Religion in the music system

Read: On the concept of 'religion in the music system'

Assigned readings: Spirituality in Jazz

Note: the following readings are generally quite short, and much easier than those of late...don't be put off by their number. If possible, try to locate recordings as well. We will listen and watch the spiritual music of these jazz masters extensively in class. Enjoy!

Duke Ellington

Read the following short biography of Duke Ellington.

Read this NPR story about the Sacred Concert, and listen to the audio.

Browse his official web site, as you wish.

John Coltrane

Skim the following: John Coltrane: A Biographical Sketch

Read this short article about John Coltrane's music of theophany and negation

Browse two sites for the Church of Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church [1] [2] (the second is superseded by the first, but contains some additional information about the founding of the church)

Optionally, read this article about Coltrane's most famous composition, A Love Supreme, by noted jazz scholar and Coltrane biographer Lewis Porter.

Mary Lou Williams

Browse as much as possible in Mary Lou Williams' website, including all of the section entitled Religious Conversion

Read the following interview with Mary Lou Williams

Sun Ra

Please read the following:

Sun Ra: From Ephrata (F-Ra-Ta) to Arkestra by David W. Stowe

Jazzmen: Diz and Sun Ra by Amiri Baraka

Listenings, viewings

I will be showing footage of all four jazz artists in class; please make an effort to come on time.

Duke Ellington: "I Love You Madly" chapter 4; Sacred Concert excerpts (opening, In the Beginning God, The Lord's Prayer, David Danced Before the Lord)

John Coltrane: documentary

Mary Lou Williams: concert footage; excerpts from Mary Lou's Mass

Sun Ra: documentary "A Joyful Noise":

Psalm 95: 1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Discussion about this topic

Your thoughts, ideas...?

Your selected readings

Please find examples of "religion in the music system", on jstor or anywhere on the web. Don't limit yourself to scholarly articles - web sites, blogs, etc. are all fine.

Examples:

• Christian rock
• Islamic rap

etc.

This was an easy one for me. Here's the link to House of Doc's website - a Winnipeg group that plays music somewhere between bluegrass, gospel, folk, and old time. I can't say for sure that they're out to stand up for their own sort of theology, but I do know that they still lead the worship services in their home church from time to time. As for the website, the bios are the best part. There are sound clips too with their discography, but if that isn't enough, I have sacred blue and would be willing to lend it out. (if absolutely necessary)--Lpauls 21:51, 5 March 2006 (MST)

Sonicflood website. This is one of my favourite Christian rock bands. Under "music," there are some MP3 samples. They also have a blog. Read on and enjoy:)--Stella 22:48, 5 March 2006 (MST)

"Finding Religion" in Popular Music This is someone's SHORT (sorry), broad, and good abstract for a paper on religion in contemporary music. The author suggests that popular performers are in some sense taking over the role of prophets and religious leadership in a way that is adapted to our secularized society of mass consummtion. So a paradox emerges of secularized sacred music, over which it is easy to find controversy.--Gloria 13:23, 6 March 2006 (MST) I was interested by the brief comment on Madonna in class. I haven't had a chance to really look at this, but here it is: Madonna Gets Religion and Madonna Has Faith on a String.--Gloria 10:35, 9 March 2006 (MST)

Stella i can't believe your into 'sonic flood'! hehe blah. but mine is almost as bad. here is my favourite Christian rap group. they're pretty H-core. Cross Movement Website--24.70.95.205 20:36, 7 March 2006 (MST)

Uh huh, I sure am. Them and Third Day among others....Third Day. --Stella 22:01, 7 March 2006 (MST)

TAO MUSIC--Philippines Well, I think I landed on the wrong planet! Here's a page off the web-site of TAO (pronounced "ta-yo", meaning 'the people')MUSIC featuring the CD for a T'boli shamaness who found a song in her liver (--and you guys thought that Becker article was weird!). If you check out the main-page of the site, you'll see that this is an independent recording-label initially sponsored by Filipino Culture and Heritage, run by a woman (and her husband) named Grace Nono who I am told holds a degree in Anthropology and is also considered a veritable 'deva' or 'devi' in the local indigenous sense. Here, we have urban-modern Metro Manila mixing with spiritual indigenous and world beat, as well as responsible socio-cultural advocacy and global vehicles of consumer support (the Pinikpikan write-up is also most awesome to further blur the sec/sac boundaries!). I consider it a sort of 'manifest music'--political and/or spiritual and/or cultural etc.. Gloria--your article is so totally relevant. I'm more on the side of 'sacralizing the secular' rather than 'secularizing the sacred' with participatory economic democracy as the 'voting' vehicle! By the way, if anyone's curious, I'm one of the poets being featured at the spoken word PoeTree Slam this Sunday March 12, 8pm-ish at the Naked Cyber Cafe on Jasper Ave/104Street--recording event. I ain't no SUN-RA, but sometimes I wear glitter!:)--Kreisha 02:43, 8 March 2006 (MST) A.K.A. 'Re-Sourceress-C'--brief bio on blog "Kreisha's Gold" http://kreishasgold.blogspot.com/

I found a really interesting that discusses the effect of Nine Inch Nails on religion. (Not something I was expecting to find, thats for sure!) It has a really interesting section on their song "HURT" which was remade a few years ago by Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash was able to turn a "grotesque" song into a religious, spiritual song, and he only changed one word in the entire song. I was able to find both of the songs, as well as a copy of both of the music videos. However, I don't know how to put the links up here, because I don't have any of the licensing information. Check out the article, its really interesting! The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture: The Grotesque as Means to the Sacred by Andrew Tatusko (Pay special attention to the 30th paragraph --> They're numbered.) I will try to figure out a way to get the files of the songs and videos up here later for your comparison. --Kristen 12:11, 8 March 2006 (MST)

• • • Okay, so the SONGS are now uploaded to the protected directory. You can listen to both of them by going to This site and choosing the original Nine Inch Nails version, or the comparible 'spiritualized' version by Johnny Cash.

