Introduction to Special Issue, Music in World Religions: A Response to Isabel Laack

Heather Maclachlan

doi:10.3390/rel12121044

Abstract

This article serves to introduce a special issue of Religions, titled Music in World Religions. A 2015 article by religion scholar Isabel Laack claimed that the study of music and religion has been neglected by Laack’s peers in the field of religions. Responding to Laack, I argue that scholars of music have been making important contributions to the study of music and religion and, indeed, have been addressing the twelve specific topics she highlights for decades. After summarizing academic works which respond to Laack’s twelve categories of inquiry, I introduce each of the articles in this special issue, showing that each of these also address the gap in the literature that Laack perceived. Ultimately, I argue that transdisciplinarity in the study of music and religion is alive and well, and is exemplified both by historic writings and by those contained in Music in World Religions.

Highlights

Introduction to SpecialIssue, Music in World Religions:A Response to Isabel LaackHeather MacLachlan AbstractThis article serves to introduce a special issue of Religions, titled Music in World Religions
We hold different titles (“ethnomusicologist” is mine), we identify as scholars who begin our investigations by focusing on music
In religious traditions engage in debates about many aspects of music making, including about how various musical sounds ought to be evaluated (Laack 2015, p. 239)

Summary

Introduction

Introduction to SpecialIssue, Music in World Religions:A Response to Isabel LaackHeather MacLachlan AbstractThis article serves to introduce a special issue of Religions, titled Music in World Religions. Laack wrote that scholars of religion have mostly neglected the ubiquity of music within religious traditions and “a wide gap in the research remains. The pre-eminent scholar of this genre of music, explains how and why the sound of qawwâlî evolved during the twentieth century, as evidenced by examples of recorded performances.

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