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Researches with Spirituality and Music
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Researches with Spirituality and Music

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 July 2023) | Viewed by 23627

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. June Boyce-Tillman

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR, UK
2. Humanities: MASARA Research Entity – Musical Arts in South Africa Resources and Applications, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
Interests: music; education; spirituality; feminism; composition
Dr. Stephen Roberts

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Practical Theology, South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff CF24 3UR, UK
2. School of History Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK
Interests: practical theology; theology and music; interfaith relations; chaplaincy studies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

This will be a cross-disciplinary issue exploring music set in various contexts that can be seen to include a spiritual dimension, however this is defined. It will include educational, performance, ritual and healing contexts.  It will examine how music has been used in various cultures for spiritual purposes in religious and outside religious contexts. These will potentially include education, therapy, ritual, performance, composition, theology and religious studies, using an academics from various disciplines. It will examine the interface between culture, religion and spirituality and wellbeing, music and spirituality exploring the social, spiritual and political aspects of wellbeing and spirituality. The topics welcome in this Special Issue would include areas such as:

  • The spirituality of the Japanese shakuhachi;
  • Contemporary Christian worship music in Christian spirituality;
  • Music and worship in a digital age;
  • Congregational singing in the RC church post Vatican II;
  • Spiritual approaches to the environment in music education;
  • Virtues and spirituality;
  • The spirituality of the djembe drum;
  • Musical rituals as reconciliation in South Africa;
  • Music and peace-building;

Prof. Dr. June Boyce-Tillman
Dr. Stephen Roberts
Guest Editors

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
  • musicking
  • spirituality
  • wellbeing
  • religion
  • ritual
  • eudaimonia (personal and societal)
  • society

