Liturgical jazz: the lineage of the subgenre in the music of Edgar E. Summerlin

This dissertation discusses the lineage of liturgical jazz with a particular focus on Edgar Eugene “Ed” Summerlin (1928-2006). This lineage stretches back into the late 1950s, but has largely been unexplored beyond a select few high-profile artists. I trace the evolution of liturgical jazz from several composers’ earliest attempts to the present day. Although the liturgical jazz movement began in the late 1950s, it was primarily a product of the turbulent 1960s in America. This was a period of great change and exploration not only in jazz but in organized religion as well. A deep and frank discussion emerged as to what liturgical music should and would be allowed to sound like. These decisions at the highest levels of denominations had ramifications that are still being felt today in the churches of America; however, the primary focus of this dissertation is on the formative period of liturgical jazz during the 1960s and early 1970s. These years give a basis for better understanding and appreciating the development and defining features of liturgical jazz. Summerlin is a figure that is often cited as a pioneer in liturgical jazz, but no one has offered a history of his life, his music, or why his liturgical music was so revolutionary. This dissertation gives an extensive history of Summerlin and his music. It also creates a clear timeline of the early formation and evolution of this subgenre of jazz

Benjamin Britten, Herbert Howells, and Silence as the Ineffable in English Cathedral Music

Silence’s expressive potential came to the fore in twentieth-century arts and letters as never before. Its role in Christian theology and spirituality has a much longer history, but by the beginning of the twentieth century, its expressive potential had not been significantly recognized in liturgical choral music. This study examined the relationship between twentieth-century musical silence and the expression of silence as the ineffable in Anglican choral music (referred to as English cathedral music or ECM) of the middle of the twentieth century. The oeuvres of Benjamin Britten and Herbert Howells, two composers successful in both secular and liturgical repertoires and prominent in mid-twentieth-century ECM, were analyzed. This study examined perceptions and expressions of silence in areas of thought and creativity closely related to ECM: Anglican theology, twentieth-century music, and twentieth-century literature. It found that twentieth-century Anglicanism had an ethos of restraint about expressing silence, but the High Church wing (closer to Anglicanism’s Catholic roots) was more open to expressing silence as the ineffable than the Evangelical wing. Howells’s High Church background and Britten’s Evangelical background help account for Howells’s interest and Britten’s lack of interest in silence as the ineffable. This difference between Howells and Britten also became apparent by examining the silence-related literature they selected or avoided. Howells’s oeuvre thus became the focus of the remainder of the study. Howells’s perceptions of, and techniques for expressing, silence as the ineffable—some of which are unique to him—were identified and compared with the perceptions and techniques of important continental composers interested in silence: Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Anton Webern, and Olivier Messiaen. This study analyzed Howells’s more direct expressions of silence in several secular works before analyzing the more nuanced expression of silence in his ECM

An Historical Analysis of the Doctrine of the Ministry in the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Until 1962

This study will analyze the historical background of statements on the doctrine of the ministry within The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (hereafter identified as the Missouri Synod) until 1962. Such statements on the doctrine of the ministry will include declarations and resolutions which were officially adopted by the Synod at its conventions, books, articles and essays published or delivered by Missouri Synod theologians, statements drafted in attempts at reaching doctrinal unity with other Lutherans, and the personal papers and minutes of certain individuals, boards or agencies which had a decided impact upon the position of the Synod with respect to the doctrine of the ministry. Statements on the doctrine of the ministry by those in other Lutheran church bodies will be noted only if and when they affected the Missouri Synod. It is understood that the term doctrine here specifically refers to dogmatic statements which were held to represent the teaching of Holy Scripture

The end of stigma? Understanding the dynamics of legitimisation in the context of TV series consumption

This research contributes to prior work on stigmatisation by looking at stigmatisation and legitimisation as social processes in the context of TV series consumption. Using in-depth interviews, we show that the dynamics of legitimisation are complex and accompanied by the reproduction of existing stigmas and creation of new stigmas

Subjects of Advice: Drama and Counsel from More to Shakespeare

The dissertation focuses on the relationship between political thinking and dramatic expression in the early modern period, especially in England. I approach this topic by considering what political historians have termed "the problem of counsel"--a vexed issue situated at the very center of Renaissance moral and political philosophy and informing in multiple ways the relationship between sovereign power and its subjects. Because of drama's central concern with the transformation of speech into action as well as its focus on the moral making of the individual, dramatists found in counsel a powerful instrument with which to develop specific kinds of dramatic character, create tension within individual scenes, and provide motivation for dramatic plots. Counsel also proved a convenient, familiar space within which to think through different, often controversial, political ideas and to give them reality and shape in the embodied representations of the stage. By analyzing and contextualizing plays ranging chronologically from Tudor interludes, such as those by Henry Medwall or John Redford, to Jacobean tragedies, notably Shakespeare's King Lear, the dissertation shows how significant counsel was as a shaping force in the construction of different kinds of plays in the period. It also demonstrates how this varied dramatic material itself contributed to the early modern understanding of the theory and practice of counsel

Bowdoin College Catalogue (1999-2000)

https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/course-catalogues/1280/thumbnail.jp