Friedlind Riedel FRIEDLIND RIEDEL(Georg-August-University Göttingen) MUSIC AS ATMOSPHERE. LINES OF BECOMING IN CONGREGATIONAL WORSHIP As I enter through the doorway, I am received by the faint noisesof muted bodies. People are seated in separated rows accordingto gender. I find a place in the female block at the back of theassembly hall. In front of me there are lines of backs, womenneatly dressed up in skirts, their heads covered with elegantscarfs. I try not to move. At the front of the room, men and boyshave gathered around a table on which a loaf of bread and a jarof wine are covered by a white cloth.The silence is made overwhelmingly present by therestraint of coughing and the hasty exit of a woman attemptingto subdue her unruly infant. The silence resounds, waiting for myhushed participation. In this calmness, thoughts, feelings, andaffections unfold their lines of flight as we emerge within thetranquillity. Minutes elapse. It is the voice of a man thatinterrupts the silence by proposing a song to sing. Following hisrequest black bound hymnals are opened and throats arecleared. The song, identified by a number, appears in black onwhite sheet music with multiple vocal parts. A man in the centreof the room raises his head and strikes up the hymn in apenetrating voice. It takes only a few notes until the wholeassembly materialises within the four part harmony as voicesand bodies become musically dependent and form a sensationalwhole – a spiritual whole – a denominational whole.In this paper1 I explore the notion of atmosphere through acase study of congregational musicking2. I suggest that the evol1This paper is the result of a seminal and inspiring research collaboration with SimonRunkel, who conducted two of the quoted interviews and with whom the ethnographicobservations and conceptual frameworks were discussed and evaluated. I would like tothank Birgit Abels, Charissa Granger and Férdia J. Stone-Davis for comments on anearlier draft of this paper.2 See C. Small, Musicking: the meanings of performing and listening, Hanover, UniversityPress of New England, 1998. 81 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) ving concept of atmosphere can provide new ways of understan-ding and describing music and musical practices in religious set-tings.In particular, I argue that an understanding of the worshipservice as atmosphere can further our insight into denominatio-nal difference and processes of communitisation3 that reach be-yond the religious '-ologies' which are traditionally understoodto be essential to the formation of and adherence to denomina-tions: theology, ecclesiology or eschatology. Ensuing from ananalysis of Closed Brethren discourse in the first part of thispaper, I will examine some notions of the unsayable in respect tomusical, spiritual, and atmospheric experiences. Even though theineffability of atmospheric experiences has already been widelydiscussed4 and marks a common starting point in the variousatmospherologies, I contend that it substantiates and justifiesthe linking of the musical and the atmospheric not only on a phe-nomenological level but conceptually as well in regard to abroader history of these concepts and their epistemes.The theoretical groundwork for the discussion of ontologi-cal approaches to atmospheres in part two is provided by theGerman philosophers Hermann Schmitz5 and Gernot Böhme6. Iwill bring these into conversation with Gilles Deleuze and FelixGuattari7. By combining conceptual reflections and ethnographicaccounts in part three and four, I will centre my argument onwhat I consider to be two atmospheric momentums: becoming 3 «Communitisation», a translation from the German term Vergemeinschaftung, aconcept introduced by Max Weber, refers to the process of affective communityformation where «social action [...] is based on a subjective feeling of the parties,whether affectual or traditional, that they belong together» (M. Weber, The theory of social and economic organization, transl. by Talcott Parsons, New York, Free Press, 1964,p. 136).4 Anderson, Böhme, and Schmitz.5 H. Schmitz, Situationen und Atmosphären. Zur Ästhetik und Ontologie bei Gernot Böhme,in G. Böhme et al. (hrsgg.), Naturerkenntnis und Natursein. Für Gernot Böhme, Frankfurtam Main, Suhrkamp, 1998; H. Schmitz, Die Verwaltung der Gefühle in Theorie, Macht und Phantasie, in C. Benthien A. Fleig I. Kasten (hrsgg.), Emotionalität. Zur Geschichte der Gefühle, Literatur, Kultur, Geschlecht. Kleine Reihe Bd. 16, Köln, Böhlau, 2000, pp. 42-59;H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box. The new phenomenology of feeling and corporeality, «Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences» 10/2 (2011), pp.241-259.6 G. Böhme, Atmosphere as the fundamental concept of a new aesthetics, «Thesis Eleven»36/1 (1993), pp. 113-126; G. Böhme, Anmutungen. Über das Atmosphärische, Ostfildernvor Stuttgart, Edition Tertium, 1998; G. Böhme, Atmosphäre. Essays zur neuen Ästhetik,Berlin, Suhrkamp, 2013.7 G. Deleuze F. Guattari, A thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizophrenia, tr. by B.Massumi, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press Continuum, 2004. 82 Friedlind Riedel and territorialisation which are linked to two atmospheric forces,that is, smoothing (process of intensive becoming) and striating(process of stratification)8.The case study on which this paper focuses is the Sundayworship service of Closed Brethren Assemblies in Germany, acommunity that has its ecclesiological roots in the 1850s revivalmovement of the Plymouth Brethren in England. Due to theefforts of John Nelson Darby and Karl Brockhaus (1822-1899) inElberfeld, this congregational form established itself in Germanyaround the turn of the 20th century9. The rejection of institutio-nalised churches and hierarchical structures, on the basis ofwhich Closed Brethren still dissociate themselves from othergroupings, is also inscribed in the practices of the denomina-tion's worship services.Without following a pre-set liturgy, without a stage or anappointed worship leader, without even the authority of apastor, worship services on Sunday mornings are contingent asthey unfold and take shape extemporaneously, culminating eachweek in Holy Communion. During the worship time, which typi-cally lasts about sixty to ninety minutes, scriptures are read, pra-yers are uttered out loud by individual men and hymns are colle-ctively sung from the hymnal Kleine Sammlung Geistlicher Lieder10 in four-part harmony and without accompanying instru-mentation. The unsayableClosed Brethren maintain an elaborate doctrinal discourse aboutmusic. As it became clear in interviews and informal discussions,individuals have well-developed ideas about what music is andwhat it does, that is, how it influences the worshiper. Musicalphenomena were analysed in regard to their emotional andphysical effects and in relation to Closed Brethren conceptions ofman as consisting of spirit, soul and body, and hence moralisedrespectively as good, bad or neutral. One interviewee expressedthis common idea in Closed Brethren discourse as follows: 8 See ibid.9 F. Riedel S. Runkel, Understanding churchscapes. Theology geography and music of the Closed Brethren in Germany, in S. Brunn (ed.), The changing world religion map. Sacred places, identities, practices and politics, New York, Springer, 2015.10 Small Collection of Spiritual Songs, 2012. 83 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) Spirit11, soul12, and body, in a top-down order – this isn't new to me:the words are for the spirit, the melody is for the soul, and the rhythmis for the body (Int. 2, 10.07.12)13.With reference to this framework, believers evaluated musicwith regard to its moral potency and hence its suitability for con-gregational worship. Music that was perceived as being merelyemotional or rhythm-heavy thus emphasising the corporeal, in-deed the carnal, was regarded as morally hazardous. It was po-stulated repeatedly that musical textures ought to be subordina-ted to lyrics, the element that is considered to be most central toboth private and congregational worship. Worship thus was de-fined as the «act of addressing the one who is spirit and truth»and «offering to him his Son» who is the «incarnate word», and«continues to reveal himself through the scriptures» (Int. 2,10.07.12).It is with words, which are believed to correspond to thespirit (mind), that the worshiper frames his glorification to God:When you only look at the sheet music, as if you were in a choir, thenyou merely engage with the outer aspects and it is a great danger thatone is no longer concerned with the content of a song (Int. 1, 02.07.12).With this strong emphasis on spoken language and thus on thespirit (mind) and with reference to the biblical injunction «toworship in spirit and truth», the interviewee explained that faith-ful worship takes place in and emanates from the «heart» of thebeliever, which is conceptualised as the location of man's «will».According to the interviewee, truthful worship is thoroughly spi-ritual and intellectual, which led him to the conclusion that«outer aspects [e.g. harmony, melody, rhythm] do not matter».Yet as he went on to elaborate on his feelings when singing,something, as he said, remained vague to him. In fact all intervie-wees asserted that there is something intimate about congrega-tional musicking and they were reluctant to decide whether it 11The German term Geist which is used here can refer to both mind and spirit.12 In this context qualified as «feelings», as it became apparent later in this interview aswell as in the other interviews.13 This top-down-order of musical elements leads to a firm belief described by one 18year old member: «Since a good Christian should not be guided by his body/flesh, heshould not use rhythmic instruments. These are considered to result in very negativeeffects» (Int. 3, 09.06.12). 