See the bulletins of the School of Music and the Divinity School for full course listings and degree requirements. Courses listed here may be cross-listed in other schools or departments. Information is current as of July 1, 2023. An updated list is available online at http://ism.yale.edu.
The letter “a” following the course number denotes the fall term; the letter “b” denotes the spring term.
Courses fulfilling the distribution requirements for institute students pursuing the M.Div. are indicated with a letter representing the subject area: W (Worship), M (Music), and/or A (Visual Arts or Literature). In the School of Music, courses designated NP are nonperformance courses. Courses designated P/F will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis. See the Schools’ respective bulletins for full explanation.
Music Courses
MUS 506a–b, 606a–b, 706a–b, Lyric Diction for Singers 2 credits per term. A language course designed specifically for the needs of singers. Intensive work on pronunciation, grammar, and literature throughout the term. French, German, English, Italian, Russian, and Latin are offered in alternating terms. Required. Faculty
MUS 509a–b, 609a–b, 709a–b, Art Song Coaching for Singers 1 credit per term. Individual private coaching in the art song repertoire, in preparation for required recitals. Students are coached on such elements of musical style as phrasing, rubato, and articulation, and in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish diction. Students are expected to bring their recital accompaniments to coaching sessions as their recital times approach. Tomoko Nakayama
MUS 511b, Music before 1750 4 credits. NP. Group B. An analytic and cultural survey of European music before 1750. Alongside detailed examination of notated repertoire representing the major styles, genres, and composers of the period, the course explores the roles of listeners and performers, the social contexts of music making, and the relationships among notated and vernacular music. Topics include the development of the modern notational system, the transmission of music as a result of social and power structures, vernacular traditions of music making, the place of music in relationship to changing world views and cosmologies, the relationship between music and language, the emergence of independent instrumental music, and the development of musical form. The course explores both music that was incorporated in the canon of Western music but also composers and musical traditions that were marginalized. Enrollment by placement exam. May be taken as an elective, space permitting. Markus Rathey
MUS 514a, Keyboard Harmony for Organists 2 credits. In this course, organ students will develop applied music theory at the keyboard including basic figured bass, melody harmonization, transposition, score reading, and basic species counterpoint improvisation. Bálint Karosi
MUS 515a,b, Improvisation at the Organ I 2 credits. This course in beginning organ improvisation explores a variety of harmonization techniques, with a strong focus on formal structure (binary and ternary forms, rondo, song form). Classes typically are made up of two students for a one-hour lesson on Mondays. The term culminates with an improvised recital, open to the public. In this recital, each student improvises for up to seven minutes on a submitted theme. Prerequisite: MUS 514. Jeffrey Brillhart
MUS 519a–b, 619a–b, 719a–b, ISM Colloquium 1 credit per term. NP. P/F. Participation in seminars led by faculty and guest lecturers on topics concerning theology, music, worship, and related arts. Required of all Institute of Sacred Music students each term. Martin Jean
MUS 522a–b, 622a–b, 722a–b, Acting for Singers 1 credit per term. Designed to address the specialized needs of the singing actor. Studies include technique in character analysis, together with studies in poetry as it applies to art song literature. Class work is extended in regular private coaching. ISM students are required to take two terms in their second year. Glenn Seven Allen
MUS 531a–b, 631a–b, Repertory Chorus—Voice 2 credits per term. A reading chorus open by audition and conducted by graduate choral conducting students. The chorus reads, studies, and sings a wide sampling of choral literature. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 532a–b, 632a–b, Repertory Chorus—Conducting 2 credits per term. Students in the graduate choral conducting program work with the Repertory Chorus, preparing and conducting a portion of a public concert each term. Open only to choral conducting majors. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 535a–b, 635a–b, Recital Chorus—Voice 2 credits per term. A chorus open by audition and conducted by graduate choral conducting students. It serves as the choral ensemble for four or five degree recitals per year. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 536a–b, 636a–b, Recital Chorus—Conducting 2 credits per term. Second- and third-year students in the graduate choral conducting program work with the Recital Chorus, preparing and conducting their degree recitals. Open to choral conducting majors only. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 540a,b, 640a,b, 740a,b, Individual Instruction in the Major 4 credits per term. Individual instruction of one hour per week throughout the academic year, for majors in performance, conducting, and composition. Faculty
