A book review is presented for Music in Medieval Rituals for the End of Life, authored by Elaine Stratton Hild, by Karl Isaac Johnson.
Author Biography
Karl Isaac Johnson has a particular interest in the history of Gregorian Chant in North America, spanning from colonial-mission encounters to the present day. His academic work, which includes publications in Culture and Religion, Glossolalia, Antiphon, Journal of the Southwest, Sacred Music, and Études Grégoriennes, and presentations at meetings of the International Congress on Medieval Studies, American Musicological Society (twice), American Academy of Religion (twice), Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, and Society for Catholic Liturgy, has spanned research on Hispano and Native American Catholic devotionalism in New Mexico and Arizona, Mohawk First Nation Catholicism historically and in the modern day, French Romantic and Contemporary organ music, the Old Hispanic Rite especially in comparison with the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, ethnographic studies of modern-day Catholic liturgy and music in the U.S., and the origins of heavy metal. He also hopes to study the music of the Penitente societies of New Mexico and to explore the social politics of American country, bluegrass, and "old time" music. He hopes to write a dissertation on the creation and use of post-medieval chant expressions in early modern North America, particularly in French-Canadian and Jesuit Mission contexts.
Isaac has enjoyed a successful career as a church music director, organist, choral conductor, tenor, and composer, and has performed organ recitals in cathedrals, churches, and conferences across the United States and in Canada. He lives in Longmont with his wife, three children and cat, and serves as organist for St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Longmont, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Denver, and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Chapel in Boulder.
Johnson, Karl Isaac
(2024)
"Music in Medieval Rituals for the End of Life,"
Yale Journal of Music & Religion:
Vol. 10:
No.
1, Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1320
