“Music is invaluable as the ultimate  
means for awakening our zeal, a power that draws the mind
trained for its effects forward and 
upward. But literature must precede it. By itself, music cannot
draw the world forward. By itself, music is dangerous”.

Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

 “True music leads to intellectual and spiritual ecstasy,
even if it is an ecstasy born of harmonic tension”.

Arnold Schönberg, Letters and Essays of Music, 1910–1930

The project initiated here attempts to replace monumental pathos with ecstatic fields of joy and enthusiasm. Ecstasy in music reverses the melancholic gravity of sounds towards frenetic illuminations, transgressive, profound meanings. The reverse of "essential music" is not "inessential music", but "ecstatically moving" music, emanating a radiant sense of sound-in-the-world.

An analysis of the forms and varieties of “music ecstasy” reveals their structural heterogeneity. Sonoristic ecstasies, based on sonic masses and statics, construct sonic spaces whose density or monotonic stability evokes a sense of timelessness and disembodiment. Rhythmic ecstasies employ modality and the repetition of pulsations to lead, through structural trance, to a reorganization of temporal perception. Melodic, harmonic, and vocal ecstasies, in turn, are constituted by culminating directional vectors — tensions leading toward epiphanies, illuminations, and sacred moments of revelation.

In rock music, and more broadly in the idioms of popular music, these strategies undergo further transformations: from Dionysian fury and expressionist chaos to reductive micrologies of silence, in which "going beyond oneself" takes the form of intense introspection. Concert performance and communal reception amplify this potential: ecstasy becomes not only a compositional effect but also a somato-aesthetic event in which the listener's body co-creates the musical meaning.

Understood in this way, "ecstasies in music" are not a purely metaphorical category, but an analytical tool for capturing the dynamic relationships between sonic structure, cultural context, and the listener's experience. Their enumerative overview reveals the multiplicity of trajectories through which music—regardless of genre—realizes its transgressive, phenomenological, and ontological potential, thus contributing to a long tradition of research on transgression as a constitutive dimension of art.

Moreover, our research interests are not limited to musicologists and university-affiliated artists (such as virtuosos and instrumentalists). We also welcome articles by literary and cultural scholars, as well as researchers from other disciplines interested in the ecstatic experience across different "music worlds". These contributions range from early music classics, opera projects, and grand symphonies to rock experiments like King Crimson and the extravagances of techno/house/electro/rave (EDM).

The editorial team doesn’t charge a fee for the publication of an article. The texts featured in our journal are available in open access. Here is the website address:

https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/flit/index

If you are interested in the project, please confirm your application immediately and submit a preliminary topic proposal. We are expecting finished articles until September 15th 2027. Suggested length of the text: up to 15 pages (including bibliography). Papers can be submitted in Polish, Italian or English. Article proposals should be registered on the Open Journal System platform of the University od Silesia in Katowice. In case of any questions or concerns about the text submission process – please contact us at:  fabricalitterarum@gmail.com

Scientific Editors of the Issue –

Arianna Savall (Zurich University of the Arts)

Agnieszki Budzińska-Bennet (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis)

Vittorio Ghielmi (Mozarteum University Salzburg)

Petter Udland Johansen (Hirundo Maris)

Ireneusz Gielata (University of Silesia in Katowice)

Mariusz Jochemczyk (University of Silesia in Katowice)

Miłosz Piotrowiak (University of Silesia in Katowice)

Artur Malke (All'Improvviso International Festival)