Institute students receive degrees in one or the other of these schools, and, if they elect to do so, joint degrees from both.
At Yale, we link the resources of two extraordinary professional schools, the Yale School of Music and the Yale Divinity School. Through its mission to church musicians, the training for ministry, and the lives of the churches, the Institute has a unique position, not only at Yale, but in this country and in the world at large. David, if one stretches him a bit, stands for the many activities supported at Yale through the Institute. As an independently endowed entity at Yale University, the Institute of Sacred Music provides generous financial support for those talented students who believe in the importance of interactive training for church musicians and clergy, a training that fosters mutual respect and common understanding. Likewise, the Institute trains divinity students preparing for leadership roles in the churches, whether as lay people, as ordained clergy, or as scholars developing specialties in liturgical studies and in religion and the arts. The Institute’s primary mission is to music students whose vocation is to conduct, play, and sing for the worshiping assembly, and who have keen interest in the religious and theological contexts of the sacred music they perform. Indeed, the Psalms have formed the basic materials for Jewish and Christian worship throughout the centuries. David, the prototypical representative in the Judeo-Christian world of the church or synagogue musician, dominates the logo of the ISM because he and the Psalms conventionally ascribed to him have been continually reshaped to suit linguistic needs, liturgical taste, and historical understanding. Founded with a core focus on the Christian tradition of sacred music, the Institute also seeks to engage with other forms of sacred art and other religious traditions. The Yale Institute of Sacred Music is an interdisciplinary graduate center for the study and practice of sacred music, worship, and the related arts. Jehovah, in thy strengththe King shall joyfull bee and joy in thy salvationhow vehemently shall hee? “To the chiefe Musiciana psalme of David”ġ.