84 Friedlind Riedel was the text or the melody that might move one both emotio-nally and spiritually14:these are the same songs [every Sunday] and sometimes I am moved totears, another time I am not. With the same song. So it cannot be themelody [that moves me] [...] but neither the words as they are thesame, too (Int. 1, 02.07.12).In their analysis of their own musical practice and what may betermed «spiritual feelings» something remained non-causal and,therefore, inexplicable.This description of congregational worship as somethingfundamentally based on words but at the same time exceedingthe verbal falls in line with a theological notion repeatedly arti-culated in the lyrics of the Closed Brethren hymns: the ineffabili-ty of certain spiritual verities. Carl Brockhaus, a precursor ofBrethren churches in Germany, who composed several hymnsand edited the first Brethren hymnal in German language, ver-si-fied this understanding as follows15:Wie unaussprechlich ist die Gnad',Wie reich die Segensfülle,Die stets erhellet unsern PfadUnd macht das Herz so stille! [...](Hymn No. 72, Stanza 4) How ineffable is the GraceHow rich the abundance of blessingsWho continue to illuminate our pathAnd calms the heart. Wer findet Worte, Dir zu danken?O Vater, Deine Lieb' ist gross,Ist unaussprechlich, ohne Schranken [...](Hymn No. 89, Stanza 1) Who would find words to thank TheeOh Father how great is Thy loveIt is ineffable, and limitless.(My translation) The ineffability of the spiritual sensation is hence both construc-ted and deconstructed. Whereas it is asked rhetorically «Whocould find words to thank Thee?», nevertheless words – and onlywords – are supposed to articulate the deep gratitude towardsGod. Worship then is saying the unsayable, it is singing the un-sayable with words. 14 The interviewees did not talk about «rhythm» when describing the hymns sung onSunday mornings. Terms such as rhythm or beat are almost exclusively used for othermusic outside the Closed Brethren Sunday service: charismatic churches, pop music,rock music or what interviewees termed «African music».15 Other examples are found in Hymns No. 75, 101, 64, 151, 204 of Geistliche Lieder(2012). 85 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) In many ways, this matches closely to the conventionalunderstanding of atmospheres as something ineffable, somethingthat is «in the air»16, present but indefinite, yet crucial to the si-tuation as a whole. In his introduction to what he calls a New aesthetic, Gernot Böhme notes thatone has the impression that 'atmosphere' is meant to indicatesomething indeterminate, difficult to express, even if it is only in orderto hide the speakers own speechlessness. It is almost like Adorno's'more', which also points in evocative fashion to something beyondrational explanation and with an emphasis which suggests that onlythere is the essential, the aesthetically relevant to be found.17As both phenomenal domains, the atmospheric and musical,evoke a similar narrative, which becomes even amplified in reli-gious discourse, it seems worthwhile to juxtapose the musicaland the atmospheric and to develop a concept of the atmospherein and through music. The excluded middleIt is certainly not novel, neither in theology nor in musicology, toaim at elucidating this «unsayable». Throughout the history ofmusicology and across its various sub-disciplines, great effortshave been made to explain the intrinsic capacity of music toaffect us and to rationalise its (emotional) power. Yet, I argue,the common depiction of both atmospheres and music as some-thing «beyond rational explanation» is not a result of theirphenomenological appearance but is rather dependent upon theepistemologies underlying the argument.As Lawrence Kramer contends, the notion of «musicalspeechlessness» is not an ontological given but, on the contrary,an academic custom based on the assumption that «music is supposed to be beyond words»18. Furthermore, the allegedvagueness, elusiveness and non-causality of both the atmo-spheric and the musical is attributable to the dichotomousstructure of the reasoning.Ensuing from the fragmentation of human existence into rationalthought and emotional experience that has come to its peak in 16 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre cit., p. 263.17 Id., Atmosphere cit., p. 113.18 My italics. L. Kramer, Subjectivity unbound. Music, language, culture, in. M. Clayton T.Herbert R. Middleton (eds.), The cultural study of music. A critical introduction, NewYork, Routledge, 2012, pp. 395-406, here p. 396. 86 Friedlind Riedel modern thought19, the atmosphere just as the numinous and themusical is commonly located beyond the explicable20, thusmaking it categorically resistant to intellectual apprehension.Hence, atmospheres approached in terms of form and content,materiality and signification, music and meaning, or subject andobject, remain unnameable. In a similar vein, the atmospheric isnot locatable in the trichotomy spirit-soul-body of the humanself in the Closed Brethren theological imagination, and neitherits effects can be traced back linearly to musical causes as iden-tified by the informants: lyrics, melody, and rhythm. Rather, asone interviewee conjectures: «songs are somehow in the middle,in-between» (Int. 1, 02.07.12) mind and body, rationality andemotion.To rescue music and atmosphere from their elusive statusis to dissolve this divide, a task the New phenomenologist Her-mann Schmitz has articulated as follows:new phenomenology is anxious about mediating and filling theyawning gap between comprehension and affective involvementwith a smooth terminology by conceptually embracing unmedia-ted experiences of life, thus appropriating comprehension andaffective involvement.21Then, incorporating the notion of atmosphere into the study of(congregational) music does not simply lead to the denotation ofanother realm of ineffability nor to the genesis of a conceptualblack box in academic writing, but rather entails the productivepenetration of the excluded middle. In other words, to explicatethe atmospheric implies dismantling «the conceptual split [ofthe] subject into a material body and an immaterial soul»22 orinner-world and outer-world as solidified through psycholo-gism23, questioning the ontological distinction between thingsand sensations24, defeating the hierarchal succession of percep-tion and understanding, melting the division of «environmental 19 H. Schmitz, Der Leib, der Raum und die Gefühle, Bielefeld -Basel, Aisthesis Verlag, 2009.20 G. Böhme, Atmosphere cit., p. 113.21 My translation: «die neue Phänomenologie [ist] darum bemüht die klaffende Spannezwischen Begreifen und Betroffensein durch gedankliches Durchleuchten derunwillkürlichen Lebenserfahrung mit genauen und geschmeidigen Begriffen zu füllenund dadurch das Betroffensein der Besinnung anzueignen» (H. Schmitz, Der Leib cit., p.12).22 H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit., p. 224.23 H. Schmitz, Der Leib cit., p. 14.24 Ibid., p. 12. 87 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) qualities and human states»25 and disintegrating the dichotomyof signifier and signified as rooted in structural linguistics26. Inshort, a productive concept of the atmospheric requires a non-dualistic ontology in addition to a radically revised concept ofthe personal subject.Stating that the «difficulty [...] of forming a legitimateconcept of atmospheres lies in the classical ontology of thething»27, Gernot Böhme seeks to embark on this task by develo-ping his own thing ontology in dissociation from thing ontologiesas proposed by Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, and Heidegger28.By drawing on the writings of the German philosopher andChristian mystic Jakob Böhme (1575-1624)29, he conceptualisesthe thing not as a mere materiality but as possessive of an inner essence, a spirit, that is secluded and imperceptible from the out-side. Despite this, according to Jakob Böhme, it lies in the verystructure/nature of the thing to unveil this inner essence andthereby to transcend itself. The paragon of such a thing in JakobBöhme's writings is the musical instrument30. It is by spiritualmeans, both the spirit of God and the spirit/will of man, that thehollow body of the instrument begins to sound according to itsgenuine temperament.Following this, Gernot Böhme frames the musical instru-ment, and with it all entities, not simply as passive things but ra-ther as active agents. He states that a thing expresses itself31, itsteps out of itself, points beyond itself32, modifies the sphere ofits presence and emits and radiates in ecstatic ways33. It is inthese particular ecstasies, and not in their objective properties,that things appropriate their presence and afford interaction.Atmospheres are, then, the accumulations of these radiations ofthings of their tangible presences34 as they enter our emotionalstates35. In short, Böhme's New aesthetic 25 G. Böhme, Atmosphere cit., p. 114.26 Id., Atmosphäre cit., p. 164.27 Id., Atmosphere cit., p. 120.28 Ibid., p. 228 ff.29 Ibid., pp. 108, 163, 234, 261.30 Ibid., p. 261.31 Ibid., p. 163.32 Ibid., p. 235.33 Ibid., p. 237.34 Ibid., p. 108.35 Id., Atmosphäre cit., p. 54. 