Religion in Sound
Exploring the Relationship Between Music and Religion in the Composition Harmony of the Spheres by Joep Franssens
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23311747 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Hoondert (0000-0003-1420-0321, Tilburg University, corresponding author), Nataliia Vdovychenko (Tilburg University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 858 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-18 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel17070858 |
| OpenAlex | W7169783799 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
This article explores the relationship between music and religion through a case study of Harmony of the Spheres by the Dutch composer Joep Franssens. Situated within the context of religious change in the Netherlands, where institutional religion has declined while spiritual and sacred repertoires remain culturally significant, this article asks how musical experience can generate, mediate, or articulate forms of religiosity. Combining musicological analysis, theories of sound and religion, and a digital ethnographic reading of YouTube listener responses, this article argues that Franssens’ music opens a space for non-institutional, sonically mediated religion. The composition’s slow harmonic movement, repetition, tonal affirmation, textual unintelligibility, spatial sonority, and evocation of timelessness invite immersive listening and self-transcendence. Listener responses confirm that these musical techniques are frequently interpreted through religious and spiritual language, including references to God, angels, heaven, the sublime, peace, and mystical experience. The article argues that Harmony of the Spheres should not be understood as explicitly confessional music, but as a form of “religion in sound”: an aesthetic and performative practice through which listeners encounter transcendence, community, and an unbound spirituality beyond traditional religious institutions.
Active listening · Ethnography · Ethnomusicology · Evocation · Harmony (color) · Musical · Performative utterance · Situated · Spiritual practice · Worship · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |