Music and Transcendence

This collection of essays explores the ways in which music relates to transcendence by bringing together the disciplines of musicology, philosophy and theology. Music has the capacity to take one outside of oneself and place one in relation to that which is ’other’. This ’other’ can be conceived in an ’absolute’ sense, insofar as music can be thought to place the self in relation to a divine ’other’ or can equally well be conceived in an ’immanent’ (or secular) sense. Contributors examine how music has not only played a role in many philosophical and theological accounts of the nature of existence and the self, but also provides a valuable resource for the creation of meaning on a day-to-day basis.