifies a fusion of the three regionally recognized local languages in Nigeria: Wa (Yorùbá), Zo (Hausa), and Bia (Igbo)—words that mean ‘come’ in the respective languages. In the Nigerian context, the Wazobia concept could also symbolize the inclusion of more than one ethnicity or language. By dissecting three multilingual Nigerian congregational songs, I unveil the diverse perceptions of Wazobia gospel music and the associations of the musical genre in line with the influencing agencies, text, and performance practices. Furthermore, I provide a detailed description and analysis of the textual and sonic contents of Wazobia gospel music, emphasizing its roles, meanings, and functions in the Lagos congregations context. I argue that Wazobia gospel music—multilingual singing in Nigerian churches—embodies multilayered roles in negotiating identity and creating hospitality. The complexity of studying congregational singing in cosmopolitan cities (like Lagos, Nigeria) due to multiple ethnolinguistic and musical expressions within local and transnational links is also addressed. To tackle this complexity, this article adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining historical research, oral history, and hybrid ethnography. This approach ensures a thorough and in-depth understanding of Wazobia gospel music, a topic of significant importance in the study of Nigerian music, linguistics, and cultural studies. By employing frameworks of musical localization and signification, I incorporate the results of my ethnographic studies of three Protestant churches in Lagos, Nigeria, to illustrate Wazobia gospel music’s continued importance. The article conceptualizes multilingual singing and offers fresh perspectives on studying Nigerian Christian congregational music in the twenty-first century. Full article

The Harrist Church in Ivory Coast, West Africa, emerged from the ministry of Liberian William Wadé Harris who baptized between 100,000 and 200,000 people during his eighteen-month evangelistic tour, 1913–1915. This story is full of linguistic complexities and anomalies. Harris himself spoke only English and his own local Liberian Glebo language. He was therefore compelled to work through expatriate English-speaking merchants, knowledgeable of and conversant in local languages, as interpreters and translators in addressing the twelve ethnic groups who heard and accepted his message. Harris encouraged new converts to compose hymns in their own indigenous languages by transforming musical genres embedded in their local musical traditions. Additionally fascinating is that during this early colonial period, the twelve ethnic groups impacted by Harris’s ministry lived in almost total isolation from each other and developed their own hymn traditions for thirty-five years (1914–1949), unaware of the existence of churches and worship patterns in neighboring ethnic districts. Only in 1949 did they suddenly become acquainted with the broader, multi-musical, multilingual reality of the Harrist movement. Since then, individual musicians and choirs from local congregations have gradually begun to sing a few of each other’s songs, though the challenge of becoming a truly multicultural, multiethnic church remains a work in progress. Documentation of these developments include written colonial and early Protestant and Catholic missionary sources and a large number of eye-witness interviews. Primary research methods employed here come from four intersecting disciplines and theoretical frameworks: orality studies, with particular focus on oral sources in constructing historical narrative; religious phenomenology; mission history; and ethnodoxological research. Full article

This study aims to analyze, through religious hymns in the German-speaking area from the early 18th century, the influence that the Pietist theological movement, starting from Philipp Jacob Spener’s Pia Desideria, had on the centralization of the self in the Protestant religious world, through the introduction of personal feelings of love towards God. On the one hand, the origins of Pietism can already be traced back to the late 16th century in areas affected by the radical reforms of the Anabaptists. On the other hand, it is from the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century that this theological and spiritual movement destabilized orthodox Lutheranism in some symbolic cities of Protestant Germany, such as Frankfurt am Main, Halle, and the Duchy of Westphalia, up to Moravia. The extensive publication of hymnals and musical compendia for the use of individuals, lay groups (collegia pietatis), faith communities, and churches denotes a fervor and a desire to preach their way of “practicing” spirituality, which greatly contrasts with both orthodox Lutheranism and the prevailing rationalism in the religious and philosophical sphere in Germany of the mid-18th century. For the first time since the Reformation, Lutheranism saw the use, in the theology of the preached and sung Word, of personal feelings and emotions that connect the individual with God, who is made an object of individual as well as collective worship. This was one of the most significant accusations that came from the University of Wittenberg against Pietism, namely the shift of theological and spiritual focus from the centrality of God to the centrality of the self, which manifests its faith through the most intimate emotions and feelings. Through the analysis of some examples taken from hymnographic and theological production, centered on the individual feelings of the believer, this article focuses on how this influenced the religious revival movements that would pervade England and the United States of America for more than two centuries (from the First Great Awakening in the late 18th century to the Pentecostal movements of the 20th century), with a spotlight on Italian hymnody during the Risorgimento. Full article

