Music as Prayer
(The art work on the cover is by YDS graduate Ellen Priest; ellenpriest.com.)
Lectures and readings in Marquand Chapel followed by a book-signing and reception. Presented in collaboration with Yale Divinity Student Book Supply.
Thomas Troeger’s latest book was published on November 1. Music as Prayer: The Theology and Practice of Church Music explores how making and listening to music can be an act of prayer, through a wide range of perspectives: from scientific observations about the effect of music on the brain to the insights of early church fathers about the place of music iin worship; to the compositions of great composers and their reflections upon their art; to the Bible and theologians,; to organists, choir directors, and instrumentalists; and to hymnists and poets. Listening to the wisdom of these varied tribes, Troeger finds them to be a cloud of witnesses, a choir giving testimony to how music puts the human heart in touch with the spirit in times of sorrow and seeking, in times of joy and gratitude.
The book – addressed to listeners and performers alike, instrumentalists and singers, clergy and seminarians, worship committees and congregation members, and scholars and teachers of liturgy and sacred music – is dedicated to ISM director Martin Jean, who will be at the organ for the event.