International Centre for Sacred Music Studies (ICSMuS)

This international centre of excellence sets out to stimulate, support, disseminate and engage in research and study in the interdisciplinary field of sacred music.

ICSMuS was founded by Prof. John Harper, and developed from his extensive years of research, study and teaching in the Music of the Christian Church at Bangor.

It takes advantage of the established partnership with the Royal School of Church Music in the delivery of the Sacred Music Studies course and in publishing, the association with the venerable Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, the wide network of academic and church contacts now established internationally, and the expertise and interests of current staff based in the College of Arts and Humanities at Bangor, especially in the School of Music.

The current research and teaching of ICSMuS are Christian in emphasis; but the centre’s scope allows for studies of music in other world religions. Similarly, the current emphasis is on Western music, liturgies and rituals; but it is intended to enlarge this and to engage with scholars and students from anthropology and sociology as well as theology and the arts.