88 Friedlind Riedel is concerned with the relation between environmental qualities andhuman states. This in-between, by means of which environmental qua-lities and states are related, is atmosphere.36However, since things and their constellations are the source ofatmospheric radiations, Böhme's world of things needs to beanimate in itself. Accordingly, Böhme's New aesthetic appearssomewhat mystic and the very question of how things come toradiate ecstatically remains unanswered. I contend that this im-pression is dependent upon his maintenance of a thing ontologyover which he – despite his best efforts – fails to prevail37. Cru-cially, the development of a concept of atmospheres not only re-quires scrutinising thing ontologies but revising the axiomatic di-chotomy of what Böhme terms «environmental qualities» and«human states».According to Hermann Schmitz, the description of an atmo-sphere as a constellation of things or bundle of factors is secon-dary to our involvement in situations by means of the felt (notthe material) body38. «Articulation of significant situations intoconstellations of separate objects and structures is a later-coming achievement (although it is usually taken primary intheoretical thinking)»39; it rather belongs to the realm of verbalreconstruction, sense making, and is an existential faculty ofhuman emancipation from the «primitive presence»40. Ensuingfrom one of his main theorems that «nothing is singular in itself»,Schmitz claims that all singularities41, and among these allsubjects and objects, are primarily rooted in situations42.In other words, situations precede the very concept ofsingularity (Einzelheit) in the first place. Consequently – inexplicit dissociation from Böhme – Schmitz postulates a situation ontology43. He construes situations as totalities with «internallydiffuse meaningfulness [...] of states of affairs, programmesand/or problems»44, characterised by cohesion and integrity45. 36 Id., Atmosphere cit., p. 114.37 H. Schmitz, Situationen und Konstellationen. Wider die Ideologie totaler Vernetzung,Neue Phänomenologie Bd. 1, Freiburg, Verlag K. Alber, 2005, p. 186.38 See H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit.39 Ibid., p. 244.40 H. Schmitz, Kurze Einführung in die Neue Phänomenologie, Freiburg, Verlag K. Alber,2012, p. 101.41 More precisely, their status of being singular.42 Ibid., p. 185.43 See Id., Situationen und Atmosphären cit.; Id., Situationen und Konstellationen cit.44 H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit., p. 251. 89 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) In his understanding, it is within and as situations thatatmospheres take place46. Yet, whereas Böhme's constel-lationalism provides the analyst with a methodology to dissectand understand the atmospheric and its production, Schmitz si-tuations remain largely analytically inscrutable. His sophistica-ted philosophical concepts and meticulously crafted terminologyare short of methodological suggestions on how these situationsmay be studied and analysed empirically.If the atmosphere is a relevant momentum in Closed Bre-thren congregational musicking, how can the musicologist or an-thropologist account for it? If there are no given singularities insituations, no objects, no subjects, if meaningfulness is diffuse,where does the analyst commence to describe «what is goingon»47? If furthermore feelings are spatially poured out atmo-spheres as Schmitz proposes48, how then can one even start toanalyse it? Where does a situation end when the expanse of theatmosphere is rimless? And how are situations related? I arguethat even though Schmitz does not provide his students with anexplicit methodology, his New phenomenology is interspersedwith potential operational terms. Hence in the following I shallpropose a methodological reading of Schmitz's New phenomenology that aims at understanding the sonorous and the musical ofatmospheres.Thinking atmospheres in and through music and not, asBöhme does, through a musical instrument leads to a much moreradical challenge to thing ontologies, since music is not a thing49.In order to account for such non-things as music, HermannSchmitz establishes the notion of half-things50 (Halbdinge) «toplace alongside the concept of a thing»51. Examples of half-things 45 It is important to Schmitz's concept of situations and atmospheres that these aredistinct conceptual terms, as he argues not every situation displays atmosphericqualities. See H. Schmitz, Situationen und Atmosphären cit., p. 177.46 Ibid. Schmitz stresses that situations are often but not always laden with associatedatmospheres.47 E. Goffman, Frame analysis. An essay on the organization of experience, New York,Harper & Row, 1974, p. 50.48 See H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit.49 See C. Small, op. cit., p. 2.50 Even though Müllan and Slaby translate Halbinge as half-entities (H. Schmitz R.O.Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit.), I prefer to use the literal translation halfthings since these are – and this is the important point Schmitz makes – (full) entitiesjust as things, differing from these only in their materiality and hence temporality (seeH. Schmitz, Der Leib cit.).51 H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit., p. 246. 90 Friedlind Riedel include voices, electrical forces, gravity, times of boredom,sweltering heat, stinging cold, or musical figures that contributeto the force of the musical event such as motives, themes, ormelodies52. Atmospheres, similarly, are identified by Schmitz assuch half-things. In contrast to things,the duration of half-entities can be interrupted; the characteristic voiceof someone resounds, falls silent and resounds again. There is no pointasking how they passed the time in between.53Starting from the concept of half-things, Schmitz emphasisesmovement as a key characteristic of both things and half-thingsalike. Yet, when it comes to the causality of movement, half-things again differ from things since «cause and mode ofinfluence are one thing»54. In his understanding movement is aninstant effect of half-things as they suggest movement, affect thefelt (not the material) body, and afford unmediated resonances.On the basis of this Schmitz suggests that spatially poured outatmospheres «move the felt body»55. This translation of one ofSchmitz's most prominent theorems is rather an interpretationwhere the German term ergreifend, elsewhere translated as «stir-ring», is rendered here as «movement»: atmospheres move thefelt body. However, this choice of translation seems not withoutreason; motions and more general processes and momentums ofall kind and on the various levels of corporeal involvement insituations are vital in Schmitz examples and definitions.We may draw the following methodological conclusionhere: if the atmosphere does move the felt body, then we mayinfer that the atmosphere's intensity, character, direction ordegree of collectivity might be manifest in these very move-ments, manifest in other words in the present felt bodies, more-over in the discourses, practices and social systems it gives riseto. Again, it would be misleading to construe the atmosphericmovement as an irresistible force. Likewise, the question of whatit is that moves is wrongly put; as the wind, a half-thing is not amovement of air unless one does reframe it as a full-thing56, 52 See H. Schmitz, Der Leib cit. It is important to note that Schmitz does not call music perse a half-thing, but rather singular musical phenomena.53 H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit., p. 256.54 Ibid.55 Ibid., p. 247.56 H. Schmitz, Kurze Einführung cit., p. 74. 91 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) rather it is its motion, or, to use Schmitz terminology, its movement suggestion.Music proves more complicated when it comes to thequestion of movement, and musicologists have disagreed on thissubject ever since. Schmitz stresses that music does not move,only when its source shifts in distance and direction57. Instead,he argues that the half-thing music suggests motion (again, notethat cause and mode of influence concur). It would exceed thescope of this paper to delve into the debate about musicalmovement here; rather, what I would like to retain is that«movement» is intrinsic to musical phenomena, in one way oranother. A methodological movement ontologyFollowing this, I propose a methodological ontology of atmo-spheres as movement, a movement ontology; «movement» here ismeant as a generic term involving shifts, transformations, dyna-mics, processes, repetitions, movement-suggestions, or beco-mings58. This ontology is methodological because it would be re-ductive to construe being per se as movement, and moreover itwould contradict everyday experience where in fact many atmo-spheres seem to suggest rest, appear as non-moving or simplyare noticed as places and locales one enters or passes by. Yet Iargue that, in order to analyse the atmosphere as situation andnot as constellation, a close observation of the various (levels of)movements and momentums might disclose the cohesive situa-tion of the atmosphere without essentialising its components.Consequently to such a movement ontology and in line withSchmitz's concept of the person, the subject is not a given,outside the atmospheric current and neither its receiver-/perceiver nor source. On the contrary, what is called «thesubject» or «subjectivity» is secondary to the situations of theatmosphere, it is secondary to its movement.Personhood and objecthood are emergent phenomena; and it isthis very process of their emergence, more precisely their beco-ming, a musicology and anthropology of atmospheres would beinterested in. The situating of subject and object downstream in 57 See Id., Situationen und Konstellationen cit., p. 197; Id., Der Leib cit., p. 34.58 It is beyond the scope of the paper to give a definition for each of these terms that allrefer to distinct phenomena. However, none of these terms ought to be understood in itsphysicalistic meaning, especially not in Cartesian coordinates. 