The performance and composition of liturgical music at El Escorial re-examined. Philip II of Spain founded the great Spanish monastery and royal palace of El Escorial in 1563, promoting within it a musical foundation whose dual function as royal chapel and monastery in the service of a Counter Reformation monarch was unique; this volume explores the performance and composition of liturgical music there from its beginnings to the death of Charles II in 1700. It traces the ways in which music styles and practices responded to the the changing functions of the institution, challenging notions about Spanish musical patronage, scrutinising musical manuscripts, uncovering the biographical details of hundreds of musicians, and examining musical practices. Michael Noone is Professor of Musicology at the University of Hong Kong.

How do contemporary audiences engage with sacred music and what are its effects? This book explores examples of how the Christian story is still expressed in music and how it is received by those who experience that art form, whether in church or not. Through conversations with a variety of writers, artists, scientists, historians, atheists, church laity and clergy, the term post-secular emerges as an accurate description of the relationship between faith, religion, spirituality, agnosticism and atheism in the west today. In this context, faith does not just mean belief; as the book demonstrates, the temporal, linear, relational and communal process of experiencing faith is closely related to music. Music and Faith is centred on those who, by-and-large, are not professional musicians, philosophers or theologians, but who find that music and faith are bound up with each other and with their own lives. Very often, as the conversations reveal, the results of this 'binding' are transformative, whether it be in outpourings of artistic expression of another kind, or greater involvement with issues of social justice, or becoming ordained to serve within the Church. Even those who do not have a Christianfaith find that sacred music has a transformative effect on the mind and the body and even, to use a word deliberately employed by Richard Dawkins, the 'soul'. JONATHAN ARNOLD is Dean of Divinity and Fellow of MagdalenCollege, Oxford. Before being ordained, he was a professional singer and made numerous recordings with The Sixteen, Polyphony, the Gabrielli Consort and The Tallis Scholars, among others. He has previously published Sacred Music in Secular Society (2014), The Great Humanists: An Introduction (2011) and John Colet of St. Paul's: Humanism and Reform in Pre-Reformation England (2007).

The first part of Nicaea and its Legacy offers a narrative of the fourth-century trinitarian controversy. It does not assume that the controversy begins with Arius, but with tensions among existing theological strategies. Lewis Ayres argues that, just as we cannot speak of one `Arian' theology, so we cannot speak of one `Nicene' theology either, in 325 or in 381. The second part of the book offers an account of the theological practices and assumptions within which pro-Nicene theologians assumed their short formulae and creeds were to be understood. Ayres also argues that there is no fundamental division between eastern and western trinitarian theologies at the end of the fourth century. The last section of the book challenges modern post-Hegelian trinitarian theology to engage with Nicaea more deeply.

Sacred music traditions vary profoundly from one religion to the next. Even within the Christian faith, one can hear a wide variety of music among and within different denominations. Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Evangelicals have all developed unique traditions. Many people are not exposed to multiple faith experiences in their upbringings, which can make exploring an unfamiliar sacred music style challenging. Because of this, singers and teachers regularly encounter religious singing styles to which they have not yet been exposed. In So You Want to Sing Sacred Music, multiple contributors offer a broad overview of sacred singing in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Evan Kent, Anthony Ruff, Matthew Hoch, and Sharon L. Radionoff share their expertise on topics as diverse as Jewish cantorial music, Gregorian chant, post-Vatican II Catholic music, choral traditions, and contemporary Christian music. This plethora of styles represents the most common traditions encountered by amateur and emerging professional singers when exploring sacred performance opportunities. In each chapter, contributors consider liturgical origins, musical characteristics, training requirements, repertoire, and resources for each of these traditions. The writers-all professional singers and teachers with rich experience singing these styles-also discuss vocal technique as it relates to each style. Contributors also offer professional advice for singers seeking work within each tradition's institutional settings, surveying the skills needed while offering practical advice for auditioning and performing successfully in the world of sacred music. So You Want to Sing Sacred Music is a helpful resource for any singer looking to add sacred performance to their portfolio or seeking opportunities and employment where sacred music is practiced and performed. Additional chapters by Scott McCoy, Wendy LeBorgne, and Matthew Edwards address universal questions of voice science and pedagogy, vocal health, and audio enhancement technology. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Sacred Music features online supplemental material on the NATS website. Please visit www.nats.org to access style-specific exercises, audio and video files, and additional resources.

