Musical Cultures in the National Hymnbooks of the 1990s 

Authors

  • Alexander Rosenblatt Zefat Academic College  Author

Keywords:

Hymn, hymnbook, musical cultures, national identity, religious identity

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, national hymnbooks (i.e. collections of church hymns) around the world have included musical material, some of which may seem unrelated to the musical traditions of the communities or, more broadly, to the national heritage of the audience. The article analyses reasons for (and forms of) going beyond the national/confessional borders in musical choices for three such books. Another related issue the article addresses is the place of “religious” in national identity and the place of “national” in religious identity. The boundaries and indexes of sonic tolerance, characteristic of a particular society, complete the range of issues under consideration. 

Author Biography

  • Alexander Rosenblatt, Zefat Academic College 

    Alexander Rosenblatt holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2013). 
    Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UBC, Canada (2013/14). Currently: Lecturer at Zefat Academic College and Chair of Israel Musicological Society. Author of several publications in the USA, Germany, and Israel. Research areas: music and socio-cultural issues, music of Christian worship, and multiculturalism. 

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Published

2024-04-16

Issue

Vol. 14 (2017)

Section

Articles