Studying Congregational Music: Key Issues, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives

281 Pages·2021·1.781 MB·English

by  Andrew Mall, Jeffers Engelhardt, Monique M. Ingalls

Studying Congregational Music
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 interdisciplinary research on
congregational music-making by critically examining the theories and methods used
by leading scholars in the field.
An international and interdisciplinary panel of contributors introduces readers
to a variety of research methodologies within the emerging field of congregational
music studies. Utilizing insights from fields such as communications studies,
ethnomusicology, history, liturgical studies, popular music studies, religious studies,
and theology, it examines and models methodologies and theoretical perspectives that
are grounded in each of these disciplines. In addition, this volume presents several
“key issues” to ground these interpretive frameworks in the context of congregational
music studies. These include topics like diaspora, ethics, gender, and migration.
This book is a new milestone in the study of music amongst congregations,
detailing the very latest in best academic practice. As such, it will be of great use
to scholars of religious studies, music, and theology, as well as anyone engaging in
ethnomusicological studies more generally.
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 music-
making, and series editor of Routledge’s Congregational Music Studies Series.
Congregational Music Studies Series
Series Editors:
Monique M. Ingalls
Baylor University, USA
Martyn Percy
University of Oxford, UK
Zoe C. Sherinian
University of Oklahoma, USA
Congregational music-making is a vital and vibrant practice within Chris-
tian communities worldwide. Music can both unite and divide: at times,
it brings together individuals and communities across geographical and
cultural boundaries while, at others, it divides communities by embodying
conflicting meanings and symbolizing oppositional identities. Many factors
influence congregational music in its contemporary global context, posing
theoretical and methodological challenges for the academic study of con-
gregational music-making. Increasingly, coming to a robust understanding
of congregational music’s meaning, influence, and significance requires a
mixture of complementary approaches. Including perspectives from musi-
cology, religious and theological studies, anthropology and sociology of
religion, media studies, political economy, and popular music studies, this
series presents a cluster of landmark titles exploring music-making within
contemporary Christianity which will further Congregational Music Studies
as an important new academic field of study.
Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide
Edited by Monique M. Ingalls, Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg
and Zoe C. Sherinian
Church Music Through the Lens of Performance
Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Ethics and Christian Musicking
Edited by Nathan Myrick and Mark Porter
Studying Congregational Music
Key Issues, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives
Edited by Andrew Mall, Jeffers Engelhardt and Monique M. Ingalls
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Congregational-Music-Studies-Series/book-series/ACONGMUS
Studying Congregational Music
Key Issues, Methods, and
Theoretical Perspectives
Edited by Andrew Mall, Jeffers Engelhardt,
and Monique M. Ingalls
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Andrew Mall, Jeffers
Engelhardt and Monique M. Ingalls; individual chapters, the
contributors
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Ingalls to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and
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Contents
List of figures vii
Notes on contributors viii
Introduction: interdisciplinarity and epistemic diversity
in congregational music studies 1
ANDREW MALL, JEFFERS ENGELHARDT, AND MONIQUE M.
INGALLS
PART I
Methodological Perspectives 9
1 In case you don’t have a case: reflections on methods
for studying congregational song in liturgical history 11
LESTER RUTH
2 Worshipping “With Everything”: musical analysis
and congregational worship 25
JOSHUA KALIN BUSMAN
3 Mediating religious experience? congregational music
and the digital music interface 39
ANNA E. NEKOLA
4 Ethnography in the study of congregational music 64
JEFF TODD TITON
5 Re-sounding the history of Christian congregational music 81
SARAH EYERLY
6 Music Theology as the mouthpiece of science: proving
it through congregational music studies 103
BENNETT ZON
vi Contents
PART II
Key Issues 121
7 Political economy and capital in congregational music
studies: commodities, worshipers, and worship 123
ANDREW MALL
8 Congregation and chorality: fluidity and distinction
in the voicing of religious community 140
JEFFERS ENGELHARDT
9 “We just don’t have it”: addressing whiteness
in congregational voicing 156
MARISSA GLYNIAS MOORE
10 Researching Black congregational music from a migratory