Silesia in the early modern era is an area with a historically unprecedented role, not only in relation to the tradition of Protestant churches, but also Catholic one. A particularly important cultural player there was the Society of Jesus, which used a variety of cultural strategies in its mission. The present article is a systematic review of these forms of activity, organized according to the chronological units. These time categories correspond to the music–theoretical narratives, to the method of meditation codified in Spiritual Exercises, and also to Ludwik Bielawski’s zonal theory of musical time. It seems that Silesian Jesuits consciously and consistently used the music performances in the religious culture they animated at all levels of these ‘time zones’. Recurrence and periodicity supported the established social habitus and regulated rhythms of the community’s cycles of various religious activities. A natural pretext for this regulation was the liturgical cycle, including new elements to the inherited tradition. Elements of this cyclicity may be found in all forms the of Jesuit repertoire and music genres. The community’s sacred time was measured out with recurrent performances of music repertoire and stage performances, creating together the rhythm of human life. Full article

In the last twenty years the Baptist, Methodist, and Waldensian churches in Italy have experienced an important season of migrations, mainly from South America, South-east Asia, and West Africa. This has led to a problem of sharing and mutual influence on the liturgical and musical levels for Italian churches that they had never experienced before. This article intends to study the editorial proposals of hymnbooks published by the Baptist, Methodist, and Waldensian churches in Italy. How many and which hymnals have been published from an intercultural point of view? Are the proposed repertoires transcultural? How many and which languages have been used in the publications? These three Protestant denominations have used different models for migrant churches. Another important aspect is the translation of the hymns: what language is used, and how certain words, images and theological ideas are made. The article, also using the methods of ethnographic field research, will be enriched by graphs which will show, for each denomination, which hymnographic repertoires were preferred and which vehicular languages were most used (and if this happened). Full article

In 2019, a noise complaint from a new, white resident of Shaw, a historically Black neighborhood of Washington, DC, led a local MetroPCS store to mute the go-go music that the storefront had played on its outdoor speakers for decades. The cultural and social implications of muting go-go music, a DC-originated genre of music that has played a central role in DC Black culture, inspired a viral hashtag, #dontmutedc, on social media, as well as a series of high-profile public protests against the muting. The #dontmutedc protests highlighted the increasing impact of gentrification on DC’s Black communities, and connected gentrification to several other important social issues affecting Black DC residents. In the wake of the #dontmutedc incident, several DC-area activist organizations have integrated go-go music into major, public-facing racial justice projects. The first part of this article presents a brief history of go-go music and race in DC community life, mainstream media, and law enforcement in order to contextualize the work of go-go-centered activist work in the aftermath of the #dontmutedc protests. The second part of this article highlights the go-go-centered activist work of three organizations: the Don’t Mute DC movement, Long Live Go-Go, and the Go-Go Museum and Café. These movements’ projects will be used to categorize three distinct approaches to go-go-centered racial justice activism in the Washington, DC, area. Full article

This article presents the results of research conducted on Egyptian popular songs, categorized as patriotic and showing their writers’ support for ʿAbd Fattāḥ al-Sīsī. He was first a general, Minister of Defense and commander of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. When protests occurred in Egypt in 2013, he remained the main actor on the political stage. Then, he became marshal, resigned from his army positions, became the candidate for presidency and finally became president of the Republic. The author of this article briefly describes what happened in Egypt in this short time (2011–2014), and answers the main research questions which concern the messages of the songs, discussing whether the messages changed from the beginning of these events to the moment when he became president of Egypt. She points out how the songs follow the political events, and presents the results of her own participant observations, including photos from when she was living in Egypt from the middle of June 2013 to October 2014. She introduces this phenomenon, how the country changed in a few months and how the culture (music/popular culture) was an important part of the country’s changes that influenced these song’s messages. Full article

