Thresholds
Book Description
Marcel Cobussen invites readers to reconsider everything they thought they knew about music's spiritual dimensions in this thought-provoking exploration. Rather than accepting traditional notions of sacred sound, Cobussen challenges the boundaries between the secular and spiritual, revealing how music creates spaces of profound encounter that resist easy categorization.
Drawing from contemporary movements like New Spiritual Music, represented by composers such as Arvo Pärt and John Tavener, the author examines how certain musical approaches seem to oppose modernist principles through their embrace of repetition, tradition, and tonal communication. Yet Cobussen refuses to settle for simple classifications, instead weaving together insights from philosophers like Heidegger, Derrida, and Bataille to develop a more nuanced understanding.
Through careful analysis of diverse musical examples ranging from John Coltrane's jazz innovations to the mythical Sirens, from classical compositions to popular music, Cobussen demonstrates how spirituality emerges not as a fixed concept but as an experience of otherness that defies linguistic description. This approach liberates spiritual experience from conventional notions of transcendence and otherworldliness.
For readers seeking fresh perspectives on how meaning and transformation occur through deep listening, this work offers a sophisticated yet accessible framework. Cobussen shows how music becomes a threshold space where familiar categories dissolve, opening possibilities for genuine spiritual encounter rooted in presence rather than escape.
Who Is This For?
📖 Reading Level: Short (< 200 pages) (~5 hours)
📄 Length: 171 pages
What You'll Discover
- ✓ Explore Theory
- ✓ Explore Andlig musik
- ✓ Explore Psychological aspects of Music
- ✓ Explore Musikpsykologi
- ✓ Explore Musik
- ✓ Explore Music, psychological aspects
- ✓ Explore Psychological aspects
- ✓ Explore Aspect religieux
