Music as a Medium of Oral Transmission in Jesus Communities

Abstract

The oral transmission of early Christian traditions continues to be a subject of scholarly interest (see, e.g., Bauckham, J. Dewey, Dunn, Gerhardsson, Hearon, Kelber, Le Donne, Wire). Relatively unexplored is the intersection between the transmission of oral traditions and music as a medium of communication in the ancient world. In turn, while there is no shortage of studies on music, singing, and hymnody in the early church (Cosgrove, McKinnon, Quasten, J. A. Smith, W. S. Smith, Page, to name but a few), these studies tend to focus more on questions of terminology, origins, settings, and content than on how music functioned as a medium of communication. In this essay, I seek to fill this gap by examining music as a medium of communication in the ancient world and proposing ways in which attention to music opens new avenues of exploration in the study of oral traditions.

Translating the Lampung Oral Literature into Music for Educational Purpose: A Case Study of Pisaan on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra

“…It is well-accepted that oral literature departs from oral tradition in general [16], referring to what is said and sung [17], one of which is through music [18] to transfer educational values of the oral literature [19]. However, the medium of transferring the values through formal education institutions, such as elementary and secondary schools, has not been formulated yet.…”