Faculty News

Liturgical studies professor Teresa Berger has edited a publication resulting from the 2011 ISM Liturgy Conference.  Liturgy in Migration: from the Upper Room to Cyberspace, with an introductory essay by Berger was published in December (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press).

Markus Rathey, associate professor of music history, has contributed 9 major articles to the recently published Dictionary of Renaissance Music (Lexikon der Musik in der Renaissance, Laber Publishers).  Articles include those about the reformers Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon, and about the composers Hans Leo Hassler and Heinrich Finck. Prof. Rathey has also recently published two major articles. One, published in the German journal “Musik und Ästhetik” (Music and Aesthetics) discusses seven hitherto unknown literary sources from the second half of the 18th century that reflect the shift in the aesthetic evaluation of Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (“Zwischen ‘schuldloser Freude’ und ‘höherer Schönheit’, Musik&Ästhetik 16, 42-52). The second article analyzes the interesting relationship between hymnody and dance in a theoretical treatise by Johann Mattheson (“Johann Mattheson’s ‘Invention’: Models and Influences for Rhythmic Variation in Der vollkommene Capellmeister,” in: Dutch Journal of Music Theory 17 (2012), 77-90). In early December, Prof. Rathey delivered a guest lecture at Princeton University entitled “Concepts of Time and Music in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.”

The ISM was well-represented in Lebanon (Notre Dame University, Louaize) at the fourth International Congress of the Society of Oriental Liturgy by faculty and former visiting faculty (see picture at right). At the conference, Bert Groen was elected president of the Society, and will preside at the 2014 congress. Bryan Spinks was elected vice-president for the 2014 congress, and president for the 2016 congress.

Prof. Spinks will be attending the Society for Liturgical Study Conference, Mirfield England at the end of August. He is a former Chair of this UK equivalent of NAAL. Three essays will be appearing soon: "Gregory Dix and the Reformation Liturgy" in Reformed and Catholic: Essays in Memory of Peter Toon, edited by Roberta Bayer, Wipf and Stock; "The Transition from 'Excellent Liturgy' to being 'Too Narrow for the Religious Life of the Present Generation': The Book of Common Prayer in the Nineteenth Century" in Comfortable Words; Polity and Piety and the Book of Common Prayer, edited by Stephen Platten and Stephen Woods, Canterbury Press ( this paper was delivered at the British Academy’s celebration of the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer in March of this year); and "What is 'New' in the'“History' of Christian Baptismal Liturgy: The Early Centuries," in the next issue of Studia Liturgica. Prof. Spinks has been awarded a Conant Grant from the Episcopal Church to support his research while on sabbatical.  (July 2012)

ISM faculty member Vasileios Marinis and his wife Örgü Dalcic are the proud parents of Daphne, pictured here at six weeks.

Markus Rathey has been elected vice-president of the American Bach Society. Earlier in the spring, he was awarded the Martha Arnold Scholar-in-Residence fellowship by the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, where he will spend four weeks this fall working on a book about the Christmas Oratorio. Finally, Prof. Rathey's chapter on Johann Sebastian Bach's choral cantatas has been published in the new Laaber Bach Handbuch. (July 2012)

The 2012 Bach Medal, awarded by the city of Leipzig, was presented to the Japanese conductor, organist, and harpsichordist Masaaki Suzuki on June 8, at a ceremony during the Leipzig Bach Festival. Suzuki, the founder and director of Bach Collegium Japan, is a member of the Yale faculty and the director of Yale Schola Cantorum.

The Bach Medal is awarded annually since 2003 to musicians whose work focuses on Bach in a significant way.  The jury, which voted unanimously in favor of Suzuki, noted that Suzuki has made particularly significant contributions to the dissemination of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach in his homeland of Japan.

Bach Collegium Japan was the first Japanese ensemble to specialize in historically-informed performance practice. The jury’s decision stated, in part: “concerning the repertoire of Bach, which has always been much-appreciated in Japan… [Suzuki has] created an awareness for a scientifically and historically oriented performance practice in Japan and the entire Asian region.” (June 2012)

As part of WATER Women’s Alliance, and their Feminist Conversations in Religion Series, Teresa Berger hosted a teleconference on July 18, entitled “Gender Differences and the Making of Liturgical History,” Wednesday, July 18th, 2012, and discussed her current research on gender and liturgy.  Her scholarly interests lie at the intersections of both disciplines with gender theory, specifically gender history.   Her most recent research project, titled Gender Differences and the Making of Liturgical History, was published in the Ashgate series “Liturgy, Worship and Society” in 2011. 

Prof. Berger also gave a keynote address at the annual convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America in St. Louis, Mo, on June 9th.  Titled:  “Spying in a Promised Land: Sacramental Sights Through Women’s Eyes,” Berger’s presentation mapped developments in women’s sacramental practices since the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago.  Her presentation will published in the Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society 67 (2012). (June- July 2012)

In memoriam: Gerre Hancock passed away on January 21; he was 78. Dr. Hancock was an alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin, and the Union School of Sacred Music in New York City, the Institute’s predecessor organization. He was former student of ISM’s founding director, Dr. Robert Stevens Baker.  From 1971-2004, Gerre was organist and choirmaster of St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue and for nearly that long, taught organ and organ improvisation here at Yale. | read more (Jan. 2012)

Margot E. Fassler's book The Virgin of Chartres: Making History through Liturgy and the Arts (Yale University Press, 2010) has won the Ace/Mercers' International Book Award. The award is made by Art and Christianity Enquiry annually to a book which makes an outstanding contribution to the dialogue between religious faith and the visual arts. Margot E. Fassler is Robert S. Tangeman Professor Emerita of Music History, and former director of the Institute. She is currently Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame. (Nov. 2011)

Ronald Grimes, Visiting Professor of Ritual Studies and ISM Fellow in Sacred Music, Worship, and the Arts, spoke at the Kompetenzzentrum Liturgik in Bern (Switzerland) in November on the subject of "Audiovisual Methods in Ritual Studies." His videos can be sampled at http://vimeo.com/ronaldlgrimes/videos .(Nov. 2011)

Teresa Berger’s new book Gender Differences and the Making of Liturgical History was the subject of a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Francisco in November.  The panel was hosted by the European Society of Women in Theological Research, which had chosen Berger’s book as the focus for its gathering at the AAR. (Nov. 2011)

Also of Interest:

William I. Miller, a business leader and former member of the Yale Corporation, and the son of ISM founding benefactor J. Irwin Miller, has been appointed President of the Wallace Foundation. The Wallace Foundation is an independent, national foundation dedicated to supporting and sharing effective ideas and practices that expand learning and enrichment opportunities for children. The Foundation maintains an online library of lessons at www.wallacefoundation.org about what it has learned, including knowledge from its current efforts aimed at: strengthening educational leadership to improve student achievement; helping disadvantaged students gain more time for learning through summer learning and an extended school day and year; enhancing out-of-school time opportunities; and building appreciation and demand for the arts.  The ISM has maintained strong ties with the Mr. Miller and his family, and looks forward to continued fruitful collaboration.  (August 2011)