1st Edition

Studying Congregational Music Key Issues, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives

296 Pages
by Routledge

296 Pages
by Routledge

296 Pages
by Routledge

Studying the role of music within religious congregations has become an increasingly complex exercise. The significant variations in musical style and content between different congregations require an interdisciplinary methodology that enables an accurate analysis, while also allowing for nuance in interpretation. This book is the first to help scholars think through the complexities of... Read more

Introduction: Studying Congregational Music
Andrew Mall, Jeffers Engelhardt, and Monique M. Ingalls

Part I: Methodological Perspectives

1 In Case You Don’t Have a Case: Reflections on Methods for Studying Congregational Song in Liturgical History
Lester Ruth

2 Worshipping "With Everything": Musical Analysis and Congregational Worship
Joshua Kalin Busman

3 Mediating Religious Experience? Congregational Music and the Digital Music Interface
Anna E. Nekola

4 Ethnography in the Study of Congregational Music
Jeff Todd Titon

5 Re-Sounding the History of Christian Congregational Music
Sarah Eyerly

6 Music Theology as the Mouthpiece of Science: Proving it through Congregational Music Studies
Bennett Zon

Part II: Key Issues

7 Political Economy and Capital in Congregational Music Studies: Commodities, Worshipers, and Worship
Andrew Mall

8 Congregation and Chorality: Fluidity and Distinction in the Voicing of Religious Community
Jeffers Engelhardt

9 "We Just Don’t Have It": Addressing Whiteness in Congregational Voicing
Marissa Glynias Moore

10 Researching Black Congregational Music from a Migratory Point of View: Methods, Challenges, and Strategies
Melvin L. Butler

11 Studying Byzantine Ukrainian Congregational Music in Canada: Considering Community and Diaspora
Marcia Ostashewski

12 Congregational Singing and Practices of Gender in Christian Worship: Exploring Intersections
Teresa Berger

13 Searching for a Metaphor: What is the Role of the Shaliach/Shalichat Tzibur (Leader of Prayer)?
Jeffrey A. Summit

14 Ecclesioscapes: Interpreting Gatherings around Christian Music in and outside the Church through the Dutch Case of the "Sing Along Matthäuspassion"
Mirella Klomp

Biography

Andrew Mall is Assistant Professor of Music at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He teaches courses in ethnomusicology, music industry, and popular music studies. He is the author of God Rock, Inc.: The Business of Niche Music (University of California Press, 2021) and Book Review Co-Editor of the journal Ethnomusicology.

Jeffers Engelhardt is Professor of Music at Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA. He teaches courses in ethnomusicology focusing on community-based ethnography, music and religion, voice, and analytical approaches to music and sound. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of Music and Religion and Digital and Multimedia Editor of the Journal of the American Musicological Society.

Monique M. Ingalls is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director of Church Music at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, USA. She is the author of Singing the Congregation (Oxford, 2018), coeditor of three books on congregational musicmaking, and series editor of Routledge’s Congregational Music Studies Series.