92 Friedlind Riedel respect to music is accounted for by Goodman's writings. With afocus on the sonic as vibration and its incorporeal and corporealaffects, Goodman emphasises that the «distinction betweensubject and object [is] a second order effect»59. In contrast to thereiterated notion that the atmosphere is non-existent without aperceiving subject60, it is possible to construe atmospheresinstead as non-subjective and as non-anthropocentric61.Again, with this emphasis on movement, the musical, theatmospheric, and the numinous seem to exhibit similar traits.Defining atmosphere as «the unbounded occupation of a surface-less space in the region of what is experienced as present»62,Schmitz takes the situation of the early Christians as described inthe Acts as exemplary for the idea that «emotions as atmo-spheres are spatial in a surfaceless space»63. He writes that «forthe early Christians the Holy Spirit was such an atmosphere inwhich they lived, of love, joy and freedom»64.This nexus of the atmosphere and the Holy Spirit is not ar-bitrary. In the Gospel of John and in the Acts of the Apostles theHoly Spirit is depicted as weather, in Schmitz's terminology ahalf-thing and a paragon of the atmosphere: «The wind blowswhere it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not knowwhere it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone whois born of the Spirit»65. Here, the numinous is an unintelligiblemotion yet immanently sonic whose causative condition isopaque. Movement hence is common not just to music andatmosphere but as well to the poured out numinosity «that fillsthe entire house»66. 59 S. Goodman, Sonic warfare. Sound, affect, and the ecology of fear, Cambridge, MITPress, 2010, p. 92.60 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre cit., p. 263.61 This involves to overcome a «phenomenological anthropocentrism» as found in«almost all music and sonic analyses, obsessed with individualized subjective feeling,[which] denigrates the vibrational nexus at the altar of human audition, therebyneglecting the agency distributed around a vibrational encounter and ignoring thenonhuman participants of the nexus of experience» (S. Goodman, op. cit., p. 82).62 H. Schmitz, Kurze Einführung cit., p. 78.63 Ibid.64 Ibid., p. 79.65 The same Greek word means both wind and spirit. The Bible, English StandardVersion, John 3,8. See also Acts 2,1-4: «When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were alltogether in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mightyrushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tonguesas of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled withthe Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance».66 Ibid., Acts 2,2. 93 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) One further concern needs to be addressed here, that is, theontological state not of half-things, but of things; in this casestudy the architecture of the assembly hall, the seating, thepulpit, the Eucharist, the clothing, the hymnals, the surfaces ofwalls and floors. If atmosphere is conceptualised as movements,are material things subjected to these atmospheric currents, justas a vessel is exposed to the oscillations of a wave? Does theatmosphere «flow around» such material things and «tinge»them, as Böhme proposes? Or is the atmosphere a medium thatmediates the world of things and alters their presences? In otherwords, is the conception of music, atmosphere and half-things asmovements something that is set in contrast to the non-movingmaterial world?In his study of materials which constitute material objects,Tim Ingold, following Deleuze and Guattari, develops an ontologyof things based on what he calls the «primacy of movement»67. Inhis account things are embedded into the currents of materials,«they are part of generative fluxes of the world of materials inwhich they came into being and continue to subsist»68. Even themost inert elements such as stones, as he points out, are inconstant transformation and flux69. In contrast to Böhme, Ingolddoes not add movement to materials, which is to put «life intothings», rather in his understanding «things are in life»70.Thus, it is possible for Ingold to overcome the artificialsegregation of cause and effect or agent and action when itcomes to the «all-enveloping experience of [...] atmospheres». Hedeclares that «the breaking waves [are] their sound, not anobject that makes sound»71. In a similar manner, GastonBachelard conceives of matter in terms of rhythmic vibration andthereby infers an ontology of movement. According to Bachelard, 67 T. Ingold, Being alive. Essays on movement, knowledge and description, London-NewYork, Routledge, 2011, p. xii.68 Ibid., p. 29.69 Whereas Schmitz tacitly assumes a categorical difference between things and half-things, it is possible with Ingold to postulate gradual differences between the occurren-ces of the various entities. It is within their own speeds that bodies take place. Whereas astone moves and alters inconspicuously slowly, music can move elusively fast and anatmosphere can appear not to move at all, like the night of an insomnia patient.70 Ibid., pp. 178-179. Reading Gernot Böhme against the intellectual backdrop providedby Tim Ingold, his ontology of things can be described as neo-animistic, not in the senseof allegedly animistic cultures, but in a continuation of anthropology's conventionalisedorientalist representation of these cultures.71 Ibid., p. 135. 94 Friedlind Riedel if a particle ceased to vibrate it would cease to be. [...] It should not besaid that substance develops and reveals itself in the form of rhythm,but rather that it is regular rhythm which appears in the form of a spe-cific material attribute.72This primacy of movement not only illuminates the relationbetween the atmosphere and the things, but equally helps toaddress the highly problematic a-historicity of Böhme's felt body.In Böhme's account, sensorial and bodily perceptions of objectsare immediate to such a degree that they appear unhistorical, asif the human body could perceive the things in themselves, which,as he elaborates in his chapter on the thing and its ecstasies,appear to enable just that, in showing themselves as they are. Toconceptualise the subject and things not as the source of move-ment but as embedded in movement also allows us to situatethem – and, with them, the felt body – in the currents ofhistory73.Let me summarise: thinking about atmosphere throughmusic enables us to establish a methodological ontology of atmo-sphere as movements. Yet, if atmosphere and music are bothconceived of as movements, then, it needs to be asked how theyare conceptually related. The atmosphere is not solely what wehear and neither can it be penetrated analytically via the aural;as Abels emphasises, atmosphere is multi-sensory74. On theother, hand musical performances always encompass atmosphe-ric qualities. They are embedded in atmosphere, they produceand alter atmosphere and are themselves permeated and shiftedby it. Hence, the study of music is always the study of the atmo-sphere alongside which it occurs and from which it cannot be 72 My italics. G. Bachelard, The dialectic of duration, Manchester, Clinamen, 2000, p. 138.See as well the chapter on rhythm analysis in S. Goodman, op. cit. where he discussesBachelard's theory of rhythm and its philosophical implications.73 This, in turn, falls in line with Schmitz's postulated notion of the «abstraction base», «aset of fundamental ideas or concepts [...] that [...] provide a deep framework ofintelligibility in which all things appear in experience» (H. Schmitz, Der Leib cit., p. 11; H.Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit., p. 244). See also C. Friberg, Hermeneutics of ambiance, in J.-P. Thibaud D. Siret (eds.), Ambiances in action. Proceedings of the 2nd international congress on ambiances, Montreal, Réseau Inter-national Ambiances, 2012, pp. 671-676.74 B. Abels, Hörgemeinschaften. Eine musikwissenschaftliche Annäherung an die Atmosphärenforschung, «Musikforschung» 3 (2013), pp. 220-231. 95 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) separated. It is in this respect that I propose to speak of musicnot as performance75 but as atmosphere.But let me come back to the unsayable. The musicalontology manifest in Closed Brethren discourse is arborescent,as it is evident in its linguistic description. The tripartite divisionof lyrics, melody, and rhythm correlates with the segregation ofthe self into spirit (mind), soul, and body and suggests that theseelements are non-processual, existing within a rigid lexical stra-tification that allows little movement across categorical borders.The atmosphere is unsayable here because movement is notdenotable. Following Hermann Schmitz, I propose that theanalysis of the atmospheric requires a language of verbs (inclu-ding nominalised verbs) rather than nouns – a language thataims at processes and interim states rather than categories ofthings in themselves76. This means to describe the elements outof which atmospheres emerge not as an assemblage of things butof (musical) currents and motions. Movements, differently fromthe common understanding of things, have no surface, theycannot be differentiated and delineated concisely. Sound, theparagon of my proposed movement ontology, is exemplary heresince – as Schmitz's atmosphere – sonic motion occupies anunbounded space, fringed at its margins; one cannot say where asonic motion ends, since it is transduced across substances andextends into immeasurable spaces. Then, to trace movements asthey cohere within the atmosphere is to acknowledge the motionthat powerfully and fragmentarily links the former things andsubjects through particular vibrations across the various sensorystrata. It equally implies a turn away from the subject, the«interiorised human centre of being and feeling»77, as the ulti-mate perceiver of music and atmosphere and a turn, instead, to-wards the multifarious atmospheric and musical movements thatconstitute subjectivities.Having developed an ontology of both atmosphere andmusic as motion, in the following I shall focus on two movementsin the Closed Brethren Worship services. Since verbs are pivotalin the writings of Deleuze and Guattari, their concepts appear e75 See N. Cook, Beyond the score. Music as performance, Oxford, Oxford University Press,2014.76 See G. Dirmoser, Verben-Sammlung. Die Welt der Atmosphären, Verben im Kontext,http://gerhard_dirmoser.public1.linz.at/atmo/atmo2.pdf; H. Schmitz, Situationen und Atmosphären cit., p. 185.77 S. Goodman, op. cit., p. 81. 