Open Up the Doors - Music in the Modern Church - Mark Evans
Theomusicological Frameworks for Congregational Song Analysis
Open Up the Doors - Music in the Modern Church - Mark Evans
Mark Evans [+]
Macquarie University
Mark Evans is Head of the Department of Contemporary Music Studies at Macquarie University and is co-editor of Perfect Beat - The Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture. He has published articles on a range of topics, including: the use of sound in the 'Matrix' films; copyright; CD-Rom; Christian music; rock journalism; and country music in Australia. He is also a pianist and has recorded and performed in various contemporary styles.He is the author of Open up the Doors: Music in the Modern Church (2006) and editor of the Encyclopedia of Film Music and Sound (Equinox, forthcoming).
Description
In his largely pessimistic summary of the state of congregational music, Faulkner states that a portion of the current ‘crisis’ in church music is attributable to there being ‘little, if any, theological investigation of the history or purpose of church music’ (1996: 204) and that ‘[t]here is a lack of any widely held objective criteria that establish propriety or quality in church music’ (ibid.). Dawn (1995) and especially Corbitt (1998) have developed tropes whereby theological affectivity and musical quality can be explored.