This book studies the Jesuit culture in Silesia and Klodzko (Glatz) County by focusing on its musical works and traditions. The strategies adopted by the Jesuits achieved notable results in the artistic traditions they cultivated, first of all a creative redefinition of musical culture itself, at various levels of its organization. While allowing music to exert influence on human activity, the Jesuits had to accept that its impact would depend on the peculiarities of local possibilities and conditions. This is why they analysed the qualities of music and its culture-forming potential in such detail and precisely defined its norms and modes of functioning. The impact of music can be observed in the transformations that the cultivation of musical culture brought about in the model of the Order itself, as well as in individuals, communities, and the time and space that defined them.

John Taverner was the leading composer of church music under Henry VIII. His contributions to the mass and votive antiphon are varied, distinguished and sometimes innovative; he has left more important settings for the office than any of his predecessors, and even a little secular music survives. Hugh Benham, editor of Taverner's complete works for Early English Church Music, now provides the first full-length study of the composer for over twenty years. He places the music in context, with the help of biographical information, discussion of Taverner's place in society, and explanation of how each piece was used in the pre-Reformation church services. He investigates the musical language of Taverner's predecessors as background for a fresh examination and appraisal of the music in the course of which he traces similarities with the work of younger composers. Issues confronting the performer are considered, and the music is also approached from the listener's point of view, initially through close analytical inspection of the celebrated votive antiphon Gaude plurimum.

CHRIST IN SONG: Hymns of Immanuel from all ages is a unique compilation of the best hymns from every branch of the Christian Faith. Philip Schaff, best known for his massive History of the Christian Church, has compiled hymns that center upon the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. Charles Hodge said, "After all, apart from the Bible, the best antidote to all these false theories of the person and work of Christ, is such a book as Dr. Schaff's "Christ in Song." The hymns contained in that volume are of all ages and from all churches. They set forth Christ as truly God, as truly man, as one person, as the expiation for our sins, as our intercessor, saviour, and king, as the supreme object of love, as the ultimate ground of confidence, as the all-sufficient portion of the soul. We want no better theology and no better religion than are set forth in these hymns. They were indited by the Holy Spirit in the sense that the thoughts and feelings which they express, are due to his operations on the hearts of his people."

The Faber Music Christmas Piano Anthology is an essential collection of the greatest Christmas songs and carols, specially arranged for solo piano, for the intermediate pianist. The perfect gift for Christmas, this beautiful anthology includes favourites such as O Holy Night, Sleigh Ride and It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas alongside arrangements of Winter (from the Four Seasons), Troika (from Lieutenant Kije), and more.

This essay collection celebrates the richness of Christian musical tradition across its two thousand year history and across the globe. Opening with a consideration of the fourth-century lamp-lighting hymn Phos hilaron and closing with reflections on contemporary efforts of Ghanaian composers to create Christian worship music in African idioms, the ten contributors engage with a broad ecumenical array of sacred music. Topics encompass Roman Catholic sacred music in medieval and Renaissance Europe, German Lutheran song in the eighteenth century, English hymnody in colonial America, Methodist hymnody adopted by Southern Baptists in the nineteenth century, and Genevan psalmody adapted to respond to the post-war tribulations of the Hungarian Reformed Church. The scope of the volume is further diversified by the inclusion of contemporary Christian topics that address the evangelical methods of a unique Orthodox Christian composer's language, the shared aims and methods of African-American preaching and gospel music, and the affective didactic power of American evangelical "praise and worship" music. New material on several key composers, including Jacob Obrecht, J.S. Bach, George Philipp Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, Zoltan Kodaly, and Arvo Part, appears within the book. Taken together, these essays embrace a stimulating variety of interdisciplinary analytical and methodological approaches, drawing on cultural, literary critical, theological, ritual, ethnographical, and media studies. The collection contributes to discussions of spirituality in music and, in particular, to the unifying aspects of Christian sacred music across time, space, and faith traditions. This collection celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music.