Published Papers (13 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 6184 KiB  
Article
My Journey of Personal Transformation: An Autoethnographic Perspective on the Meaning I Ascribe to My Lived Experiences of Music and Imagery (MI) Training during the COVID-19 Pandemic
by Petra Jerling
Religions 2024, 15(1), 46; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel15010046 - 27 Dec 2023
Viewed by 775
Abstract
Is it possible to experience healing and growth when you grieve? How and where do you find meaning again? During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were looking for answers to these questions. This autoethnography explores how I experienced personal transformation through the method [...] Read more.
Is it possible to experience healing and growth when you grieve? How and where do you find meaning again? During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were looking for answers to these questions. This autoethnography explores how I experienced personal transformation through the method of Music and Imagery (MI) therapy in the midst of the pandemic and huge personal loss. This transformation also impacted my faith in Christ. Through documenting my journey using music listening, artwork, journaling, memories, and peers’ feedback, I realized just how possible it was to grow and find healing in trying times. I pieced all the information together like a jigsaw puzzle until I could see the complete picture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
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20 pages, 670 KiB  
Article
Religion in the Home—The Sacred Songs of the Drawing Room
by June Boyce-Tillman
Religions 2023, 14(11), 1400; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel14111400 - 09 Nov 2023
Viewed by 700
Abstract
The Victorian bourgeois ballad is a distinctive genre that demonstrates the spirituality of religion transferred to the drawing room. This paper will examine in detail four examples of the genre—The Lost Chord, The Holy City, Arise O Sun and The Volunteer Organist [...] Read more.
The Victorian bourgeois ballad is a distinctive genre that demonstrates the spirituality of religion transferred to the drawing room. This paper will examine in detail four examples of the genre—The Lost Chord, The Holy City, Arise O Sun and The Volunteer Organist to examine the spirituality of the genre in terms of the materials used, the musical construction, the value system underpinning it and the expressive character. It will interrogate their relationship to the spirituality of Victorian Anglicanism and the place of this spirituality in the lives of the people with whom they were popular and its role in their social life, drawing on the author’s own experience. It was also a genre in which women excelled and this and the notion of spirituality will be examined culturally, drawing on Foucault’s notion of subjugated knowing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
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12 pages, 272 KiB  
Article
Finding Freire: Punk, Praxis and the Quest for Spirituality in Krishnacore
by Mike Dines
Religions 2023, 14(10), 1263; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel14101263 - 05 Oct 2023
Viewed by 624
Abstract
Building upon earlier research, this paper unpacks the complex relationship between punk and Krishna Consciousness, in this instance through the lens of Paulo Freire’s notion of praxis. Here, the intersection between punk, the Hare Krishna movement and the corresponding relationship between auto-didacticism and [...] Read more.
Building upon earlier research, this paper unpacks the complex relationship between punk and Krishna Consciousness, in this instance through the lens of Paulo Freire’s notion of praxis. Here, the intersection between punk, the Hare Krishna movement and the corresponding relationship between auto-didacticism and spirituality are examined as a means of interrogating subcultural participation and the hegemonic dominance of the anti-religious sentiment within punk. Freire’s approach is examined within the context of this relationship, specifically regarding the inquisitiveness of the individual as they begin the process of engaging with Krishna Consciousness and spirituality, especially from the standpoint of punk. The importance here lies in the learning process being in a state of flux, where the continual re-creation of knowledge and inquiry becomes a means of consolidating the dialectical relationship between the self and the world around it. Here, punk becomes a valuable space in which to discover new ideas, a means of developing an aesthetic and subcultural/religious/spiritual membership within a framework of auto-didacticism; of illuminating the dialectical, hermeneutic relationship between consciousness and the world around us, central to Freire’s concept of praxis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
17 pages, 291 KiB  
Article
Collective Joy: The Spirituality of the Community Big Band Wonderbrass
by Robert K. Smith, Hannah O’Mahoney and Stephen B. Roberts
Religions 2023, 14(9), 1099; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel14091099 - 24 Aug 2023
Viewed by 784
Abstract
Wonderbrass is a community music band that performs professionally. This article—written by three members of the band—uses collaborative/conversational autoethnography to explore the significance of the band through the lens of spirituality. After a brief overview of the history and ethos of the band, [...] Read more.
Wonderbrass is a community music band that performs professionally. This article—written by three members of the band—uses collaborative/conversational autoethnography to explore the significance of the band through the lens of spirituality. After a brief overview of the history and ethos of the band, the autoethnographic methodology is discussed with particular attention to its significance for the investigation of music and spirituality. The rest of the article uses this methodology to explore the authors’ relationships, first to religion and spirituality, and then to their shared experience of Wonderbrass through the period of lockdown and subsequent emergence from that period. Through the conversational autoethnographic writing of the authors and analysis of emerging themes, the band is identified as supporting a spirituality that we identify as collective joy, experienced through fun, connection, and joy as sources of happiness, wellbeing, and flourishing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
