Thresholds: Rethinking Spirituality Through Music

by Marcel Cobussen

In Thresholds Marcel Cobussen rethinks the relationship between music and spirituality. The point of departure is the current movement within contemporary classical music known as New Spiritual Music, with as its main representatives Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, and Giya Kancheli. In almost all respects, the musical principles of the new spiritual music seem to be diametrically opposed to those of repetition and rest versus development and progress, tradition and familiarity versus innovation and experiment, communication versus individualism and conceptualism, tonality versus atonality, and so on. As such, this movement is often considered as part of the much larger complex called postmodernism. Joining in with ideas on spirituality as presented by Michel de Certeau and Mark C. Taylor, Cobussen deconstructs the classification of the 'spiritual dimensions' of music as described above. Thresholds presents an idea of spirituality in and through music that counters strategies of exclusion and mastering of alterity and connects it to wandering, erring, and roving. Using the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Georges Bataille, Jean-François Lyotard, Jacques Derrida and others, and analysing the music of John Coltrane, the mythical Sirens, Arvo Pärt, and The Eagles (to mention a few), Cobussen regards spirituality as a (non)concept that escapes categorization, classification, and linguistic descriptions. Spirituality is a-topological, non-discursive and a manifestation of 'otherness'. And it is precisely music (or listening to music) that induces these by carefully encountering, analysing, and evaluating certain examples from classical, jazz, pop and world music it is possible to detach spirituality from concepts of otherworldliness and transcendentalism. Thresholds opens a space in which spirituality can be connected to music that is not commonly considered in this light, thereby enriching the ways of approaching and discussing music. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to show that spirituality is not an attribute of music, not a simple adjective providing extra information or used to categorize certain types of music. Instead, the spiritual can happen through listening to music, in a more or less personalized relationship with it. This relationship might be characterized as susceptible instead of controlling, open instead of excluding, groping instead of rigid.

Genres: Music

182 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Carolyn Schofield · Rating 3 out of 5]

A frustrating read. I'm very interested in the topic, and there are some great points highlighted over the book as a whole, but the language and style is so overwrought, and he is so hesitant to make a clear statement or argument...so many words going into saying what spirituality is not (and its liminality etc), but not much clarity around what it is.
E.g. What does he mean by saying spirituality is "the open space" between the human and divine world, and that music creates that space? It can't simply be open space - what does he truly mean by that? He really doesn't want to define it and describe it for what it is.

[Will Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first eight thresholds are fantastic. A slow read due to ponderings on certain footnotes and theories, but by no means a negative. The leads to further information, theorists and ideas are vast and finely chosen. The authors knowledge, intuition and passion for music gleams and i'm very glad to have read it. Concepts are still resonating with me today and have confirmed even more so through theological history and analysis up to the modern day, the rethinking of the term spiritual and indeed its place in music.