Mark Porter is presenting a paper on 'Singing, resonance and ascetic struggle'

In my work at Max-Weber I am interested in exploring ideas of resonance in relation to Christian congregational music. In contrast to common contemporary ideals of authenticity, the idea of resonance allows the opportunity to foreground bi-directional back and forth relationships in sonic, social and spiritual realms. Through a series of exploratory case studies I am exploring the nature of such relationships and the potential for such an approach to illuminate and bring together aspects of congregational music not typically foregrounded in this manner.

Following my previous exploration of theories of resonance, in this paper I explore my first case study: the 4^th century desert fathers. The music of the desert rarely takes a prominent role in discussions of church music history, we have no surviving musical scores, we have no grand theories about the role and nature of music, in fact we have remarkably little discussion of it whatsoever. It is not a moment which obviously serves to advance musical composition in any substantial way, and music is very much a background rather than foreground presence in most of the surviving writings. In contrast to such neglect, I suggest that attention to patterns of resonance, and an exploration of singing within its broader bodily, spiritual and spatial ecology serves to illuminate desert psalmody, presenting with utmost clarity an individual’s struggle as they attempt to pursue with single-minded, but often- frustrated determination their path of spiritual and bodily destruction, formation and witness.