Sing after God a new song: Ritual-musical appropriations of Psalms in contemporary Dutch and Flemish culture

Psalmody, the (collective) performance of Psalms, is taking on new forms and meanings in the secularized, postsecular, and post-Christian cultures of the Netherlands and Flanders. Having occupied an important place in the Low Countries’ religious pasts, psalmody continues to live on, inside religious contexts and in other domains, such as the arts and cultural heritage. Psalmody is increasingly being reinvented by artists and cultural creators.

This dissertation is a study of these ritual-musical appropriations of Psalms. Empirical investigation of four different case studies through the use of ethnographic methods forms the basis of this study. These cases are: the festival 150 Psalms, Genemuider Bovenstem collective psalmody, the poetry project Poesia Divina, and Psalm 151, a project with new poetry and new music. It appears that, as heritage, psalmody allows for plural appropriations in which religious and secular meanings become blurred as appropriating (groups of) individuals explicitly and freely play with symbols and rituals from different religious and secular (concert) traditions. At the same time, this study shows that, in their appropriation, individuals often feel invited or challenged by traditions of (collective) psalmody. In their appropriation, they feel challenged to address God, to enhance or evoke collective performance, and to make room for existential contemplation.

This empirical research offers further academic theorization about the meaning of heritage rooted in religion, in this case performed Psalms, especially in a post-Christian cultural context in which religious past psalmody once occupied a central place. For practitioners of psalmody, this research shows both the versatility of psalmody and the different ways that psalmody fits into late-modern (secularized, pluralized, globalized) societies.

ISBN printed version: 9789465066110

Graphic design: Lydia van Leersum-Bekebrede, Henk Vogel
Cover photo: Lydia van Leersum-Bekebrede

Publisher: University of Groningen Press,
Broerstraat 4, 9712 CP Groningen

This book can be ordered in print via NSRL