96 Friedlind Riedel minently suitable here. Thus, I shall employ two of theirconceptual nominalised verbs78: becoming, a movement on thelevel of the individual worshiper linked to the smoothing force ofthe atmosphere, and territorialisation, a movement of theatmosphere towards its solidification linked to a process of striation. Becomings: intimate alienationsSound possesses the physical and phenomenological capacity toalbeit gradually demarcate and alter the expanse of an atmo-sphere both spatially and temporally. Schmitz elucidates howmusic occupies an intensive space rather than a quantifiable ex-tensive one. Music's intensity is twofold, he argues: the intensiveextent of the sound space, beset with atmospheres79, and the in-tensive duration of the sound continuously becoming historicallycharged80. The beginning and spatial extent of the worshipservice in Closed Brethren churches is demarcated with silence;silence that initiates an intensive space, an intensive duration.Silence concerns the acoustic dissociation of the congregationalsituation from mundane life and is manifest in the bodilymovements of its participants. As congregants transgress thethreshold and enter the assembly hall, their voices fall silent andtheir movements become restrained while they walk straight upto a vacant seat. Only silence resounds, several minutes long, theservice has already begun.The hush slows down motion and lengthens the present. Wor-shippers say that they «come into the presence of their Lord»,something that is also phrased musically in many of theirhymns81. Insiders and uninformed newcomers alike immediatelyadapt to this tranquillity as they mutually encorporate the calm.The communal vocalisation of hymns in the course of the servicearises from this shared silence and constitutes an atmosphericshift. Both silence and the sound of the singing voices affect allbodies present in the specific locale and bring them into reverbe-ration. Whereas individuals may refrain from singing orspeaking, watching or moving, they have no similar ability to 78 G. Deleuze F. Guattari, op. cit., p. 263.79 Note that Schmitz uses the plural here.80 H. Schmitz, Atmospären cit., p. 88.81 Kleine Sammlung Geistlicher Lieder, Hymn No. 22, 157, 136, 157, 171, 213, 231, 237,204. 97 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) withdraw from the audible, there is no closing of the ear. Rather,the sonic penetrates their felt bodies82, and even dissolves thedistinction between a bodily inside and outside as the singingvoices of attendees transgress their corporeal presences. In aprocess of «mutual encorporation» (solidarische Einleibung)whereby felt bodies assimilate motion, the movement of thehymn pervades the entire congregation. Thus music, sounds andsilences bring all those who are present into a single encompas-sing situation through vibration83. It is in respect of this mutualencorporation by means of movement suggestions (Bewegungssuggestionen) that Schmitz writescommunal singing elicits a mood-dome forming an arch above theparticipants who, according to their own impulses, are taken up by theatmosphere.84Human and non-human entities become «ensounded»85 as allmovements and force fields attune to the sonic motion that is theatmosphere. Crucially the term Bewegungssuggestion asproposed by Schmitz does not just refer to actual movements butmore importantly to potential ones; and it is this intrinsiccontingency of motion, rather than its effective occurrence inspace, where the music as atmosphere becomes evocative ofspiritual becomings. Yet, just as sound and feeling, the movementis not located within the individual but is poured out spatiallyand is potentially mutually encorporated. The evoked tension ofsuggested hence potential movement is occasionally pandered towhen the otherwise seated congregation collectively raises tosing a hymn. Either the person (a male worshiper) who in thecourse of the service proposes «let us sing the hymn number122» adds «let us rise while singing», or someone (a male wor-shiper) interrupts the singing congregation after the end of averse to suggest to sing the remaining verses standing. The con-gregation collectively follows these invitations, encorporatingthe musical movement suggestions that is the atmospheric mo-vement. 82 Compare Schmitz's notion of the «auditive felt body [der hörende Leib]» in H. Schmitz, Kurze Einführung cit., p. 74.83 See Id., Situationen und Konstellationen cit.84 «Gemeinsames Singen wölbt gleichsam eine Stimmungsglocke über die Teilnehmer,die mit ihren eigenen Impulsen in der Atmosphäre aufgehen» (Id., Der Leib cit., p. 34).85 T. Ingold, op. cit., p. 135. 98 Friedlind Riedel Two hymns that are occasionally sung this way are Die Ruh auf immerdar and Dem, der uns liebt. Both hymns exhibit a mu-sical passage of harmonic modulation with similar chromaticshifts in the four voices and an emphasis on leading-tones thateffect the ascending melodic movement in the first voice. In thehymn Dem, der uns liebt this musically pre-eminent passagecoheres with the central declaration of the hymn: «to him be theglory and power». The same passage in Die Ruh auf immerdar isphrased in the French original as sung by Closed Brethrenworshippers in French speaking congregations: «Élève en hautles yeux; il est ta delivrance»; and the reference to the movementof lifting up one's eyes to the bare heights is encorporatedmusically and acoustically.This mutual attunement has powerful social consequencessince everybody present at a Sunday morning service is corpo-really (eigenleiblich) part of the musical movement irrespectiveof any personal dispositions towards the social setting orindividual attitudes concerning beliefs articulated in the lyrics.Yet, there are multiple ways to listen while hearing. To suggestthat everyone becomes attuned to the same mood, would lead tothe dissipation of the subject86. Instead, I argue that individuals'sentiments and emotional currents shift alongside and inrelation to larger-scale atmospheric movements.In the context of the postulated (methodological) move-ment ontology agency needs to be relocated. Just as the silencecannot be ascribed to a particular instigator since everybodypartakes in it, perceives it, and produces it at the same time, themovement of the atmosphere is equally not attributable to aparticular agent. Furthermore, the movement of the atmospherecannot be attributed to the community as a social entity. It is inthis respect that Deleuze and Guattari argue about the «molecu-lar realm of beliefs and desires» that «the distinction betweenthe social and the individual loses all meaning since flows areneither attributable to individuals nor overcodable by collectivesignifiers»87.This vacancy of an agent in relation to the atmosphericmotion yields to theological imaginations and to the acknow-ledging of divine potency such as the efficacy of the «Holy Spirit»who is believed to direct the worship service. Here, along with 86 See H. Schmitz, Situationen und Konstellationen cit., p. 275.87 G. Deleuze F. Guattari, op. cit., p. 241. 99 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) the formation of subjectivities as a second order effect, the iden-tification of agents and the acknowledgment of agency aresecondary to the atmospheric movement. Thus, the atmosphericdoes not impose itself on the individual, but, rather, affords par-ticular movements (Bewegungssuggestionen).Hence, the atmosphere is not primarily experienced interms of agency on behalf of the individual, nor in terms of herability to decide to immerse herself in the atmosphere, as Abelssuggests88, but can in this case more appropriately be describedas an experiential motion of a shared situation and thus asaffective communitisation. Schmitz writes that «the foundationof personhood is not to be sought in the soul, but is embodied»89.This embodiment is not fixed, nor is a linear process, muchrather it is dynamic with «receptivity to the dawning of the new».Whereas the notion of agency and the proposition of thesubject's immersion into a particular atmosphere would requirethe a priori being of an agent, the affective corporeal involve-ment (by means of the felt body) in atmospheres is – in line withthe postulated movement ontology – more appropriately termed becoming.This notion of becoming as developed in Thousand plateausby Deleuze and Guattari refers to indecomposable states ofbeing, irreducible to subjective or objective components, in factan itinerant movement and crossing of thresholds90. Deleuze andGuattari depict becomings as «block[s] of coexistence»91 whichare emergent92 and, like atmospheres, cannot be graspedthrough a structuralist language of causation93. To put it in ano-ther way, «in becoming [...] one can achieve an ultimate existen-tial stage in which life is simply immanent and open to new rela-tions [...] and trajectories»94.This becoming is not fortuitous but of central importance tothe congregational atmosphere – and, perhaps, ultimately tomost atmospheres – since the individual joins the worship 88 See B. Abels, op. cit.89 H. Schmitz, Kurze Einführung cit., p. 45.90 See G. Deleuze F. Guattari, op. cit., p. 324.91 Ibid., p. 225.92 Ibid., p. 348.93 «Structuralism clearly does not account for [...] becomings, since it is designedprecisely to deny or at least denigrate their existence: a correspondence of relationsdoes not add up to becomings» (ibid., p. 261).94 J. Biehl P. Locke, Deleuze and the anthropology of becoming, «Current anthropology»51/3 (2010), pp. 317-351, here p. 317. 