Conceptualising Heavenly Music in the Light of the Lutheran Doctrine of Eschatology (1517-1750)

This research aims to enhance and deepen our understanding of Lutheran eschatological conceptualisations of heavenly music between 1517 and 1750 via a systematic and hermeneutic analysis of various source-types, including music theoretical and theological writings, musical works, and visual artworks. The selection of a wide variety of sources is motivated by a history-of-ideas rationale: ideas do not exist in pure isolation, but permeate all intellectual and artistic disciplines, and are influenced by the contemporary Zeitgeist. For a comprehensive understanding of Lutheran conceptualisations of heavenly music, investigating its expressions in various different source-types is therefore a necessity. The period 1517-1750 will be analysed in the dissertation: the former year traditionally marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, and the latter year is generally considered the end of the Baroque era (with the death of J.S. Bach). This also poses the primary limitation to this research: it is not feasible to discuss all (contemporary) sources on this subject. Rather, a selection has to be made based on (1) the source’s (historical) impact and influence, and (2) the extent to which the source presents a new, different perspective.

Keywords:musicology

Disciplines:Musicology and ethnomusicology