Ritual Music: Studies in Liturgical Musicology

by Edward Foley

Across time and geography people have known the power of music for evoking the gods and acquiring spiritual insight. Whether arising as a textless chant by a single voice or a percussive auditory context for ritual dance, music in its various modes is a virtually ubiquitous companion to religious and spiritual practices. The apparently intangible, insubstantial nature of sound is one of the reasons why music has so effectively symbolized the mysterious and wholly other since the dawn of creation. Not only an accompaniment to one’s spiritual trek, musical compositions from the great oratorios of Handel to the soundtrack to the movie Lord of the Rings also serve as powerful metaphors and inspirations for that journey. This wondrous array of studies and reflections does not, of course, exhaust any discussion
of the relationship between music and spirituality. On the other hand, it does provide a series
of credible and notable “dots” that allow and invite you, the reader, to connect them each in
your own way and, in the process, acquire new insights and appreciation for the musicalspiritual
dynamic.

Paperback

First published March 1, 1988