Intended for liturgical music majors as well as professional pastoral musicians, pastors, and liturgical practitioners, Liturgy and Music provides a solid introduction to the scope and role of liturgical music in both Catholic and Christian worship. It offers a comprehensive theological approach to liturgical music and breaks new ground for both a theology of liturgy and a theology of liturgical music.

Liturgy and Musicis divided into two parts, worship/liturgy" and "liturgical music." Part one covers foundational topics in worship/liturgy, including the liturgical year, sacred time, space, and symbols, ritual, Eucharist, homily, and the worshiping assembly. Part two examines liturgical/church music, including its forms and functions, music as liturgy and prayer, music as corporate praise in both the Reformation and Catholic traditions, and formation for liturgical music. Each part concludes with a bibliographic chapter.

It is a lifetime learning process to discover new ways that musical liturgy can raise people up to encounter God in praise and thanksgiving. Liturgy and Music assists that learning process by leading liturgical music professionals and others to a full-throated worship of God.

Essays and contributors included in part one are: "What Is Liturgical Worship," by Mary M. Schaefer; "The Liturgical Year," by Thomas J. Talley; "Liturgical Assembly: Who Is the Subject of Liturgy?" by Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS; "Putting Heart into Liturgy," by William Cieslak, OFM Cap; "Symbolic Actions in Christian Worship," by Patrick Byrne; "Ritual: Straight Jacket or Dancing Shoes?" by Joseph Fortuna; "Must Eucharist Do Everything?" by John F. Baldovin; "Theology, Styles, and Structure of the Liturgy of the Hours," by Austin H. Fleming; "Homily as Proclamation," by Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS; "General Intercessions," by Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS; "Liturgical Spirituality: Living What We Sing About," by James Dalen; and "Liturgy and Worship: A Select Pastoral Bibliography," by Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS.

Essays and contributors included in part two are: "What Is Liturgical Music?" by Robin A. Leaver; "Liturgical Music as Music: The Contribution of the Human Sciences," by J. Michal Joncas; "Liturgical Music: Its Forms and Functions," by Raymond Glover; "Liturgical Music as Liturgy," by William T. Flynn; "Liturgical Music as Prayer," by Kathleen Harmon, SND de N; "Liturgical Music as Corporate Song 1: Hymnody in Reformation Churches," by Robin A. Leaver; "Liturgical Music as Corporate Song 2:Problems of Hymnody in Catholic Worship," by Frank C. Quinn, OP; "Liturgical Music as Corporate Song 3: Opportunities for Hymnody in Catholic Worship," by Michal James Molloy; "Liturgical Music as Homily and Hermeneutic," by Robin A. Leaver; "Liturgical Music, Culturally Tuned," by Mark Bangert; "Liturgical Musical Formation," by Don E. Saliers; "Liturgical Music as Anamnesis," by Robin A. Leaver.