100 Friedlind Riedel service in search of spiritual renewal, in order to abandon themundane and moral earthliness and to reach the «throne of God»in an «unnatural participation»95. It is dynamics, contingent uponthe atmospheric progression of the service, and manifest ascontinuous transformation in the bodies that are present. This isintimate alienation. This is where attendees perpetually become«children of God», and «brothers» of their «Lord Jesus Christ».This line of becoming is theologically imagined to be infinitesince in the course of a single lifetime an individual neversucceeds in finally morally becoming a Saint96. Instead, it is a mo-tion, embedded in the atmospheric currents of congregationalmusicking, towards a desired state of glorification that theworshiper embraces – not imitation, nor imagination or mereidentification97, but a truthful and continuous conversion.In order to understand the embodied dynamism, the move-ments of becoming, and the movement suggestions of the musicin relation to the atmosphere as a spatial phenomenon, thenotion of «surfaceless space [flächenloser Raum]» as introducedby Hermann Schmitz is helpful. The surfaceless space is a pre-di-mensional non-Cartesian space that is situated upstream of thethree-dimensional space98. It is by means of this surfacelessspace that three-dimensional space is experienced. Sound is aprime example of this surfaceless space as it cannot be measuredin terms of lengths and points, positions and distances, which areprerequisites in order to determine a surface. Consequently, theextent of the sonic space cannot be delineated and is, inSchmitz's terminology, «unbounded [randlos]».The particularities of Closed Brethren congregational mu-sicking reveal an utilisation of this spatial idiosyncrasy of musicas atmosphere. The activity of musicking is equally distributedthroughout the entire congregation as members attune vocally toeach other in four-part-harmony. There is no stage performance,no choir, no allocated worship leader, no instrumentalist, andthere is no audience to simply listen, or who might just sing 95 G. Deleuze F. Guattari, op. cit., p. 265.96 As far as Closed Brethren theological imagination is concerned, the born againChristian is at the moment of his/her rebirth a child of God and a brother/sister of Christand hence ultimately a Saint. This is his/her spiritual estate. The «becoming» in worshipservices and throughout the life of the believer is therefore the enactment andexperience of what one considers himself/herself to be.97 See ibid., pp. 262, 336.98 See H. Schmitz R.O. Müllan J. Slaby, Emotions outside the box cit., pp. 242-243. 101 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) along. Each individual is thereby positioned within the acousticsource from whence the hymn emanates into a beyond,engendering a surfaceless, unbounded spatiality. The sound ofthe singing voices reaches beyond the assembled bodies of thecongregation and potentially transgresses doors, windows, walls,exceeds worldliness, corporeality, and carnality. While music-king, the congregation cannot grasp the extent of their voices.From the auditory perspective of the singing bodies therange of their song is immeasurable and unforehearable. As aresult, sound becomes a key instrument of theological and eccle-siological imagination, as individual worshipers and the en-sounded congregation reach (out to) God in song. It is in the sur-faceless space of congregational musicking which is neitherlimited to nor dependent upon the three-dimensional space thatGod equally «reverberates» and therefore becomes (is) part ofthe atmospheric movement. Within this surfaceless space wor-shipers «advance the throne of grace»99, «sit to the feed of theirLord»100 or «approach his countenance»101 as they sing. Viasound the congregational atmosphere establishes its own spa-tiality, which is pre-dimensional and thus a potential means ofconstituting incorporeal and corporeal relations alike; a situationof immanence, an atmosphere.Here it becomes clear that situations are wholes (Ganzheiten) with thematic and atmospheric cohesion inside and con-trasting thresholds at their margins102. Schmitz suggests that si-tuations have a chaotic multifarious «field (halo) of significance[Hof der Bedeutsamkeit]» in which the individual parts andbodies are not solitary. This is due to the fact that within thesituation it is uncertain whereof they are different andwherewith they are equivalent103. As mentioned earlier, singula-rities (Einzelheiten) cannot be singled out since it is ambiguous 99 No. 222.100 No. 172.101 No. 157.102 H. Schmitz, Situationen und Konstellationen cit., p. 46. This is conspicuous to such adegree that it is not made explicit in Gernot Böhme's writings. Albeit, to conceive ofatmospheres as wholes is vital to the analysis of the various speeds, movements andlines of becoming that take place in atmospheres.103 Ibid., p. 185. 102 Friedlind Riedel where one thing ends and another begins104. This corresponds toAnderson's conclusion thatif atmospheres proceed from and are created by bodies, they are not,however, reducible to them. [...] The singular affective qualities that areatmospheres [...] exceed that from which they emanate.105In other words, even though one might identify certain elementsin Closed Brethren congregational musicking with certain affects,such as the slow meter of the hymns with a solemn quality or thefour part singing with a certain sense of unity and mutualdependency, these would not add up to the atmosphere. In fact,to identify the meter as solemn and the multipart singing asunifying is only possible in their situatedness – that is within theatmosphere as a whole. Moreover, it is not the music only thatinitiates a certain atmosphere nor the readings, prayers andsermons, the particular dress code106 or the visual aspects of thesparsely furnished assembly hall. It is rather the atmosphere as acohesive yet shifting whole that reveals the music, the style ofdress, or the assembly hall as meaningful and particular.This aspect of atmospheres as something consistent, a si-tuation where the allegedly singular elements are not fixedentities organised along a principal of metered relations, butrather are seamlessly accumulated into one encompassingwhole, is similar to the notion of the «smooth space» in the wri-tings of Deleuze and Guattari107. Borrowing the concept fromFrench composer Pierre Boulez108, «smooth space is directionalrather than dimensional or metric [...] filled by events or haec104 It is a paramount task of Schmitz's philosophy to antagonise the overestimation ofsingularities and their constellations over the chaotic multifariousness of the situation.See ibid., p. 47.105 B. Anderson, Affective atmospheres, «Emotion, Space and Society» 2/2 (2009), pp. 77-81, here p. 80.106 Women consistently wear modest skirts and are strongly encouraged to put onheadscarves during the service. Men usually wear suits or similar decent garments andchildren are clothed with their Sunday bests.107 See G. Deleuze F. Guattari, op. cit. Kerstin Andermann has remarked on the strikingproximity of Hermann Schmitz with Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. See K. Andermann, Die Rolle ontologischer Leitbilder für die Bestimmung von Gefühlen als Atmosphären, in K.Andermann U. Eberlein (hrsgg.), Gefühle als Atmosphären. Neue Phänomenologie und philosophische Emotionstheorie, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Sonderband 29,Berlin, Akad.-Verl., 2011, pp. 79-96, here p. 85.108 «In the simplest terms, Boulez says that in a smooth space-time one occupies withoutcounting, whereas in a striated space-time one counts in order to occupy» (G. Deleuze -F. Guattari, op. cit., p. 527). 103 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) ceities, far more than by formed and perceived things». And, si-milar to Schmitz's concept of the surfaceless space, the smoothspace «is an intensive rather than extensive space»109. Within asmooth space the various events and affects occur as freemovements, disorganised and sensual, intensive becomings. Justas the smooth space, the atmosphere is not a constellation ofthings, it is not so much related to sight but to haptic perceptionincluding the auditory in that it is «occupied by intensities, windand noise, forces, and sonorous and tactile qualities»110.The concept of smooth space, albeit similar to the surface-less space, adds something to the study of atmosphere here,since it is wedded to what Pierre Boulez has termed «striatedspace», a metered space initiated by stratification, hierarchisa-tion, and centralisation, productive of dichotomies and staticidentities. In contrast to a notion of atmosphere as somethingaffective, indeterminate, or vague, the concepts of the «smooth»and the «striated» may account for the close linkage of theatmospheric with power relations. Whereas atmospheres aresmooth spaces of becomings, they nevertheless can transverseinto striating forces. In fact, as I will maintain in the following, itis because of the smooth space of the atmosphere that stratifica-tion takes place over time and repetition. This aspect, which isoften overlooked in research on atmospheres, is an importantpart of atmospheric formations, as the case study of the ClosedBrethren worship service shows111. Territorialisations: home makingSchmitz insists provocatively that atmospheres can be autono-mous from «the things»112, yet, I argue, they are not completelyindependent from individual movements and smaller scale mo-mentums. The atmosphere in fact seems dependent on thespecific inextricable aggregation of its parts. This dependencehowever is not of linear causality – one cannot purposefully andsuccessfully erect nor direct an atmosphere – but rather relatesto the imamnent diffuse meaningfulness of the atmosphere; adependence, only apparent within and in relation to a particularatmosphere in a particular situation. As a result, if an atmo109 Ibid., p. 528.110 Ibid.111 Also compare T. Ingold, op. cit., pp. 132-134.112 See H. Schmitz, Situationen und Atmosphären cit.; G. Böhme, Atmosphäre cit., p. 30. 