MUS 544a–b, 644a–b, 744a–b, Seminar in the Major 2 credits per term. An examination of a wide range of problems relating to the area of the major. Specific requirements may differ by department. At the discretion of each department, seminar requirements can be met partially through off-campus field trips and/or off-campus fieldwork, e.g., performance or teaching. Required of all School of Music students except pianists who take 533, 633, 733. Faculty
MUS 546a–b, 646a–b, 746a–b, Yale Camerata 2 credits per term. Open to all members of the university community by audition, the Yale Camerata presents several performances throughout the year that explore choral literature from all musical periods. Members of the ensemble should have previous choral experience and be willing to devote time to the preparation of music commensurate with the Camerata’s vigorous rehearsal and concert schedule. Felicia Barber
MUS 556a, Liturgical Keyboard Skills I 2 credits. In this course, students gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for musical genres, both those familiar to them and those different from their own and learn basic techniques for their application in church service playing. Students learn to play hymns, congregational songs, service music, and anthems from a variety of sources, including music from the liturgical and free church traditions, including the Black Church experience. Hymn playing, with an emphasis on methods of encouraging congregational singing, is the principal focus of the organ instruction, but there is also instruction in chant and anthem accompaniment, including adapting a piano reduction to the organ. In the gospel style, beginning with the piano, students are encouraged to play by ear, using their aural skills in learning gospel music. This training extends to the organ, in the form of improvised introductions and varied accompaniments to hymns of all types. We seek to accomplish these goals by active participation and discussion in class. When not actually playing in class, students are encouraged to sing to the accompaniment of the person at the keyboard, to further their experience of singing with accompaniment, and to give practical encouragement to the person playing. Prerequisite: graduate-level organ and piano proficiency. Walden Moore, Mark Miller
MUS 558b, Liturgical Keyboard Skills II 2 credits. This course continues work begun in Liturgical Keyboard Skills I (MUS 556) and delves more deeply into the hymnic and liturgical repertoire of American and European classical traditions. Focused on the accompaniment and leadership of congregational singing, the course systematically surveys the service music and hymnic repertoire of Catholic and mainline Protestant traditions in the U.S. Students continue building skills in strong leadership of congregational song and improvisational skills needed to support the accompaniment of the liturgy. Students will jointly lead an extended choral liturgy as a final project to the course. Prerequisite: MUS 556. Richard Webster
MUS 565a, Elements of Choral Technique 2 credits per term. An exploration of conducting technique, rehearsal technique, score analysis, and repertoire for the choral conductor, this course is designed for students who are not majoring in choral conducting but are interested in learning the essentials of choral technique. Repertoire from the sixteenth century to the present is explored. Felicia Barber
MUS 571a–b, 671a–b, 771a–b, Yale Schola Cantorum 1 credit per term. Specialist chamber choir for the development of advanced ensemble skills and expertise in demanding solo roles (in music before 1750 and from the last one hundred years). Enrollment required for voice majors enrolled through the Institute of Sacred Music. Stefan Parkman
MUS 594a,b, Vocal Chamber Music 1 credit. This performance-based class requires a high level of individual participation each week. Grades are based on participation in and preparation for class, and two performances of the repertoire learned. Attendance is mandatory. Occasional weekend sessions and extra rehearsals during production weeks can be expected. Students are expected to learn quickly and must be prepared to tackle a sizeable amount of repertoire. James Taylor
MUS 595a–b, 695a–b, Performance Practice for Singers 2 credits per term. A four-term course cycle exploring the major issues and repertoire of Western European historically informed performance, including notation, use of modern and manuscript editions, and national performance styles. Includes a survey of solo and chamber vocal repertoire (song, madrigal, cantata, opera, oratorio, motet) from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a focus on ornamentation, practical performance issues, and recital planning. The sequence is designed to provide the foundation to a practical career in historical performance. Open to conductors and instrumentalists with permission of the instructor. Jeffrey Grossman
MUS 604b, The Sacred Concerto in the Seventeenth Century 4 credits. Markus Rathey
MUS 615a,b, Improvisation at the Organ II 2 credits. This course explores modal improvisation, focusing on the composition techniques of Charles Tournemire and Olivier Messiaen. Students learn to improvise five-movement, chant-based suites (Introit-Offertoire-Elevation-Communion-Pièce Terminale), versets, and a variety of free works using late-twentieth-century language. Classes typically are made up of two students for a one-hour lesson on Mondays. The term culminates with an improvised recital, open to the public. In this recital, each student improvises for up to seven minutes on a submitted theme. Prerequisite: MUS 515. Jeffrey Brillhart
