Counterpoints of Ecstasy: Music, Mysticism, and the Enchantment of Modern America

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Lytton N. McDonnell (Associate Fellow, University of Victoria)

Counterpoints of Ecstasy

Music, Mysticism, and the Enchantment of Modern America

Lytton N. McDonnell (Associate Fellow, University of Victoria)

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English

State University of New York Press
01 January 2026

Music; Sacred & religious music; History: specific events & topics; History of religion; Mysticism

Series: SUNY series in Religious Studies

A cultural history of the relationship between music and trance in America, from the early colonial era to the Jazz Age.

Counterpoints of Ecstasy provides an engaging exploration of the relationship between music and self-transcendent experiences in America from the 1620s to the 1920s. It investigates how diverse Americans—from Puritan settlers to vaudeville entertainers—used music to find meaning in ecstasy, trance, and other mystical experiences that drastically altered their senses of subjectivity. These moments of profound transformation unfolded in settings as diverse as revival tents, concert halls, parlors, and movie theaters. The book introduces four distinct modes of self-transcendent experience—supernatural, natural, internal, and equivocal—demonstrating how various interpretations of ecstasy evolved out of and alongside each other. Blending historical analysis with cultural theory, the book integrates traditional narratives of disenchantment and re-enchantment, offering a richly textured account of music’s power to dissolve boundaries and foster connection. A vital contribution to the histories of religion, spirituality, music, and American culture, Counterpoints of Ecstasy invites readers to reconsider the profound, sometimes paradoxical, role that music played in the quest for meaning beyond the self.

By: Lytton N. McDonnell (Associate Fellow University of Victoria)
Imprint: State University of New York Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 612g
ISBN: 9798855805260
Series: SUNY series in Religious Studies
Pages: 366
Publication Date: 01 January 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Lytton N. McDonnell is Associate Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria.

Reviews for Counterpoints of Ecstasy: Music, Mysticism, and the Enchantment of Modern America

""This is a unique and well-thought-out presentation of the diverse forms of American music and self-transcendence in the modern era, offering an entirely new perspective on the history of American music up to the jazz era. The author's skill at weaving together multiple strands and firsthand accounts of American music and musical experience in terms of 'counterpoints of ecstasy,' and in such a readable way, is remarkable."" — Guy L. Beck, author of Musicology of Religion: Theories, Methods, and Directions