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Modern pagan music orneopagan music is music created for or influenced bymodern Paganism. Music produced in theinterwar period include efforts from the LatvianDievturība movement and the Norwegian composerGeirr Tveitt. Thecounterculture of the 1960s establishedBritish folk revival andworld music as influences for American neopagan music.Second-wave feminism createdwomen's music which includes influences from feminist versions of neopaganism. The United States also producedMoondog, aNorse neopagan street musician and composer. The postwar neopagan organisationsÁsatrúarfélagið in Iceland andRomuva in Lithuania have been led by musicians.
Several subgenres of rock music have been combined with neopaganism.Neofolk bands have featured pagan revivalists since the genre's inception,pagan rock emerged in the 1980s as a distinct genre or subgenre ofgothic rock, and severalheavy metal bands have associated themselves with paganism since the early 1990s. Festivals likeWave-Gotik-Treffen andCastlefest have become venues for eclectic neopagan popular music, which may contain elements of gothic rock,neo-Medieval music,folk music,electronic music,ambient music andunderground music.
TheLatvian neopagan movementDievturība developed a musical life in the 1930s, focused on the instrumentskokles andtrīdeksnis, choir music and Latvian folk music. In a 1937 article, the movement's chief ideologueErnests Brastiņš wrote about the religion's sermons, which included music that "should create solemn and harmonious feelings".[1] This was initially handled by the organist, composer and conductorValdemārs Ozoliņš (1896–1973). The other main contributors were Jānis Norvilis (1906–1994) and Artūrs Salaks (1891–1984). Norvilis created choral arrangements of folk songs for calendar celebrations. Salaks, a composer and folklorist, became the movement's musical leader in 1936. His own music was characterized bydiatonic scale anddrones, and combined archaic and new elements in what he dubbed "the Latvian style".[1] In 1938, Salaks released a collection of choral songs titledLatviešu dievestīgās dziesmas ("Latvian songs of adoration").[2]
Also in the 1930s, the Norwegian composerGeirr Tveitt (1908–1981) became affiliated with theGermanic neopaganism of theNational Socialist journalRagnarok and its publisherHans S. Jacobsen. Jacobsen drew heavily fromJakob Wilhelm Hauer's theories and promoted the adoration of theNorse gods. This influenced Tveitt's musical compositions, notably the balletBaldurs draumar (1938).[3] Tveitt maintains a high status as a composer in Norway, but his affiliation with this milieu is controversial.[4]
A self-identified pagan scene for popular music emerged in the United States in the 1970s. A pioneer wasGwydion Pendderwen (1946–1982), who established an emphasis on folk music and singer-songwriter material.[5] Another early contributor wasCharlie Murphy (1953–2016), whose song "Burning Times" became popular in the early 1980s.[6] Their style owed much to theBritish folk revival of the 1960s, in particularBritish folk rock acts likeFairport Convention andSteeleye Span. Another important element was thechant, exemplified withZsuzsanna Budapest's "We all come from the Goddess / And to Her we shall return / Like a drop of rain / Flowing to the ocean".[6] Chants and songs were made integral to the religious rituals of the milieu.World music gradually became a central component, partially due to concerns of inclusion. This expressed itself through drumming circles whereMiddle Eastern malfuf rhythms became the standard, sometimes alternated with African-basedclave rhythms. Pagan recordings and performances began to featuredoumbeks,tars anddjembes.[6] The mythological material has predominantly been drawn fromCeltic mythology.[6] Records from this pagan scene were sold inNew Age stores and information about new music was spread through magazines likeCircle Network News andGreen Egg.[7]
As a legacy from thecounterculture of the 1960s, neopaganism in the United States developed a close relationship with the New Age movement. A prominent example of this is theStarwood Festival, held every summer since 1981. Starwood was formerly held in southwesternNew York but has since moved to a site near Athens OH. The festival hosts musical performances, rituals and an eclectic program of workshops.[8][9]
Kay Gardner (1940–2002) was an adherent ofDianic Wicca and one of the founders ofwomen's music, which emerged as the musical expression ofsecond-wave feminism. Her works include theoratorioOuroboros: Seasons of Life—Women's Passages. It portrays a woman's life cycle from birth to death using the symbols of theTriple Goddess and neopagan holidays.[10] According to the musicologist Ruth A. Solie, feminist music overall had its origin in theGoddess movement, which inspired women to express their inner lives through music.[11]
