God hath no one voice
In Anne Rasmussen's book Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music the author puts a huge emphasis on the importance of sound and the way the word are said. In the first paragraph I will take a look at religions and zoning in on Islam and then in the second paragaraph branch out and talk about how it is culturally important to us all.
First Anne talks about the importance of the recititation of the Qur'an. How although it is a religious text that is studied it is also a form of the most precious art and should be treated as such. Qur'an recitation are huge part of the religion, but have two major benefits. One it allows people to hear the words in a poetic sense by many different readers which give the Qur'an more dept and emotion. It is one thing to just read something something, but if you hear someone say it with passion and strength it almost as if it is not coming from them, but from a higher power. Second, the recital also gives women a major voice in the religion as well. I am not saying that women in Islam are being oppressed everywhere, but in some cases the are. Here in the recital it allows women to really come forward and actively take part in the religion. Here I am saying by taking part they are recieving a huge honor to be able to recite the words of a sacred book infront of the everyone and I know they do an amazing job.
As I talked about our culture in america sound is very important to us aswell. We as a society have made so much money off of music and it is important to all of us. However, in the same way that people in Islam want to be able to feel the Qur'an through recitals we also want to be able to feel music. Artisit don't use a monotone throughout their songs, but emphasizes certain words and phrases the give them a deeper meaning so we can feel what they feel. One of my favorite Tv shows empire put this nicely. One of the characters talks about his music and says that if the people who listen can't hear or feel it there is no point in making music. This comes back to the fact that music isn't only heard, but felt. Whether it is a feeling of happiness or sadness hearing good music brings this out of us like the word of God in the Qur'an recitals.
Image URl's in order
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Osman-hamdi-bey-girl-reciting-qu-ran-1880.jpg
https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1192104
As I talked about our culture in america sound is very important to us aswell. We as a society have made so much money off of music and it is important to all of us. However, in the same way that people in Islam want to be able to feel the Qur'an through recitals we also want to be able to feel music. Artisit don't use a monotone throughout their songs, but emphasizes certain words and phrases the give them a deeper meaning so we can feel what they feel. One of my favorite Tv shows empire put this nicely. One of the characters talks about his music and says that if the people who listen can't hear or feel it there is no point in making music. This comes back to the fact that music isn't only heard, but felt. Whether it is a feeling of happiness or sadness hearing good music brings this out of us like the word of God in the Qur'an recitals.Image URl's in order
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Osman-hamdi-bey-girl-reciting-qu-ran-1880.jpg
https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1192104
You're picking up on what I would call the "devotional " aspect of making music and other artful sounds, whether "religious" or secular. Paying careful attention to how one says or sings things, making artistic choices, and practicing them in order to perform them so that they'll have the right affect, or listening for and taking delight in such nuances, strikes me as a crucial dimension of rituals of _devotion_. Nice observations!
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