Studying Congregational Music: Chapter 10
“Exploring congregational music from a migratory point of view creates an opportunity for us to reimagine congregational spaces as dynamic fields
of cultural production worthy of deeper study.
Championing of congregational music-migration research works in favor of progressive theologies of inclusion, particularly those pushing for the Body of Christ to ‘make room at the table’ for historically marginalized groups.”
Researching Black congregational music from a migratory point of view: methods, challenges, and strategies
By Melvin L. Butler
Abstract
Scholars have long called attention to the processes through which music is refashioned in global cultural contexts. There is much more to be said, however, regarding the conundrums that emerge when music researchers operate within spaces where faith feels incompatible with scholarship. Building on this ongoing methodological conversation, Butler uses the concept of migration to offer insight into some of the tensions and epistemological contradictions of church music research. In particular, he aims to show how both religious practitioners and field researchers “settle in” to physical and spiritual spaces while maintaining a state of readiness to move. Although related terms, such travel, mobility, and globalization also point to the dynamism of cultural phenomena, Butler suggests that a focus on the “migratory” calls attention to the intentional, goal-oriented nature of (re)location.
This chapter invites a reflexive consideration of research on congregational church music, drawing on his experience as a “migrant” and “observant participant” in a variety of African diasporic communities of faith. Butler’s focus is on the following questions: What methodological challenges do scholars of congregational music face as they move about in twenty-first-century intellectual, theological, and political arenas? To what extent must believers, and believing scholars in particular, “migrate” to participate in music-making and gain knowledge of it? Butler proposes that scholars and worshipers participate in ways that are informed by diverse academic and religious “faiths.” Migration emerges as a conceptual tool for grasping the strategies through which participants position themselves within the church and academic homes.