Music and Spirituality

• Main Author: Thérèse Smith (auth)
• Other Authors: Michael O'Connor (auth), Peter Bannister (auth), Mark Duffett (auth), Maeve Louise Heaney (auth), Paul Westermeyer (auth), William Harrison Taylor (auth), Ivan Moody (auth), Edward Foley (auth), Peter Atkins (auth), Emery Schubert (auth), Chiara Bertoglio (auth), Fr. Innocent Smith (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2015
• Subjects: Music; chant; acoustics; sound; rhythm; movement; spirituality music
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

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.