Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship

On February 27 and 28, 2009, well over fifty members and guests of the Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship met for the seventh annual meeting, hosted this year by the Departments of Music and Theology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The slate of presenters included not only scholars from the United States and Canada, but also several from Mexico and Poland. Despite the cold temperatures of the Indiana winter, the meeting was marked by a warm atmosphere of musical scholarship and Christian fellowship.

This year’s program committee, chaired by Robin Wallace (Baylor University), with members Stephen A. Allen (Rider University), Michael Driscoll (University of Notre Dame), and Kevin Holm-Hudson (University of Kentucky), assembled a diverse program that in itself testified to the growing interest in and overall health of the Forum, now in its seventh year. The twenty-eight papers were organized in ten sessions, four of which ran concurrently. Presenters addressed a wide range of topics and issues, from medieval chant to liturgical theory and contemporary worship practices, employing a variety of methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches. Four sessions were devoted to issues in nineteenth- and twentieth-century sacred music, Bach’s cantatas and passions, and sacred music in 17th-century Germany and Italy, while others, with more diverse offerings, addressed such topics as “theological coding” and “faith and doubt in twentieth-century music.”

This year’s program also featured two plenary sessions, both held on Saturday afternoon. The first, “Perspectives on Temporality,” included four papers inspired by issues raised in Karol Berger’s recent book, Bach’s Cycle, Mozart’s Arrow (University of California Press, 2007). Prof. Berger, the Osgood Hooker Professor of Fine Arts at Stanford University, was invited to attend, and delivered a thoughtful response to each paper; the entire session was followed by some general discussion. After a break, the participants assembled again for a keynote address by Prof. Peter Jeffery, Scheide Professor of Music at Princeton University, who addressed the complex question, “When is Music Christian?” His stimulating talk raised many issues and provoked a lively discussion, which continued for nearly an hour.

On Friday evening, those in attendance were treated to a concert of Gregorian chant and works for organ in the Reyes Organ and Choral Hall of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. The performance, organized by Notre Dame Professors Alexander Blachly and Craig Cramer, featured chants from various manuscripts, performed by a schola of Notre Dame students, as well as several works for organ. Prof. Blachly described each chant manuscript and projected a beautiful color image of the chant in the manuscript as it was performed by the schola. The concert also featured works of Weckmann, Sweelinck, and Bach performed on the Fritts organ (2004) by Professor Cramer and two of his graduate students in the Master of Sacred Music program.

Prior to the meeting, on Thursday evening, the FMCS Governing Board met to discuss a wide variety of issues; the discussion continued at dinner afterwards. The membership also met for a luncheon and business meeting on Friday. This year’s meeting also saw the transfer of the presidency from Tim Steele (Calvin College) to Markus Rathey (Yale University).

This year’s co-chairs for local arrangements, Mary Frandsen (Music) and Michael Driscoll (Theology), would like to thank all those who attended, and also to acknowledge the generous support provided by the University through the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (College of Arts and Letters), the departments of Music and Theology, and the Graduate School. Next year’s meeting of the Forum will take place at Boston University, on February 26-27, 2010–we hope to see you there.

--Mary E. Frandsen, University of Notre Dame