104 Friedlind Riedel sphere both constitutes parts and is dependent on a particularallocation of these, a minor shift or addition of just one element,in fact movement, can throw an entire atmosphere out of kil-ter113. In this respect, atmospheres are both fragile andcontingent. This non-linear and situation sensitive dependenceof the atmospheric has far reaching consequences when it comesto repetition and therewith to questions of repertoire or musicalstyle.All hymns sung on Sunday mornings in Closed Brethrencongregations have a steady meter and a clear phrasing withstrong downbeats in all four voices. They are largely homopho-nic, have a strophic structure mostly without a refrain. The flowof the lyrics is thoroughly metrical, reinforcing the rigid phrasingthrough clear rhymes. Musical and lyrical meter are inextricablylinked and breath marks in all voices assist the assembly inmaintaining rhythmical consistency. Within Closed Brethrenmusic making off-beat rhythms, as found in the hymns of otherfree churches or popular music, are unable to integrate with thecongregational atmosphere. To include a hymn with an off-beatstructure into the Sunday morning service would not just alterthe musical texture or expand the musical repertoire, but wouldpotentially collapse the entire atmosphere114.To put it in another way, the constitution of the atmospherecould be hindered by the addition of certain musical movementsuggestions115 that are not determined by the whole as pertai-ning to the congregational atmosphere in Closed Brethren servi-ces. Thus, whilst the rejection of what was labelled in interviewsas «syncopated music» is made on a moral basis, since the off-beat, taken to be addressing the (physical) body, is imagined tobe carnal, it is at its core an attempt to hold on to the smoothspace, the congregational atmosphere. This musical dispute,then, is not merely about the significations of certain musical ele-ments or their classification as essentially good or bad, but about 113 Not every alteration will have a devastating effect and the efficacy of the variousmovements is not a property of the thing. That is to say, loud movements will not alwayshave a powerful effect and soft movements will not always induce only a weak shift.Instead, the efficacy of the various movements is determined by the whole.114 The shift on the level of the atmosphere is strictly speaking not a collapse but analteration of the atmosphere towards another atmosphere. Yet, since the atmospherewhich results of the major rupture is not desired and even rejected, this rupture is in factexperienced as a collapse and not a smooth shift from one atmosphere into another.115 This is of course just as true for alterations on other levels: light, clothing, socialrelationships, furniture, sermons, dialects, or faces. 105 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) their affective intensities within the congregational atmosphere.In this understanding the off-beat is not a «thing in itself» withan intrinsic moral meaning, but a rhythm alien to the wholeatmosphere, and therefore powerful enough to distort the atmo-spheric movement suggestions of congregational worship.The smooth space of congregational musicking would beruptured by transverse motion to such an extent that it would nolonger be open to spiritual becomings. Worshipers would bedeflected from God by hearing (listening to) the music, in fact themusical rupture, instead of remaining in a state of hearing inmusic, that is, being in a relationship to God and fellow wor-shipers musically116. Thus, in order to experience intimate beco-mings and the constitution of a smooth space, worshipers strivefor coherence, since it is only there that true117 becomings canoccur118. Due to this coherence, manifest in the atmosphere,minor musical mutations are rejected rigorously; hence, striatingforces evolve.Atmospheres are never simply «there» as Schmitz's notionof the situation may suggest. They not only beset certain situa-tions, but are equally embedded in the currents of history and,furthermore, are productive in forming pasts and futures. Thisaspect is crucial to congregational atmospheres since they arerepeated in a steady weekly rhythm. As the particular atmo-sphere seems dependent on specific aggregations of forces andmotions, the repetition of the congregational atmosphere is infact its solidification, because to aim for an iteration of the atmo-sphere is to neatly reassemble the bodies that one had identifiedas having been part of the previous atmosphere and to bringthem into reverberation in the same, or at least in a similarmanner. As a result, a congregational practice establishes that isreliant upon structures and hierarchies in order to stabilise theconstitution of the desired atmosphere. In fact, the repetition ofthe «smooth space» of the atmosphere powerfully provokes, in aprocess of what Deleuze and Guattari term «territorialisation», a«striated space» of systems, hierarchies and numerical order119 .This effect is inscribed in the canonical musical repertoireof the Closed Brethren. In the most recent expansion of the 116 See T. Ingold, op. cit., p. 138.117 Becomings that are not imitations or mere imaginations.118 See G. Deleuze F. Guattari, op. cit., p. 537.119 Ibid. 106 Friedlind Riedel hymnal Kleine Sammlung Geistlicher Lieder in 2013, 75 newhymns were added, of which several were newly composed(both text and music) by Closed Brethren church membersthemselves. These were assembled by a centralised self-ordainedcommittee of male Brethren and disseminated among theGerman assemblies via the publisher CSV (Christliche Schriftenverbreitung Hückeswagen), informally recognised as Closed Brethren publisher. However, these 'novel' hymns are not entire-ly new, since they draw on the musical style of the older hymnswithin the hymnal. Just like the older hymns, the newercompositions are strophic, they have a four-part musical texture,are sung slowly and solemnly, and are without instrumentation.As a result, the various situational atmospheres of differentworship services merge into one encompassing ideal atmosphereas they territorialise across generations. Deleuze and Guattariargue that it is in «temporal constancy», here the weekly cycle ofthe service, and in «spatial range», here the assembly hall, thatterritorialisation takes place and «refrains», here hymns andsilences, become a territorial mark120. In this territorial atmo-sphere, with its musical continuity and atmospheric consistency,church members find a home to return to. A home where «theforces of chaos are kept outside as much as possible» by meansof an «activity of selection, elimination and extraction»121. As aresult of its repetition, the congregational atmosphere entailssome tension between the smooth or surfaceless space wherebecomings occur and the striated structured space where identi-ties are ready-made in theological discourse.It is here, in the highly territorial atmosphere, that denomi-nation comes into play. Böhme suggests that the specificity ofatmospheres is experienced most intensely when their charac-ters are in most striking contrast. He postulates that due to itsdivergence a particular atmosphere is stirring with the tendencyto put one into a distinct mood122. In the process of atmosphericterritorialisation and striation in weekly repetition, ClosedBrethren worship services establish boundaries and erectthresholds to the everyday.Whereas musicking with musical instruments is a pervasiveand even highly valued activity in the mundane lives of church 120 Ibid., p. 347.121 Ibid., p. 343.122 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre cit., pp. 263-264. 107 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) members, it is excluded from worship services. As a result of thiscontrast, the atmosphere of services becomes a powerful tool insuggesting a particular movement and affording very particularmood due to its distinctiveness from the everyday life. Moreover,in its coherence the Closed Brethren worship service is set incontrast to other religious atmospheres, thereby highlighting notonly difference, but producing unity: the particular atmosphere,by virtue of its territorialisation over generations and acrossgeographic boundaries, develops thresholds with its evangelicaland religious Others. Hence, the atmosphere becomes anexpressive territorial mark of 'Closed Brethrenness'123. It is withthe atmosphere that the proper name of a denomination trans-forms into an adjective of congregational practice. Now we canspeak not only of the atmosphere in Closed Brethren services,but indeed of a particular Closed Brethren (worship) atmosphere.Not least because of its crucial impact in situations of wor-ship, the atmosphere is discursively made sense of in respect tobiblical doctrine. This may relate to a movement124 Schmitz callsself-ascription, where a «sphere of the own» evolves that is set incontrast to the foreign125. Here this self-ascription of an indivi-dual person126 is transcended as a self-ascription of the groupthat, because of the collective atmosphere, tends to be almostidentical with the individual. While talking about music withmembers of the Closed Brethren community, musical practicewas often linked with dispensationalist ideas, theological sy-stems of distinct aeons. In particular, contemporary musickingwas strongly dissociated from the Jewish Old Testament wor-ship. This delineation, however, was not merely theological, butalso appeared to be experienced in the affective qualities of mu-sicking. One interviewee imagined Old Testament worship as fol-lows:There were musical instruments, there was a shouting that resoundedin the far distance, because it was external. It was truthful since it cor-responded to the Word of God but it was not a spiritual worship (Int. 1,02.07.12). 