MUS 617a, Music and Theology in the Sixteenth Century 4 credits. NP. Group B. The Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century was a “media event.” The invention of letterpress printing, the partisanship of famous artists like Dürer and Cranach, and—not least—the support of many musicians and composers were responsible for the spreading of the thoughts of Reformation. But while Luther gave an important place to music, Zwingli and Calvin were much more skeptical. Music, especially sacred music, constituted a problem because it was tightly connected with Catholic liturgical and aesthetic traditions. Reformers had to think about the place music could have in worship and about the function of music in secular life. Markus Rathey
MUS 623a,b, Early Music Coaching for Singers 1 credit. Individual private coaching in early repertoire, focusing on historically informed performance practice, in preparation for required recitals and concerts. Students are coached on such elements of musical style as ornamentation, phrasing, rubato, articulation, and rhetoric, and in English, French, Italian, German, Latin, and Spanish diction. Students are expected to bring recital and concert repertoire to coaching sessions as performance times approach. Jeffrey Grossman
MUS 650a, Silenced Voices: Music, Race, and Gender in Early Music 4 credits. Periods in music history are often classified with convenient labels such as “common practice,” “early music,” etc., and it is quietly assumed that everybody shares these labels. But if we ask more critically, it becomes apparent that the labels encode a specific view of music history that is based on the establishment of certain musical forms, the modern tonal system, and the concept of a musical work. The labels are not neutral, but they provide categories in which we approach musical traditions, and works or traditions that don’t fit into these categories are often neglected or ignored. Our labels, as well as the music they describe, do not exist independently but are embedded in a societal context. Music grows out of specific functions and reflects power relationships within society. Music not only reflects the social stratifications and power structures of the past but in some cases also perpetuates these ideas. This course challenges some of the common narratives about the history of early music. Focusing on four distinct areas, we explore early examples of music by Jewish composers, the role of women in the creation and performance of music, the history of African American music before the nineteenth century, and the amalgamation of Native American and western traditions. Each section begins with a critical assessment of the representation of these marginalized groups in western classical music and then shifts the focus to music written and performed by these groups. The goal of the course is not another western appropriation of music by marginalized groups but rather a critical evaluation of the western canon in dialogue with music that is commonly excluded from this canon. The course provides an overview of current scholarship and presents selected compositions. The final project for each student is the development of a concert program (with program notes) that reflects the issues raised in the course. Markus Rathey
MUS 656a, Liturgical Music Skills I 2 credits. In this course, students are coached in musical skills pertinent to the profession of church music, including essential keyboard skills and techniques (harmonization, score-reading, and transposition); all aspects of service playing (leading and playing hymns, accompaniment of anthems and psalms and other liturgical music); and essential skills in choral direction. Students work in small groups for coaching. Appropriately qualified students have opportunities to play services and work with the Yale Consort, other ad hoc ensembles, Yale chapels, or local church positions, which are evaluated in conversation with the instructor. Some written work is required to record and process observations in rehearsal and coachings. Richard Webster
MUS 657b, Liturgical Music Skills II 2 credits. A continuation of Liturgical Music Skills I that progress students into more difficult anthems, oratorio transcriptions, chant accompaniment and direction, and hymn arrangements. Students work in small groups for coaching. Appropriately qualified students have opportunities to play services and work with the Yale Consort, other ad hoc ensembles, Yale chapels, or local church positions, which are evaluated in conversation with the instructor. Some written work will be required to record and process observations in rehearsal and coachings. Richard Webster
MUS 715a,b, Improvisation at the Organ III 2 credits. This course explores the improvisation of a full organ symphony in four movements, Tryptique (Rondo-Aria-Theme/variations), improvisation on visual images, text-based improvisation, and silent film. Classes typically are made up of two students for a one-hour lesson on Mondays. The term culminates with an improvised recital, open to the public. In this recital, each student improvises for up to ten minutes on a submitted theme. Prerequisite: MUS 615. Jeffrey Brillhart
MUS 815a,b, Improvisation at the Organ IV 2 credits. Prerequisite: MUS 715. Jeffrey Brillhart
Divinity Courses
Courses are 3 credits unless otherwise indicated.