13 pages, 247 KiB  
Article
Charting the Spiritual Experience in Jazz
by Nick Reynolds
Religions 2023, 14(7), 842; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel14070842 - 27 Jun 2023
Viewed by 772
Abstract
This article examines the spiritual dimension of jazz performance by looking at first-person accounts of improvising musicians and locating their experiential descriptions within a spiritual framework. The spiritual context is here defined as the realm of invisible processes that support and underpin the [...] Read more.
This article examines the spiritual dimension of jazz performance by looking at first-person accounts of improvising musicians and locating their experiential descriptions within a spiritual framework. The spiritual context is here defined as the realm of invisible processes that support and underpin the visible and auditory dimensions of improvised music. By collating evidence through first-person accounts, a series of themes emerge (wonderment, force, inspiration, letting go, happening, connection, being yourself, meaning and staying in the present), which, when seen as parts of a holistic process, can provide important components that are often missed in jazz education and jazz performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
12 pages, 379 KiB  
Article
Engaging with Religious History and Theological Concepts through Music Composition: Ave generosa and The Song of Margery Kempe
by Brian Andrew Inglis
Religions 2023, 14(5), 640; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel14050640 - 10 May 2023
Viewed by 1178
Abstract
This article explores the intersections among music composition, religious history and spiritual texts, with their attendant concepts. It focuses on two works with medieval sources—the concert piece Ave generosa (1996) and the chamber opera The Song of Margery Kempe (2008)—which were featured in [...] Read more.
This article explores the intersections among music composition, religious history and spiritual texts, with their attendant concepts. It focuses on two works with medieval sources—the concert piece Ave generosa (1996) and the chamber opera The Song of Margery Kempe (2008)—which were featured in the online Gallery of the conferences in 2021 and 2022, respectively, of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT). Through the lenses of semiotics and intertextuality, it explores the ways by which theological concepts and spiritual contexts can be evoked and ‘translated’ into musical sound, both instrumental and vocal. A sampling of the literature on medieval monasticism and St Hildegard of Bingen, whose corpus forms the source of Ave generosa, supports a musical exegesis of its ‘spiritual programme’. In the case of The Song of Margery Kempe, recent scholarship on the text frames examples of the multiplication of meanings provided by dramatisation and musical setting. Art in general and music composition in particular are presented as a commentary, or gloss, on both religious history and enduring spiritual themes, and a different way of thinking about religion and spirituality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
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10 pages, 257 KiB  
Article
Jerusalema, a Heritage Day Song of the COVID-19 Pandemic
by Julia Mantsali Modise
Religions 2023, 14(1), 45; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel14010045 - 28 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3297
Abstract
Musical activities, religious or spiritual, share much in common. They tend to evoke powerful emotional responses in participating individuals and have great significance at the personal, social and communal levels. Music and dance have always been strongly connected in South Africa. The songs [...] Read more.
Musical activities, religious or spiritual, share much in common. They tend to evoke powerful emotional responses in participating individuals and have great significance at the personal, social and communal levels. Music and dance have always been strongly connected in South Africa. The songs of South Africa were prominent for the social and political role they played in the struggle against apartheid rule. Post-apartheid era songs were used to reconcile a nation that was deeply divided. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (God Bless Africa), became the national anthem of a democratic South Africa. Jerusalema music and dance was unofficially adopted as the Heritage Day song when President Cyril Ramaphosa encouraged the people to participate in the Jerusalemadancechallenge “to remember the loved ones lost to the COVID-19 disease and to quietly rejoice in the diverse heritage of our nation”. A qualitative study was conducted using webnography to find the meaning ascribed to Jerusalema music by the viewers of the video during the COVID-19 pandemic. While several themes emerged after the qualitative content analysis was performed, the focus of this article was on one of the themes that led the viewers of this music video to believe that Jerusalema brought the world together through music and dance during the COVID-19 hard lockdown. South Africans embraced it as the Heritage Day song. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
13 pages, 2203 KiB  
Article
Music and Spirituality in Africa: Gospel Music, Spirituality, and Everyday Meaning-Making in Nigeria
by Oladele Ayorinde and Toyin Samuel Ajose
Religions 2022, 13(12), 1227; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13121227 - 19 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2633
Abstract
This article explores gospel music as one of the ways people negotiate spirituality and everyday meaning-making in Lagos. Beyond sonic spheres and analysis, this article provides insight into ways in which people ‘perform’ spirituality and negotiate wellbeing amidst Nigeria’s social, political, and economic [...] Read more.
