Lectures in Musicology: Katie Graber, Ohio State

Katie Graber, musicology, will present "Sing with me: Mennonite music and entrenched systems of power." This lecture is co-sponsored by The Ohio State University Libraries and the Center for the Study of Religion. This talk will be presented in hybrid format. Participants may attend in person in 205 Music and Dance Library, or online:

Register to attend virtually

This lecture will explore how Mennonite music clarifies some musicological discussions about the interrelatedness of musical belonging, composer diversity, cultural appropriation, and musical elitism. Mennonite music makes a good case study because we can frame questions around Mennonite Church USA’s official membership and its repertoire bound in the denominational hymnal Voices Together. Of course, church membership shifts, and the hymnal’s contents of 750 songs does not include the whole of Mennonite musical practice. However, with those caveats, I will discuss the use of hymn singing in the LGBTQ inclusion movement and how those questions about musical diversity mirrored questions engaged by the Voices Together committee. I will also explore the reasons that Voices Together’s final contents still favors white male composers and writers.

Katie Graber, associated faculty in musicology at The Ohio State University, has published articles on affect theory, the history of ethnomusicology, and Mennonite music. She served as Intercultural Editor for the Mennonite hymnal Voices Together, where she worked with a variety of consultant groups and individuals to edit more than 40 languages in hymn texts from multiple musical traditions. She is currently working with a group of international scholars to create a handbook on global hymnody to help church musicians learn the context of songs and understand how colonialism, cultural ownership, and western music bias have influenced the development of church music around the world.

This lecture is free and open to the public. No ticket required.