Listening for Aurality

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The last time I wrote about sound, I put a pretty heavy emphasis on how music culture you grow up with can have some effect on your taste for what makes a good song. Although what I wrote about back then is no where similar to what Anne Rasmussen's "Women, the recited Qur'an, islamic music in Indonesia" brings up, I can't help but take some perspective from all the different themes, festivals, and ideas she put forward. 

What Specifically caught my attention was the chapter that focused on Aurality,  the "taking to heart" or experiencing of sounds in a multi sensory or kinesthetic way. This experience can range anywhere between music, laughter, rain falling, whatever comes to mind. To me that's just fascinating because I think we've all had that feeling before but never really knew which word to use in order to describe it properly to other people. After reading this chapter, I couldn't help but wonder how often we go through life feeling this experience without even thinking about it. I do it almost all the time so now I'm trying to be more aware of it and trying to place when and where its happened to me. I've had an experience with music and sound just about everywhere on campus now that I think about it. It actually happened in our class too when we listened to those different recitations. I had absolutely no idea what was being said/sung but it was done in such an amazing way that I could just feel how special the moment was. Ironically though, I immediately stated to think afterwards about all those different memes I saw about people dancing and having a good time to songs with SUPER dark lyrics but they're in a different language so all you can really understand is how good the beat is.

Another aspect of the book and Aurality that's stuck in my head was the mention of the Qur'an festivals. The way Rasmussen describe them and how they create this sense of community was really interesting to me and made me wish that I could go to one someday, if I can ever find one to attend. It also got me thinking about how different things would be if Islam was more widely accepted here in the US. I'm not saying I want a bunch of people to start converting out of nowhere or anything but it would be nice to have a couple more voices out there like Rasmussen's to show how its not as black and white or as over the top as the media makes it out to be.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausApril 5, 2022 at 8:59 PM

    What a delightful, thoughtful and perceptive reflection! You really communicated very effectively your own experiences of aurality. Rasmussen's book primed me to hear Indonesian Islamic music in a heightened way, to the point that I kind of felt chills listening and watching the qasida rebana performance of Nur Asiah Djamil and her group today, even though this music is pretty culturally different to what I'm used to.

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