Ein reiches Programm mit Konzerten und Gottesdiensten, Referaten und Diskussionen pragte den 5. Internationalen Kirchenmusikkongress, der Ende Oktober 2015 in Bern stattfand. Dabei wurde das Verhaltnis von Religion, Kirche und Liturgie zur Musik aus musikwissenschaftlicher, historischer und theologischer Sicht betrachtet. Der Kongressband enthalt die Hauptreferate, aber auch Beitrage zu einigen der Workshops, die zwischen Reflexion und Praxis vermittelten - von Perspektiven des zukunftigen Orgelbaus bis zu Moeglichkeiten des Zusammenwirkens von Musik und Liturgie. Aufgenommen wurde auch eine Auswahl von Einblicken in die Arbeitsgebiete von Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden, die diese im Rahmen eines Forschungskolloquiums prasentiert hatten; zudem wird der Schlussgottesdienst des Kongresses im Berner Munster dokumentiert - mit der Predigt, Beitragen zur Zusammenarbeit und zum Entstehungsprozess der Neukomposition von Lukas Langlotz und Gedanken von Teilnehmenden. Erganzt wird der Band durch eine UEbersicht uber alle Veranstaltungen und einen Bericht zu den vorhergehenden Kongressen.

What Praise Can I Play on Sunday? is a series of six books of worship favorites, each book designed for busy pianists who require accessible arrangements. Book 4 contains selections for the Fourth of July as well as several general praise songs. Titles: Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) * Ancient Words * Blessed Be Your Name * Come to the Table * Enough * I Can Only Imagine * Let Freedom Ring * Let It Rise * Shout to the North, with My Country 'Tis of Thee * You Are My King.

Milton, Music and Literary Interpretation: Reading through the Spirit constructs a musical methodology for interpreting literary text drawn out of John Milton's poetry and prose. Analyzing the linkage between music and the Holy Spirit in Milton's work, it focuses on harmony and its relationship to Milton's theology and interpretative practices. Linking both the Spirit and poetic music to Milton's understanding of teleology, it argues that Milton uses musical metaphor to capture the inexpressible characteristics of the divine. The book then applies these musical tools of reading to examine the non-trinitarian union between Father, Son, and Spirit in Paradise Lost, argues that Adam and Eve's argument does not break their concord, and puts forward a reading of Samson Agonistes based upon pity and grace.

These four splendid anthems were composed for the coronation of George II in October 1727 and have since retained a position at the heart of the English choral tradition. The popular anthem Zadok the Priest has been performed at all subsequent coronations, and Handel's other contributions to the royal occasion - Let thy hand be strengthened, The King shall rejoice, and My heart is inditing - have the same majestic grandeur, with affecting contrasts between different sections of the sacred texts. The editor, Clifford Bartlett, has corrected various inconsistencies in Handel's score, and complete details of sources and editorial method, additional performance notes, and a critical commentary are included.

Spirituality is not a permanent high, a continual blissed out state. To experience the heights, one has also to know the depths. In this book based on speeches and sermons delivered in marquees, cathedrals and local churches, John Bell deals with issues as diverse as private devotion and public debt. The picture of God that emerges is not one of a 'celestial sadist' but rather a compassionate being who asks that we do only what we can, starting from where we are, to be just and compassionate too. John Bell is a minister of the Church of Scotland and a member of the Iona Community. He lectures and preaches throughout the English-speaking world. With his colleagues in the Wild Goose Worship Group he has produced several books of congregational songs and collections of anthems, and is an occasional broadcaster on radio and television.

Let's give ourselves an A for effort. We keep our minds so preoccupied with work projects that we act and think on autopilot. We keep our kids so occupied with activities that they need day planners before grade school. We keep our schedules so full with church meetings and housekeeping and even entertaining that down-time sounds like a mortal sin. When we fail to rest we do more than burn ourselves out. We misunderstand the God who calls us to rest--who created us to be people of rest. Let's face it: our rest needs work. Sabbath recalls our creation, and with it God's satisfaction with us as he made us, without our hurried wrangling and harried worrying. It also recalls God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and with it God's ability to do completely what we cannot complete in ourselves. Sabbath keeping reminds us that we are free to rest each week. Eighteen months in Tel Aviv, Israel, where a weekly sabbath is built into the culture, began Lynne M. Baab's twenty-five-year embrace of a rhythm of rest--as a stay-at-home mom, as a professional writer working out of her home and as a minister of the gospel. With collected insights from sabbath keepers of all ages and backgrounds, Sabbath Keeping offers a practical and hopeful guidebook that encourages all of us to slow down and enjoy our relationship with the God of the universe.

