Music in American religious experience / edited by Philip V. Bohlman, Edith L. Blumhofer, Maria M. Chow.

Other author Bohlman, Philip V., 1952- editor.
Other author Blumhofer, Edith Waldvogel, editor.
Other author Chow, Maria M., editor.
Format Book
Publication InfoNew York : Oxford University Press, 2006.
Descriptionviii, 350 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Subjects
Music--Religious aspects. --Congresses.
United States--Religious life and customs. --Congresses.

Contents Introduction: music in American religious experience / Philip V. Bohlman -- Experience and identity. When women recite: "music" and Islamic immigrant experience / Regula Burckhardt Qureshi -- African American religious music from a theomusicological perspective / Jon Michael Spencer -- Medeolinuwok, music, and missionaries in Maine / Ann Morrison Spinney -- Singing as experience among Russian American Molokans / Margarita Mazo -- Liturgy, hymnody, and song. Hymnody and history: early American evangelical hymns as sacred music / Stephen A. Marini -- The evolution of the music of German American Protestants in their hymnody: a case study from an American perspective / Paul Westermeyer -- Singing from the right songbook: ethnic identity and language transformation in German American hymnals / Otto Holzapfel -- "When in our music God is glorified": singing and singing about singing in a Congregational church / Judith Gray -- Individuals and the agency of faith. Fanny Crosby and Protestant hymnody / Edith L. Blumhofer -- Prayer on the panorama: music and individualism in American religious experience / Philip V. Bohlman -- Women's ritual music / Janet Walton -- Congregation and community. Nusach and identity: the contemporary meaning of traditional Jewish prayer modes / Jeffrey A. Summit -- Reflections on the musical diversity of Chinese churches in the United States / Maria M. Chow -- "Tuned up with the grace of God": music and experience among Old Regular Baptists / Jeff Todd Titon -- Aesthetics and theology in Congregational song: a hymnal intervenes / Don E. Saliers.
Abstract Since the appearance of The Bay Psalm Book in 1640, music has served as a defining factor for American religious experience. Music and music-making are crucial to the maintenance of the distinctive belief systems that account for the insistent presence of multiculturalism in American denominationalism. The sacred musics of America at once symbolize the unifying factors of worship shaping the historical landscape and give voice to the diversity that distinguishes the religious experiences of that landscape as American. For students and scholars in American music and religious studies, as well as for church musicians, this book is the first to study the ways in which music shapes the distinctive presence of religion in the United States. The sixteen essayists contributing to this book address the fullness of music's presence in American religion and religious history. Sacred music is considered in the broadest aesthetic sense, stretching from more traditional studies of hymnody and worship to new forms of musical expression, such as ritual in nonsectarian religious movements. Musical experience intersects with religious experience, posing challenging questions about the ways in which Americans, historical communities and new immigrants, and racial and ethnic groups, construct their sense of self. This book features an interdisciplinary approach that includes scholars in both musical and religious studies; a broad range of methodologies; historical breadth extending beyond denominational and church studies, and beyond Judeo-Christian traditions; and a comparative study of traditional religious communities and of emerging groups representing multiethnic America.
General notePapers from a conference held at the University of Chicago, April 22-24, 1994.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 2005052304
ISBN0195173031 (alk. paper)
ISBN019517304X (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN9780195173031
ISBN9780195173048