REL 601a, Eastern Orthodox Worship and Thought This course explores the Eastern Orthodox (Chalcedonian) tradition by examining the history and theology of its worship. We proceed chronologically, beginning in the early centuries of Christianity and tracing the development of Orthodox liturgy and theological reflection up to the present day. Along the way, we consider various aspects of Orthodox spirituality: music, iconography, female bodies, dogmatic developments, and contemporary issues, particularly around the current war in Ukraine. (W) Mark Roosien
REL 673a, Irenaeus Seminar In this course, we explore the theological work and contemporary relevance of Irenaeus of Lyon, a second-century Christian theologian who wrote the earliest extensive account of the Christian faith that remains extant today. We read together most of Irenaeus’ surviving texts, On the Apostolic Preaching (Epideixis) and Against the Heresies (Adversus Haereses). We also learn about key elements of his theology, become familiar with some of the secondary scholarship on his writings, and analyze more recent theological engagement with his thought, including works by Hans Urs von Balthasar (The Glory of the Lord), J. Kameron Carter (Race: A Theological Account), and Catherine Keller (The Face of the Deep). Previous experience reading texts from late antiquity, early Christian texts, or other theological texts would be helpful, but is not required. (W) Awet Andemicael
REL 675a, Baptism and Eucharist in Ecumenical Dialogue This course engages students in recent conversations around the theology and practice of baptism and eucharist. Beginning with the 1982 World Council of Churches document Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, we read texts that have emerged from ecumenical sacramental dialogues in the past three decades and discuss major issues such as mutual recognition of baptism, patterns of Christian initiation, who may administer the sacraments, and open communion. (W) Melanie Ross
REL 682a, Foundations of Christian Worship This is a core course in Liturgical Studies. The course focuses on theological and historical approaches to the study of Christian worship, with appropriate attention to cultural context and contemporary issues. The first part of the course seeks to familiarize students with the foundations of communal, public prayer in the Christian tradition (such as its roots in Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament; its Trinitarian source and direction; its ways of figuring time, space, and human embodiment; its use of language, music, the visual arts, etc.). The second part offers a sketch of historical developments, from earliest Christian communities to present times. In addition, select class sessions focus on questions of overall importance for liturgical life, such as the relationship between gender differences and worship life, and the contemporary migration of liturgical practices into cyberspace. (W) Melanie Ross
REL 733b, The Passion in Late Antique and Byzantine Art The English word “passion” refers to the redemptive sufferings of Jesus and to the narrative of events leading up to and including his death, particularly as recorded in the four canonical gospels. The story of the Passion seems perfectly suited to illustration in view of the narrative structure of the gospel accounts, along with the broader theological significance attributed to the death of Jesus in the early church, and certainly this is the case from the eighth century on, when illustrated passion narratives came to form the bedrock of Christian visual culture. This seminar begins by examining these four accounts and then examines the earliest evidence for their representation and interpretation in visual art, hymnography, liturgy, and homiletic literature. Focusing on specific themes—such as the Betrayal, Crucifixion, and Resurrection—it then explores the ways that the Passion was imagined, exploited, and appropriated in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, when it motivated the creation of consequential works of art in conjunction with the composition and performance of hymns, complex liturgies, and homiletic literature that came to define personal piety as well as theology. The seminar includes a site visit to the Yale University Art Gallery and the viewing of Byzantine manuscripts in the form of facsimiles. (A) Vasileios Marinis
REL 745b, Byzantine Art and Architecture This lecture course explores the art, architecture, and material culture of the Byzantine Empire from the foundation of its capital, Constantinople, in the fourth century to the fifteenth century. Centered around the Eastern Mediterranean, Byzantium was a dominant political power in Europe for several centuries and fostered a highly sophisticated artistic culture. This course aims to familiarize students with key objects and monuments from various media—mosaic, frescoes, wooden panels, metalwork, ivory carvings—and from a variety of contexts—public and private, lay and monastic, imperial and political. We give special attention to issues of patronage, propaganda, reception, and theological milieux, as well as the interaction of architecture and ritual. More generally, students become acquainted with the methodological tools and vocabulary that art historians employ to describe, understand, and interpret works of art. (A) Vasileios Marinis
