In the 2024 summer semester, Paderborn University will be hosting a new lecture series on the topic of "Music - Religion - Gender". Under the direction of Prof Dr Rebecca Grotjahn, Professor at the Musicology Department Detmold/Paderborn, the individual events will take place on Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Kuppelsaal of the Detmold University of Music. On Wednesday, 10 April, Grotjahn will give a lecture on "He pushes the mighty from their chairs. Self-empowerment and disempowerment, appropriation and dispossession in settings of the Magnificat".
About the lecture series
Music is not only an important form of religious expression, but has also been used in many religions to establish gender differences. Bans on women singing and making music are not an exclusive phenomenon of radical Islam, but have also characterised the Christian church for centuries. When, for example, God is glorified in Baroque music with the same musical means as secular princes - with timpani and trumpets - a patriarchal image of God is established and reproduced to this day. However, it is precisely through song and music that liberation and self-empowerment can be created and experienced performatively. The lecture series will deal with various aspects of the topic - from Baroque nuns composing music to the "guitar gods" of rock music, from medieval singing bans to the use of digital media in Orthodox Judaism.
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