Music, psychotherapy, and the soul: thoughts on singing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.
Journal of Psychiatric Practice May 1, 2011 Norman A Clemens
Drawing on the experience of singing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, the author examines the emotional states that religious choral music, particularly the Mass, can evoke. These feelings are connected to themes in psychotherapy, including confronting dying and death, the "oceanic feeling" associated with religious experience, the human drive for knowledge, and a longing for an eternal, intelligent, all-knowing entity in ultimate reality.