Ecclesiology and church music: Towards a possible relationship

Abstract

The relationship between church music and ecclesiology seems to be only rarely discussed. This is the more remarkable since the interdependence between liturgy and ecclesiology is increasingly being noted and church music referred to in discussion on communication ecclesiology. This article contains some snapshots – no more – hinting at possibilities for the fruitful study of church music from the ecclesiological angle. Several levels may be detected in such study, for, implicitly or explicitly, church music has been referred to in constructive ecclesiologies, though not in a developed way. Moreover it is possible to detect in church music, its organization and performance, both operative ecclesiologies and meta-ecclesiological features. The examples presented here deal with edification and with communion/koinonia as musical and ecclesiological categories. Connections between catholicity and church music also raise questions about church music's effect on the unity and disunity of the Church. Lastly a rather fragmented ecclesiology in the German Reformation and Baroque periods is related to structures in church music at those times. The purpose of this article is to highlight the possibility of acquiring new knowledge by bringing ecclesiology and musicology together.

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