Ethnomusicology in Church Music Education: Revitalizing Batak Musical Values and Practices

Boho Parulian Pardede

doi:10.62775/edukasia.v5i2.1841

Authors

Boho Parulian Pardede IAKN Tarutung

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62775/edukasia.v5i2.1841

Keywords:

Batak Traditional Music; Church Music Education; Contextual Christian Worship; Cultural Revitalization; Ethnomusicology

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the role of ethnomusicology in church music education as an effort to revitalize the values and practices of Batak music in the context of contemporary Christian worship. This study uses a literature review approach that examines theories, empirical findings, and cultural practices related to Batak music, church music education, and liturgical inculturation movements. The results of the study show that the dominance of modern spiritual music has shifted the role of Batak music in worship, especially due to changes in the preferences of the younger generation, lack of cultural integration in the theological education curriculum, and the limited number of educators with ethnomusicology competencies. The analysis also revealed that Batak music has significant pedagogical, spiritual, and aesthetic potential as affirmed by Rice, Merriam, and Nettl about the importance of cultural context in musical practice. The findings confirm that culture-based church music education can improve the identity, participation, and liturgical meaning of the congregation. This study addresses a major gap concerning the absence of comprehensive analyses that connect ethnomusicology frameworks with practical church education strategies for Batak music revitalization. This study concludes that the revitalization of Batak music requires a holistic approach involving churches, educational institutions, cultural communities, and traditional musicians to develop a contextual curriculum and model of worship.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ahmed, S. K. (2024). The pillars of trustworthiness in qualitative research. Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health, 2, 100051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glmedi.2024.100051

Azumah, J., Ingalls, M., LeBlanc, T., Romero, R. C., Sánchez, L., & Witvliet, J. (2019). Worship and Culture. Symposium on Worship Archive. https://digitalcommons.calvin.edu/uni-cicw-symposium/2019/allitems/17

Birkeland, I., Burton, R., Parra, C., & Siivonen, K. (2018). Cultural Sustainability and the Nature–Culture Interface: Livelihoods, Policies, and Methodologies (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315625294

Bonnaire, S., & González-Moreno, P. (2023). Developing metacognition as an instructional approach for enhancing young pianists’ musical expressivity. International Journal of Music Education, 41(2), 199–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614221115805

Brumagin, M. (2021). The Cultural Relevance Model of Worship. Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/3176

Buska, W., & Prihartini, Y. (2019). Pendidikan Sebagai Proses Transmisi Sosial Budaya. Nazharat: Jurnal Kebudayaan, 25(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.30631/nazharat.v25i1.12

Campbell, P. S. (2017). Music, Education, and Diversity: Bridging Cultures and Communities. Teachers College Press.

Chanda, A. (2021). Key Methods Used in Qualitative Document Analysis (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. 3996213). Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3996213

Evgenyevna Shafazhinskaya, N., Lvovna Kats, M., Vladimirovich Smirnov, A., Aleksandrovna Ovsyannikova, V., & Gennadievna Kruglova, M. (2020). Integration of Traditions in Crossover Music as a Way to Bridge the Intergenerational Gap. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(6), 1230–1234. https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2019.76174

Fitriah, L., & Vivian, Y. I. (2022). Ideologi Pendidikan melalui Pendidikan Seni Musik dalam Sebuah Kreativitas. Jurnal Mebang: Kajian Budaya Musik Dan Pendidikan Musik, 2(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.30872/mebang.v2i1.26

Grant, C. (2025). Sounding Good: Advancing Cultural Sustainability and Social Justice Through Music. Oxford University Press.

Hariati, P., & Purwarno, P. (2024). The Symbolic Representation of Ulos in Batak Culture: an Ecolinguistic Perspective. English Review: Journal of English Education, 12(3), 935–948. https://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v12i3.10261

Howard, K. (2016). Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Policy, Ideology, and Practice in the Preservation of East Asian Traditions. Routledge.