point of view: methods, challenges, and strategies 174
MELVIN L. BUTLER
11 Studying Byzantine Ukrainian congregational music
in Canada: considering community and diaspora 193
MARCIA OSTASHEWSKI
12 Congregational singing and practices of gender in Christian
worship: exploring intersections 209
TERESA BERGER
13 Searching for a metaphor: what is the role of
the Shaliach/Shalichat Tzibur (leader of prayer)? 230
JEFFREY A. SUMMIT
14 Ecclesioscapes: interpreting gatherings around Christian
music in and outside the church through the Dutch case
of the “Sing Along Matthäuspassion” 246
MIRELLA KLOMP
Index 266
Figures
2.1 Visual representation of “With Everything” roadmaps 33
14.1 Rehearsal prior to performance on April 6, 2012, at
Geertekerk, Utrecht 250
14.2 Hand-made ribbon that was wrapped around a chocolate
in cellophane 252
Notes on contributors
Teresa Berger is Professor of Liturgical Studies at the Yale Institute of Sacred
Music and Yale Divinity School, USA, where she also holds an appoint-
ment as the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology. Her
recent publications include an edited volume, Full of Your Glory: Liturgy,
Cosmos, Creation (Liturgical Press, 2019) and a monograph @ Worship:
Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds (Routledge, 2018).
Joshua Kalin Busman is Assistant Dean of the Esther G. Maynor Honors
College and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of North
Carolina at Pembroke, USA. His research focuses broadly on music in
contemporary evangelical Christianity with a particular interest in issues
around worship, affect, and mass media.
Melvin L. Butler is Associate Professor of Musicology in the Frost School of
Music at the University of Miami, USA. He is the author of Island Gospel:
Pentecostal Music and Identity in Jamaica and the United States (Univer-
sity of Illinois Press, 2019).
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.
Sarah Eyerly is Associate Professor of Musicology and Director of the Early
Music Program at Florida State University, USA. She is the author of
Moravian Soundscapes: A Sonic History of the Moravian Missions in
Early Pennsylvania (Indiana University Press, 2020).
Monique M. Ingalls is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Direc-
tor 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 music-making, and series editor of Rout-
ledge’s Congregational Music Studies Series.
Notes on contributors ix
Mirella Klomp is Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Protestant
Theological University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is the author
of Playing On. Re-staging The Passion After the Death of God (Theol-
ogy in Practice 10), Leiden: Brill 2020.
Andrew Mall is Assistant Professor of Music at Northeastern University
in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He teaches courses in ethnomusicol-
ogy, 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.
Marissa Glynias Moore is an ethnomusicologist who focuses on cross-
cultural singing in predominantly white spaces, with publications in the
Yale Journal of Music and Religion, The Hymn, and several forthcoming
edited collections. In addition to her scholarship, Dr. Moore is the Execu-
tive Director of Piano Cleveland, an arts non-profit organization.
Anna E. Nekola is Assistant Professor of Music at Canadian Mennon-
ite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and a keen oboist. She
coedited Congregational Music Making and Community in a Mediated
Age (Ashgate, 2015). Currently she is collaborating on a volume of essays
on university-level music pedagogy titled Teaching and Learning Difficult
Topics in the Music Classroom.
Marcia Ostashewski is Founding Director of the Centre for Sound Com-
munities, an arts-led social innovation lab at Cape Breton University in
Canada. Currently, her efforts are focused on collaborative research for
reconciliation with indigenous communities and Byzantine Ukrainian
liturgical singing in diaspora. An Associate Professor in Ethnomusicol-
ogy, she teaches music, dance, and cultural tourism.
Lester Ruth is Research Professor of Christian Worship at Duke Divinity
School, North Carolina, USA. He is a liturgical historian with specializa-
tion in American evangelicalism. Ruth has also taught at Yale Divinity
School, Asbury Theological Seminary, and the Robert E. Webber Insti-
tute for Worship Studies.
Jeffrey A. Summit holds the appointment of Research Professor in the
Department of Music at Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA. He is also
Director of the Innovation Lab at Hebrew College Rabbinic School. His
research and writing focus on music and identity, music and spiritual
experience, Jewish worship, music and advocacy, and the impact of tech-
nology on the transmission of tradition.
Jeff Todd Titon is Professor Emeritus of Music at Brown University, Rhode
Island, USA. Author or editor of nine books, numerous articles, record-
ings, and films, he is known for developing and practicing collaborative
ethnographic field research based on reciprocity and friendship. He is