The flourishing of religious or spiritually-inspired music in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries remains largely unexplored. The engagement and tensions between modernism and tradition, and institutionalized religion and spirituality are inherent issues for many composers who have sought to invoke spirituality and Otherness through contemporary music.
Contemporary Music and Spirituality provides a detailed exploration of the recent and current state of contemporary spiritual music in its religious, musical, cultural and conceptual-philosophical aspects. At the heart of the book are issues that consider the role of secularization, the claims of modernity concerning the status of art, and subjective responses such as faith and experience.
The contributors provide a new critical lens through which it is possible to see the music and thought of Cage, Ligeti, Messiaen, Stockhausen as spiritual music. The book surrounds these composers with studies of and by other composers directly associated with the idea of spiritual music (Harvey, Gubaidulina, MacMillan, Pärt, Pott, and Tavener), and others (Adams, Birtwistle, Ton de Leeuw, Ferneyhough, Ustvolskaya, and Vivier) who have created original engagements with the idea of spirituality.
Contemporary Music and Spirituality is essential reading for humanities scholars and students working in the areas of musicology, music theory, theology, religious studies, philosophy of culture, and the history of twentieth-century culture.
Introduction: What is a Contemporary spiritual Music? Robert Sholl and Sander van Maas
Part 1: Passions
1. For Whom the Bells Toll: Arvo Pärt's Passio, Metamodernism and the Appealing Promise of Tintinnabulation Andrew Shenton
2. Sacrificial Passions: The Influence of Wagner and Scruton in James MacMillan's The Sacrifice and St John Passion Dominic Wells
3. Kenosis in Contemporary Music and Postmodern Philosophy Peter Bannister
4. Synoptic Passions: Gubaidulina's St John Passion in the post-Jungian Era Anna McCready
Part 2: Composer Studies
5. Canon as an agent of revelation in the music of Ligeti Amy Bauer
6. Music and Belief: The figure of Singularity in Galina Ustvolskaya's Work Rokus de Groot
7. Zen' in the Art of Toru Takemitsu: listening as vehicle for inner discovery Peter Burt
8. John Cage's Journey into Silence James Pritchett
9. Stockhausen's Spirituality Konrad Boehmer
10. Claude Vivier at the End Jonathan Goldman
Part 3: Perspectives and 'Prospectives'
11. Searching for the Elusive Obvious: Memory, Forgiveness, Catharsis, and Transcendence in Contemporary Spiritual Music Robert Sholl
12. The Curvatures of Salvation: Messiaen, Stockhausen, and Adams Sander van Maas
13. In Defence of Complexity: The New Spiritual Music's Farewell to Modernism Burcht Pranger
14. An Awkward Reverence : Composing Oneself in the 21st Century Anglican Church Francis Pott
15. Spiritual Music: 'positive' negative theology? Jonathan Harvey.
Selected Bibliography
Index
