AMST 40801 - Christian Repertories and Worship Traditions in the U.S.A. from the Pilgrims to the Present

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

American Studies

Description:

This course is an MA level course in Theology; undergraduates require department permission. The first half of the course is dedicated to a history of Christian music in the U.S.A., outlining the major worship traditions and the great variety of vocal, choral, and instrumental repertories that functioned within them. Study will be of primary resources, from facsimiles of the Bay Psalm book and wall paintings on missionary churches in California to field recordings of the Georgia Sea Island Singers, and Gospel, quartet, sung sermons and testimonies found in the extraordinary collection Good-Bye Babylon - to anthems, sacred songs, and organ works by American composers. The second part of the course introduces various contemporary Christian repertories and the ways in which they both extend and break with the streams of liturgical understanding studied in the first half of the course. There will be attention to the mega-churches, to contemporary monastic communities, and to the Copts and other immigrant communities newly arrived during the second half of the twentieth century. A documentary film in progress Where the Hudson Meets the Nile: Teaching Chant at St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church, will offer material for discussion. The ways in which sacred music in the context of worship serves as sung theology in Christian practices, and music's role in helping congregations to understand and form their own identities will be emphasized. Students will conduct intensive studies of local communities of song, both from within and from without their own traditions, and prepare either a treatment for a short documentary film about the community studied, or a musician's or minister/priest's case study of how to work as a leader within that particular community. Toward the end there will be a class project on shape-note singing, its history and its contemporary revival, with study of local communities of song in Northern Indiana. We end with reflection upon the ways in which traditional repertories are being reconsidered as many Christian groups rethink their practices taking either "preservation" or "updating" actions, or some combination of both. The textbook, Steven Marini's, Sacred Song in America: Religion, Music, and Public Culture (UI Press, 2003) provides historical background for several digital resources focusing on contemporary practice, including the documentary directed by Margot Fassler, Joyful Noise: Singing Psalms in Community and her (with JC Richard) You can't Sing it for Them: Music Ministry at Messiah Baptist Church, streamed audio databases such as Smithsonian Global Sound, and American Music, or the wonderful Folkstreams.net, which features many ethnographic studies of American sacred music and a variety of contemporary musicians.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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