A Zen chant is like a compass that sets us in the direction of the awakened life; it is the dynamic, audible counterpart to the silent practice of zazen, or sitting meditation; and it is a powerful expression of the fact that practice happens in community. Here is a concise guid…
'Josquin's Rome' offers a new reading of the works composed by Josquin des Prez during his time as a singer and composer for the pope's private choir.
From Handel's renowned biographer, the story of one of the most celebrated compositions of Western classical music, Handel's famous oratorio, Messiah In the late summer of 1741, George Friderick Handel, composed an oratorio set to words from the King James Bible, rich in tuneful…
"Remains of Ritual, Steven M. Friedson's second book on musical experience in African ritual, focuses on the Brekete/Gorovodu religion of the Ewe people. Friedson presents a multifaceted understanding of religious practice through a historical and ethnographic study of one of th…
Examines in detail the contexts of Brahms's masterpiece and demonstrates that-contrary to recent consensus-it was performed and received as an inherently Christian work during the composer's life. Despite its entirely biblical text, Brahms's long-beloved A German Requiem is now…
Drawing upon three decades of research in European sacred music, Philip V. Bohlman calls for a re-examination of European modernity in the twenty first century, a modernity shaped no less by canonic religious and musical practices than by the proliferation of belief systems that…
In 1960, four young men went into a Chicago recording studio and revolutionized the sound of African American gospel music. When they made that groundbreaking recording, the Pilgrim Jubilees had been singing together for more than ten years. Today they are still singing, and the…
A defining moment in Catholic life in early modern Europe, Holy Week brought together the faithful to commemorate the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this study of ritual and music, Robert L. Kendrick investigates the impact of the music used during th…
"This work is by no means an exhaustively detailed study of gospel music in Chicago. Its intent is to chronicle the development of Chicago gospel music during its first five decades, from pioneers such Thomas Dorsey and Sallie Martin to the start of the contemporary gospel era o…
In Singing the Glory Down, William Lynwood Montell contributes to a fuller understanding of twentieth-century American culture by examining the complex relationships between gospel music and the culture of the nineteen-county study area in which this music has flourished for a h…
The A to Z of Sacred Music covers the most important aspects of the sacred music of Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and other smaller religious groups. It provides useful information on all the significant traditions of this music through the use …
In this pioneering study, respected musicologist Michael Marissen examines Handel's masterwork "Hallelujah Chorus," and uncovers a disturbing message of anti-Judaism buried within its joyous celebration of the divinity of the Christ. Every Easter, audiences across the globe thr…
Annotation
A dictionary containing 3500 biographical entries, each representing a composer whose work has been used within the worship of the church in Britain and Ireland.
Music in Religious Cults of the Ancient Near East presents the first extended discussion of the relationship between music and cultic worship in ancient western Asia. The book covers ancient Israel and Judah, the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Elam, and ancient Egypt, focusing o…