REL 747b, Islamic Art and Architecture in the Mediterranean This course surveys the history of Islamic cultures through their rich material expressions beginning from the time of the Prophet Muhammed in the seventh century to the present and extending across the Mediterranean from Spain to Syria. The course aims to familiarize students with the major periods, regions, monuments, and media of the Islamic cultures around the Mediterranean and with basic principles of Islam as they pertain to the visual arts and, in particular, their interactions with the Christian world. We discuss architecture (mosques, madrasas, mausolea, etc.) as well as works of art in various media (calligraphy, illuminated manuscripts, textiles, ceramics, etc.) within both the Islamic and the larger, universal, and cross-cultural contexts. (A) Örgü Dalgiç
REL 756a, The Cult of Mary: Early Christian and Byzantine Art This course examines the origins and development of the veneration of Mary as the Mother of God, focusing specifically on the treatment of Mary in the visual and material culture of early Christianity and Byzantium. Its aim is to introduce students to key points in the history of the cult through the close study of images preserved on a range of objects in different media (including frescoes, glassware, sculpture, coins, textiles, mosaic), made for a variety of purposes. This visual material is analyzed in conjunction with relevant literary, theological, and liturgical evidence for the development of the cult. It is designed as a seminar for students who have interest or background in the material, textual, and religious culture of early Christianity. (A) Vaseileios Marinis, Felicity Harley
REL 801a or b, Marquand Chapel Choir 1 credit per term. Nathaniel Gumbs
REL 802a or b, Marquand Gospel and Inspirational Choir ½ credit per term. Mark Miller
REL 825b, Music Skills and Vocal Development for Ministry This course is designed to help those training for lay and ordained ministry to improve their musical and vocal skills as part of the larger process of their transformation into living instruments of God. The course is comprised of three components: skill development, spiritual formation, and theological reflection. Students meet weekly as a class to reflect collectively on theological, spiritual, and practical themes related to music. Class sessions include lectures and interactive presentations by the course instructor and other guest speakers, as well as class discussion about readings and other assignments. In addition, students receive individual weekly vocal coaching from graduate music students, under the primary instructor’s supervision. (W, M) Awet Andemicael
REL 900a, Sacred Sounds: Key Issues in the Ethnomusicology of Religion How and why do religious practitioners around the world engage in the sonic dimensions of lived experience? What local, regional, and global histories impinge upon meanings that obtain in these sacred music practices? This course in ethnomusicology examines the complex intersectional space between sonic and religious practice in the modern world. Case studies encompass both northern and southern hemispheres and are organized thematically rather than strictly by geographic area. Through examination of topics such as postcolonialism, postsecularism, ritual and ritualization, social identity, history, and transnationalism, we address the role of power in shaping the conditions under which truth is experienced, while also carving out intellectual space for the metaphysical claims to which ethnomusicological interlocutors bear witness. (M) Bo kyung Blenda Im
REL 922a, Art and Ritual at Mount Sinai—Travel Seminar This course looks at art and ecclesiastical and pilgrimage rituals at the monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai. Founded by Emperor Justinian on a site already venerated by Christians as the place where, supposedly, Moses encountered the Burning Bush, the monastery is one of the oldest continuously inhabited Christian communities in the world. Its holdings of icons have no parallel and offer the opportunity to study Christian imagery in the context of both devotional use and corporate rituals, if not place of origin. This course introduces various aspects of Orthodox liturgy and religious pilgrimage relevant to the explication of the surviving church arts at the monastery and the surrounding area. (A) Vasileios Marinis, Robert Nelson
REL 933a, Poetry and Faith This course is designed to look at issues of faith through the lens of poetry. With some notable exceptions, the course concentrates on modern poetry—that is, poetry written between 1850 and 2013. Inevitably, the course also looks at poetry through the lens of faith, but a working assumption of the course is that a poem is, for a reader (it’s more complicated for a writer), art first and faith second. “Faith” in this course generally means Christianity, and that is the primary context for reading the poems. But the course also engages with poems from other faith traditions, as well as with poems that are wholly secular and even adamantly anti-religious. (A) Christian Wiman
