Experiencing Music - Restoring the Spiritual ― Restoring the Spiritual

This book concerns an examination of the totality of the musical experience with a view to restoring the soul within it. It starts with an analysis of the strands in the landscape of contemporary spirituality. It examines the descriptors spiritual but not religious, and spiritual and religious, looking in particular at the place of faith narratives in various spiritualities. These strands are linked with the domains of the musicking experience: Materials, Expression, Construction and Values. The book sets out a model of the spiritual experience as a negotiated relationship between the musicker and the music. It looks in detail at various models of musicking drawn from music therapy, ethnomusicology, musicology and cultural studies. It examines the relationship between Christianity and music as well as examining some practical projects showing the effect of various Value systems in musicking, particularly in intercultural dialogue. It finally proposes an ecclesiology of musical events that includes both orate and literate traditions and so is supportive of inclusive community.

June Boyce-Tillman MBE read music at the University of Oxford and is Professor of Applied Music at the University of Winchester. She has published widely in the area of education, most recently on spirituality. Her doctoral research into children’s musical development has been translated into five languages. She has written about and organised events in the area of interfaith dialogue using music. She has held visiting fellowships at Indiana University and the Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts. She is an international performer, especially of the work of Hildegard of Bingen. Her large-scale works for cathedrals such as Winchester, Southwark and Norwich involve professional musicians and school children. She is a hymn writer and has written on and led workshops on music, healing, theology and spirituality and is the artistic convenor of the Winchester Centre for the Arts as Well-being. She is an Extraordinary Professor at North West University, South Africa. She is an ordained Anglican priest and an honorary chaplain to Winchester cathedral and received an MBE for her services to music and education.