Louis Thomas Hardin (1916–1999), known asMoondog, was a blind street musician, composer and poet. He remained outside of organized pagan structures, but included pagan and mythological themes in his music, dressed in a horned helmet, said he believed in the Norse gods and built an altar toThor at his country retreat inCandor, New York.[12]
In Iceland,Ásatrúarfélagið's firstallsherjargoðiSveinbjörn Beinteinsson (1924–1993) was known as both a writer and singer ofrímur, a traditional form ofalliterative poetry or songs. He can be seen performing in this style in the documentary filmRokk í Reykjavík.[13] In 1982 he released an album,Eddukvæði, where he sings from thePoetic Edda.[14] Another work with ties to Ásatrúarfélagið isOdin's Raven Magic, a 2002 choral and orchestral setting of the Icelandic poemHrafnagaldr Óðins. It was made by theallsherjargoðiHilmar Örn Hilmarsson (born 1958) in collaboration withSigur Rós andSteindór Andersen.[15]
The folk music groupKūlgrinda was founded in 1989 byInija (born 1951) andJonas Trinkūnas (1939–2014), the leaders of the Lithuanian neopagan movementRomuva. The group functions as the movement's musical expression and is an integral part of its rituals. It is specialised onsutartinės, traditionalpolyphonic song-chants.[16] Romuva's website describes Kūlgrinda as a "ritual folklore group".[17] The Slovak singer and multi-instrumentalistMiroslav "Žiarislav" Švický (born 1967) has been influential withinSlavic Native Faith in Slovakia with his songs that combineSlovak folk music and contemporary influences. He is the founder and leader of the modern pagan organisation Rodný kruh (lit. 'Native Circle').[18]
The genre ofneofolk emerged fromindustrial music in the 1980s and is musically related to the post-war folk revival andgothic rock. It parallels and partial overlapsfolk metal,neoclassical music,neo-Medieval music,folk-pop andpagan metal.[19] The historian of ideasStéphane François has written that neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk and dark folk, largely overlaps with what he calls the "Euro-pagan scene",[20] which is "characterized more by a mindset, an overall message, than by a musical genre".[20]
Pagan revivalism has been a part of the scene from its inception through people such as Robert N. Taylor of the band Changes. Other examples include the bandSol Invictus, Fire + Ice and its frontmanIan Read, the Dutch neopaganFreya Aswynn who has collaborated with groups such asCurrent 93 andSixth Comm, andBlood Axis, whose frontmanMichael Jenkins Moynihan edits the journalTyr.[21] Several prominent members have gone from embracingSatanism andwitchcraft to embracing paganism, which has led to internal controversies; some participants have combined pagan and Satanic motifs, which others condemn.[22] Since the early 2000s, some people within the scene, such as Barberousse of His Divine Grace and Moynihan, have been influenced by the paganism of theNouvelle Droite andAlain de Benoist.[23]
Beyond musical commonalities, neofolk is distinguished by anelitist view of culture, opposition torationalism and modern homogenisation, an interest in Europe, identity and ethnicity, and dark visions.[24] The bands sometimes reference right-wing, occult, neopagan orvölkisch subjects with deliberate ambiguity; the scholarStefanie von Schnurbein calls this an "elitistNietzschean masquerade" which expresses a "(neo-)romantic art-religious attitude".[25] François associates the themes of the "Euro-pagan scene" with the political right, especially theconservative revolutionary movement, but also sets it apart from right-wing culture through its willingness to engage in avant-garde artistic expressions.[20] François writes that the early and more influential bands are well-informed about their themes, but also describes a strong presence of "diluted esotericism":[20] the conventions and cultural references established by the early groups do not necessarily correspond to a particular worldview among the bands that copy them.[20]
Pagan rock music as a particular genre emerged from Britishpost-punk, especially gothic rock. According to the writer, journalist and DJ Jason Pitzl-Waters, many younger pagans in the 1980s and 1990s adopted gothic rock as their preferred alternative to the tastes of thebaby boom generation, which at the time dominated the neopagan institutions. By the mid 2000s, the genre had fully integrated into the mainstream of those institutions.[26]
