Discussion with Matthew Allen and the Subjectivity of "Music"
The conversation facilitated by Professor Allen on Tuesday was very illuminating in terms of what we've been discussing in Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia. I think allt he different types of recitation and music we've listened to in the last week provide a lot of examples of Professor Allen's points.
The video we watched at the beginning of class today is a perfect example. Last class we talked about the creation of space with music. The Islamic Indonesian performers in this piece created a very informal, communal space featuring drums, electric guitar and other musical components that one wouldn't immediately associate with a religious performance. The audience participated fully and it was as if there was a conversation happening between the performers and the audience throughout the musical parts.
The previous clips we listened to and watched seem to illustrate some different points. Professor Allen talked about some ethnomusicological terms, like monophony and polyphony, which I thought were very relevant to those pieces. The women we heard in the previous few classes had an emphasis on monophony--only one sound is heard, which is the recitation of the Qur'an by the singer. I feel like in the Indonesian music we've been studying, monophony is more applied in recitation versus performance because I think there is a more reverent atmosphere at play. I think the main goal of an audience member in Qur'an recitation seems to be to listen, to absorb the Word of God. I think the more performative music we've looked at, on the other hand, encourages more participation. I think the participation in recitation is much more reflective and worship-focused. The silence in between parts of recitation, as Matthew Allen noted, is just as important as the sound, a "presence" just as much as sound is a presence.
A term Professor Allen didn't really mention, but one I remember studying in Julie Searles' World Music class is cacophony, or a "discordant mixture of sounds." This makes me think about how we approach different kinds of music culturally. Some of the sounds we hear as Western listeners in Qur'an recitation sound cacophonous to us. As Matthew Allen noted, a lot of the songs and tunes we listen to in contemporary music are linear and conform to major scales. When we hear something different from another culture, in this case Indonesia, it's an adjustment to allow us to understand and process the texture of the notes sung or played. What does Western music sound like to other cultures? Listening to different kinds of music from around the world has opened my eyes (and ears) to how subjective music is, and how dissonance and harmony, while definitive in musical terms, can sound different to each person.
The video we watched at the beginning of class today is a perfect example. Last class we talked about the creation of space with music. The Islamic Indonesian performers in this piece created a very informal, communal space featuring drums, electric guitar and other musical components that one wouldn't immediately associate with a religious performance. The audience participated fully and it was as if there was a conversation happening between the performers and the audience throughout the musical parts.
The previous clips we listened to and watched seem to illustrate some different points. Professor Allen talked about some ethnomusicological terms, like monophony and polyphony, which I thought were very relevant to those pieces. The women we heard in the previous few classes had an emphasis on monophony--only one sound is heard, which is the recitation of the Qur'an by the singer. I feel like in the Indonesian music we've been studying, monophony is more applied in recitation versus performance because I think there is a more reverent atmosphere at play. I think the main goal of an audience member in Qur'an recitation seems to be to listen, to absorb the Word of God. I think the more performative music we've looked at, on the other hand, encourages more participation. I think the participation in recitation is much more reflective and worship-focused. The silence in between parts of recitation, as Matthew Allen noted, is just as important as the sound, a "presence" just as much as sound is a presence.
A term Professor Allen didn't really mention, but one I remember studying in Julie Searles' World Music class is cacophony, or a "discordant mixture of sounds." This makes me think about how we approach different kinds of music culturally. Some of the sounds we hear as Western listeners in Qur'an recitation sound cacophonous to us. As Matthew Allen noted, a lot of the songs and tunes we listen to in contemporary music are linear and conform to major scales. When we hear something different from another culture, in this case Indonesia, it's an adjustment to allow us to understand and process the texture of the notes sung or played. What does Western music sound like to other cultures? Listening to different kinds of music from around the world has opened my eyes (and ears) to how subjective music is, and how dissonance and harmony, while definitive in musical terms, can sound different to each person.
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