Music often facilitates the experience of communitas within disparate groups of people. As the American mainline Protestant church faces schism and struggles for relevance in a post-modern era defined by mistrust in the institutional church and social subjectivism, reexamining how singing together can break down barriers within ecclesial structures and create shared understanding is merited. As demonstrated through the music of pilgrimage, community musicking allows individuals to define the sacred together. Music then becomes an educational resource for the reformation of the church. The Iona and Taizé communities offer insights into this process. Their publishing efforts and worship styles, influenced and crafted by the populations who visit their locations, have provided resources for this dialogue in localized contexts. However, the experience of communitas is individualized—no one person, group, or organization can define this outcome. Consequently, no single musical or liturgical approach will be appropriate in all contexts; the church’s music must adapt so that each selection is imbued with meaning for that community. Facilitating such a process in the local congregation may threaten the status quo while also becoming a tool for revitalization in the post-modern era. Full article

This article examines how the country music styles of Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash serve as a form of redistributive politics in which ideological struggles are engaged in ways that dissolve low/high culture distinctions and instead offer a mass-accessible avenue through which cultural recognition is conferred to marginalized identities. This ranges from class-based social critique in Dolly Parton’s song “9 to 5” to the condemnations of the carceral state in Johnny Cash’s work. Engaging country music as an arsenal for social progressivism is not only an underexplored topic in pop cultural studies, but it also provides fertile ground for illuminating how perceptions of the genre are impacted by stereotypical images drawn from the “culture wars” and how these images interrelate with implicit low/high distinctions. For instance, what does the commercial success of Parton’s and Cash’s works say about the low/high distinction? In what ways do their songs, lyrics, aesthetics, and public personae offer a distinctive space for a type of discourse that affords recognition to oppressed communities? Through addressing these questions, I seek to illustrate how prominent segments of country music are resistant to the mere reproduction of cultural hegemony. In doing so, they actively disrupt widespread conceptions of low culture as reactionary. Full article

Multicultural worship is defined here as a form of worship that is attractive to both non-religious outsiders and religious insiders. It is most appropriate in our times of religious decline. This paper presents a Catholic television program which involves collaboration with Protestants, the secular state television, secular writers, and university professors. This Sunday service consists of two parts: a discussion called “le magazine” and the mass taking place every week in a different parish. During the pandemic, when there were strict restrictions from March 2020 to September 2020, the program aired innovative worship services, centered on music and images, broadcast from a small Paris studio. When in September 2020 the pandemic was thought to be over and the major restrictions were lifted, the program became theologically and pastorally more multicultural than ever before. The conclusion offers other examples of multicultural worship adapted to our times of religious decline. Full article

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

In response to U.S. government restrictions imposed as part of a nationwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic, charismatic worship leader Sean Feucht began a series of worship concerts. Feucht positioned these protests as expressions of Christian religious freedom in opposition to mandated church closings and a perceived double-standard regarding the large gatherings of protesters over police violence against Black and Brown persons. Government restrictions challenged the sine qua non liturgical act of encounter with God for evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics: congregational singing in Praise and Worship. However, as Feucht’s itinerant worship concerts traversed urban spaces across the U.S. to protest these restrictions, the events gained a double valence. Feucht and event attendees sought to channel God’s power through musical worship to overturn government mandates and, along the way, they invoked longstanding social and racial prejudices toward urban spaces. In this essay, I argue that Feucht’s events reveal complex theological motivations that weave together liturgical-theological, social, and political concerns. Deciphering this complex tapestry requires a review of both the history of evangelical engagement with urban spaces and the theological history of Praise and Worship. Together, these two sets of historical resources generate a useful frame for considering how Feucht, as a charismatic musical worship leader, attempts to wield spiritual power through musical praise to change political situations and the social conditions. Full article

This paper discusses the history of Cantor Cristão, the first official Brazilian Baptist hymnal, published in 1891, revealing important aspects of the development of Protestant hymnody in Brazil. It also exposes a web of long-distance connections, multiple linguistic and cultural elements, and distinct perspectives of those who chose to do missionary work and those who chose to welcome them. More specifically, I describe and reflect on the contributions of Solomon L. Ginsburg, an Orthodox Jew from Poland, converted to Christianity in England, and turned Evangelical missionary, who played a crucial role in the history of Cantor Cristão as publisher, author, and translator of hymns. In my analysis, I adopt a historical ethnomusicological perspective and utilize the concept of musical localization, as well as the complementary notions of negotiation of proximity and ethics of style as interpretative lenses. I am drawn to a more nuanced view of the legacy of the mission enterprise, one that is not blind to issues of power, ethnocentrism, and wealth, but makes room for a robust examination of all sorts of capital transfers and investments (economic, cultural, and social), and the real phenomena of musical localization and individual agency. Full article