Melting the Venusberg: A Feminist Theology of Music

Description

This book begins with a pointed critique of the foundations of the understanding of Western music: that music from Pythagoras to the Renaissance has been viewed as the source and model of order in the universe and in society. Unfortunately that order was rigidly hierarchical, so that over the centuries music reinforced established social prejudices, particularly those against women. Nowhere was this more evident than in religious music that was regarded by male ecclesiastics and scholars as the instrument of choice for taming hysterical female eruptions. Through her mordant commentary on a rich selection of texts by major thinkers from two millennia of Christian theology, Heidi Epstein shows in the first part of Melting the Venusberg that music as the erotic embodiment of human engenderment has been ignored or suppressed, while music as the expression of transcendent harmony, order, and restraint has been extolled. The second re-constructive part of Melting the Venusberg draws on ignored sources and lost tropes from the Christian tradition as well as on insights from the music and thought of historical and contemporary woman composers and performers from Hildegard of Bingen and Lucrezia Vizzana to Rosetta Tharpe and Diamanda Galas. Through this recuperative synthesis, music's theological significance changes keys, as it moves beyond its symbolic function as divinely ordained, harmonious microcosm into more dissonant metaphorical registers. Those who have ears to hear will be delighted.

A native of Newfoundland, Heidi Epstein has graduate degrees in music history and religious studies from McGill University, Montreal, where she was also a church organist and choir director. She is currently on the faculty of religious studies at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan.

Summarized and cover featured. -The Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/10/04 "The central concern of this book, the promotion of the musical experience as the locus of musical meaning, is valuable to the development of theologies and philosophies of music, and musicology. Epstein pursues this end admirably, developing insights that emerge from music's features and using them creatively. It is here that the strength of the book lies." -Theology "In Melting the Venusberg, Heidi Epstein gives an outline of the suspicions with which theologians throughout Christian history have viewed music, as well as offering a reinterpretation of music through the lens of feminist critique... The book's strength is the depth of research of attitudes toward music throughout the history of Christian theology. It provides information and insights that few theological students ever encounter."- Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 88, No. 1 * Anglican Theological Review * "Studies of music and religion proliferate, but until the appearance of Melting the Venusberg few such studies have taken up the new issues and modes of inquiry that have caused so much ferment within musicology. This book testifies to Heidi Epstein's intelligence and originality in attempting to combine two fields with such radically different histories and scholarly traditions. Her musical knowledge is detailed and secure, and her ability to cope with important interdisciplinary currents formidable." -Mitchell Morris, Department of Musicology, University of California, Los Angeles * Blurb from reviewer * 'This book testifies to Heidi Epstein's intelligence and originality in attempting to combine two fields with such radically different histories and scholarly traditions. Her musical knowledge is detailed and secure, and her ability to cope with important interdisciplinary currents formidable.' Theological Book Review, Vol 18, No. 1, 2006 * Theological Book Review * 'The central concern of this book, the promotion of the musical experience as the locus of musical meaning, is valuable to the development of theologies and philosophies of music, and musicology. Epstein pursues this end admirably, developing insights that emerge from music's features and using them creatively. It is here that the strength of the book lies.' - Ferdia Stone-Davis, Theology -- Ferdia Stone-Davis * Theology *