123 G. Deleuze F. Guattari, op. cit., p. 348.124 Schmitz talks here about transgressing a threshold.125 H. Schmitz, Kurze Einführung cit., p. 45.126 Self-ascription is in fact the means by which a person reaches proper personhood andindividuality. 108 Friedlind Riedel In contrast, today Closed Brethren services are described bytheir participants as being somewhat subdued in sentiment,since they are performed in remembrance of the death of Christ,hence within the «dispensation of grace»127. In a similar way,Closed Brethren music is dissociated from what was labelled«modern Praise and Worship» (Int. 2, Int. 3), which stands incontrast to the intimate and muted mediation and worship inClosed Brethren congregations. Thus, it is not just in ecclesiologi-cal discourse and theological doctrine that denomination andspiritual belonging are negotiated, but it is also – and perhapsprimarily – experienced in the congregational atmosphere as aterritorial home.It is in the striated space of the territory where certain ele-ments take on meaning and function, where things are differen-tiated and become expressive, where men are different from wo-men128 and where the four-part-singing signifies the church ofthe New Testament and the time of grace, where systems ofhabits emerge and moral judgements solidify129. One can analysethe striated space, one can delineate subjects and objects, as wellas agencies and hierarchies. However, these are not to beconfused with the smooth space of the atmosphere, they are notthe atmosphere but eventually the result of its repetition, feedinginto new atmospheres in a constant movement, a spiritualbecoming and a denominational territorialisation. ConclusionsTo analyse atmosphere in ecclesial practices is to acknowledgethe claim that «spaces are NOT constructed by discourse alone,and thus are not configured solely to be read»130. Whereas ethno-graphic accounts of ecclesial practices tend to focus on narrati-ves and liturgy, it is the unsayable (and unreadable) that is cru127 «Traurig würde ich nicht sagen. Verhalten eben in dem Sinn, dass es im Gegensatz zudiesem modernen 'Praise and Worship' [steht]. Das ist nach meinem Dafürhalten ganzklar keine Anbetung in Geist und Wahrheit».128 Men and women sit separated by gender. Men are encouraged to pray, preach and totake on responsibility within the organisation of the church, women are encouraged tolisten and are prohibited from preaching or leading the service in any way.129 «The strata are judgments of God; stratification in general is the entire system of thejudgment of God (but the earth, or the body without organs, constantly eludes thatjudgment, flees and becomes destratified, decoded, deterritorialized)» (G. Deleuze F.Guattari, op. cit., p. 45).130 M. Bonta J. Protevi, Deleuze and geophilosophy. A guide and glossary, Edinburgh,Edinburgh University Press, 2004, p. 40. 109 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) cial in the emergence of identity and difference, doctrine anddenomination. Yet, to grasp the intensive experiences in worshipservices which congregants tell of and the particular atmo-spheres to which these experiences are linked, one needs an epi-stemology different from that of the discursive and textual realmof ecclesial doctrine. Thus, as it occupies a sphere of ineffabilitywithin the Closed Brethren discourse, music can become a meansof knowing the atmosphere.To think atmosphere in and through music means to payspecial attention to the movement suggestions as proposed bySchmitz. By arguing for a methodological movement ontology, Ihave tried to engage with various movements as they cohere inClosed Brethren worship services: the intimate becomings asworshipers «seek the throne of God» on the one hand, and thestabilisation of a particular congregational form and rigid musi-cal doctrine over generations, on the other hand.The examples suggest that music as atmosphere is neitherjust an expression of an allegedly pre-existing devotion (being)nor just a smooth space of affective divine encounter and inten-sive becoming. In fact, it is due to its very smoothness and its non-decomposability that the atmosphere turns into a generativepower when it comes to its repetition. In the weekly reiterationof the atmosphere, congregational practices and their concomi-tant dogmatic consolidate persistently.In this repetition the atmosphere is not vague and ephe-meral, but is itself a determining force, productive of stratifica-tion, identity (both on the level of the individual and the group),and affective denominational difference. As such, the notion ofatmosphere clears the opposition and hierarchy of (theological)discourse and (ecclesial) practice, where the former is commonlyassumed to determine the latter. When attending to the atmo-sphere, however, this linear causality discourse and practice isobscured. The concept of the atmosphere equally merges thedistinction of music and (moral) meaning, reality and represen-tation131 as both practice and discourse, sonic affect and moraljudgement are inextricably and non-hierarchically linked in theatmospheric motion.But let us go back to the position of the subject by approa-ching the notion of atmosphere once again through sound. Ears 131 See K. Stewart, Atmospheric attunements, «Environment and planning D. Society andspace» 29/3 (2011), pp. 445-453, here p. 452. 110 Friedlind Riedel are inevitably exposed to sonic vibration since they cannot closeup against sound. Thus, the subject «cannot not participate – thatis, assume a relationship, for before or beyond being the indica-tion of a concept, category, value or desire, the sound of musicgrips the body, enters the body, solicits the body's participation,the corporeal consense, the emotion»132. Instead of appre-hending this condition in terms of agency, where the subject isthen considered as being inferior to sound by becoming theobject of motion, it is now possible to describe this nexus interms of an affective involvement in the atmospheric situation –primarily corporeal, that is, with the felt body and not emotional– by means of movement suggestions. To assume an identity,that is, to ascribe to oneself or dissociate from the spatiallypoured out feelings/atmospheres is a second order effect.From this it follows that subjects are not in a secluded outside of the atmosphere or inside themselves, in a space of agencyto act upon the atmospheric motion, but they already are –indeed become – in the atmospheric currents from where theyemerge and further unfold their becomings and positions. Theyare in the middle, all along involved in what is termed unsayable– the atmospheric, the musical, the numinous. Then, action isalways reaction, sonority is always resonance, vibration is rever-beration, being is always already becoming, substantial isalready relational, movement is already in between, transversal,and not from one position to the other. As Closed Brethrenworshipers attend services to experience transformation, to re-sonate and to react to the atonement which forms the centre oftheir weekly worship, music as atmosphere is a vital tool in theseintimate spiritual becomings. At the end of the worship service,worshipers have ideally engaged in a process they sincerelydesire, that is, to be further transformed into their Lord's image.Since both discourse and practice are second order effects,a study of situations of music making should begin with theatmospheric and should grasp the meanings and moral valuespeople ascribe to certain sonic instances through the lens of theatmosphere; for it is the atmospheric that precedes and disclosesthe particular, the practice and the discursive. Just as both atmo-sphere and the numinous, music commonly occupies a realm ofineffability, undermines notions of inside and outside, is ephe132 M. Cobussen N. Nielsen, Music and ethics, Farnham-Surrey-Burlington, Ashgate,2012, p. 105. 111 Lebenswelt, 6 (2015) meral and vague, «present and absent» and «indeterminate withregard to the distinction between subject and object»133.Hence, I propose that musicology holds invaluable potentialto contribute to the recently emerging concept of atmosphere,that is, to advance an epistemology of the atmospheric throughmusic. On the other hand, Schmitz's elaborate New phenomenology holds potential for a musicology where music just as atmo-sphere is not reductively conceptualised as a constellation, butrather construed as situation, where meaningfulness is notattributable to singular elements or their relations. Music is thenno longer to be analysed as a system of signification or aperformance practice, but as an atmospheric motion; an atmo-sphere that is provocative of relational processes of affectivecommunitisation in collective atmospheres and social-culturalterritorialisation in cyclic repetition as it equally affords in-tensive becomings, while worshipers shift and cross their world'sedge. 133 B. Anderson, op. cit., p. 80.