Smells and Bells

  Hearing in Religion;  Looking at Music as a Full Body Experience When I think of sound as an experience I tend to think of music. Because I tend to get overwhelmed by my sense so easily, I look to music as a safe source of sensory comfort. I pop on my headphones and just press play and I’m transported to a space where I control what’s going on in my mind. In addition to this, I personally do not feel sound on a merely mind based space. I have fission, meaning I tend to get chills when listening to music, contributing to a more full experience where I find that all my senses are impacted. I like to close my eyes and let the music overtake me, and sometimes I’ll even turn off the lights just so I don’t have to think about what I’m doing! Despite the fact that I do not follow any specific religious practices (I am agnostic), I find the use of music in religion extremely interesting. Music is such an accessible form of art for people thanks to the internet, so anyone with an int...

     One of the things that struck me while reading Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia was just how diverse and varying Indonesian Qur’an recitation and music were in their forms. Anne Rasmussen discusses the many different contexts in which Qur’an recitations happen, including in children’s schools, at the college-level, in local and national competitions, and others. It’s so interesting how various musical traditions are distinct and yet interwoven as well; in chapter 5, Rasmussen notes the three main streams of Indonesian Islamic music as ones that have derived from Arabic traditions, Indigenous Indonesian music traditions, and the incorporation of contemporary Western music into the first two. Continuing with the theme of interconnectedness, I found it fitting that in Indonesian, Islamic music is called musik yang bernafaskan or “music that breathes or is scented with Islam” (153). Although this book is mainly about sound and music, the mixed ...

The term is an oxymoron. Sacrality implies (at least in the salvation religions dominant in Western and Near Eastern history), a meaning rooted in a cosmic frame that transcends any immediate sensed from. The sacred cannot, therefore, be “performed.” Any reduction of meaning to form deprives that form of meaning. To perform the “sacred” necessarily is to profane it. Yet the sacred becomes real only as embodied in form. (1990, 208) This quote from Peacock in chapter three, page 119, of Rasmussen's book really intrigued me. It's sort of a different take than what I recently read in Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach  by Rebecca Alpert and Jacob Staub. There's an entire chapter on Mordechai Kaplan's transnaturalist perspective that I was reminded of in this section. Kaplan's view was more so that God is found in the process, "God works through  us rather than upon us" ( Exploring Judaism , 20). I can't exactly remember if the phrase 'God...

It seems to me that one of the most "visible" aspects of a religion is that faith's music. The popular views, regardless of their correctness, held by the larger Western public imagination informs many people's knowledge of different religions, and may constitute the limit of somebody's knowledge of a faith, depending on exposure. Much of Anne Rasmussen's book deals with how Muslim men and women interact with devotional music and one another in the context of music. One of the most visible and stereotyped Islamic musical practices comes in the form of the Sufi whirling dance, performed by both men and women in the Sema ceremony. The dance involves spinning around for extended periods of time. Practitioners whirl and listen to sacred music in order to lose their ego or sense of self. While Sufis constitute a relatively small proportion of the Islamic ummah , their dramatic dance and distinctive clothing captured the Western imagination. This whirling ritual h...

When re ading  Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia , I was struck by the importance of song. How a song sounds can communicate a lot, even before looking at the songs lyrics (if it has any). What is it about certain genres that does that? I'm not sure but I would really like to know. It's pretty well known that songs in a major key sound happier and more upbeat than songs in a major key, but that doesn't explain the differences between things like hymns and punk rock. To my ears hymns have always sounded joyful but reverent. Perhaps that has something to do with how many people typically sing them at the same time and the environment in which they are sung. Although, I think even without those things the songs would still have some aura of calling to a higher power.  At the same time, it is hard to escape the message conveyed by harsher genres like hard rock or punk. Without hearing the lyrics many of the songs already seem like a rebelliou...

While reading the book Women, the Recited Qur'an and Islamic Music in Indonesia I found myself taking notes of the different commentary on the dancing that goes along with the music. At the beginning of this book, Rasmussen talks about the importance of women in the rituals, but late in the book, she talks about their role in music and dance. Before this semester I did not really have much exposure to dance, but I have always participated in Zumba on Tuesday nights. For this semester I was really looking for a 4th class that wasn't too hard for my senior spring semester, and Julie Searles sent out an email to the Zumba people about this dance class she was teaching. (an academic dance class not like a ballet class!) So I decided to try it out because she said it shouldn't be too hard. So this semester I learned about different ways that dance has made it into American vernacular culture from popular dance styles to the way some people walk! It has actually been really f...

Even prior to reading Anne Rasmussen’s Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia , I knew the significance that sound plays in Indonesian culture. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel to Indonesia last summer. Among the diverse cultures, traditions, and landscapes, I was also drawn to the rich sonic environment. Although I was not able to attend any of the cultural and religious festivals that Indonesia is known for, I was still able to get a good sense of the sounds in Indonesia. When we drove through the villages with our car windows down, we were met with the bustling sounds of the streets- outdoor market vendors selling various produce, honking cars, the revving of motorcycle engines, and barking dogs. On one of the days that I was there there, we noticed that the cars ahead of us had stopped moving. We couldn’t see what was going on, but we could hear- the beating of drums, the sound of the laughter of children, the footsteps of people, etc. fil...

In Rasmussen's book Rethinking Women, Music, and Islam, she explores the idea how Islam is incredibly eclectic and multifaceted, especially its music. There is no “standard” music… it can include anything from chantings and recitations to gatherings where people sing together. Rasmussen recounts an experience in Indonesia where she was able to spend a lot of time with people because they all shared a passion for music. Even though she didn’t know the words or instruments used, they were all able to enjoy themselves because they were “sharing a performance” with one another. This makes a ton of sense to me. One time I had to go with my sister to a Harry Styles concert in Manhattan. I initially I did not want to go at all, but was talked into it because I figured could get a nice dinner somewhere in the city. At the concert, we were up in the nosebleeds and to be honest, I only knew one of his songs. His music wasn’t really for me, but about fifteen minutes in I began to have a lot ...

Music is something that we surround ourselves with every day. I can honestly say that in my life and in my experiences, music is everywhere at all times. Music is present when I swim my routines in the pool, as I walk to class, when I sing in the shower, and it's present as I write this blog post. Music can change my mood in an instant and it can amplify any mood that I'm feeling. According to Diane Ackerman, "Music speaks so powerfully that many musicians and theorists think it may be an actual language" (209). Ackerman later says that the lyrics or words assigned to a song have nothing to do with the emotions that we feel from the music. Lyrics are something separate from the music itself that sort of serves as an enhancement for what is already conveyed through musical language. What I've found really relevant from what Ackerman says about music in my own life is the difference in music preference from person to person. Preference can depend on where we...