Religion in Sound: Exploring the Relationship Between Music and Religion in the Composition Harmony of the Spheres by Joep Franssens

Music can generate non-institutional religious experience through aesthetic and performative practice. Analyzing Joep Franssens' composition Harmony of the Spheres, the article argues that its slow harmonic movement, repetition, tonal affirmation, unintelligible text, spatial sonority, and evocation of timelessness invite immersive listening and self-transcendence. A digital ethnographic reading of YouTube listener responses shows that listeners frequently interpret these musical techniques through religious and spiritual language, referencing God, angels, heaven, the sublime, peace, and mystical experience. The article contends that the work functions as "religion in sound" rather than explicitly confessional music, enabling transcendence and unbound spirituality outside traditional religious institutions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between music and religion through a case study of Harmony of the Spheres by the Dutch composer Joep Franssens. Situated within the context of religious change in the Netherlands, where institutional religion has declined while spiritual and sacred repertoires remain culturally significant, this article asks how musical experience can generate, mediate, or articulate forms of religiosity. Combining musicological analysis, theories of sound and religion, and a digital ethnographic reading of YouTube listener responses, this article argues that Franssens’ music opens a space for non-institutional, sonically mediated religion. The composition’s slow harmonic movement, repetition, tonal affirmation, textual unintelligibility, spatial sonority, and evocation of timelessness invite immersive listening and self-transcendence. Listener responses confirm that these musical techniques are frequently interpreted through religious and spiritual language, including references to God, angels, heaven, the sublime, peace, and mystical experience. The article argues that Harmony of the Spheres should not be understood as explicitly confessional music, but as a form of “religion in sound”: an aesthetic and performative practice through which listeners encounter transcendence, community, and an unbound spirituality beyond traditional religious institutions.