Religion and Sound

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     I think the hardest part of this blog was simply the name, because I wasn't sure what to describe this as. The Qur'an recitations described in Rasmussen's book isn't entirely song, but it is something that falls within a lyrical tradition. Likewise, where my thoughts go towards my own personal experiences, the lyrical tradition I am most familiar with would be song. So, sound seemed an appropriate word, if just in my mind and how I felt after spending probably entirely too long trying to think of what I wanted to describe it as.

    The Qur'an recitations are beautiful. The tradition behind it is beautiful. The performances are beautiful. Rasmussen's accounts are beautiful, if just by the descriptions of sound coming from everywhere and the craft that goes into this tradition of recitation. Even though it might, or likely, isn't song, I wanted to try to link it to the very minimal experience with organized, large religion I have, and I realized that the two are very, vastly different.

    I am from the South, which is... very Christian, to say the least. While I did not go to churches often, I was sometimes forced to services, and sometimes song happened. I think the trouble I had with Rasmussen's book, to begin with, was imagining what this trained oral tradition was like (which was very nicely answered by listening to examples in class) because my introduction to an oral religious tradition was crowds badly singing songs about God and Jesus in church, where half the crowd is at one place in the lyrics and the other half in another, and it's this jumbled, confused mess that eventually ends and, I guess, everyone feels satisfied and religiously fulfilled.

    But that might be the point? It's not trained, not like the reciters in Indonesia, nor is it organized or entirely practiced. However, that doesn't make it less of a religious experience or a way to connect to a deity. It just sounds disorganized, and that's fine, really, because life is disorganized and messy and sometimes religion is that way too. 

    

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