Liminality, Postmodernity and Passion: Towards a Theoretical Framework for the study of 21st Century Choral Passion Settings
Author(s)
Jennifer Kerr BudziakKeywords
Passionliminality
ritual
postmodernism
choral music
21st century music
Religions. Mythology. Rationalism
BL1-2790
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After more than a century of neglect of the form, over thirty major concert works with “Passion” within the title have emerged into the choral landscape during the past 50 years. These settings use diverse libretti, drawing from sources both sacred and secular; some of the composers of these works profess Christianity, some adhere to other religious traditions, and some do not profess any particular faith at all. Their only common threads seem to be their self-identification with the title of “Passion”, and their depiction of a story in which a particular individual undergoes suffering and death. The purpose of this article is not to analyze specific Passion settings but rather to explore the structural form and content of the Passion genre as a whole, and begin to develop an interdisciplinary framework for future analysis of this body of music, using the tools offered by the field of liminal studies. Additionally, this essay will explore how the concept of Postmodernism, both as it manifests both in Western culture and through that culture’s artistic and musical expression, might give some insight into the Passion form’s resurgence into modern musical thought.Date
2017-12-01Type
ArticleIdentifier
oai:doaj.org/article:11b39b1b3329457684d75b21712c1dc32077-1444
10.3390/rel8120265
https://doaj.org/article/11b39b1b3329457684d75b21712c1dc3