Some mythic themes occurred in goth lyrics from the early 1980s, as part of the genre's propensity for the romantic, medieval and primordial.[26] This became more prominent in the "second wave" of the genre, spanning from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. One of the most successful bands of this wave,Fields of the Nephilim, make ample references to the occult and paganism in their lyrics. Another band from this wave isInkubus Sukkubus, formed in 1989 and explicitly referring to itself as a pagan band above everything else.[27] Inkubus Sukkubus had a mainstream breakthrough in the United Kingdom with the release of its debut album in 1993, and would go on to perform at both mainstream venues and neopagan events. The success of Inkubus Sukkubus inspired a number of other British bands to adopt a "Pagan-Goth identity", something that quickly spread to other countries.[28] The Australian-British bandDead Can Dance, formed in 1981, has had a significant impact on neopagan popular music, although neither of its own members has expressed any allegiance to paganism. Dead Can Dance began as a goth band but gradually moved away from the genre and has added elements such asworld music and references to mythology.[29] The annual music festivalWave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig, which focuses on genres such as gothic rock anddark wave, has a "Pagan Village" for pagan festival goers.[30]
Heavy metal music inherited an interest in Satanism and the occult from its progenitors in 1960s rock music. Beginning in Scandinavia around 1990, many metal bands came to replace the Satanic theme with an interest in paganism.[31] Few of these musicians regarded themselves as religious, but theblack metal scene in particular developed an affinity for paganism and folk customs. An example is a 1995 essay by the Austrian musicianGerhard "Kadmon" Petak, which quotes fromOtto Höfler to draw parallels between black metal and traditions surrounding theWild Hunt motif. The essay first became influential in the Alpine black metal scene, and received wider distribution when an English translation was included in the 1998 bookLords of Chaos.[32]
Among metal bands that explicitly profess to paganism areArkona from Russia,[33]Falkenbach from Germany[34] andSkálmöld from Iceland.[35] Individual musicians includeGaahl, involved in metal bands likeGorgoroth,Trelldom andGod Seed,[36]Ossian D'Ambrosio, founder and guitar player ofOpera IX,[37] and Pierre Wilhelmsson, former bass guitar player and lyrics writer forMånegarm.[38]
A wider popular music scene has formed in Europe around festivals like the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Germany andCastlefest in the Netherlands. The formula of bands like Dead Can Dance has spawned what Pitz-Waters has labeled "ethno-Gothic", represented by bands likeAtaraxia from Italy,Rhea's Obsession from Canada and the Australian musicianLouisa John-Krol.[39] Other openly pagan or occult-oriented bands with a clear debt to Dead Can Dance include Seventh Harmonic, Atrium Animae,Daemonia Nymphe,Trobar de Morte[40] and Íon.[29]
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The German bandFaun formed in 1999 and had their first mainstream success in Germany in 2013. They emerged from the neo-Medieval music scene but developed an eclectic style, which involves folk music andelectronic music.[41] They dubbed thispagan folk, a term that has been picked up by other bands such asOmnia from the Netherlands.[42] Typical for the pagan folk genre are premodern instruments,medievalist costumes and imagery, as well as modern elements in order to create an idealised vision of an archaic past that is present in the contemporary world.[43]
The GermanAndrea Haugen's projects Aghast, Hagalaz' Runedance and Nebelhexë express a Germanic paganism focused on the cycles of nature and feminine mysteries. Haugen's musical influences include the English neofolk of Sol Invictus and Fire + Ice, the dark wave of Dead Can Dance, and Scandinavian folk music acts likeHedningarna andMari Boine.[44] The musicians of the Norwegian groupWardruna have a background in the metal genre, and have subsequently influenced some metal bands. Wardruna have createdambient music based on therunes and their meaning. They aim to use "the oldest of Nordic instruments"; this has included harp,frame drum,mouth harp andgoat horn, and the natural sounds of trees, rocks and water.[45]
Some composers of art music draw on Pagan themes.Die erste Walpurgisnacht, set to music byFelix Mendelssohn, tells ofDruid rituals in the Harz mountains.Merry Mount byHoward Hanson celebrates early colonial American Neo-Paganism.Iannis Xenakis composedPersephassa in honor of the goddessPersephone. Most of the works ofBronius Kutavičius are inspired by ancientLithuanian polytheistic belief and music.
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