Contemporary Christian Music is a homogenous musical genre largely defined by its audience, Evangelical Christians, rather than by its sound which closely resembles pop/rock. Front-running artists in the genre often differ little in style, instrumentation, song structure, chord progression, and even in their visual elements such as clothing and lighting. These performances also have standardized posture: listeners and performers alike are posed in an almost trance-like state where their arms are raised, their bodies are prone, seemingly positioned in a physiological manifestation of belief, leaning forward and upward towards the Father who reigns in Heaven. Drawing on Nina Eidsheim’s listening-to-listening framework (Eidsheim 2018) and Wallmark and Fink’s exploration of the physical significance of tone (2018) this paper defines the creation of a musical belief system imbedded with fixed timbres, repetition, and a strong relationship with Biblical text.

Following ethnographic research conducted at two Lancaster County, Pennsylvania mega-churches, this paper considers how the “thick event” (Eidsheim 2015) of worship concerts leads to an enchantment with both the repertoire and the performance which could reflect a sense of belief or relationship with the Divine (Gell 1992). Ultimately, this paper considers how sound contributes to the making of a belief system contemplating the cultural environment of the live spaces where this musicking occurs (Adorno 1945) and the “mythical sense of belief” inherent to these affective attachments (Gallope 2017).

Atop a knee-height, raised platform sits two harmoniums and a tabla, a microphone hovering above each instrument. These microphones route into a mixing board, which connects to an array of JBL speakers situated throughout the main hall and grounds of the gurdwara. When these microphones pick up the instruments or the voices that sing Sikh kirtan (hymns), they add a cavernous reverb to the sound that gives it an ethereal, otherworldly quality. Drawing Blesser and Salter’s theory of aural architecture (2007) and Auslander’s analysis of live performance in mediatized culture (1999), I theorize the spiritual and cultural meanings embedded in the technological filter of reverb in Sikh sacred musical practice. I argue that reverb in Sikh sacred music is understood as an acoustic signifier of the presence of the divine, whether in recorded or live music. This is due to a dual combination of (1) the reverberant acoustics of historical Sikh gurdwaras in Punjab being recreated in both recorded and live sound and (2) the use of reverb to accentuate dramatic song and dialogue in modern Indian popular media. In the 21st century, the wide reach of satellite television and Internet streaming platforms have further standardized the use of reverb in Sikh musical practice. Whereas previous studies on Sikh sacred music analyze affect, metaphysics, and/or spiritual underpinnings, I focus on the technical aspects and mediation of – and striking consistency across – Sikh kirtan in domestic, religious, and broadcast spaces.

Contemporary Cuban Santería ceremonies in the Afro-Cuban diaspora contexts often take place in all types of places–from boat houses to garages, public parks, and auto shops. These spaces are temporarily transformed to facilitate rituals through both material culture—offerings and sacred objects, including instruments—as well as the sound of the drums. How are everyday places, as opposed to religious temples, the most frequent site of ritual music practices? What is the role of sound in defining space in the religious ceremonies of Cuban Santería? Drawing on over ten years of ethnographic fieldwork as a religious drummer in the United States, Mexico, and Cuba, I will examine how sound plays a central role for Santeria practitioners to reconfigure space in the ritual drumming ceremony, known as the tambor de fundamento. By closely examining the relationship between the altar, igbodú, sound, and the spiritual co-presences known as orishá, I mobilize theoretical insights from Lefebrve (1971) and Abe (2018) to analyze the series of processes and sound evocations that create, define, and finally dissolve an alternative ritual time-space. My goal is to broaden discourses of sound and space in relation to spiritual co-presences and afro-caribbean religion.