REL 943a, Gospel, Rap, and Social Justice: Prison and the Arts Students in this course collaborate with formerly incarcerated musicians and other survivors of prison to create performances inspired by their collective reading of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, and a variety of texts documenting the impact of the carceral state on communities of color. Students learn how to apply the arts to community service and activism as they learn about the American criminal justice system and its relevance to Dante’s poem from a social justice perspective. (A) Ronald S. Jenkins
REL 945a, From House Churches to Medieval Cathedrals: Christian Art and Architecture to the End of Gothic This course examines the art associated with, or related to, Christianity from its origins to the end of Gothic. It analyzes major artistic monuments and movements in a variety of regions, paying particular attention to how art shapes and is shaped by the social and historical circumstances of the period and culture. The class considers art in diverse media, focusing on painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts. Trips to the Yale Art Gallery and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library are included. The course aims to familiarize students with key monuments of Christian architecture, sculpture, painting, and related arts, analyzing each within its particular sociocultural and theological perspective. The course stresses the importance of looking at works of art closely and in context and encourages students to develop skills of close observation and critical visual analysis. Additionally, students are encouraged to examine the ways parallel developments in Christian theology, dogma, and liturgy are influenced by art. (A) Örgü Dalgiç
REL 947a, Contemporary Worship Music: Commerce, Style, and Ethics What is “contemporary worship music”? Why do twenty-first-century Christians sing it? What ethical debates inform church communities’ adoption or rejection of contemporary worship music practices? This graduate seminar interrogates the relationship between commerce, style, and ethics in contemporary worship music. We address case studies from early twenty-first-century North America, Oceania, and the United Kingdom from a transnational framework that highlights the asymmetrical circulation of musico-religious ideas, practices, capital, and people in the global political-economy. Reading across scholarly fields such as music studies, liturgical studies, and ritual studies, we critically examine this subgenre of global popular music from both historical and ethnographic perspectives. The first part of the course historicizes contemporary worship music and introduces critical themes. The second part of the course focuses on influential contemporary worship groups including Hillsong, Passion, Bethel, Elevation Worship, and Maverick City. We consider the roles that competing definitions of “the good,” sacred and secular constructs, race and ethnicity, imperialism, commerce, embodiment, and aesthetics play in power-inflected processes of self-making and community-building in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century global Christianity. (W, M) Bo kyung Blenda Im
REL 949b, Spiritual Topographies in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry This course examines the role of place, and physical space, as both setting and trope in modern/postmodern poetry and fiction. Beginning with notions of sacred space(s) from Scripture, we examine works of poetry by a range of modern and contemporary poets that explore natural, domestic, and sacred spaces (including Native American poetry) and the novels Home by Marilynne Robinson, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, and the urban maze of Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy. Through close readings of these works, we consider how meaning is conveyed through the author’s development of physical locations and spaces as images of spiritual longing, journey, and presence, as well as windows into the human condition. Themes of the sacred and the profane, the material and the transcendent, good and evil, home and homelessness, identity and transformation, are among the theologically important questions that arise from this study. (A) David Mahan
REL 963a, Literature of Trauma How can literary art respond to extreme suffering, particularly when it involves the trauma of large-scale violence and oppression, which seems to defy aesthetic response? How can literary artists fulfill a summons to bear witness and remember without vitiating the apparent senselessness of human atrocity? How do theological responses to trauma interact with those made by creative writers? This course examines these and other questions through the works of poets and novelists responding to the traumas of war (WWI poetry), genocide (Holocaust poetry and fiction), and historic violence and oppression (African American, Latin American/Latinx, and Native American/Indigenous Peoples poetry and fiction). This is not a course in clinical psychology or pastoral theology, though our themes relate to these disciplines. The class focuses on the literary-critical and theological issues that arise through close reading of these texts. (A) David Mahan