This book traces Dadakuada's history and artistic vision and discusses its vibrancy as the most popular traditional Yoruba oral art form in Islamic Africa. Foregrounding the role of Dadakuada in Ilorin, and of Ilorin in Dadakuada the book covers the history, cultural identity, performance techniques, language, social life and relationship with Islam of the oral genre. The author examines Dadakuada's relationship with Islam and discusses how the Dadakuada singers, through their songs and performances, are able to accommodate Islam in ways that have ensured their continued survival as a traditional African genre in a predominantly Muslim community. This book will be of interest to scholars of traditional African culture, African art history, performance studies and Islam in Africa.

for SATB unaccompanied This gentle, lilting anthem sets verses from the psalms that speak of devotion to and delight in the Lord. Bednall's sophisticated and appealing musical language gives colour and expression to the text and creates a devotional atmosphere perfectly suited to the psalmists' words.

Emotions in Jewish Music is an insider's view of music's impact on Jewish devotion and identity. Written by cantors who have devoted themselves to the study and execution of Jewish music, the book's six chapters explore a wide range of musical contexts and encounters. Topics include the spiritual influence of secular Israeli tunes, the use and meaning of traditional synagogue modes, and the changing nature of Jewish worship. The approaches are both personal and scholarly, describing the experiential side of Jewish music in both practical and philosophical terms. Emotions in Jewish Music reveals much about the emotional aspects of Jewish musical expression.

Shpil: The Art of Playing Klezmer is both a history of this popular form of traditional Jewish music and an instructional book for professional and amateur musicians. Since the revival of klezmer music in the United States in the mid-1970s, Yiddish songs and klezmer dance melodies have served as the soundtrack for a resurgence of interest in Ashkenazic Jewish culture across the globe. Klezmer has taken root not only in America s major urban centers New York City, Chicago, San Francisco but also in emerging Jewish music hotspots like St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Krakow, and Tokyo. Its high energy, emotionally driven sound, and evocative Yiddish lyrics have found audiences everywhere. Shpil offers an expansive history of klezmer, from its medieval origins to the present era, and its contributors encompass a cast of world-renowned musicians who have recorded, performed, and studied klezmer for years. Individual chapters concentrate on the most common instruments found in a klezmer ensemble violin, clarinet, accordion, bass, percussion, and voice and conclude with a selection of three songs that illustrate and exemplify the history and techniques of that instrument. Shpil includes a glossary and a discography of both classic and new klezmer and Yiddish recordings, all designed to guide readers in an appreciation of this remarkable musical genre and the art of playing and singing klezmer tunes. Shpil: The Art of Playing Klezmer is ideal for amateur enthusiasts, musical scholars, beginning artists, and professional musicians, both solo and ensemble indeed, anyone who wants to experience the joy of listening to and playing this thousand-year-old folk music.

Music does not make itself. It is made by people: professionals and amateurs, singers and instrumentalists, composers and publishers, performers and audiences, entrepreneurs and consumers. In turn, making music shapes those who make it-spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, socially, politically, economically-for good or ill, harming and healing. This volume considers the social practice of music from a Christian point of view. Using a variety of methodological perspectives, the essays explore the ethical and doctrinal implications of music-making. The reflections are grouped according to the traditional threefold ministry of Christ: prophet, priest, and shepherd: the prophetic role of music, as a means of articulating protest against injustice, offering consolation, and embodying a harmonious order; the pastoral role of music: creating and sustaining community, building peace, fostering harmony with the whole of creation; and the priestly role of music: in service of reconciliation and restoration, for individuals and communities, offering prayers of praise and intercession to God. Using music in priestly, prophetic, and pastoral ways, Christians pray for and rehearse the coming of God's kingdom-whether in formal worship, social protest, concert performance, interfaith sharing, or peacebuilding. Whereas temperance was of prime importance in relation to the ethics of music from antiquity to the early modern period, justice has become central to contemporary debates. This book seeks to contribute to those debates by means of Christian theological reflection on a wide range of musics: including monastic chant, death metal, protest songs, psalms and worship music, punk rock, musical drama, interfaith choral singing, Sting, and Daft Punk.