Between Interprofessionalism and Demarcation: Church Music as a Liturgical Profession

Church music is commonly discussed as a liturgical, theological, aesthetic, or cultural practice, while its character as a professional field has received less systematic attention. This article conceptualises church music as a liturgical profession by bringing Christopher Small’s concept of musicking into dialogue with Andrew Abbott’s sociology of professions. Musicking makes it possible to understand musical activity in worship as situated, relational, and participatory, while Abbott’s theory highlights the application of specialised knowledge and professional judgement to concrete cases. The article argues that professionalism in church music does not consist in exclusive control over musical activity or in technical and artistic competence alone. Rather, it concerns the situated application of specialised musical knowledge to the shaping of ritual practice. Pastoral services—particularly baptisms, weddings, and funerals—serve as a test case because musical decisions frequently intersect with biography, pastoral relationships, participation, and competing professional responsibilities. Drawing additionally on Rudolf Stichweh and Isolde Karle, the article conceptualises professional jurisdiction as specialised judgement concerning the musical shaping of ritual practice and develops interprofessional translation as a way of relating distinct professional rationalities. This article argues that church music can be understood as a liturgical profession whose identity is sustained by the relationship between specialised musical expertise, differentiated responsibility, and interprofessional cooperation.