REL 971a, Creative Faith: Prose An assumption of the course is that the act of creating and the act of believing are intimately related. Indeed, for many artists they are inseparable. Students work on essays throughout the semester, with specific guidelines from instructor. This course is part seminar and part workshop. Half of the time is devoted to the reading and analysis of modern essays and half to discussing work done by students in the class. Students should have some background with creative writing, though formal instruction is not necessary. Instructor may be contacted directly to address questions/hesitations about enrolling in the course. Enrollment limited to twelve. Admission is at the discretion of the instructor. (A) Christian Wiman
REL 975a, Bach among the Theologians Johann Sebastian Bach has occasionally been called “The Fifth Evangelist” and his music is often viewed as an expression of deep theological insight and devotion. But what does that actually mean? How does Bach’s music relate to the religious and devotional traditions of his time? Was Bach indeed exceptional in that regard? The course explores the religious landscape of Bach’s time and demonstrate how Bach’s music relates to the contemporary trends in theology and private devotion. The basis for the course is a new theological Bach reader (translated and edited by Markus Rathey), which makes accessible important theological documents from Bach’s religious environment. The first half of the course provides a broad overview of central theological topics and their representation in Bach’s music. In the second half, we explore selected cantatas and their relationship to the sermons and devotional texts from theologians who served with Bach in eighteenth-century Leipzig. (M) Markus Rathey
REL 982b, Literature of Enchantment What does it mean to be enchanted? We think of states of awe, wonder, marvel, rhapsody, and epiphany, but also of strangeness, even bewitchment. What are the sources of enchantment? What makes experiences of it desirable, or dangerous? How does it relate to disenchantment, as some have labeled our modern age? Are we in need of re-enchantment—as moderns, or perennially as humans? What role does enchantment play in our sense of self and society, in our philosophical or religious outlooks? In this course we explore these questions and the many modes and moods of enchantment through the literary imagination. As resistant to a fixed definition as enchantment itself, literature of enchantment spans various genres: from fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction, to allegory, myth, magical realism, surrealism, and blends of these elements in other forms. The works of fiction we study include those that both enchant us and are about enchantment, along with its corollaries of disenchantment and re-enchantment. One of our guiding questions from this study considers how the pursuit or experience of enchantment illuminates what it means to be human and challenges our perception of the real. (A) David Mahan
REL 997a, Black Religion, Black Thought This co-taught course attends to the theory-making of Black religious practitioners, analyzing a host of ritual phenomena to uncover emic theorizations of space, materiality, voice, text, and belief itself. Course participants engage primary source texts, theoretical and methodological pieces in religious studies/ethics/theology and black studies to more thoroughly contemplate modalities of Black religious and spiritual knowledge. Though the course is grounded in African American Christian studies, it also pushes against these boundaries to explore Africana religious and spiritual formations throughout the African Diaspora. (A) Braxton Shelley, Todne Thomas
REL 3630a–b, Church Music Skills 1.5 credits per term. Pending audition, students take regular individual or group coaching (weekly 30-minute or biweekly 60-minute) in a musical skill—gospel piano, Hammond organ, voice, or percussion—relevant to leadership of congregational song in worship. Additionally, as part of the course, students attend a weekly studio class where they study and enhance ensemble skills. A final public performance project is required. (M) Braxton Shelley
REL 3910a–b, ISM Colloquium ½ credit per term. P/F. Participation in seminars led by faculty and guest lecturers on topics concerning theology, music, worship, and related arts. Required of all Institute of Sacred Music students each term. Martin Jean
ISM Courses Hosted in Other Departments
AFAM 695b, The Study of African American Music This seminar explores the musical objects, critical debates, and scholarly methodologies that have shaped the study of African American music. How do artists, critics, and theorists differently define “Black music”? How do competing conceptions of Black musical traditions reflect and resist commercial and academic modes of categorization? In this course, we attend to the intersections and divergences that emerge from myriad attempts to define and discipline the musical products of black experience, converting Blues, Funk, Gospel, Hip-Hop, House, Jazz, Reggae, R&B, Soca, Soul, the Spiritual, and many other idioms, into a single knowledge-object. We investigate the intellectual genealogies and scholarly disagreements that arise from the interdisciplinary scope of Black music studies, including: cultural history, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, literary studies, historical musicology, music theory, sociology, and theology. Required for students in the Joint Ph.D. Program in Music and African American Studies, this reading-intensive graduate course brings together texts that have defined the interdisciplinary study of Black music and new work that is remaking the field. (M) Braxton Shelley
