In her dissertation, Kristina Socanski Celik investigates the relationship between spirituality and classical music written in the 20th and the 21st centuries through a consideration of the creative processes of composers Arvo Pärt and Ljubica Marić. Their music is commonly discussed in the context of spirituality, yet their approaches to the spiritual domain are fundamentally different. While religion and personal faith are central to Pärt’s creativity, the agnostic Marić approaches spirituality from a culturally bound perspective. Both, however, are known for reworking elements of the musical systems of ancient liturgical chant with the support of modernist compositional tools.
The thesis seeks to enrich and extend the discourses surrounding both spirituality and musical modernism by critically analyzing the prevailing narratives—challenging, reconsidering, and potentially reframing some of them while offering alternative perspectives on others. It eschews a definitive account of spirituality in words for an articulation of how music opens up a space for engagement with spiritual experiences through the lens of aesthetic perception. Its ultimate goal is to encourage music-based discussions of phenomena that are otherwise difficult to capture and resist definition. With the creative process of the composers as its main entry point, the thesis seeks to shed light upon how the relationship between music and spirituality might enrich our understanding of the world.
Methodologically, the study relies upon historical, music-analytical, and aesthetic approaches developed in the fields of musicology, philosophy, musical semiotics, and phenomenology. Its methods include close readings, score-based and phenomenological analysis, archival research, and a critical perspective that is careful to accommodate aspects of performance and the listening experience. The argument reaches beyond the linear narrative of Western compositional processes centred on tonality to explore other possibilities for interpreting the symbiosis of the archaic and the modern in the context of musical modernism. Through multiple analytical approaches and forms of representation, it attempts to make sense of both music and spirituality in a new light.
Kristina Socanski Celik succesfully defended her thesis on 7 February 2025.
Trial lecture
The designated topic : "Time and temporality in the spirituality of Pärt and Maric and the relationship of spirituality to musical construction"
Evaluation committee
- Professor Emerita June Boyce-Tillman, University of Winchester and North-West University (first opponent)
- Professor Kevin C. Karnes, Emory University (second opponent)
- Professor Nanette Nielsen, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
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Director of RITMO Alexander Refsum Jensenius
Supervisors
- Professor Peter Edwards, University of Oslo
- Professor Marcel Cobussen, University of Leiden, (co-supervisor)