This article explores gospel music as one of the ways people negotiate spirituality and everyday meaning-making in Lagos. Beyond sonic spheres and analysis, this article provides insight into ways in which people ‘perform’ spirituality and negotiate wellbeing amidst Nigeria’s social, political, and economic uncertainty through a focus on the ‘celebrity’ character and self-fashioning of one of Nigeria’s gospel music stars, Tope Alabi. Gospel music and its infrastructures of modernity constitute one of the ways Nigerians negotiate wellbeing and respond to global economic tensions ‘from below’. We explore the nexus between gospel music and how the ‘spirituality’ it facilitates shapes people’s subjective ideas of social and economic wellbeing. We ask: what is the link between gospel music, spirituality, and people’s everyday meaning-making and self-making? Using Harry Garuba’s animist unconscious’, we explore ways in which the social life and superstar image of Nigerian ‘celebrity’ gospel musicians constitute sites where people negotiate spirituality and everyday subjective happiness, and social and economic wellbeing. We argue that spirituality, ‘being spiritual’ or the understanding thereof does not only manifest at the intersections of sound and emotion. Instead, we suggest that people’s subjective idea of spirituality or ‘being spiritual’ in a place such as Lagos can also be understood through a focus on the social life and the self-fashioning of gospel musicians. The self-fashioning and superstar image of gospel musicians become a medium through which the everyday idea of spirituality and meaning-making is negotiated, staged, and performed, and a channel through which these processes of meaning-making can be explored and understood. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
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18 pages, 294 KiB  
Article
‘An Art That Reaches Beyond the World’: Sir Arthur Bliss and Music as Spirituality
by Matthew McCullough
Religions 2022, 13(12), 1186; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13121186 - 05 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1453
Abstract
Throughout his life, British composer Sir Arthur Bliss (1891–1975) placed great importance on the value of music. He saw it as something that could bring peace and healing and as an ‘art that reaches beyond the world.’ In his artistic creed, set out [...] Read more.
Throughout his life, British composer Sir Arthur Bliss (1891–1975) placed great importance on the value of music. He saw it as something that could bring peace and healing and as an ‘art that reaches beyond the world.’ In his artistic creed, set out in 1934, Bliss speaks of music as inherently linked with emotion in its form as a crucial mode of human expression, both in listening and in its composition. His philosophies on these are fairly well documented; he spoke publicly on contemporary composition and wrote extensively on his own experiences with music, not least in his autobiography, As I Remember. Equally, he and his wife both write of his music as an embodiment of the ‘private’ Arthur Bliss, one in which we might find something of the man hidden from the general public. With this in mind, and given Bliss’s view of music as something with spiritual value, this article aims to examine his previously neglected philosophies on composition, exploring themes of emotion, identity, and destiny through an exegesis of his writings, lectures, and broadcasts, and by probing the composition and context of A Colour Symphony, Meditations on a Theme by John Blow, and Shield of Faith. Using a lens of Douglas Davies’ idea-value-belief series supported by Davies’ theory of cultural intensification it argues that, for Bliss, music can be seen as more than an idea—it was a value, a belief, and perhaps even a religious belief. In its conclusion, this article suggests that we can uncover a form of spirituality in Bliss’s attitude to music and view this attitude as something which acts ‘against death’. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
14 pages, 580 KiB  
Article
Explaining How Community Music Engagement Facilitates Social Cohesion through Ritualised Belonging
by Liesl van der Merwe and Janelize Morelli
Religions 2022, 13(12), 1170; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13121170 - 01 Dec 2022
Viewed by 2280
Abstract
The flourishing society envisioned by the South African government’s National Development Plan 2030 is based on nation-building and social cohesion. With the recent civil unrests, calls for healing a nation characterised by poverty, inequality and violence through social cohesion have again been made. [...] Read more.
The flourishing society envisioned by the South African government’s National Development Plan 2030 is based on nation-building and social cohesion. With the recent civil unrests, calls for healing a nation characterised by poverty, inequality and violence through social cohesion have again been made. Community music engagement is uniquely positioned to achieve social cohesion since the discipline engages disparities of power and privilege whilst aiming to cultivate an environment of unconditional welcoming. The purpose of this theoretical framework is to explain how community music engagement can facilitate social cohesion through community music engagement. Community music engagement promotes spiritual experiences since it fosters relationships. This relational theoretical framework will be derived from a thematic analysis of the 21 chapters in the book Ritualised Belonging: Musicing and Spirituality in the South African Context and related theories. Our findings indicate that joyful musicking rituals serve as the catalyst for hope. Hope, in turn, motivates people to engage in community musicking, which requires a bodily co-presence, fosters mutual focus of attention and promotes cooperation and trust. Musickers who share values, challenges, culture, and identity experience a joyful sense of belonging. Furthermore, joy is key to spirituality since it is self-expansive, self-transcendent and other-embracing and transcends different religions. Joy moves musickers to build bonding and bridging social capital. Social capital improves individuals’ and communities’ quality of life and ultimately promotes social cohesion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