AMST 630/HSAR 529/RLST 819b, Museums and Religion: The Politics of Preservation and Display This interdisciplinary seminar focuses on the tangled relations of religion and museums, historically and in the present. What does it mean to “exhibit religion” in the institutional context of the museum? What practices of display might one encounter for this subject? What kinds of museums most frequently invite religious display? How is religion suited (or not) for museum exhibition and museum education? Enrollment is by permission of the instructor; qualified undergraduates are not only welcome but also encouraged to join us. There are no set prerequisites, but, assuming available seats, permission is granted on the basis of response to three questions: Why do you wish to take this course? What relevant educational or professional background/experience do you bring to the course? How does the course help you to meet your own intellectual, artistic, or career aspirations? (A) Sally Promey
AMST 805/HSAR 720/RLST 699a, Sensational Materialities: Sensory Cultures in History, Theory, and Method This interdisciplinary seminar explores the sensory and material histories of (often religious) images, objects, buildings, and performances as well as the potential for the senses to spark contention in material practice. With a focus on American things and religions, the course also considers broader geographical and categorical parameters so as to invite intellectual engagement with the most challenging and decisive developments in relevant fields, including recent literatures on material agencies. The goal is to investigate possibilities for scholarly examination of a robust human sensorium of sound, taste, touch, scent, and sight—and even “sixth senses”—the points where the senses meet material things (and vice versa) in life and practice. Topics include the cultural construction of the senses and sensory hierarchies; investigation of the sensory capacities of things; and specific episodes of sensory contention in and among various religious traditions. In addition, the course invites thinking beyond the “Western” five senses to other locations and historical possibilities for identifying the dynamics of sensing human bodies in religious practices, experience, and ideas. The Sensory Cultures of Religion Research Group meets approximately once per month at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays; class participants are strongly encouraged, but not required, to attend. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor; qualified undergraduates are not only welcome but encouraged to join us. There are no set prerequisites, but, assuming available seats, permission will be granted on the basis of response to three questions: Why do you wish to take this course? What relevant educational or professional background/experience do you bring to the course? How does the course help you to meet your own intellectual, artistic, or career aspirations? (A) Sally Promey
ENGL 346/HUMS 253/RSLT 233a, Poetry and Faith Issues of faith examined through poetry, with a focus on modern poems from 1850 to the present. Poems from various faith traditions studied, as well as to secular and antireligious poetry. (A) Christian Wiman
MUSI 483b, The Gospel Imagination: Tradition and Revolution This course studies the black gospel tradition, focusing on the genre’s distinctive combination of sound and belief. Music, movement, and conviction, the three expressions gospel holds together, are explored through three interpretive lenses: exemplary performers, pivotal periods, and formal processes. This semester’s work focuses on the musicians who turned this stream of Black sacred music on its head–the radicals and revolutionaries who provoked movement between creative eras. The class brings material and approaches from the fields of musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, black studies, homiletics, and theology to bear on two questions: (1) What work—musical, cultural, and spiritual—does gospel do for its various audiences? and (2) How does the function of the gospel song shape its form? Through a combination of weekly reading, listening and writing assignments, students immerse themselves in “the gospel imagination,” the network of belief, performance, and reception that sustains many expressions of black Christian faith. Alongside these assignments, students undertake composition in the gospel style, culminating in a virtual performance of their musical creation. (M) Braxton Shelley
MUSI 486a, Judeo-Islamic Musical Intersections The course explores diverse contexts and dynamics of musical encounters between Muslims and Jews throughout their long shared history and along the vast Lands of Islam. It focuses on specific moments of exchanges and sharing as well as on tensions and rivalries over musical ownership. Ability to read or play music and any level of knowledge of Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish or Persian desirable but not required. (M) Edwin Seroussi