--Kristen 15:33, 8 March 2006 (MST)

Popular Music on Christianity in the United States: Chrisianity's Failure to Love By: Jeremiah Cataldo This article looks at the rather negative view that many modern rock and popular music acts have of Christianity (examples in the article included Modest Mouse, A Perfect Circle, Audioslave, and Jewel among others). The article argues that although Christianity professes that God loves everyone, the ideology has also been used to justify "exclusion, oppression, and death through its practices, beliefs, and doctrines." Through song lyrics taken from the bands, the author tries to prove that the musicians have a negative response to Christianity and its actions and views and also believe that God should be seen in everyday society and culture, instead of Christianity's notion that modern society and culture is an evil one should shield themselves against.--KellyM 14:48, 8 March 2006 (MST)

Kanye West Runs Away with Jesus Walks I also thought this was interesting because of the record companies difficulty in accepting a song that had "Jesus" in the title and the issue of whether the record would get any radio play when released, an issue which is mentioned in the lyrics of the song.--KellyM 14:55, 8 March 2006 (MST)

Iona and Moya Brennan Like Laura said, this was an easy one for me. I like celtic music, and these (amoung others) seem to fit our topic. The style of both Moya (originaly from Clannad) and Iona is a blend of celtic music with jazz/folk/light rock. (For a group with much more basic "celtic/Irish feel The Crossing is an interesting group) Their audience is mixed, including both Christians and non Christians, especially in the UK. For Iona they often use texts from the early Celtic Christians, especially the writings left by the monks, or blessings and prayers from the Carmina Gadelica. I find it interesting to see how they make the connections with history, and reading the liner notes its also neat to see how they got started with a particular song. I wanted to attach some samples, so you can try here or browse the Iona website. I do have an Iona cd that I could bring/lend. If you would like, there are also some reviews/biography of Iona or members of Iona here, here, and here and one about Moya here. ~Cari

Rock Star and the Mullahs It is an interesting article about the recent BBC documentary on the influence of Rock music of Pakistan, and its impact on military rule and religious clerks. It is about the band called "Junoon" means passion, started in 1990 by the Pakistani/ American guitarist Salman Ahmed, his band composed music from the Sufi traditions of North India and Pakistan, some influential poets such as Sachal Sarmast and Bulley Shah. This band is the most popular band in South Asia, and their influence of Rock and Popular music is immense especially among the youths. It might interest you all the find out about the current religo-political situation of Pakistan and the influence of western music. Why in today's world almost everywhere guitar has become the symbol of Popular culture and music? --User:Karim

- Van Morrison biograph - official website Speaking of celtic music, Van Morrison is an Irishman who does christian music in the mainstream – like this song, for example. [3] Please enjoy. --user:dstark

I'll add another band to the Christian Rock club. They are called the Newsboys [4][5]. They have been around since at least the early nineties but I never took much notice before hearing one of their most recent songs, "Presence." I have yet to check out the rest of their music but so far I think they are alright. ~~ CBiel

A Classic example: "Bob Marley worked tirelessly in spreading reggae music and the message of rastafari worldwide. Through his work, he gave the world profound and beautiful music." (from the website) --Jordanv 10:10, 9 March 2006 (MST)

I typed "Christian Rock" into a Google search engine, as well as into JSTOR, and was surprised to find so many articles/people debating whether Christianity could be expressed through rock music. Since I've never really followed religious popular music of any kind, this was really interesting to me. Here's an extreme example of a site that I found Christian Rock: Blessing or Blasphemy. As for a proper contribution, I found this article to be helpful in catching me up on what's been going on in the contemporary Christian music world. And no, I couldn't find any good Hindu counterparts. Most Indian popular musicians these days are focusing on secular music to gain a wider audience, and as for the Beatles...the controversy with that ended when they finally stopped abusing LSD. --68.149.204.59 10:32, 9 March 2006 (MST) Niyati

I found this interview with Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber about the role of religion in his music. It is a little dated, but it talks about his 3 main religious works, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Requiem." --Meghanbowen 10:54, 9 March 2006 (MST)

One of my favourite bands is Switchfoot and it's interesting to listen to some of the lyrics in their music. While it's not generally overtly "Christian" there is something pure and almost innocent about the music, something that you don't find in more "mainstream" rock. If you have a look through their lyrics you'll see what I mean. --Megfow 23:13, 13 March 2006 (MST)

BadReligion.com This is an interesting (i.e. controversial) foil to the above examples; Anti-religious sentiment in popular music. Remember, think critically! I'll leave you with a line from an essay posted there: "When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." --Andre 12:29, 7 April 2006 (MDT)