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11 pages, 278 KiB  
Article
In Like Manner of “Amazing Grace”: A Christian’s Journey for Relationship and the Sound of Spirituality
by Susan Quindag
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1054; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13111054 - 03 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1632
Abstract
I was 13 years old when I heard Judy Collins’ rendition of “Amazing Grace” over the radio. At that time, I thought it was an unusual song to be played over a rock station. Collins sang the first verse with a pure yet [...] Read more.
I was 13 years old when I heard Judy Collins’ rendition of “Amazing Grace” over the radio. At that time, I thought it was an unusual song to be played over a rock station. Collins sang the first verse with a pure yet moving vocal quality unaccompanied until the second verse when an unpretentious-sounding choir joined her. I was immediately mesmerized by the sound, even though I did not understand the meaning of the text. However, after embracing Christianity, “Amazing Grace” has been a wonderful companion and master teacher throughout my journey. In this transcendent autoethnography, I answer the research question, “What does spirituality sound like?” by using “Amazing Grace”. I describe how this hymn played a role in my early Christian life when it caused me to consider biblical truth. Then, I explore the lessons I learned about biblical grace. From a music educator’s perspective, I discuss my fundamental belief that “spiritual music is relationship” and show how “Amazing Grace” is a model for the sound of spirituality. I conclude with the prose of seven biblical reflections on what spirituality sounds like—a sound that leads us to a profound relationship with God. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
13 pages, 288 KiB  
Article
Art, Heart, and Soul Music: Spiritual Values and Implications of Relational Composition within Community Music
by Fiona Evison
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1025; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13111025 - 27 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1791
Abstract
This paper re-examines research on composers within community music who embody relational composition in which they reflect philosophical and values’ shifts, resulting in composition purposes that balance or prioritize well-being with musical products. The spiritual values that undergird the practices of certain community [...] Read more.
This paper re-examines research on composers within community music who embody relational composition in which they reflect philosophical and values’ shifts, resulting in composition purposes that balance or prioritize well-being with musical products. The spiritual values that undergird the practices of certain community composers are examined through the lens of Sheldrake’s definition of spirituality as a vision for the full potential of the human spirit to live out deep and meaningful values. While not ruling out the potential for personal transcendental experience, the framework of engagement rather than escape centres a type of spirituality that is community-focused and reflects the ways in which relational composers use engagement for beneficial purposes as they seek to overcome music’s disconnections from its social contexts and extra-musical functions. This approach to composition could be viewed as a rediscovery and return to lost roles of composers in society, and it suggests that community music leaders realize the spiritual aspects of their roles in order to address healing, reconciliation, and local or global concerns and to facilitate the development of related repertoire and music-making. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
9 pages, 226 KiB  
Article
Finding Mountains with Music: Growth and Spiritual Transcendence in a U.S. Prison
by Anthony R. Rhodd and Mary L. Cohen
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1012; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13111012 - 26 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2347
Abstract
Resulting in pervasive feelings of despair, the culture of incarceration in the U.S. relies on punitive correctional strategies such as solitary confinement to control the behavior of incarcerated individuals. Inevitably, correctional culture which focuses primarily on punishment is dysfunctional, rife with gang violence, [...] Read more.
Resulting in pervasive feelings of despair, the culture of incarceration in the U.S. relies on punitive correctional strategies such as solitary confinement to control the behavior of incarcerated individuals. Inevitably, correctional culture which focuses primarily on punishment is dysfunctional, rife with gang violence, drug use, suicide, and violence perpetuated by and against staff. Our dialogic essay is voiced by (a) a currently incarcerated, Native American person who has survived solitary confinement and the spiritual drain of castigating correctional culture; and (b) a music educator who founded a prison choir for both non-incarcerated and incarcerated individuals in an effort to erode and transform some of the revengeful structures of US incarceration. We draw from Indigenous educator, language specialist, and member of the Lil’wat First Nation, Dr. Lorna Williams’ research on Indigenous Knowledge in our efforts to understand the relationships among group singing, spirituality, and our experiences in the Oakdale prison choir. Our dialogue charts a search for spiritual healing in the unsympathetic atmosphere of prison and offers an experience-based account of ways in which group singing can function as a medium of spiritual healing and growth in environments of conflict. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researches with Spirituality and Music)
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