Hymns are handed down from generation to generation, from country to country, and from church to church. In every time in history, hymns and songs are needed that are new for that time and generation – hymns through which the timeless message can be voiced in a new and unique way. The historical binding, as well as the ecumenical tie, are thus indispensable features for the church, her liturgy and her music. In the processes of creating new hymns and liturgical forms, the una sancta ecclesia always needs to be in focus. In this study the ecumenical and liturgical movements of the twentieth century, their goals, and the influence they exerted on liturgical renewal and hymn singing, are investigated. The ecumenical meaning of new hymns and liturgical forms is evaluated in terms of these goals. To determine the functionality of new hymns, a theoretical grounding for the various functions of hymns is given. Renewal in the form of contemporary material, new styles and ecumenical-liturgical forms is reflected in the Liedboek van die Kerk (2001), the new hymnal for the Afrikaans-speaking churches. The hymnal is discussed with regard to the content, and the processes of compilation. The versification of the psalms, fundamentalist views, and the resistance to transformation in the processes of canonization, also comes under scrutiny. Documentation, motivation and report of about sixty new hymns and liturgical forms in the Liedboek van die Kerk (2001) are given. Hymns, songs and liturgical forms are researched from hymnological perspectives, by relevant musical and textual analysis, and by exploring their origin, history, working history, and liturgical function. The functionality of the hymns is assessed, and their hymnological, liturgical, contextual and ecumenical significance determined, with regard to the theoretical grounding in the preceding chapters. The conclusion is that ecumenicity is a sine qua non for the hymns and songs of a new generation. History and tradition, but also the contemporary church as a whole, should co-determine processes. The future of liturgical singing depends on the way in which theological, liturgical, hymnological, ecumenical and anthropological fields of tension could be kept in balance. Balance thus needs to be found between functionality, ethics, and aesthetics; between tradition and creativity; historical fidelity and contemporary embodiment; individualism and community; between the individual church and ecumenism; quality and popularity; between Christian/confessional identity, and general religiosity; between orthodox expressions of faith, and the poetical-symbolical shifting of boundaries. Boundaries are exceeded through the singing of hymns – boundaries of language, of confession, of time and space, and boundaries between individuals and groups. Liturgical singing can be the singing of believers of all times and all places only by preserving the traditional ecumenical heritage on the one hand, and on the other hand, through ecumenical cooperation when creating new hymns and forms – thus the one faith in many languages, the audible sign of the una sancta ecclesia. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Music / DMus / Unrestricted

Der Bereich von Sterben, Tod und Trauer gehört als indirekte oder auch direkte Todeswirklichkeit zum Alltag von Vor- und Grundschulkindern. Seit den 1990er Jahren finden diese Themen zunehmend Eingang in die deutschsprachigen Bilderbücher und werden dort anhand verschiedener literarästhetischer Erzählstrategien auf der Text- sowie Bildebene und deren Wechselverhältnis diskutiert. Die vorliegende Untersuchung ordnet das Primärtextkorpus deutschsprachiger Bilderbücher zu Sterben, Tod und Trauer anhand eines untersuchungseigenen inhaltsbezogenen Rubrikenmodelles. Der für die qualitative Beurteilung der untersuchten Bilderbücher entwickelte Katalog von Analysekriterien berücksichtigt sowohl gattungsspezifische Forschungsarbeiten als auch Studien zum Verhältnis von Kind und Tod. Um in den Bilderbüchern tabuisierte, kanonisierte und innovative Erzählstrategien von Tod und Trauer nicht nur herauszuarbeiten, sondern auch komparatistisch in einen europäischen Kontext einzuordnen, wird der Untersuchung deutschsprachiger Bilderbücher die Diskussion der Entwicklung des Themenfeldes im schwedischen Bilderbuch gegenüber gestellt. Das Innovationspotenzial, das ausgewählte seit den 1970er Jahren veröffentlichte schwedische Bilderbücher für die Entwicklung des Themenbereiches Tod und Trauer im deutschsprachigen Bilderbuchmarkt besitzen, wird insbesondere in den Grenzbereichen zwischen tradierten sowie innovativen Erzählstrategien deutlich. Sowohl in den zusammenfassenden Betrachtungen der einzelnen inhaltsbezogenen Unterrubriken, die das deutschsprachige sowie schwedische Primärtextkorpus gliedern, als auch in den einzelanalytischen Abschnitten werden bestehende Kanonisierungs- sowie Tabuisierungstendenzen in Bezug auf die Darstellung einzelner Themenaspekte von Tod und Trauer deutlich, wenngleich diese zunehmend in Auflösung begriffen und in einigen Unterrubriken stärker ausgeprägt sind als in anderen. / Dying, death and grief are a direct or indirect part of the reality of preschool and primary school children. Since the 1990s, these topics increasingly find their way into German picture books, where they are discussed using different literary-aesthetic narrative strategies through text and images as well as their interrelationship. The present study maps the primary text corpus of German picture books on dying, death and grief by means of a research-based content-related category model. The catalogue of analytic criteria developed for the qualitative assessment of the examined picture books takes into account both genre-specific research and studies on the attitudes of children toward death. In order not only to elaborate on tabooed, canonized and innovative narrative strategies of death and grief in picture books, but also to place them in a comparative European context, the study of German picture books is set against the discussion of the development of these topics in Swedish picture books. The innovation potential, which selected Swedish picture books published since the 1970s contain for the development of the theme of death and grief in the German picture book market, becomes particularly evident in the border areas between traditional and innovative narrative strategies. Both in the summary of the individual content-related subcategories, which classify the German and Swedish primary text corpuses, as well as in the individual analytic sections, existing tendencies to canonize or taboo with regard to the representation of individual aspects of death and grief become clear, though they are in a process of disintegration and are more pronounced in some subcategories than in others.