I, Z. (2024). Typology of Agriculture in Cherkasy Region in the Context of Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.12571066

Jeon, H. (2024). Harmonizing Faith Across Generations: The Spiritual Resonance of Modernizing Traditional Worship Lyrics. Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/6368

Jiang, M. (2025). The Optimization of Curriculum System for Music Education Professionals in the Inheritance and Transmission of Intangible Cultural Heritage Music. Pacific International Journal, 8(2), 139–146. https://doi.org/10.55014/pij.v8i2.801

Kelly, S. N. (2018). Teaching Music in American Society: A Social and Cultural Understanding of Teaching Music (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351023665

Kurniawan, R. (2025). Metode Penciptaan Musik Iringan untuk Seni Pertunjukan: Pendekatan Interdisipliner bagi Mahasiswa Seni Musik. Ekspresi, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.24821/ekspresi.v14i1.15106

Lage-Gómez, C., & Cremades-Andreu, R. (2021). Group Identity in a Secondary School Classroom Constructed through Musical Creation. Croatian Journal of Education - Hrvatski Časopis Za Odgoj i Obrazovanje, 21, 35–61. https://doi.org/10.15516/cje.v23i1.3824

Liu, J., Chen, Y., & Huang, S. (2024). Exploring the Sociocultural Influence of Music Traditions Across Different Cultures. SHS Web of Conferences, 187, 02008. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202418702008

Lizardo, O., & Skiles, S. (2015). Musical taste and patterns of symbolic exclusion in the United States 1993–2012: Generational dynamics of differentiation and continuity. Poetics, 53, 9–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.08.003

Lutzu, M. (2016). Representing Performance in Ethnomusicological Studies. https://iris.unica.it/handle/11584/248243

McKoy, C. L., & Lind, V. R. (2022). Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education: From Understanding to Application (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003208136

Meireis, T., & Rippl, G. (2019). Cultural sustainability: Perspectives from the humanities and social sciences. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business.

Mezmir, E. A. (2020). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Overview of Data Reduction, Data Display and Interpretation. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(21). https://doi.org/10.7176/RHSS/10-21-02

Muñiz, J. (2019). Culturally Responsive Teaching: A 50-State Survey of Teaching Standards. New America. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED594599

Natie, N. (2023). Attendance or Tradition: Who Is Interested in Church Music Today. Philosophy Study, 13(7). https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5313/2023.07.003

Pettan, S., & Titon, J. T. (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology. Oxford University Press.

Pryer, A. (2018). Musical heritage as a cultural and global concept. In Music as Heritage. Routledge.

Purba, H. L. (2024). Transformation of Music Structure and Form in Marriage Ceremony of Simalungun Community in Jakarta. Virtuoso: Jurnal Pengkajian Dan Penciptaan Musik, 7(1), 91–107. https://doi.org/10.26740/vt.v7n1.p91-107

Reily, S. A., & Dueck, J. M. (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities. Oxford University Press.

Rommen, T., & Nettl, B. (2020). Excursions in World Music (8th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429433757

Schippers, H., & Bendrups, D. (2015). Ethnomusicology, Ecology and the Sustainability of Music Cultures. The World of Music, 4(1), 9–19.

Simanjuntak, M. B., Sutrisno, S., Lumingkewas, M. S., Neolaka, A., & Santoso, A. (2023). The Urgency of Applying Enculturation to the Existence of Batak and Christianity in Indonesia. Innovative: Journal Of Social Science Research, 3(2), 5181–5188.

Soaita, A. M., Serin, B., & Preece, J. (2020). A methodological quest for systematic literature mapping. International Journal of Housing Policy, 20(3), 320–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2019.1649040

Steuernagel, M. S. (2021). Church Music Through the Lens of Performance. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003080329

Tang, Z., & Wu, E. (2025). Polyphony in action: Interdisciplinary approaches and sustainable strategies for musical cultural heritage preservation. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 1221. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05611-3

Thompson, P., & Bertaux, D. (2020). Between Generations: Family Models, Myths and Memories. Routledge.

Vaidyanathan, A. K. (2022). Controlling bias in research. The Journal of Indian Prosthodontic Society, 22(4), 312. https://doi.org/10.4103/jips.jips_405_22

Willig, C., & Rogers, W. S. (2017). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology. SAGE.

Zosim, O. (2020). Popular Music in Contemporary Church Chants. Journal of History, Culture & Art Research / Tarih Kültür ve Sanat Arastirmalari Dergisi, 9(2), 227. https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i2.2508